A Long Night

Eric was up most of the night. I managed to knit 5 rows of my sweater. Eric managed to make 4 loads of laundry. I did half last night and John did the other half while I took a nap. Eric is back on formula tonight, I will take this as a good sign. Eric will be home tomorrow.

I did manage to get a little cleaning done while Eric was doing his breathing treatment. As usual when Eric is sick, I fall behind on cleaning. Hopefully he will sleep tonight so I have the energy to finish the craft room deep cleaning. I also need to do laundry other than Eric's. Then I can knock off a few projects.

Raising the White Flag

I am rasing the white flag today. The household has not fully recovered from the last round of colds. Eric has been cranky all day. So before I went out shoe shopping I checked Eric's tempature to make sure that I could leave the house. 98.6, I was good to go. Two pairs of shoes and 1 1/2 hours later it was 100.5. So much for finishing the craft room today.

i have finished row 21 of the sweater. Hopefully I can find some knitting time for the sweater later. If not it will just be hats and scarfs for charity. Tight now it's just Eric time.

My Body Won Today.

I have been super busy around here and putting in very long work days. Today my body said it had had enough and instituted mandatory naps three times today. I even slept through a round of Eric thumping a few feet away and I did not hear a thing. I do have to admit that after a lot of rest I do feel better. That being said my to do list for today might take me a few days longer to complete.

Even though I only put in about 30 minutes of deep cleaning, de-cluttering and de-stashing I was able to fill a box and a half of things to be re-homed. I have completely de-cluttered the top of the fabric storage cabinet. So even though the sewing room did not get finished today,  visible progress has been made.

I have also made progress on my first ever sweater. I started it about 10 years ago. Lost a bunch of weight and sizes so it did not fit when I pulled it out 6 months ago to finish, so I tinked it. I re-started it yesterday 2 sizes smaller and have made slow but steady progress. Pictures to come later.

More Zenning

Today was day two of zenning the craft room. There were some surprises along the way again, such as finding out that I had done enough knitting to move a lot of yarn to the closet yarn stash. Also 18 cotton yarn cones takes up about a cubic feet of space.

I am trying to organize the rack by fiber craft. This makes it much easier to see what I have lined up. Yes, I also found more yarn, please tell me that you are not surprised by this. I need to set up the wider loom to make some more rag rugs and summer shawls, yes I found a lot of supplies. A few quilts are in the line up too. Before and after pictures will be forth coming.

Today I sent 5 knitting looms to Ironwood Ridge Elementary School for their hat knitting project. One class makes hats for sick kids and baby's at the local hospital. A great project to support in my very humble opinion.

My hands are still tired and sore from last weekend so only about a half of an inch of knitting got done. I did however make a chicken tomatillo soup for dinner.  Cutting the vegetables was very interesting to say the least, no even cuts today. The best part is that we have enough for tomorrow too. Let me know if you want the recipe.

Toasted

I went to a fiber retreat last weekend and had a wonderful time. I think that I might have had too much fun. My hands are now toasted. I will have to take a few days of total hand rest with no fiber. My left hand is a little swollen.

So I guess that I will redo the craft room and do some more purging of things that I do not use. After all less is more, well maybe. I found a lot of knitting needles today where I did not expect to find them. So you know which room that I will be in tomorrow.

Deep Cleaning

My deep cleaning by the numbers today:

1 car load to taken Goodwill, thanks to John.

2 boxes ready to be re-homed tommrow. 1 box is full of art supplies. 1 box is full of carrier and gift bags and cfl light bulbs.

3 trips to the recycle bin. My recycle bin is now half full and it will not be collected until next Monday.

Countless projects were put together to be finished soon. I need to finish the deep cleaning of the craft room and its closet. I did manage to get about 3 cubic feet of closet back.

I also managed to get 2 loads of laundry finished. I also found time for a long nap.

The Quilt Front.

The quilt arrived safely. The person loves it. So here is a picture of the front of the quilt.

Busy

Today before breakfast I got Eric's laundry started. Then I spent 30 minutes picking up the dead branches that I removed from some bushes on Wednesday. I stopped when the trash can was full. I did not think that I had removed so many dead branches from the two bushes. The bushes look a lot better even with only a drizzle of rain.

After breakfast I spent the morning making some samples for next weekend. This was followed by lunch and 3 hour nap for the entire house. Everyone gets super tired when Eric is sick, so picking out a nap spot is very important.

This afternoon after my nap I cleaned my Woolie Winder for the Lendrum spinning wheel. It was the first time that I cleaned it. I layed all the parts down in the order that they came off. After scrubbing the grease and grime off, not to mention a few bits of very greasy fiber, everything went back together and is working. I wish that I had a magnifying glass for some parts of the process. Hen while dinner was cooking I spent time cleaning.

I think that I will spend the evening knitting as my hands permit.

Not As Planned

Today went into the blender by 7:15 this morning. Eric is feeling yucky and will be home for a few days. My hands were to tired to knit for most of the day, so I landed up doing some more deep cleaning. All kinds of things were moved to new homes or tossed. Two bushes also had some dead wood pulled off. It was a great stress buster. One bush actually perked up as the heavy dead wood was removed. I will have to play pick up sticks tomorrow.

What did not happen was laundry, weaving spinning or sewing.

25

I fell short of my goal of 31 hats in 31 days. Here are the 25 hats that are finished for July, with the last two hats in front of the other 23 hats. I will keep knitting hats because winter is comimg. I will keep knitting hats to use up the yarn my friends are giving me. I will keep knitting hats because the children like them. I will keep knitting hats becasue I like to knit hats and I have many heads to cover.

Now I need to count the rows for the one million row challenge on Raverly. I hope to see a jump in the counter. Then its time to tag and bag the hats.

A Quilt

The quilt is done. I am getting it ready to send the birtday gift out in tommrows post. I will only post the back of the quilt until it is received by the birthday person. It looks a little like a Tetrus Game to me.

23

Eric had a long and eyrpy night, followed by an early morning wake up for me. Which lead to an early morning snack of cheese and crackers at 4:30 am. Thank goodness he is now feeling better. Yes, he did make a pile and a half of laundry which with the new washing machine was only 2 large loads.

I did manage to get hat number 23 done today. This does not mean that I will go back to knitting a hat a day. I will knit as my hands permit me to knit.

Sewing

I spent the day sewing. This was a plan to give my hands a break. I tried to work around a BBD and had partial sucess. I finished one quilt, which is now in the dryer. Pictures of the quilt will be posted after the birthday person gets to unwrap it. I started catching up on repairs too.. one skirt is now in the wash and the next one will head to the wash tomorrow.

By lunch time my body won and got a nap. Everyone went to their own quiet place to take a nap. The nap did not seem to make a diffrence for Eric. He had a small sizure tonight followed by by wild eyrps an hour later. So we will be laying low all weekend. I wonder how much cleaning and sewing that I can get done this weekend. Laundry is a given, it just depends on how much laundry Eric makes. I am backing down on knitting until my hands feel better. This means that I will not get 31 hats knit this month but every hat that I have made so far will help a child. Let me know if you want to knit a hat, scarf or sweater for a child in Tucson. I have some donated yarn that you can use.

Have a great weekend.

22

You might have noticed that my knitting has slowed to a crawl. My hands are being very cranky. So I have been filling my time with deep cleaning. It is starting to take some thought as to what is going to get cleaned next. I have also taken out the sewing machine to catch up on repairs and make a few items for this October's Taglit fundraiser. I need to come up with new an exciting gifts that people have not seen before. I also want to use as many supplies from my art supply stash as possible. As I am organizing things, I have found that I have more art supplies than I thought I did. So look for some awesome new stuff in October.

With out futher ado here is hat 22 and part of the new quilt.

21

Hat 21 is done dispite a bad body day.

19 and 20

I finished hat 19 this morning and hat 20 just now. Now to start on tomorrow's hat. Knitting on a rainy night seems like the right thing to do. I am also hoping that Eric goes to sleep before 12:30 am tomorrow morning. I am a bit on the tired side.

Not Quite 19

I had a very busy hand day. So hat number 19 will be finished in the morning. With my hands at a throbbing level of pain, I thought it best to stop for the night. I will put on gloves to keep my hands warm tonight. I know they will feel better by morning. So tomorrow you will get to see 2 hats.

I am over 2/3 of the way through cutting the 360 squares for my quilt project. Hum, I wonder if that is why my hands are extra sore? I am cutting the lining squares now. I will have enough scraps left over to make an artisy quilt. I can't wait to see how they both turn out.

I even had time to go drop things off at Goodwill today. It seems to me, that the cleaner and less cluttered the house gets, less stuff needs to be rehomed. I guess that is a good thing since I now have more creative time.

I am still waiting for Eric to go to sleep. Hopefully soon. I tnik I might just get to sleep before tomorrow.

18 and Visible Progress

Today I finished hat number 18. I also emptied a 2.5 gallon bag of yarn that was on top of the hat yarn storage box. That yarn is now in the working knitting bag. I also cut 50 more squares for the quilt.

It was a light laundry day, with only 2 loads. I even found time to go to two specialty stores. I used the 5 minute rule for house cleaning to get a little deep cleaning done too. So dispite Eric being up until 12:30 this morning I managed to get a lot done dispite my body hating me this morning.

17 and Awesome

Hat number 17 is now finished. Hats 18 and 19 have been cast on and are in progress. I used the bulk of my energy running errands this morning. I purchased 4 rotery cutter blades so when the new blade gets dull it will not halt progress on the quilt. I hope tommrow I can be more productive.

Hat 16 and More

Today I finished hat number 16. I will give a row count at the end of the month for the one million row challenge on Raverly. I also started cutting out blocks for my next quilt project. I only need to cut 360 squares before I start the sewing. I have 56 squares cut. Then my rotary cutter blade went dull. So I will get more blades tomorrow, then finish cutting the squares.

It's time to do more knitting now.

15 and More

I got to go watch Sue Houseman of Sewing with Sue give a talk today. If you ever have a chance to see her talk, it is a must do. She had lots of wonderful ideas. I will be trying some out soon.

Hat number 15 is done. Hats 16 and 17 have been cast on.

14

even with abad body day, I managed to get hat 14 finished tonight.

13

It' been a long day, but hat 13 is done.

12

Hat number 12.

11

A very long day. Our first rain of the summer was last night. A nice lighting storm. I finished hat 11 today.

10

The 10th hat of the month. Also a lot of sewing.

Cleaning

I spent most of the day cleaning. I did a little deep cleaning too. When I was too tired to do anything else I srarted sewing pillows for Eric. I have 2 out of the 5 that the program requested. To try to deter pillow theft this time in red permanent marker I wrote "Stolen from Eric K" on the pillows in spots where they can not be covered up. They only question remaining is how fast they will be stolen from Eric this time? On the knitting front I finshed hats 8 &9. Hats 10 & 11 are now cast on.

Record Breaking Heat

Today we broke a heat record set when my dad was a kid. It was 111f. I also caught up on sleep. Because of the heat I picked Eric up early from his program. We watched the movie Home, which Eric wants to watch again. i finished spinning one roving from www.intothewhirled.com and started the second one of the same color way.

After 2 hours of spinning, it was time to finish another hand knit hat. So far this month I have finished 7 hats with a goal of 31. Making one hand knit hat every day in July. This will accomplish 3 things. First making a small dent in my odd balls of yarn. Second making me happy and productive. Last but not least it will give 31 kids who would not have warm hats next wimter a warm hat. If I excede my goal it would be very nice, but I need to get to 31 first. As usual I have one cotton and one wool hat on the needles.

I Took Time Off Today

This last flare up just won't go away. So I took some extra rest time today. I spent the morning after dropping Eric off at his program with my feet up finishing hat number 4 for the month. I then cast on another cotton hat, so the knitting needles would not get lonely.

I did do a few chores but skipped the laundry because it was well over 100f by 10:30am. After lunch I started readimg a new book until I fell asleep. I woke up just intime to pick up Eric. I got my Tour de Fleece spinning in while we caught up on yesterdays concerts and fire works.

John was wonderful and brought home dinner. After dinner I finished hat number 5 for the month and cast on another wool hat. I am rather happy that i am knitting so many hats, but I swear the next person who was born in the snow belt that says "it's not cold enough for winter clothes in Arizona will be sent home at the first sign of snow..

Tour de Fleece 2017

My first spin of this years Tour de Fleece was 8 ounces of Superwash BFL dyed by Into The Whriled in 2012. I love the roving that they dye, so here is the link, www.intothewhirled.com. Yes i am stash busting for this years Tour de Fleece. I was trying to spin a fractial, I did not quite make it. Since it took almost an hour to skein and photograph, I am counting it towards the first 3 days os spinning.

Tinking

I have decided that it is a little bit more than silly to need a charity hat and a size one knitting needle. So I will be tinking the hat can and then use is in the Yarn double stranded in another charity hat.

Hats

In June I knit 17 hats for charity.

In The Blender

Eric had a rough night last night and I don't even remember what time that I got him settled down for the night.  All I know is that 6 am came much too quickly. Eric's bad night lasted for most of the day. So,Eric skipped his day program and helped me sort the double pointed knitting needles by size. I now can say that I know where most of my double pointed knitting needles are. I think that I can lose quite a few before I have to run out and buy replacements. Of course there is still the odd one floating around the house and a set with each hat knitting bag. I keep one bag for knitting animal fiber hats and one bag for plant based fiber hats. The are no bags for petroleum based fiber hats, as I feel that no one should be forced to wear clothing made from a non-renewable resource.

I think that I will be putting all my knitting accessories in one spot too. I have not decided what I will put all the accessories in yet. That and single pointed straight knitting needles will be done on Friday. I find it kinda of odd that after over 30 years of marriage that I am finally starting to understand my engineer's mind for organization and that sometimes less is more.

I usually do not run the washer and dryer after 100f, but I got a late start at  laundry today. Even though I was finished with the laundry by 10:30 am it was over 100f already. It did feel on the cooler side today at lunch time it felt a bit chilly at 105f with a light breeze after last weeks 115f and 116f days.

I also found time to start knitting a new wool hat tonight and am halfway through with it. I think that is is time to go do some reading.

Circular Knitting Needles

Today I started organizing my knitting needles starting with the circular needles. I had the knitting needles in 3 different areas. Hopefully having them in one spot will make things easier to find the right knitting needle when I need one for a project. They are also off my closet floor. The needles, are sorted from U.S. size 0 to size 50. They are also in a container that will not allow them to fall on the floor.  I really like the idea of my knitting needles not falling on the floor. Of course this does not include the knitting needles on projects. I must have a lot of projects on sizes, 6, 7, 8 and 11's.  Tomorrow I will work on the double point needles. I will save the straight knitting needles for Friday. As you can tell my deep cleaning has slowed down quite a bit, but I am down to the knitty gritty of the job so things are going much slower pace. 

I also managed to finish knitting 2 hats and casting another cotton hat on. I like to keep a cotton hat for knitting on the go and a wool hat to knit at home. I still need to cast on a wool hat. At a year post hand surgery I am still limited by my hands in how long I can knit each day, but at least I can knit again. 

107f

I have lost count of the days it has been over 105f in a row so far this summer. Yet I know that winter is coming and the knitting of children's hats and scarfs is on going, besides they don't sit in my lap as I knit.

I am really enjoying having a huge washing machine. I can wash most of Eric's clothes every other night as it has been too hot to run the machine during the day.

Still Hot at 116f

We are deep into a summer weather advisory here in Tucson, this just means that it will be over 110f. It also usually means that afternoon flights will be canceled in Phoenix and Tucson. I personally love this summer weather, but Eric on the other hand can not handle the heat. So he is going to program in the morning when it is still relatively cool like the 93f  drive time temperature today. By lunchtime when I pick him up it was 109f, a very warm temperature for Eric. When we got home we sat under the ceiling fan until I was cold.

As with yesterday I spent my time preparing fiber and knitting while we watched PBS kids all afternoon. As of now it is back down to 109f at dinner time. It is trying really hard to rain but I don't think we have enough humidity yet. A best we might get some lighting and thunder. By bedtime it will be cool enough to run the washer and dryer.

On a different note, this issue always seems to be coming around and just will not go away. I know that there are a whole lot of groups that like hand knit items to give away for their charity projects. They want a certain yarn or pattern used.  I think that this is a kind and wonderful jester. However, and this is a big however, I knit what I want in the fibers that I want. The Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank gets the bulk of my knitting, John and I are fine with this. I take care of children in my own community. Their students like my very colorful hats and scarfs, made with cotton, wool, nylon and alpaca.  I know that people that live in the snow belt will not agree that around 70f is cold enough to warrant giving the children winter clothing. Did I mention that it was 116f today? I do think that a 46 degree drop in temperature is enough to warrant the use of winter clothing. So as John put it so nicely at dinner tonight, "Knit what you want to knit, unless it is a paying job. Then they can have what they pay for," So before you badger me to knit for your group, please remember that I already have a group that I knit for.

What To Do When It's 115f Outside

Hats are my favorite thing to knit in summer. They are small . They don't sit on my lap. They are like M&M's, I just can't knit one. My goal was to knit a hat a day for the whole summer. Right now I am only knitting 5 hats per week. A little short of my goal. You do know that winter is coming and I won't look so silly then.

Life

It has been a bit on the busy side here. I also have a post elbow flare up. So I am trying to keep up. I might just hit brake even this week instead of being 3 steps behind. With record breaking heat expected here this week I will get my chores done early and knit the rest of the day.

Knitting Needles

After changing out the knitting needles for the fourth time today, I got some smooth and quick knitting on a project that has been driving me nuts for months. I landed up using a retro pair of mismatched needles from the 1960's that were passed down to me. I thought that I would never use such ugly aluminum knitting needles, but they did the trick.

I also have to find some fine sandpaper to repair one pair of needles that were ruined by using them to knit silk with. I have learned not to knit silk on wooden knitting needles. I guess the right needles for each yarn is very important.

Need Sleep

Eric had a bad night last night and I did not get much sleep last night. Then Eric thew an hour and a half hissy fit because I would not take him to his day program today, which was closed for the holiday. I really need to sleep tonight, so I am praying that Eric sleeps tonight. Good night all.

A Slow Day

The house painting was finished today. I also finished knitting 2 hats. I am not sure why i am so tired.

Putting the Pad Down

Today I did not feel like cold leftovers. Still not up to going out though. So I decided to put my pad down and see how many UFO's that I could finish. It started off well until I found some very pretty yarn that was saying you must drop everything and play with me. So I now have one more UFO. I will see what I can finish tonight.

I also went on a drop spindle hunt tonight. I have decided to thin the herd. So I will be spinning on almost all of my drop spindles in the next week or so to see which are staying and which are leaving. Just so you know in advance none of the Forresters, Bosworths or Goldings will be leaving the herd. I have to draw the line somewhere. After that is finished i will start on the knitting needles.

Round 2

My elbow did not finish healing after the first round of medicine. So tonight I started the next 10 day course of medicine. This means that i will not have earth shattering strength for the next 10 days. This is to read that I will be mostly resting on the couch or napping. The side effects of the medicine have already kicked in.

Since Eric has no program for most of the next 10 days I think what we are going to be hanging around the house. Maybe Eric will be supervising naps.

Mostly Sleeping

I am still on the antibotic for the infection. My elbow looks better, although I am sleeping a lot. Not a lot is getting done around here but sleeping. We have delay our Mothers Day for 1 week. This gives us the advantage of me feeling better and the University of Arizona graduation hoopla will be done.

Have a grat week everyone.

Feeling Yucky

Things have slowed down here. I landed up getting sick. The doctor got me in earlier today and I am finished with day one of the meds. Only 9 days to go. I hope that I don't get hopelessly behind, as I was really starting to catch up.

May the 4th Be With You

As I write this post the ultimate sci-fi fan day is about to come to an end. I am still up with the end of a migraine and waiting for Eric's numbers to stabilize. Crashing at night seems to be the new norm around here.

We are also celebrating Ice Break Day here in Tucson. It is the 1st 100 degree day of the year and the ice has finally broken on the Rillito River. It is time to get that fishing gear out. It is time to going fishing for the legendary Sand Trout that inhabit the mostly bone dry river bed of the Rillito River. Although I have to say this is a strange beginning to summer as it is expected to snow at the higher elevations here at the beginning of next week. They are also still skiing at the Flagstaff Snow bowl. Global warming sure makes the weather really weird.

I will post a spinning wheel for sale this weekend. Look for it on FaceBook and possibly Ravelry. Other goodies might be listed also. 

Music and More

Eric wanted more music in his room. So I spent 35 minutes today cleaning up Eric's dresser and chasing down electrical cords. I landed up with an extra power cord and a charger for a phone brand that we don't even own. I don't even know who left it here.  The remote control needs a new battery, but John will take care of that tomorrow. Eric spent the rest of the day listening to music, with the base to high. I guess he does not like most of whats on TV this season. 

I also found another box of crafts that had been in the garage. In it I found my favorite knitting bag, 2 unfinished knitting projects with no patterns. I think that I can finish without the pattern, the other one not so much, it might just be tinking* time. I also found more fabric to make Eric some more blankets, not that he needs anymore blankets at the moment.  One bag full of yarn, I took what I wanted and will bring the rest to knitting next week. 

I have also decided that I have too many big project bags. So I sorted through a pile of them. It looks like after the first cut 20% of the will leave the house on Friday. I also have too many yarn storage bags and a few of those will leave the house tomorrow. The deep cleaning is still on going, but at a better pace for my body. 

*Tinking  is Knitting spelled in a somewhat backward state. 

I Really Said This

This morning I can't believe I used the line, "but my daughter is a lawyer" when someone got a little too "I am feeling sorry for you because your son is in an adult day program. I am very lucky that Eric is in an adult day program. There is a nationwide shortage of adult day program slots across the country.  I am very lucky that my local JCC cared enough about our family to create an adult day care program that Eric can go to and hang out with his friends.

Now I want everyone to know that I Love my children equally and am very blessed to have both of them in my life. They have each taken me down a different path in life. They have both taught me about life in their own way. I am very grateful that they let me come along for the ride.

It has not always been an easy path. I feel that at times I was not the best at my job of mom. I might not have given it my all to both Teri and Eric all the time. We manage to muddle through it somehow. We are a close tight family so I know that I did somethings right.

So I would like to say, Thank You to Teri and Eric for giving me a chance to be your mom. I would also like to say Thank You, to John for joining me in this adventure.

It Fell

Last night as I was putting a hat on the pile of hats and scarfs it fell over. Luckily for me it leaned against the wall. So how many hats, scarfs and cowls did it take to tip over? Here are the numbers: 29 hats, 4 scarfs and 1 cowl.

I will let you know how many rows are going to added for the 1 million row challenge on Raverly when I count them up.

Parenting

Parenting and in particular the parenting of special needs children and adults is the parent's job. In speaking to more than a number of parents on the subject more often then not I hear them complain about the lack of long term commitment from teachers, medical professionals and aides. This just rubs me the wrong way. Don't get me wrong sometimes there are just so many new people in Eric's life that I think my job should be called Training Specialist and not Mom.

I think that it is fantastic that ordinary people take time out of their lives to learn about and help our children. We have a lot of aides who need the volunteer credit, even if it is a paying job with a non-profit to get into medical or nursing school. I really love these people, they learn quickly are usually great at the task at hand and then move on when it is time for medical school. If we get these people from a year or 2, I am extremely happy. The things that they learn while caring for Eric can then be transferred to other families and enhance their carers. But they are not his parents and are not meant to be in his life forever.

Then there are the heroic Special Needs Teachers that not only have to learn a whole lot of things about their students medical and emotional needs even before the education process can even start. Also, every year there seems to be more paperwork required for each student, think of the 504 Plans, Individual Education Plans, paperwork to prove that grant money is being spent within the terms of the grant. Accident reports if a child stumbles and the corrective action that will be taken in the future so the child learning to walk will not stumble again. Did I mention parents with unrealistic goals for their children. From the start of teaching special education to leaving the field average is 10 years. No they will not be there forever. Neither will the teachers of your healthy children.

As for the wonderful people who staff our Adult Day Care Programs, please be very nice to these people. The pay is lower than I would like to see it. The hours are long. Our young adults are sometimes very difficult to work with. If you have a chance schedule a day to shadow your adult child and see how the staff works with them. I am always very happy to see these caring people go back to school to further their carers wherever it takes them. They are not meant to be in our adult children's lives forever.

Ending on a note that no one wants to think about is what happens if you as the parent gets hurt or you can't do your job as a parent? Do you have a backup plan in place? Does your support coordinator have this in writing. If you have guardianship for your adult child, the courts must approve the plan. Talk to your lawyer about this. Your relatives might not be up to the task. Planning is a must.

Just remember that nothing is forever.