WEEK 46

 

Hello again.  It has been a busy week for me, so let's get to it,

KNITTING

The socks are completed!

I was going to take a photo of the two of them but, could not find them.  Asked hubby where they were and he took off his shoes and there was this one.  He had already worn the brown striped ones and they were in the laundry.  Guess he loves his RCR socks.  Two less WIPs hanging around.

I wanted to work on something other than the lap throw and Lego blanket so I did a little casting on...............

Some little preemie hats for the NICU.  I found the yarn for these while doing the decluttering of my craft room.  These are such a quick knit.  Only takes a day or two to make them.

The lap throw and Lego blanket did not see any love this past week.  This coming week looks like a good time to work on them again.  Well, unless the baby hats take over again.

DECLUTTERING

I stayed in the craft room for a couple of days and then headed into our dreaded 'back room'.

Another trip to Goodwill was made on Friday and also the local senior center.  The senior center got the puzzles I showed last week (15 of them) and Goodwill got the rest of the 'stuff'.  There were brand new outdoor games that went including; bocci ball, lawn darts and inflatable corn hole.  I am loving getting things out of the house.  There is so much more that needs to go.  All in good time.

READING

I finished the second book in the DIY mystery series.  I went to go borrow #3 but it is not available yet.  I put a hold on it.  It should be available in a couple of weeks.  In the meantime, I still have my paperback to keep me company.

FUN STUFF

On Mother's Day, our daughter came over for breakfast.  When she left I went into my craftroom to do a bit of decluttering.  When I sat down to rearrange my desk area I found a tiny flamingo sitting on the desk.  As I looked around, I saw more flamingoes sitting around in various spots.  As I walked around the house, I discovered my sweet daughter had put flamingoes all over our house.

After finding several of them, I called her to find out how many were deposited.  She said there were 22 out of 100 here.  So far, we have found 21.  That one lone flamingo is making me a bit crazy.  She promises she only put them in the family room, computer room, guest bathroom and craftroom.  She does not remember putting any in the kitchen but could not swear to that!  I am just thankful she did not put the entire 100 around.

Speaking of fowl.........................

We had a couple of visitors in our pool on Thursday.  We had heard of others finding ducks swimming in their pools but this was our first encounter.  We walked outside and neither of them were bothered with us being there.  Unfortunately, their droppings really mess with the chemicals in the pool.  Their droppings also carry some nasty stuff that can make us humans very ill.  The male left in the late afternoon and hubby went outside and nicely asked the female to go and join him.  We are lucky we do not have any foliage in our backyard or they might have nested and once that happens you are not allowed to move them until the ducklings are able to leave with the 'parents'.

I completed my OT this week.  They remeasured my range of motion and strength from when I started and I had improved more than was expected.  I have a Dr appointment this Thursday and will see if she wants me to continue OT or just continue exercises at home.

And, to make sure you leave with a smile on your face......................

Until Next Time........................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 45

 

Happy Mother's Day to my US moms.   I have a lot to show and tell so let's get started.

Knitting

The needles have been smoking this week with activity.

It is amazing how fast a sock can be done when putting10 rows a day on it.  This one will be done this week for sure.

This one will also be completed this week.  It makes me happy to see two unknown WIPs to be getting accomplished.  I have checked my other 'bins' and did not find any other surprise items languishing in any of them.

The lap throw is finally using the last skein of yarn.

I was amazed at how many rows were knitted with that small amount of speckled yarn I had left last week.  There is a hope this will be done before the end of summer.  I really want to get back to crocheting prayer shawls and not knitting lap throws.

Crochet

The Lego blanket has progressed a bit

I have reached row 120 out of 228 (not to mention the edging).  Now that I have discovered how to crochet without a lot of pain I foresee getting this blanket done before 2027!  

Decluttering

I went back into my craftroom this week to see what else I could pull out of there.

I have removed 17 puzzles I will never do and still have 17 left to work on.  My cleaning girls love puzzles so I am letting them have first pick before the rest of them go to charity.  I am hoping the local senior center will want them.

These 4 crochet books have been with me for years.  I did make several of the snowflake ornaments but no longer work with thread.  The snowflake book has traveled to Indiana to it's new home.  The others are being donated.

These two books were given to me over 30 years ago from my friends grandmother.  They were printed around the1960's.  They have now gone to their new home in Indiana also. I am so glad someone still works with thread and makes gorgeous doilies.

Today, my Cricut is leaving my house also.  It is going home with my Daughter.  She has wanted one for sometime but finances have prevented her from getting one.  I have only used mine about a dozen times and really no longer have an interest in making things with it.

While going through my yarn bins I came across several mini-mini skeins of yarn.  They are 10 grams each and after much thought I have decided to try and make striped socks from them.

Here is the groupings I have decided to try them in.  As soon as hubby's socks are done, I will be casting these on.

Books

Right now I am reading two books at the same time.  One is on my Kindle and is my bedtime reading.  The other goes with me throughout the house to read when I have a few minutes of down time.  Luckily, they are so different I have no issue keeping track of the story lines in each one.

On the Kindle is "Spooked and Spackled".  It is #2 in a series of DIY mysteries.  The 'real' book is "Sworn to Silence" and is a bit grittier than I am used to but still a good read. 

Life

Yesterday, Hubby, Daughter and  I went to the Gray Matters Foundation Raffle.  

The last photo we were told to stick our tongue out to cancer.  Didn't want you to think we are always this rude in photos.  

Our daughter made this basket to go into the raffle.  The paper on the front tells Josh's story and it made all of us tear up reading it.  She is already 'plotting' a basket for next year.

It is Mother's day here in the US.  Our son had us over for a lovely steak dinner on Thursday and gave me a single yellow rose.  Our daughter came over this morning and brought breakfast burritos for us.  She made a cute floral arrangement for me.  It never needs water and will never die!

My flowers.  I know, the yellow rose is hard to see.

Now you can see the yellow rose.  This is my comfort zone in the house.  My book, projects, computer are all  within arms reach.  It is where I plan on spending most of my Mother's Day.

That pretty much covers my week.  I am still in OT and it is working quite well.  YAY!  This coming week is my last 2 sessions until I have a follow up with my Dr.

I will leave you with my weekly chuckle.

Until Next Time.....................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!

WEEK 44

 

Hello my lovelies.  I hope today finds you healthy and happy.  I am doing well and I do thing the OT on my wrist is helping me.  I still have 2 weeks left of therapy so am hoping by the end of that I will be able to just do exercises at home to maintain my progress.  I told my therapist my goal was to be able to crochet again and not just on small items.  I want to be able to work on the Lego blanket and not be in dire pain during and after a row.  Her suggestion to me was to wear the brace I wear at night and try to crochet with that on.

It has metal bars in the top so I can not do a lot of bending of the wrist.  I decided, what the heck, I will give it a try and see what happens.

See the bobbles at the top of the photo?  I did those plus the 2 rows above them in one sitting! I was so excited.  Maybe now I can get some rows added to it each week.  I can not do it for long periods of time as that thing is HOT and it is already A/C weather here.

Back to the brace, it works for crocheting large heavy pieces.  It does NOT work for knitting.  I have a different brace I wear for that. 

This one also works for when I am typing.  I do not wear either of them 100% of the time.  Just when my wrist is going to be doing repetitive movements.  And, before you ask, no, it is not carpal tunnel.  Been there and done that before on my left wrist.  This is 100% RA, according to the x-ray report.  Thankfully, I am a lefty and my right wrist is the issue.  Always look for that silver lining and gratitude!

Of course I worked on the lap throw this week too.  And, no, I have not used up this skein of yarn yet. *sigh*

Can you see the progress keeper?  Last week someone suggested using a progress keeper to show me my progress on large items.  I do use them.  Unfortunately, the one I chose for this project kind of blends into the fabric which is why I used blue dots and arrows last week.  I could change it out to something more visible but I know when I get back to the solid brown, this keeper will show up splendidly.  Not to mention, I am too lazy to pull out my tin of progress keepers and try and decide which one to use.

As you know from last weeks post, I have started my annual decluttering.  Since I am the only one that goes/uses my craftroom, I figured that was the best place to go after the kitchen was completed.  That may have been a massive mistake.  I did not get very far into the room before.........................BAM!  I found two socks that had been made some years ago for hubby.  They were so sad and lonely as their mate had died sometime with heel hole disease.  Luckily, I still had plenty of yarn for each of them to make them a new mate.

This is Diversity yarn which I have a plethora of.  I still find it one of the best non wool yarns for socks.  Hobby Lobby had one called Comfy Toes I liked, but they decided not to carry it any longer and have now gone to wool sock yarn too.  Cotton Sox by Cascade is ok but looses its shape the minute you put it on and it is a bit thicker than most sock yarns.  So, only short socks will be made with that brand.  

This is Leading Men Fiber Diva yarn.  It is SW wool, nylon, and silk.  Lovely to knit with for sure.  I originally made a shawl out of this yarn and tried to wear it.  But my wool allergy reminded me just how allergic I am to wool.  So I frogged the shawl and made a pair of socks for hubby.  He loved them so much he wore a hole in the heel in 3 years time.  It was unfixable.  The original sock had different colored heels and toes.  There is no more of the contrasting yarn, but who cares!  They are worn in shoes and no on else sees them but us.  So, I started the sock and got to the end of the heel and noticed it looked very different from the original sock.  So, I pulled my crafting journal to see what I did different.  Dang it!  I used a different needle size!  I seldom use a 2.25mm needle but for these I did.  What to do?  I frogged the partial sock and started again.  This yarn is VERY forgiving!  This is the third time it has been knit and still looks fresh and has great stitch definition.  

The decluttering kind of came to a stand still once I found these two sorrowful socks waiting for their mates.  I will be back at decluttering next week though.  It makes my heart happy to minimalize things.  The craftroom is the hardest for me.  I always think "I am going to need that someday" as I sort through things.  In the short 2 days I was in there I have discovered I have so many 'gonna do that soon' projects.  It is embarrassing.  Puzzles, Diamond Art, Cricut Projects, Sewing, Knitting, Crocheting, Ornaments, Cross Stitch and Lego builds.  HELP!  My name is Marsha and I am a craft-a-holic.

I got a new planner this week.  I have used Hobonichi Techno Weeks for several year and really liked it.  This year I decided to try a different planner and after 4 months can honestly say I dislike it greatly.  I was going to get another Hobonichi with an April start but the selection was not to my likeing.  What to do?  Go to Amazon and see what they have to offer.

Looky here!  Looks very similar to the Hobonichi and it is undated so was able to start it the first of May. If I end of loving this as much as I did my Hobonichi I will stay with this as it was less than half the price of the Hobonichi and it came with the protective cover too. Even though I keep my appointments on my phone calendar, I still write down on paper my daily 'chores' I need to complete.  Keeps me more focused and organized.  And at my age, I need all the help I can get.  LOL

I wanted to take just a couple of seconds to explain my header photo that will be used for this month.  May is the Gray Matters Month which bringing awareness to brain cancer.  This is what took the life of our son, Josh, in September last year.  Glioblastoma is so deadly with most patients dieing within 12 - 18 months of diagnosis.  We were blessed to have had 22 months with our son.  So, for the month of May I will honor him with a gray ribbon for my header.

That, my friends, sums up my week.  I will leave you with a chuckle that is so my hubby and myself.

Until Next Time......................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!