Wednesday, January 26, 2011

No knitting in the courthouse

I was called for jury duty this week. In my area you call in the night before to see if you have to be at the courthouse. Monday - nope. Complete day as scheduled. Tuesday - rats. Spend half of day at courthouse where they will not let me take my knitting upstairs. Ugh, really? Do you think I am going to use my favorite needles to hurt someone? Uh no, I like these needles and I don't want blood on my yarn. Duh! Luckily they did let me have my Kindle with me so I could read during the waiting portion of the day. I also did not get picked for the jury. Civic duty complete. Home to the knitting, spinning, crocheting, and exercise.
I have almost completed Baby Blanket #1. Please excuse the picture quality. There isn't really enough sun in that room yet and the overhead light was on too. No real help. I have about 6 rows of the edging to do and then it's done. I think I'm going to do the next one on the machine. This one went well after the two times I ripped it out. The first attempt is an example of why I should swatch and measure more. It would have been big enough to reach completely across my full size bed. Oops. Rip. Try number two and somehow, with all my experience, I managed to turn around in the middle of a row and not see it for three more rows. Looking at blanket admiring it and then... what? why is one side longer than the other? Hmmm. Count rows at each end. Oh man, you've been knitting for well over 30 years (gulp). How did you manage that? On the upside, it is now going well and is almost complete. I washed and hung my first real skein of my own handspun to dry last night. There is approximately 178 yards of a very usable thick and thin yarn that now needs something to be knitted into. I have found that I spin a lot thinner now than when I started in September and since I have been working on this skein since the beginning you can see spots where there is thick plied with thin. I am not upset by how much yarn I got out of that eight ounces. I think I will get more yardage out of what I'm spinning now and it will be much more consistent.

My hip and my Piriformis muscle is feeling much better now. There is no screaming pain at all any more. I'm beginning to exercise again and without pain. There is the occasional twinge that reminds me to check my form, but it is nothing to what I experienced between Christmas and New Years Day. I plan to go to a Zumba class on Saturday to try it out. I keep seeing the videos advertised, but I don't want to spend the money on them if I don't like to do it. My youngest daughter went last Saturday and is hooked. She loved it even though she said she felt very uncoordinated for most of the workout. She had fun and is going back. That's what I want to know. Will I love it? Hate it? Wonder what all the hype is about? Guess we will see. If my muscle doesn't make it through the whole workout, then I will try again another time. I would love a fun workout that didn't feel like a workout. I will report back later.

Friday, January 14, 2011

No Progress

There is no news on the Mission Possible 2011 list except that I have made no progress. I got asked for two baby blankets for twins due in April and so the rest of my list took a back seat to those. How are they going? Well, I had to frog the first one and start over so the answer is slowly. The first blanket is a basketweave knit on size 7 needles with Caron One Pound yarn. I think it needs to be machine washable and dry-able for a mother of twins who already has an older child. I have not yet decided if I will do two identical ones or if I will change patterns for the second one.
I am sitting in my craft room looking out the window at my garden beds and wishing it was warm enough that something was planted in them and growing. I heard that food prices will be going up (again) and I know that will make me want to grow more of my own food. I do have to worry about who will care for the garden while I am gone though. My mom lives with us, but isn't much into spending time in the garden.
I tried to exercise a little while ago and my hip started giving me trouble so I will postpone that until after I see the doctor on Tuesday. If it's arthritis then I will deal with it. I am more concerned that it might be something else. I don't have a clue what though. I still want a treadmill and still don't have a place to put one so that is still on the back burner. Since I live right on the highway I cannot walk around my neighborhood for exercise. I wonder if I can do the Leslie Sansone dvds right now. I might have to try that and see. I am almost done spinning the white wool and then it will be plied and knit into something. Probably a hat. It's going to be thick and thin and probably about a bulky weight when done. I can't wait. The other spinning is coming along slowly, but it is coming along so I can't complain. Off to play with fibery stuff now.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Fiber plans?

I have a friend who has a goal of spending 11 minutes every day in 2011 on fiber pursuits. She has a list of rules for herself which, I think, boil down to the idea that she must spend 11 minutes a day on something fiber related and she has to make notes about it and report on her blog. I had to laugh when I read that reading counts only if it is a pattern, fiber related article or something of that nature. Apparently a Debbie Macomber book doesn't count (unless it's one of the pattern books to go with the stories. Then I had to wonder...does the Yarn Harlot count? I'm sure Zimmerman counts. I guess that the other knit lit that I read wouldn't count either. Luckily, I spend a little time at least once a week reading blogs about spinning, knitting, and weaving. I usually get some useful information out of those. Good luck, friend. I think you can do this and more.
For my own fiber pursuits I have, in no particular order, the following things going on.
There is a baby blanket on the needles (I have two to make),
a hat on my LK150 (my minimum goal for 2011 is 12),
three spindles with fiber attached to them, a crocheted scrap afghan on the hook,
half of a blanket on my 25" Flip, a scarf on my Cricket, a pair of socks on double points, a pair of tiny toe separating partial socks for my MIL on needles that she wants for when she goes in for a pedicure.
I just went looking for pictures and realized I don't have pictures of most of the stuff I'm working on. Maybe that should be one of my goals for the year. Actually take pictures of the stuff I'm doing.


It's cold here today. Our high will be about 45 and I know some people would love to get there and I sympathize, but as a southern girl I am freezing. I really don't think my home was insulated for this type of weather. It doesn't help that we don't have double pane windows or storm windows in the house so the weather (cold) comes right on in or feels like it does anyway. To stay warm I am running around in sweats and shawls (it really is cute - not) and thinking about what I'm going to put in the garden this year. I haven't got a plan yet, but I am working on it.
I go to the doctor on Tuesday to see if we can figure out what the problem is with my hip. Luckily, the pain that I was in just after Christmas has let up a lot. It's bad when turning over in bed makes you want to scream. I'm back to the twinges now and that is an improvement. I'm thankful.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

A New Year and New (somewhat) Goals

Wow, it's January 5, 2011 already. We had a really nice Christmas and then a trip to St. Louis to visit my mother in law. Two days before Christmas I realized that the floor was wet in my craft room so went looking for the problem. I found it. Our water heater was leaking. Luckily, it didn't burst and the leak was small enough not to ruin anything. DH knew that something was up when I walked in to the room he was in and said, "I think I'm going to need your help with this one." A trip to Lowes followed. It seems that it was a year for replacing appliances in our home. In 2010 we managed to have to replace the stove, dishwasher, washing machine, and the water heater. We replaced the refrigerator at the end of 2009. Fun stuff.
I'm doing Mission Possible 2011 this year. Here's the list that is subject to change:
1. 12 hats for MT25
2. Knitted T-shirt (pattern not decided on yet)
3. Scrap afghan (WIP from 2010)
4. 10 stitch afghan (WIP from 2010)
5. 2 woven scarves for granddaughters
6. woven curtains for craft room
7. socks
8. socks
9. fingerless mitts
10. fingerless mitts
11. Pi Shawl
12. something with my handspun

The scrap afghan is well underway and the 10 stitch is begun, but alas, not well underway. I haven't decided on the patterns for most of the things on my list so will be working on that soon. I put two pairs of socks on the list, but I really have more than two pair to do. I didn't put any of my spinning on the list, but to complete number twelve I really need to finish up some of the spinning I have begun.

I got a gift certificate to my LYS for Christmas so there is shopping in my future. I also go tone to Amazon for my Kindle books, but I haven't used it yet. I am very picky about what I get with it.

It's also time to restart my wellness journey. I managed to hurt myself at the end of the year and if the ache doesn't go away soon I need to see the doctor about it. having a sore hip and lower back is no fun when it comes time to do anything active.

off to decide on dinner now.