Sleeping & Sweating

Is there more to Life than sleeping & sweating???  I used to think that fibre was the answer to everything non work related. I mean, you work to pay the bills, eat & buy more fibre - right???
When you get older, you work less & play with more fibre. Right??? Works most of the year for me but not in the summer. Yeah, I like spinning out on the porch when the sun isn't beating in as much as anyone else, but boy, I just can't take the dust, the mold & the pollen like I used to. Coughing for a week or two at a time sure doesn't give you the ambition to mess with anything furry or fuzzy. Maybe summer is the time for dyeing instead. Or knitting with acrylic. Is any one allegic to acrylic????


I bought a lovely pattern called Wheatsheaves. It's a Kimono style sweater with knitted lace around the neck & down the fronts. I fell in love the moment I saw it & had to have it. It doesn't quite come in my size but is very roomy & I figure the math should be pretty easy to upsize it just a little. 

In the beginning, I wanted to spin the yarn for Wheatsheaves. I have softly spun two, one pound bobbins, full of mill end singles for this sweater. I wanted to dye them all at the same time so they'd be related before I started knitting. I think I have about 7 or 8 'knots' of fibre left to spin to complete all the skeins I wanted to dye. But, I ran into a sale of acrylic yarn in a color I couldn't resist & bought enough to knit this project instead. I decided I would probably wear this sweater a lot since I loved the color as much as the pattern & I wanted something easy to wash & dry.
 

I'll do it manana

My creaky joints & previously injured parts are really enjoying this hot, dry weather. Nothing hurts. Nothing burns. Nothing aches. I could really get to enjoy this feeling except for the total lack of ambition that comes with it. I could sleep in the hammock with the oscillating fan on low all day. I could get up, shower, dress, take out the garbage, push the washer to the sink & put on another batch of laundry, go back to the hammock & sleep all night. Is there a lazy bug going round?? Or is this the doorbell of Retirement ringing me into Old Age??

I've managed to knit a whole sock in three weeks. Me. The Sock Knitter. One whole sock. Half a pair. I have bags of yarn. Three sweaters on the needles at last count. Uncounted bags of dyed top & rovings to spin. And I just can't get out of first gear. I don't even want to cook or eat fer Gawd's sake. The only excitement I've had in the last couple of days is the skunk that poked it's nose through the window opening in my office last night. The outside staircase to the upper apartment is outside my office window so I guess he decided to explore. At least they're not knocking over the garbage cans for sport like they used to.

But, like I said, I just can't get it together. Not even for a new orange & green

& yellow sock with brown toes. Maybe it's the color. Maybe I should be knitting that LadySlipper colored yarn into a Summer Lace somethinorother. Top down. With a scoop or V neck. And a lace yoke & sleeve. In bright, brilliant, screaming Menopause Purple. or Magenta. or Tropical Pink or Orange. This is a double seed swatch of the same colored stuff I really want to be knitting. Color does affect how long it takes to complete a project. I've found that the wilder the color combo in the ball, the faster the sock will knit up. I'm sure that translates to larger knitted items too.

Just a Beat Up Sailor

The Allergy Attack is mostly over for the time being. One of my friends has been bragging about his new Dyson Animal which apparently scoops up allergins without blowing them into the air behind it. His new Dyson means I can get rid of the dust in my place without putting myself into the hospital on lung-support the next time I decide to clean. Yeah, right. But, I'm willing to wear a mask & give it a try. You never know.  There might still be miracles in this world. Occasionally I still cough up part of a lung & I still can't lay down to sleep but I'm feeling a whole lot better. I'm only taking Benadryl before bed so I can sleep without hacking.

With all this allergy stuff going on, I haven't been willing to spin or knit indoors at all. Next week I see the Specialist about my voice & would like to do so in as near a 'normal' manner as possible without complicating things by not being able to breathe. The allergy attack also took away most of the voice I had left. Not Good. 

So, nothing to show, nothing completed but feeling close to normal for a change. The heat is really bad in my basement today. It's still 33 in my office as I'm typing @ 1:15AM. Thank Gawd for that Oscillating fan in the bedroom which makes it comfy. I must say though, it might be hot but nothing hurts except my lungs .  .  .  my wrist, hip & knee love this weather & so do the hands!!!  Good reason to get back to knitting ASAP. I did buy all those balls of Ladyslipper acrylic yarn from KnitPicks that I intend to use as an office sweater to keep the chill off this Fall.

Am I Still Stoned??

A week & a half ago my computer blew up. Weeeeeeeee, actually, it burned up. My office is carpeted & the computer case sits under the desk on a little platform, just above the carpet.  .  .  .  the dirty, dusty, furry carpet. My buddy Steve takes it home every couple of years, cleans it out, stuffs new things inside & returns it in better shape. But Steve has gone off to build decks & hasn't been around for a while. I haven't been able to get under my desk in a couple of years or more - so the computer filled up with stuff sucked in by the powerful little fans we installed the last time it had an upgrade. And it caught fire. Leaving me with the dreaded blue screen & forcing me to upgrade to Windows 7. 

I'ts a good thing I save things. I had a new laptop, still in the box. I hate laptops. I need a mouse & a split keyboard which make a laptop no longer a laptop. I had an old laptop Steve gave me too. One of my clients had an old gaming box - last year's model apparently - which is 6 years newer than what I'm using but a year behind what he's using now. And a box of spare parts - keyboard, mouse on a cord, 15" HD monitor, cables, cords etc & an old PS4 box - still uses XP. I have two boxes of spare parts, yeah, we all do apparently. So we hauled most of the stuff out of my office, put up an 8 " shelf, put all the client boxes on the shelf, hauled all the shredded paper & put a computer together, sort of. The idea is that the Gaming Box will become my new computer. It has 9 drive slots, tons of memory BUT it's Windows 7 with a high def monitor that I have to buy. We've mickey-moused the PS4 with two drives in it's backside & three more stacked beside it to clip in as needed. Other than a surly habit of "going to sleep" if I don't move the mouse or use the keyboard for 5 minutes, it works like a charm, so far. And I recognize all the software. I may just keep the PS4 that everyone's sneering at .  .  .  .

Not only did the computer crap out but moving all that junk in my office stirred up the dust causing a massive allergic reaction which knocked me on my ass for several days. I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. Couldn't breathe, eyes itchy & swollen, coughing so bad I had to sleep sitting up - when I could sleep. So I took to the bottle. Alcohol does suppress the cough reflex if you drink enough of it. Eventually I made it out to the drugstore - love Shopper's Drugs, one way in & it's through the PERFUME department - Benadryl to the rescue. Friday night, I slept like a Drunken Sailor. Saturday morning I had to cancel a meeting because I was STILL a Druken Sailor. Oooops, took half the dose but bought the Extra Strength by mistake. Shit!! Not back to that drugstore again??? 

Knitting, you ask?? Ya gotta be kidding?! right?  I did dream about wool last night. Something about a sailor, a blanket & a bottle .  .  .