My Learning Curve

 I needed to develope a new learning curve for knitting. I am taking a multi facetted approach. The first thing I did was figure out how I was holding my knitting needles. It turns out I was holding them too close to my body. So I am learning to hold my knitting further away from my body. This has changed a couple of things like muscle memory for one. I am now prone to make more mistakes and can not knit with my eyes closed when I am tired. 

Which brings up the second change which is a major one for me. I stop knitting when my hands or arm gets tired. This means I have less knitting time on bad body days. I used to do more knitting on bad body days to keep my mind occupied.  Now I read more or listen to books on tape. I am actually watching television during the day. This is something I reserved for sick days in the past. 

I am also doing more things with my left hand. I am teaching myself knitting with my left hand for starters. I am practicing coloring with my left hand and then onto writing which I have not done much of since 3rd grade when my teacher did not let us use our left hands at school.  

No my arm is not totally healed by these changes. My right hand is more useful. I am dropping less things. My right hand is not in as much pain. Less pain is always good in. My humble opinion.  

I know that there will be other changes along the way. I need to learn to live within the limits of my body instead of pushing my body to live beyond its limits.  I still push it a little, but not like i use to.  

A Successful Version

 My fingerless mitten version 2.0 is a complete success. I will be knitting up the 1st mitten starting tomorrow. You know I always knit the second mitten 1st. That way the second mitten always gets knit up. With any luck I should publish this pattern before the end of the month so that you can start your holiday knitting. This will make a great gift and you can get 1 1/2 pair per 100 gram ball of worsted weight yarn.  

Then I will pick another color and knit Another pair for myself. They are really comfortable and the yarn is really great. I use them for sleeping to keep my hands warm at night. And also other things. I find fingerless mittens so useful. I also don’t have to take them off to use my iPad.  

A BBD

 My body and I are not on very good terms today.  The only major accomplishment was that I got my 5,000 steps today. I am hoping for a better day tomorrow.  

My Appoitment Was A Bust

 I made an appointment at the app;low store in La Encantanda to get my battery replaced.  They were out of stock. I guess John was lucky when he got his replaced. This was not the only item that they were out of stock on this week. John went to go buy a new IPad and they were out of stock on those too. You need to preorder any iPad and some other items and then you can go in and pick them up. 

We as a world are still working through supply chain issues caused by Covid-19. Since we are still having break outs of Covid-19 variants I personally think it will be a year or 2 before we get back to some semblance of normal. In the mean time please be kind to the store personal, they are just as frustrated as you are but have to deal with it hundreds of times a weeek.  

So I am taking this time to finish up Version 2.0 of my Fingerless Mitten. Then do some spinning.  My version of lemonade.

New Glasses

 Today we braved Costco on the weekend to pickup my new pairs of glasses. A regular  every day pair and new Ray Bans. The Ray Bans are not the black aviator frames that I have been wearing since the 1970’s but a gold metallic frame. Every fewish decades a girl needs a change. We also picked up some Cheerio’s and Kleenex. 

Then lunch out at a local Tucson favorite, Beyond Bread for a half a sandwich and gazpacho soup. Then home to finish the 4th load of laundry for the day and naps.  

I actually cook dinner tonight. I made quesadillas with mushrooms and black olives and John made the mixed vegetables. It was a nice light summer dinner. It was also super easy to clean up after.

On the craft front I am teaching myself how to knit left-handed. This will give my right hand break. After the first few rows it wasn’t too bad. I guess that’s the great thing about being ambidextrous. It’s easy to switch up somethings between hands.  Although I should have not started with double stranded knitting on U.S. size 17 knitting needles.  I should have also started a new project instead of switching in the middle of a project.  I know no one will be able to tell the difference with this scarf. It also required me actually paying attention to what I was knitting. It’s always good to try new things.  

38 Years and Counting

 38 years ago John and I got married by a small lake in California complete with ducks. Our kids took us on fabulous adventures. We had lots of fun along the way.  There was some hard stuff too, but we got through it as a team.  I can still manage to surprise him too. So a very Happy Anniversary to my taller half. Yes I was wearing 2 inch heels in the picture.  

Thank You

 I  want to send a really Big Thank You to the Google Docs Team.  I have been using it for a few day and I never had to go to my personal technology support team.  This is pretty good for an artist.  I am typing up a new knitting pattern. Things went much more smoothly than on the other word processing app that I had been using since the kids were in elementary school and we still had dial up on A.O.L.   Yeah, that long ago.  I still have to get help with that one sometimes. 

I really like the light / dark contrast. It was very easy to see. Now I have to admit that I did the engineering thing and jumped in without reading the directions. I was able to find most everything I needed with just a little looking around. I will look around to see if I can adjust the pica on the finished pattern. I write patterns for knitters with learning disabilities and things like post stroke. A larger font size is mandatory especially for my older eyes. 

I have not gotten use to making edits with my pen straight on to my iPad Air yet. So I printed out the pattern and got my blue pen ready.  I made the edit’s on paper and then went back to the pattern to make the corrections. You do have to understand that it is easier to hold a pen, knitting and writing then holding knitting and typing.  In my humble opinion that is not bad for someone who learned to type on an Underwood typewriter built in the 1940,s. 

Thank you again for a job well done.