Acting Up

 Last night my body decided to laugh at me. It kept me up for a good portion of the night.  I finally got to sleep around 4 am.  I slept solidly until 10am.  I just had no energy for most of the day.  All I wanted to do was sleep.  I did manage to get 3 loads of laundry done and 5 minutes of deep cleaning done.  Yes I set a timer. Even though I was exhausted I did 5 minutes figuring that it was either going to be 5 minutes or energy would mysteriously come from somewhere and I would get more done.  Yes my body laughed at me. So I folded a load of laundry and tried to nap.  I was too tired to nap so I rested with my eyes closed.  

You all knew this was coming. You knew that a few days of solid cleaning like that was just not going to end well.  Yes, you were right.  I still have about a dozen boxes to go through but I think I will take it slower.  

If you actually believe the last statement you don’t know me very well.  Decades into this thing called life with Sjogren’s,my mind and body are still at odds.  I still want my mind to win , I don’t want to slow down.  I am not ready to slow down.  I still have so much to do.  

I am really hoping to sleep tonight. 

Almost Done

 Most of the knitting room is finished.  All I have to do is make some dog pillows and do a charity drop off later this week.  I just have to pull out my sewing machine and bring it to the knitting room. The table I use for the sewing machine is currently occupied.  

I am exhausted.  I only had the energy to do four hours of cleaning today.  I hurt down to my finger tips  so I am going to bed early   

After the dog pillows are finished I will start pulling out the cones of yarn for weaving that I don’t think I can use in a reasonable time frame.  I have a feeling it is going to be a lot.  

My biggest project was combining 2 accessory bags into one roll.  I won a Twig & Horn roll up accessory holder. It took me a few hours to work things out. But here is what it looks like.  By the way I just love it. As you can see I did not fill all the pockets but put everything I need in it. You will not be surprised to know that between the 2 bags that I condensed down , I had 5 measuring tapes. Oh, and I did add a pen after I took the picture.  

The Minutia

 I am getting down to the minutia off the cleaning and stash busting project. I went through the last tub of yarn that was in the house.  I am actually going through stitch markers and getting rid of the ones that I don’t like. I will pass them on.  I am now actively searching out bags that I keep my knitting accessories in.  With the exception of the hat knitting bags, I am going to try to have one multi purpose roll.  Wish me luck on that.   

I lost one plastic tub do to the fact that  a bag of yarn I had in a tub was exposed to moth balls.  I threw away the offending 4 skeins of yarn.  I am going to try to remove the moth ball chemicals. There ere several methods to try. I have the first one going right now. I am trying to neutralize the chemicals with baking soda.  If that does not work I will try vinegar.  It takes about a week. What I was most surprised about was that I had de stashed so much yarn that losing the use of one tub did not make a difference. I did not have to go buy a replacement.  Since the offending tub was less expensive than the yarn we are more inclined not to get the chemicals of the moth balls out of the plastic and just toss the tub.  

In more exciting news I was able to move all of my hidden yarn into tubs. I moved it into other places that I can see it.  No longer have a larger wicker chest filled with yarn. It is also leaving the house.  I did forget one area of projects but I will finish that after the table is finished.  

Now even more exciting news I walked for over 10,000 steps while cleaning house today.  Since I have a room to finish tomorrow I think it’s time to call it a day.  

5 is Not My Number Today

Five can be a strange number sometimes in my life.  Today was a perfect example.  I decided to spend about 5 minutes cleaning up the table in the knitting room.  Well I feel into the rabbit hole I call deep cleaning.  I went through every kit that I had.  I decided that I did not want to do about 20 of them so I put them in a box to go.  That lead to every shelf having a through clearing.  I went through everything.  Then I decided to go through my yarn.  Let’s just politely say that in 22 years of knitting I many have kept a few to many skeins that I acquired.  Over the years my skills have vastly improved. My projects have changed quite a bit. My taste in yarn has improved. I tried to follow a few fads like lace knitting, not enough time, but I still acquired a lot of lace yarn.  Sock knit was also a fling that did not last long.  Sock knitting was hard on my hands even before all the hand surgeries.  I stopped doing some charity knitting but failed to pass on the yarn. 

So today’s 5 minutes of cleaning turned into an almost all day cleaning spree.  I have bag's and boxes of yarn ready to get out of the house. Except that I will have to go through all ten bags to pull the sock yarn for my current favorite scarf knitting project.  That should not take long tomorrow. 

I am trying to keep only the projects and yarn that I like.  The same goes with books too. Too much of any thing is clutter.  I am going for a clutter free lifestyle. I have even found a few projects that are almost finished.  That should help even more.   

Now my other problem with 5 happened at lunch.  I ignored the 5 grams of fat rule. I had 1/2 of a piece of tempura. That was a mistake that I will not ever repeat again.  Let’s just politely say that my body had a temper tantrum.  I guess when I can taste the fat it is not under 5 grams.   

Well even though I am very hyper from a fantastic day of cleaning, I should try to get some sleep so I can have another fantastic day of cleaning tomorrow.  De stash, de stash, de stash.  

Serial Knitting

 Today I seemed to jump from one knitting project to the next.  I did a few stitches on a hat.  Had lunch then finished the hat pictured below.  I cast on and started a new hat, I did not want the knitting needles or stitche markers to be lonely.  I knit about one half inch of the brim.  Then I worked on the baby blanket for about an inch.  Then after dinner it was a new pair of gloves for my self.  Lots of frogging, I got caught up in the television series we were watching.  Not a good thing for a pattern that the rows need to be counted. Then I went to finish off my night of knitting with a charity scarf.  All totaled I worked on 5 different knitting projects and only finished one.  Lots of progress though.  

The hat pictured below is the first charity hat for 2022. It may not seem like it from the first paragraph, I am really doing less knitting so far this year. I am enjoying it more.  It is no long a job to finish 100 or more projects a year.   I have only completed 7 projects so far this year verses 14 at the same time last year.  

I know I have a lot of projects on knitting needles. Sometimes I need an easy no thinking involved knitting project.  Other times I have a gift that I am working on. Other times I need to knit while John is driving   Other times I just want to stretch my skills.  Other times I just want to finish UFO’s.   

I am thinking about selling a few kits on eBay for things that I thought that I wanted to knit but changed my mind on.  I will start going through them soon.  I am also continuing to look through knitting books to destash too. I think Destashing is how I am going to clear my backlog of projects. I will sell them as kits for about 1/2 the price  plus postage that I paid just to get them out of the house. I might also consider an Etsy store. I will keep you updated   

Setting Them Free

 I put another knitting book in the Tiny Free Library around the corner from my house. Of course I walked.  When I got home I started choosing more knitting books to put into the library one at a time as they find their new homes.  I must have about 50 percent of the knitting books published over the last 20 years.  I need to share the wealth.  Of course I will put other books in there too. 

I found the missing knitting pattern too.  It is the one for the gloves that I just made.  One half was under the couch.  The other half was behind the couch.   I wonder if it was trying to run away?   John is going to scan the pattern for me so next time I lose it, it will be in the computer.   Yeah technology.  

It was also an awful hand day.  The weather is changing.  I am also declaring this spring because I have my first sinus infection of the year and they only happen in spring. I think Tucson mainly Succeeded in skipping winter this year.  We are going to be 24 degrees colder tomorrow. Yuck.  Wish me luck for tomorrow.  

A Book Recommendation

 I got a book recommendation from a librarian on Twitter. It’s a great book that is hard to put down.  I highly recommend Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland. I am listening to it while knitting. I started it late yesterday and am 2 1/2 hours into it already. Only seven more Togo.  

By the way I am taking breaks every couple of rows when knitting and my hands are not as sore.  Just maybe my daughter was right.  Just don’t tell her please.  

I do not have a link set up for this book.  I just love it.  I borrowed the book from Pima County Library.