More Hats

I have filled a project bag the size of a large size grocery bag to the top with yarn. I have pulled out U.S. size 13 knitting needles.  I really want to see how fast that I can knit my way through this bag of yarn.  I think that I am off to a good start today with 2 hats from the large craft bag and 1 hat from the small craft bag finished today.  In the small carry along bag I am using U.S. sizes 6,7 and 8.

I want to see how many projects I can finish this summer to burn through my yarn stash.  My definition of a project is one item finished no matter what the size.  Although the larger the projects the more yarn is used.  Wish me luck in this adventure.

While John was taking his after dinner walk I spent that time Zenning the craft room. If I have the energy after dinner I think that I can make decent progress in tiny bits of time.

The Mad Hatter? Perhaps Not

Besides physical therapy and chores, today was all about hats. I bagged and tagged 9 hats for charity. I cast on 9 hats, yes I really have emough 16 inch circular knitting needles to do that with out using all my 16 inch circular knitting needles.

So I am really not crazy. I am actually teaching a technique called the jogless join at knitting guild tomorrow. So instead of taking out my work over and over again I cast on 8 hats, one set for each demo. They will go to my charity project.

if I am indeed mad, at least there is a method to my madness.

Zenning for Health?

Today was a BBD for me.  So what else should I do besides sitting on the couch and resting?  Well zenning the house of course.  I started of with my Wool yarn stash, I have a full bag of tapestry and needlepoint yarn that makes  great hats if anyone is interested in the yarn, as a bonus I will throw in a tote bag.

I did what I call circular cleaning today.  I zip all over the house. As I find something that goes to another room, I head there to put it away.  Then I find something in that room to put away sometimes I stay in one place for a while, sometimes not.  The end result is a lot of things are now in new homes or recycled.

I did find time to knit, spin, wash some newly spun skeins of yarn and laundry too.  I skipped Eric’s planed haircut today. By the time he was ready it was raining.  I decided a haircut was not worth dealing with the rain and chair in the rain. So I opted to reschedule it.  There is always tomorrow.

Yarn

First there was the beginning of the Tour De France. Then the Tour De Fleece decided to cheer on the riders by spinning along. So I have a little extra fleece that wanted to be spun so I join the spinners. Here are my first 6 skeins of yarn. 4 of the skeins are 4 ounces and the little bitty ones area half ounce. all I have to do is wash and set the twist on the yarn.

Tour De Fleece

Today I spent 4 hours plying the yarn that I spun over the first days of the tour.  I have decided that Shetland Wool is not pleasant to ply when it is spun to a lace weight yarn. Masham Wool is wonderful as a thick and thin yarn. It’s even better plyed.  BFL is always wonderful to spin and ply.

I am trying not only to spin as much of my fiber stash as possible.  I am also trying to spin as many different breeds of sheep as well.  Each breed spins a little differently.  I am also trying to spin as many British  Heritage Sheep fleeces, batts and braids that I have.

Eight skins were plied today. There were 4 four ounce bobbins and 4 smaller skeins for the 52 Yarn’s to Spin Before You Cast Off Book. I am really too tired to take them all out of their bags tonight, so I hope tomorrow will be ok for pictures.

I think that because of my sore Achilles Tendon I will do most of my Spinning on my classic Louet S-15.  I also found out today that the Louet S-96 in Oak is no longer being made and I will have to settle for an S-95. I also found out that it will not ship until Mid-September.  That means that I will not have it for the Sheep Thrills Fiber Retreat next month. All I can say is it’s a bummer to have to wait so long for a birthday present.

Tour De Fleece

I have 4 bobbins of yarn to ply tomorrow and will show off my first Tour De Fleece 2018 yarn. Now what am I going to do with 4 new skeins of yarn?

Busy

It has been very busy around here this month. The Birthday gift for Teri sent just in time. The laundry has won, I have not been able to catch up all month. It seems to take about 2 days to knit a hat right now, I am barely over 3 dozen hats knit for the year at the moment. I am still in the midst of deep cleaning the guest/craft room, a lot is leaving. My craft books are next.

For Tour De Fleece I have 12 ounces spun and it is waiting to be ply. So I can not count that yet. I have one braid on each wheel going. Yes, it has occurred to me that I can only use one spinning wheel at a time, but with my Achilles tendon still sore I need to switch between wheels as not to get my heel mad at me. I will post under Team Into the Whirled with the #ITWTDF2018 on social media. This will happen once the yarn is plied. I have spun every day of the tour, even if it is only a half ounce like today. Into the Whirled is a great indie dyer. Give her page some love*. I just love spinning her fiber.


*I have paid for all my own fiber from Into the Whirled. No payment or samples have been given to me.

A Long Day

I have been up since 6a.m.  It is almost 11 p.m. and I am still waiting for Eric to go to sleep.  I am not sure that is going to happen anytime soon since he did get a booster shot at his doctors visit today.   Right now he seem to be talking to Elmo about his day.  I am falling asleep while I am writing this.  So it will be short.

Just a reminder, that if you are over 40 talk with your doctor about booster shots.  This is especially true for the Whooping Cough vaccination since the one we got as kids has worn off by now.  Whooping cough is very hard on the young and disabled.  Also with measles cases on the rise make sure you and your kids are up to.  You are protecting kids like Eric who can not have some or all of the shots.  

It finally quiet so I am going to call it a knight.  

Wow

Who would have guessed that the solution to Tendinitis of the Achilles Heel was 2 inch heels. Yes, that is right 2 inch heels. After I went to the orthopedic foot surgeon, John and I went shoe shopping. I left the store in one of the pairs of shoes.  I walked to the car without any pain.  The first time in about 9 months. I was pain free until I put on my 1 inch heel house slippers. I guess that I need new house slippers too.

My question is why don't any of the medical advice sites have this information?Also if you live in the Tucson area and are in need of a bright, well mannered orthopedic surgeon, with good patient side manners, who likes to try therapy first to avoid surgery give me a call.  I don't think it is my place to publicly recommend a doctor since I am not a medical professional.

Being pain free had a lot of plusses. Even though I am still at the tail end of the cold that Eric gave me, I had a lot of energy to get things done. I hope that this helps me play catch up this week as I am so far behind.

I did manage to weave almost 2 feet of a scarf tonight. I knit 3/4's of a hat today. Well it is time to make sure Eric is ready for bed so that I can call it a night,

Around the House

I am feeling better. I just have this nasty cough left. So I am slowly getting things done around the house. John has really done a great job picking up my slack while I had the cold.  My major accomplishment of the week was filling the recycle bin to the top. There was no more space so I have started a recycling bag for next week's recycling pick up already. I found another area to zen. So far most is being recycled or or sent to Goodwill. Very few items are finding a new home.

As usual when I miss a day of laundry, the laundry room was knee deep.  I stopped after four loads and left the rest for later. Since I got all of Eric's laundry done this should not come back to get me. The other four plus whatever Eric makes tomorrow can wait for tomorrow.

I also gave up trying to figure out where a can be added to my blog. I guess I will have to ask my techie about that or do a whole lot of reading. I really need to learn some basic coding. 

Hat number 31 was finished today. I have 1 hat that I need to weave the ends in. I also have 2 hats on the knitting needles. I am adding some rolled brim hats to the mix to shake things up a bit.  I think that I will get my bedtime snack and do a little more knitting tonight.

Eric’s Cold Part 2

I am still home sick with that awful cold Eric brought home.  I spent most of the day resting.  I am hoping to sleep tonight.   Last night was a wash for sleep.  Naps were a no go unless I was sitting up. So tonight I will spend the night trying to sleep sitting up.

Sharing

Eric shared his cold with me. Do I spent the day napping and knitting.  I did not have the patience to weave in the ends so technically no hats were finished today.  I was too tired to do anything else today.

Charity Knitting and Weaving

My friends and I have made a wonderful accomplishment. Considering it is only June 21st. We have collectively filled a Ziplock Big Bag Grands Sac with hats, sweaters, gloves and scarfs for The Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank. I only need to store them at the house until school starts in August, so that they can be delivered. I think this is the most we have had this early in the summer. By the way happy first day of summer.

Now it is time to start knitting again so that I can start the next bag of hand knit and crocheted items. If you would like to help fill bad number two just get the items to me. I am looking for sizes from preschool to high school. They need hats, scarfs, sweaters and gloves. Use any pattern or colors you would like.

Hats

I am ready to bag 26 hats for The Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank. This equals 1,225 rows for the one million rows challenge on Ravelry.

A First

I have experienced a first time event.  Since Eric was born, I have relied very heavily on caffeinated  soda with hfcs, artificial sugar and real sugar every time Eric gets sick.  You might think this is a lot of sugar and soda, it was. As you might recall from a blog earlier this month, I have give up soda and sugar.  This was a very big test for me. I passed it with almost flying colors.  I did not not have any soda and my extra sugar food was limited to a very small amount of dark chocolate.

The good news is I that Eric is feeling better.  I got tired but not like in the past.  Believe it or not, I seemed to have more energy.  I even managed to clean house while Eric was sick.  I did eat more fruit  and cheese or peanut butter.  Let’s face it, a long day with a sick boy is a long day any way you slice it.  So having a healthy snack as replacement for soda was a good move.

I tried to order a new bath seat cover for Eric’s bath chair today. I tried to pay cash to get it faster. Would you believe that they would not take a cash payment and instead I will have to go through the insurance company and bother the doctor for a script. It seems that my life is getting wonkier every day.  Well I am off to tag and bag hats.  Pictures to follow.

The Ugly Side of Life

Anti-Semitism has reared it’s ugly head in my life. It feels like the 1960’s to me again.  After two days of crying I have decided what needs to be done to make it better for my fellow human beings and myself.   Because I need to be sensitive to my environment where this is happening I have come up with a gentle solution to the problem.   I will no longer stop what I am doing to provide technical support for electronic equipment or provide any assistance of any kind to those who act in a hateful or mean manner to anyone.  If they choose to act in a hateful way the niceties in life will no longer be provided by me.  

I really try to live by the golden rule, Do unto others as they do in to you.  I always took this to mean leave the world a better place than I found it.  Such as clothing and feeding those who can’t. Thus my obsession with knitting hats for kids.   Taking care of the environment.  Taking care of the sick.  It has taken me 59 years to figure out that there is a dark side to the golden rule too.  I however choose not to be mean to the nasty people, but rather just let them flounder in loneliness.

With that said I am off to warped a loom.

Progress Maybe

My body is still having a hard time with this adjustment of 80% less sugar and no soda’s.  I am finding it hard to believe that I am sleeping better most nights, with the exception of the nights that Eric wakes e up.  The nausea is slowly abating.  I have a bit more energy. I also need to eat more since fruits and vegetables have less calories.

I have to admit that I am a little disappointed that the scale is only down 2.5 pounds.  I know I did not put it all on in one week, but damm it I want it gone in one week.  John says that I just need a little more patience.  This is not my strong suit.  But this is not a diet, it is a lifestyle change.

After observing another spinner I finally have the short draw down in spinning.  Although I have modified it do to the arthritis in my left hand.  My technique might not be by the book, but I can finally do a short draw after years of spinning.  I am doing the happy dance.  Now to learn to do bouchée before I need to teach it in a few months.

And finally, I have found another area to Zen.  I was looking for something for John and I stumbled upon some more clutter.  More craft supplies to share, Goodwill, trash or recycling only time will tell.

The Next Step

The next step to a healthier me is cutting my sugar compsution by 80%.  I know that there are natural sugars in fruits and vegetables.  So this is why I say cut my sugar compsution by 80%.. This also means no soda for an afternoon pick me up.  No second cuppa of chai in the mornings.

Cutting sugar and caffeine way back at the same time.   I must be crazy.  Right now my body is starting a revolution. It is not happy with this change yet.  This should take six to eight weeks, hopefully.  I am hoping that with this change like the others I have made in the past will have a positive impact on my body.  I will let you know.

Tagging and Bagging

I am trying to get caught up on tagging and bagging my charity knitting and weaving.  This involves making a fiber content tag, which includes fiber, washing instructions and a positive note for each item.  I also count the rows for the one million row challenge on Raverly at this time.  So today I tagged and bagged 3 scarfs that we’re hand woven and 3 hat for 243 rows.  

I still have this bag to tag and bag plus whatever is on my knitting needles when the items are finished.

My Hands

Here I sit in the middle of the night with my hands aching and too swollen for the night splints.  Waiting for the aspirin to kick in.  Trying to think of anything I can do around the house without waking the guys.  Knitting and spinning are out my hands are too sore and it would only make them worse.  Weaving is out I do not have either loom warped. I guess that I could do some light cleaning and start the dishwasher and washing machine. Maybe by then the swelling and pain will go away enough to sleep.  I can only hope.

Why does pain always seem worse in the middle of the night?

If You Give Eric A Purse

Eric came home early from his day program for an appointment. In the mists of being given a pile of paperwork, I gave Eric my purse to hold.  Before we went in to see his doctor, I  also gave Eric a choice to go to knitting with my friends or go home and watch television. I gave him time to think about it. In retrospect that was a mistake.

After his doctor's appointment, I asked for my purse back. Eric made his grip tighter. We went back and forth for 10 minutes before Eric finally won. When we got to the car and Eric was sure that we were heading home, he let go of my purse.  His daddy will be proud of him for holding his ground.

No knitting friends for me today. Eric is wondering where I am at the moment.. So it's time to go.

Hacked

My Blogger account got hacked by someone in Los Angeles. Sorry hacker the password has been changed. I guess I will go around and change all my passwords now.

So needless to say if you get anything odd from me do not reply. I will never ask for your credit card information or any personal information.

This is my brag and vent space. You may also find the very occasional pattern or recipe.

I am sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Sheri

Washing Fleeces and Other Things

I spent this weekend washing some very dirty fleeces and tons of Eric’s laundry. Tons is a relative term but in his 5 days off of his day program, I managed to wash 9 loads of Eric’s laundry. As for the fleeces I washed a little over 2 pounds with more to wash next week. I am debating going to Goodwill to get more fleece washing bags.

Depending on how much fleece that I get washed this week, I might consider bring the carderout. Then again it might be in 2 weeks.

No looms got warped or spinning done.

‘‘Tis the season

It’s hat knittting season in Tucson of course. With the spring tempatures looming in the high 90’s to low 100’s it is the pefrect time to knit hats. They are small. They are fast to knit. They can use a lot of bits and pieces of yarn to make very colorful hats. They are a great stash buster. Next winter when the tempature dips below the low 70’s the kids will love them.

So the current yearly count stands at 25 hats with 2 more hats on the knitting needles. I will let you know when the count hits 36. All the hats are going to the Flowing Well clothing bank here in Tucson. I am also weaving a few scarfs too.

Have a safe holiday weekend and remember our Gold Star Famlies.

A Surreal Day

I spent the day trying to fix things in my realm. My success rate was about 50%.

On the easy things like John's ink stained shirts I was told that "he needs to stain one more shirt, because the price break is at three shirts." Does this mean that I was suppose to go home and stain one more dress shirt and come back for the better price? I am taking this as a win, the shirts will be ready at 5pm tomorrow.

I got gas for the van before it ran out. Breakfast out at 10:30 am and a lunch of a slice of cheese and some crackers eaten at stop lights at 2:30 pm, I did not mind hitting every red light, at least I got some lunch before I picked up Eric. To make it even better John brought home dinner. So on food I will call it a win.

I thought I had a win on laundry getting three loads finished today. Eric had other plans. He filled his personal laundry basket twice today. So I added a fourth load of laundry tonight. A break even.

On the problem with Eric's formula. The people at Nestle's Ethereal Nutrition were wonderful. At least I found out that there was no recall or plant issues. I even got a case file number to give to the people at Corman.  Corman is an interesting company to say the least. The first person I spoke to swore that Eric had not had a delivery since 2014 and of course the formula went bad after that amount of time. The second person I talked to at least found Eric's file. She would not replace the 8 cases of formula that were mishandled in transit. This resulted in the formula curdling like cheese. Rendering the formula useless for Eric or anyone else. That they would instead send a refund to United Health Care. Insert whatever swear words you want here.  She sent one expedited case so that Eric could eat tonight and the rest of the week. The  rest will be here by Friday. They would also not pick up the bad cases of bad formula, so they sit in the living room. Net loss 8 cases of formula  and no reserves for when things go south with the paperwork snafu's that always happen. This is not even close to break even.

I thought that I had a break even with the issues at Eric's day program. I thought that everything was fairly settled. My personal feeling is that we will never see the program fees that walked away.  So I wrote a check for the missing money and this months fees. Handed the missing paperwork that has been filled out countless times to a reliable person. So I will only write check from now on and have everyone sign for the paperwork they receive for Eric. So I thought that I was good until I opened My email at 5:00 pm only to find a demand for the the money owed,almost like a collection letter. I am sincerely hoping that this was just a lack of communication on their part, I hope that the check I wrote at 9:45am is not lost already. I also doubt that I will see a full accounting of where Eric's fees landed, because he was either sick or stayed back on most of the field trips.  You decide.

No time to make three pairs of earrings for tomorrow. That makes me sad, but I will try to get them made tomorrow for Friday.

Tomorrow will be better.

Catching Up

Today was spent catching up on badly needed sleep. House work was limited to two five minute blocks of time. You would be surprised how much I can get done in 5 minutes without interruption. I managed to fill the recycling bag twice and then take it out to the big bin. I have a pile of boxes for John to break down too.

Surprisingly I had no laundry, so tomorrow I expect knee deep piles in the laundry room. I also finished one charity hat and cast on the next hat. I am not sure where the hat count for the year is yet, but I think I have at least one and possibly 2 dozen knit so far this year. I am off to a slow start this year.

It is time to call it a day.

50 Percent

I am 50% through my new pattern design. This means that I can start doing all that fun math stuff to figure out the rest of the pattern. Then do the math for the larger size. The magic number was 25.5 inches.

The Winner Is....

Of course the laundry wonwith 4 loads. Eric is feeling better. I was to tired to do design work so I started on the UFO basket. I choose mindless knitting.

Thankful for the Smaller Things in Life

At least it’s not Monday night. At least I stocked up with good stuff to eat today while Eric was at his day program. At least I got to knitting today. At least I got to chat with friends today. You may be wondering where I am going with this. This is just my meandering way of saying that Eric is eyrpy tonight. Eric is also in making lots of eyrpy laundry, the wonderful people at P & G makers of Tide* should be very happy about this.

Eric and I will be home tomorrow. I wonder if I will get more laundry or knitting done. Does anyone care to guess.

*P & G makers of Tide did not pay me to say that I use Tide for my laundry. I have been using various forms of Tide since the mid 1970’s when one of my high school chores was doing the family laundry. Although I do love when I can get a good coupon or sale on Tide. Even with the super big LG washer I still do at least 15 loads of laundry a week. Which is much better than 25 or more loads. So I do use a lot of Tide.

A Good Day

Eric made it to day program today. I have also found that when Eric comes home he does not mind sitting by the kitchen table while I knit. So I worked on the new pattern. It is much easier to work on at a table. This took the tedium out of afternoon programing too. The new pattern has past the 100th row. it is about a third of the way done.

This left me to work on other UFO's while watching television tonight. The switch has made knitting in the evening more relaxing. The rest of May will be UFO month. I have a few bags and a basket filled with UFO's. I would really like to fill the basket with a new project, but I will finish the UFO's first.

I spent some time cleaning today. I have recovered one whole kitchen counter. This means that tomorrow I have to clean and polish it. This is the dominoes effect of cleaning. I think this applies to knitting too. Summer has come early to Tucson, this is the second day of 100+ temperatures. This means that I will need to change up my laundry routine to start earlier or put more loads on later at night.

Time for a Change

I think I need to change things up a bit. Some of my friends who also design knitting patterns can design anywhere at any time. I have given it a try. Unfortunately it does not work for me. With the latest shawl pattern that I am designing, I tried to take notes and knit while watching television in the evening. after 15 to 20 rows I seem to loose focus. I am also on the 3rd revision of the pattern. So I think it will be back to the yarn store or coffee shop to do my design work. Maybe even the kitchen table.

With that decision made, I am going to make a small bowl or basket to knit hats while watching television at night. It is easy mindless knitting for me. other pluses include playing with color. Making more kids happy. Using up more yarn to get out of the house. At the end of summer I will post a picture of the hats knit so far this year and a count. Then off to the Flowing Well School District Clothing Bank they will go. I REALLY ENJOY making hats for the kids. 

The fall fundraiser that I usually do for Eric's day program is iffy this year. It has been a rough year so far for me. Returns on the fundraiser are going down instead of up yearly. So in the next few weeks I will be deciding what to do with the stock on hand. To sell on EBay? Facebook? Have a garage sale? If there is anything you have been eyeing from, rugs, shawls, earrings, hand spun yarn, blankets, necklaces or hand knit items please contact me. The items that have been give to me for the fundraisers, the money will still go to Eric's day program when sold unless you would like them back. Please let me know. Thank you for your understanding.

Way Under The Weather

I have been sick since Saturday night, bronchitics , laryngitis, sinus infection, allergies and asthma. A little more than a perfect storm.  Eric got eyrpy on Sunday night. Herein lies the problem. Eric will not sleep when he is not feeling good, so Eric has been up since Sunday morning. I need my sleep to rest and feel better.  I am grabbing naps when ever I can, even in the middle of the night when I should be sleeping. Even though naps are good, when I am sick, they should not be my only sleep.

I want to thank Lisa W. at United Cerebral Palsy of Southern Arizona for getting me extra help on such short notice. She is the reason that I have gotten my naps. As you may have guessed from the company name we live in Arizona. The state has been very good at underfunding services for the elderly, school children and disabled. We have been in the news lately. This includes UCPSA who provides services for Eric. If you would like to thank Lisa W. for helping us this week consider making a donation in her honor so that UCPSA can continue to help families like ours.

Thank you. I will write more when we are feeling better.

The New Shawl Design

I just froged the new shawl design for the second time. Even feeling as awful as I did today, I just did not like the design. So try number 3 has been cast on. This time the yarn is really telling me what to do with it.

Both Eric and I are both sick right now. I have a feeling that his eyrpy night was do to breathing issues. My allergies got so bad that I lost my voice for a few days. I now sound like a frog. I also went to Urgent care on Sunday and have a bunch of stuff that is suppose to make me feel better.

I am really hoping againt hope for some early rain to cut the pollen levels. Until then we will be indoors as much as possible. Breathing is good. High pollen levels and particulate matter are not.

Disappointed - A Rant

I am currently very disappointed at our Arizona Governor Doug Ducey. He currently seems to present the attitude that it is more important to give cash to big corporation's than to fund social services in the state.

A little back round may be in order. In the last state elections the vast majority of those voting, voted to increase the minimum wage. With Arizona being a right to work state and a historically low wage state, I can personally see how this happened.

Everyone expected the Governor and the State houses to add additional money for the social services, to increase their budgets to keep wage parody. They basically said that they did not want the wages to increase so they gave a ONE TIME extra allotment of money to help with a temporary stabilization of the non profits.

What has happened in Eric's world, is that group homes have been closing. Respite services are no longer being offered. Eric currently has 9 out of 14 shifts currently not permanently  staffed. With the question coming from people trying to fill shifts of asking us to accept a 30 to 40 minute shift instead of 2 to 3 hours, just to get the bare minimum done so that they don't get dinged by the state.  Care for the elderly is decreasing do to lack of staff. This is a major problem in Arizona. We have lots of people that move here to retire with no family ties. When things get rough, non-profit social services have to step in to replace the lack of close by family. This also cost money. The work is never easy. The days are long for all involved especially the primary caregivers. I have first hand knowledge of this.

If you live in Arizona, please call the governor's office and ask for more funding for social services. Tell them your friends and family members are exhausted. That we need more help. We need more funding.

If you know anyone who is looking for a job or a job that pays,  that just  might help with medical school admission have the call UCP of Southern Arizona, Let them know that Sheri sent you or use source code 301.

It is now past 11pm and Eric is asleep. I have been up since 6 am. I am going to grab a nap while I can.

Cleaning When Tired

With Eric sick all of last week, I am exhausted this week. So today, I alternated cleaning and napping. I have to say that I got everything done on my todo list plus a little bit more.

I reworked the new knitting pattern today. I am now 10 rows into the pattern. I think this version will be fantastic.