A surreal kind of day

 Sometimes people say the darndest things. Take today for instants, an acquaintance asked how Eric was doing because she hadn’t seen him lately. I just did not know what to say. It floored me because this is the week he died four years ago. So not wanting to make an awkward situation more awkward, I just told her he’s been very busy, and I haven’t seen him much myself lately. That seem to satisfy her and she wandered off. 

I won a raffle basket of knitting goodies at the Old Pueblo Knitting Guild meeting this morning.  When I got home I went through the basket to decide what I wanted and needed. To tell the truth it was more about want than need.  I the put the yarn that I was going to share back in the basket to take to my next meeting.  I shared the yarn with another group of fiber lovers. I managed to take an empty basket home.  Score one for me.  

This and That

 I have been on a finishing spree today.  I finished 2 more projects today. One hat and 1 scarf. Of course I cast on another scarf because I don’t want my knitting needles to get lonely. That leaves me a total of 6 more projects to photograph.  Also I  have been pulling out Unfinished Projects.  Finishing them to add to the pile.

I also took the time to take not one but two naps today.  With the family stress going on I am finding it hard to sleep through the night. When I am both tired and stressed it is a really bad thing for my body.  Hopefully we can get this family stuff done by the end of the year so we can start with a clean slate for 2024. In my humble opinion that would be perfectly delightful.  

Most of the time I can keep a running to do list in my head. Lately I have found it necessary to  write a hard copy of my daily to do lists. This gives me the satisfaction of actually crossing things off the list rather than just deleting them from my phone.  It will also pair down some of my extensive pile of scratch pads.  Scratch pads seem to multiply like bunnies around here. 

Yesterday I also started filling a box for Goodwill with the clothes that keep getting bigger in the closet. The good news is that I only needed to add a few pairs of pants to my wardrobe. We picked the pants up yesterday.  

I will hopefully get some sleep tonight and have a busy day tomorrow.  Wish me luck. 

My Personal Roller Coaster

 Today had a lot of highs and lows.  I will skip over most of the lows like not having enough energy to do stress cleaning.  I wove 20+ random ends in, on a scrappy scarf. That was a chore and a half.  It looks great.  Pictures will come later.  

The highlight of the day was a doctor telling me his services were no longer needed because I lost so much weight and am too healthy to need his services anymore.  Yeah me. 

I am lining up a few projects that will be just for me. I am going to make a few one of a kind items just for me after I finish the holiday gifts for the kids clothing bank.  I have yarns piled up around my knitting table.  

Leaving the House

 The next batch of 6 dog pillows stuffed with yarn scraps are going to the dog shelter.  The dog pillows are a great way to keep yarn scraps out of the land fill and benefit my community too.  

I got my stress cleaning out of the way early today. I have only done a couple of hours today. But it’s not even 11 a.m. yet, do the day is still early.  

Now if I could just distress and relax.

Stress Cleaning

 Today I was so stressed out that I simply ignored my to do list that I made with the 2:30 AM, during a migraine.  We spent the weekend dealing with family issues.  They have not fully resolved. Before you ask my taller half and wonderful daughter and son-in-law are doing well.  My brother and his wonderful wife invited us over for dinner, long story short.  I called my brother and asked him to join us for dinner at a restaurant. He was smoking a leg of lamb so we drove to their house.  My brother is an awesome cook.  I really have to get a smoker.  I really adore my sister-in-law. They make an awesome couple and have great kids too. They are the perfect people to hang out with when I need to recenter..

You might recall that when I hit a certain stress level the only thing that calms me down is cleaning.  I spent most of the day cleaning. I put a lot of things away.  My efforts were clearly visible.  3 bags of recycling and 2 bags of trash later, I was still stressed out, but much more calm.  So I plyed 2 skeins of art yarn.  Then I started spinning some more merino wool to do more plying.  I still have 5 skeins of Little Flower Novelty yarn in red to ply.  I am thinking that they would make a nicely woven scarf for kids.  I was too stressed to knit or weave. 

I will try to sleep tonight. Wish me luck.  If not I have more cleaning to do.  

1 inch

 I found it amazing that just trimming off 1 inch from my bangs this morning totally eliminated the getting hair in my eyes issue.  I did not trim anything else because I want my hair to grow a little longer.  

Knitting Needles

 If you use bamboo knitting needles please be aware that they will only last for about 200 knitting projects before you start to hear a cracking or wood splitting sound.  Other knitting needles tend to do this but take many years to reach this point.  Do not try to finish your project.  There is nothing worse than having a knitting needle crack mid row while knitting.  It can be a disaster and damage your yarn or an awful lot of stitches can drop.  Go to your local yarn store and get a really good pair of knitting needles.  Then transfer your knitting to the new knitting needles immediately.

Don’t worry, the soon to break knitting needles can still be used in your garden to hold seed signs or prop up a plant.  I am not sure that they can be composted because they typically have a finish of varnish.

If you like wooden knitting needles and do a lot of knitting there are plenty of work arounds for this.   You will have to pay more but the price difference is well worth it.  I would recommend a hard wood knitting needle like Brittney or Lantern Moon.  Lantern Moon uses ebony which is one of the hardest commercially used woods.  

This is my personal experience over 24 years of knitting.  All knitting needles were purchased by me.  Theses are my personal preferences and opinions.  All brands may not be available at all local yarn stores.