A Refresher Course

 Every once in a while, I find it educational to have a refresher course. Today I took a refresher course for me, which was a first level class in Tunisian crochet by Lori from Aklori Designs at Bird House Yarns in Tucson, Arizona. Within the first 30 minutes I found out why my Tunisian crochet never looked like the pattern pictures.  I learned that you only do the chain one stitch at the beginning of the return row pass. Not on both ends as I have been taught. Now my rippling on the right side is gone.  I learned a few new to me stitches too.  Now I am ready to tackle the shawl.  It seems less scary now. Also I will rip out a work in progress and start it correctly.  Knowing all the stitches makes it seem less intimidating. I would like to mention that Lori’s books are available at Bird House Yarns, and yes they will mail copies out.

I am also trying to start a new habit. They say it takes 30 days to start a habit. John moved my Cubii to a more accessible location under my sewing table in the sewing room. I started with 40 minutes with 3 additional minutes for warm up and cool down.  That is the same amount of time I am spending on the equipment at cardiac rehabilitation.  If they increase my time before I finish, I will up my time at home to.  I would also like to say I am not up to walking up hill yet, so walking in around the block in my neighborhood is not an option yet. It is either the mall or the Cubii for now. Today I managed to close 2 out of 3 rings.  I missed on my stand to walk goal because of my nap after breakfast and class today.  I got 10 out of 12 for the stand and walk.  

Car Maintenance

 Well it was time to bring my 5 year old car in for service today.  It had a whopping 17,000 miles on it. It was still under warranty so the charges were not bad.  Everything on the list was green.  It might even be a few years more before I need new breaks.  At this point I would just like to say I would like to say that I drive less than the little old lady from Pasadena, hands down.  With just an average of 3,400 miles a year or 284 miles a month or 9.3 miles a day, this car should last me well into retirement. My biggest expense was 3 new windshield wipers, 2 In the front and one in the rear. The computer updates were covered under the warranty. 

The only thing that left me perplexed was the complete car wash that came with the yearly maintenance.  They washed 3/4 of the cars outside. They completely ignored the back panel, including the back windshield. I was under the impression that the back of the car was still part of the car. They did wash the interior windows also. But did not vacuum the car. So is this the post Covid version of a complete car wash? I usually just do the quick exterior car wash which just happens to lean the back of the car too. I only vacuum only when necessary.  John does the interior windows only when needed, because I am too short and not agile enough to reach the front windshield.  The doors and back windows are easy enough, but they never get dirty.  Perhaps because the seats are rarely used. 

Then it was on to paperwork. About a third of the work got finished.  There is always tomorrow to finish up.  After all nap time is more important than paperwork right now. 

When it rains in Tucson

 Time was not on my side today.  I blame a very rare rainy day in Tucson.  I can’t make up the things stupid drivers did in the rain.  

As I was leaving for class today there was a driver trying to make a 3 point turn by trying to drive up a stone embankment. Thankfully his guardian angel was with him because he did not flip his car as I was expecting. If the driver had just gone 50 feet further, he could have made an easy turn at an intersection. Although he did scratch up his paint. In less than a quarter mile the next driver did not stop at the stop sign and just made a left hand turn with traffic coming from both directions.  It was the street right next to the middle school during morning drop off.  All I can say is the angel’s were busy this morning.  Not to be out done a semi was making an U-turn on an 2 lane road , blocking traffic oil both directions. After that I just tried to keep as much distance between me and every car on the road.  I even left on the automated wiper system on my car so I had one less thing to worry about.  

Then as we were starting to put dinner together the power went out. Again, not unusual for Tucson. Thank goodness we did not get far in the meal preparations. We did not was to open the refrigerator because we did not know how long the power would be out. By the way we were the very last block to get power back in an amazing 1 1/2 hours.  This was incredibly fast.  

So we went through the pantry in semi darkness. Picking out things that did not need anything from the fridge.  Our first course was a salad of canned green beans and olives, surprisingly, it was very good. The next course was peanut butter, we had to open a fresh jar. We had a choice of bananas or crackers to spread the peanut butter on. We skipped dessert because all the fruit except the bananas were in the fridge. Luckily, I had filled my cup with ice and water before the power went out, and John had a bottle of water from our reserves.

I even spent some time knitting in the dark. I only dropped one stitch in seven rows. Not too bad I hope tomorrow is better..

4 Cubic Feet

On Sunday I reclaimed 4 cubic feet of space in my knitting room.  That was enough space to place 4 large yarn baskets and fill in the remaining space with smaller project bags.  To get to that place I went through a few boxes of very old paperwork. Even a box filled with old paperwork from Eric.I filled the paper shredder once and sent one full bag to recycling. Other things were condensed and organized.  I even found one box of missing jewelry put away for safe keeping when we did a remodeling project years ago.  Yes, I  found the charm bracelet my dad started for me in the 1960’s when he brought me charms from business trips.  

John also relocated my small elliptical machine to a place I could use it more.  It also has a Convenient plug for charging nearby. So I guess I’ll have to my exercise game a little bit. That space also gave me room to organize some smaller boxes. So the room is getting very usable.

The very bad Picture is from the space I reclaimed on the shelves. There is just not enough light in that corner of the room. Although there are less baskets on the floor now. Almost enough to let the robotic vacuum in. 

Knowing My Limitations

 I think I have finally figured out how much time I can currently knit in a single day.  The answer is 2 hours.  At knit group today I spent 2 hours doing a left handed charity scarf in the round.  My reasoning was if I knit for a couple of hours left handed I could then spend a couple of hours right handed knitting tonight. My hypothesis was absolutely 100% wrong.  

Apparently it does not matter if I knit right or left handed, I have a finite number of hours to knit in a single day without destroying my hands.

No, I did not think about drop spinning or Tunisian Crochet either.  Even though they use different muscles groups, in different configurations for my hands. I was not willing to give up the possibility of no fiber arts for a week or more. Also I have not warped a loom in months.  I am not sure that I have the spoons to do a direct warp right now.  I would love someone to do the walking back and forth.  Anyone who has been around me during enforced no knitting or spinning time can tell you that I am not fit to be around. I am just that cranky and more.  

Just as a footnote, I am now much faster knitting left handed then when I taught myself 18 months ago.  Almost as fast as right handed knitting.  

Happy 2026

As we enter the new year there are things we have to remember. The year 2025 was not a normal year for the country. There are very for lack of better words broken, cruel and greedy politicians in our nation’s capital. They spew hate like they did not learn the rules of society in kindergarten.  They lack the mindset of “ if you help and raise a person up you make a better world “. They lack the ability to understand that if you treat the planet with contempt we all will experience the consequences of climate change.  

Now on to what we can and must do to help each other.  First let’s start with the things that don’t cost a penny but can make an impact in people’s lives. Smile at each other. Say hello to people. Complement someone even if you do not know them, such as they look nice today. Open doors for people. Thank people for opening doors for you and wish them a good day. Be extremely nice to the helpers in our community like food service workers, store cashiers, please don’t yell at them if you are having a bad day.  If you are on line and you like an artist work but you can’t afford it, share their work with your friends and followers. If money is tight and you have a favorite small business just say you like their store and give the address and what you like about the store.  

If you are a creator make a few things that can be used by others in your community.  I personally make scarfs and hats to give to a children’s clothing bank. See if your place of worship has community outreach programs. Save your spare change in a jar, when it is full give it to a charity that benefits people in your community like the food bank, after school programs, programs benefiting veterans, the homeless, sick children.  Volunteer your time.  The list is endless.  

We don’t need Washington, to make our community and country a better place.  

We don’t have the ability to fix the entire world alone. We do however have the ability to fix one thing at a time. Please try to be the change that heals our community and make it better with on act of kindness at a time. 

May everyone have a healthy, happy and prosperous new year. 

A New Project

 Since last week when I distributed 8 cubic feet of yarn to my friends, John did not mind me starting a new shawl instead of grabbing and finishing a UFO.  I was at three different combinations of yarn and John chose the colors he liked.  I spent the evening winding 4 new cakes of yarn. The first skein was knotty. When the forth skein when the yarn started getting wonky, I used my right knee to keep the yarn on the squirrel cage. I am going to knit my pattern Grandmas Summer Shawl, this time in a DK weight since the pattern knit up so well with a worsted weight and U.S. size 10.5 by 50 inch circular knitting needles.  I am thinking about a U.S. size 7 for the new shawl.  

I know that I said I would not start a new project until all the UFO’s were finished.  However all I have are summer weather shawls in progress.  It is now frequently getting below 70° and I need some warmer shawls that fit me. I distributed all the shawls that were too big so now I only have one winter shawl.  I will need at least 2.  Hence the new project.