Re-wound ball of yarn on a rod. I made the mistake of not leaving long enough tail to pull the yarn out the center like I planned. I cannot get a hold of it now.
Year 16, Week 03, Day One (week 748)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-31-15 Saturday
60 degrees early morning, 74 degrees afternoon, Partly cloudy getting heavier as the day went on. Brisk breeze that can blow hats off. During the week, we had temperatures below the 56 frost temperatures found here in the tropics, and her plants somehow survived well enough. This weather report is brought to you by the city Of Pompano Beach Department of tourism.
I had a tough time last night, not able to get comfortable, and got little sleep during half the night. Somehow, I was “bright eyed and bushy tailed” early but was fading as the morning went on.
During Breakfast, we saw in a local paper adds of a couple large sales. One was a condo yard sale and another was an estate sale. After checking our local sign posts near were we have breakfast, we took the long route to the big sales through the more exclusive area of town..
We hit quite a few yard sales along the way. Luckily, there would be two within a few doors of each other most times. It made for fun looking. It is always fun to have a lot to examine.
I figured out that my biggest problem with most yard sales is that I don’t entertain. The vast majority of the good stuff is for people who like to show off. They will have many different table settings, place mats, items for in the middle of the table. They will change what is on their display shelves after each party so that when people come back, the place is different. Even in the poorer areas, this is what I see the most, DECORATIONS. My problem is that while that stuff looks fantastic and desirous, I have no place for them and no use for them. You do see wonderful things that you absolutely never see in stores. You sometimes wonder where they were able to find those items.
After about six stops, Both Mom and I were weary of stopping and we skipped several signs. I just know those yard sales we skipped had something I was looking for. You always feel that way. At one small yard sale we stopped at and got some folding chairs, The woman said she was moving to one of the big retirement communities we have down here. The way she described it, it was going to be a wonderful place for her. I do hope it is everything she learned about it.
We finally made it to the Condo yard sale. We love them. There were a dozen or more tables there in a small area. I walked the tables twice before I noticed they had a couple in the middle. Instantly I got kidnaped by some heavy Wool yarn. As I was handing the woman the money for the yarn, she said that if they had not sold, she was going to adopt them. If I had known that, I would have convinced the yarn to stay with her. I am now kicking myself for not getting the clothes hamper last weekend. I could use it to consolidate my yarn a lot more. I have yarn in small boxes and zipped storage bags that could go into the hamper I did not get and make the area a bit more useable.
There was an electric knife-sharpener there. I have a cleaver I am having problems getting as sharp as I would like and I figured I would condition the knife with the sharpener and then pass it on to someone else. I usually use the stone to condition the knives and then the rod to touch them up periodically. The cleaver is nice hard metal, very thick and resistant to get in the shape I am after. If I, of course, took the time to make a jig for my grinder, I would be able to have it sharpened exactly the way I wanted it within a couple minutes of finishing the jig.
The church yard sale was fun to look at. It had lots of toys, books, an electric piano that was sold while I was there, and a small organ. I picked up a cheap styrofoam cooler with a bunch of Sterno cans and a couple of small folding Sterno stoves. I also found three books I wanted. One was a joke book, one was on knitting. The last is on sauces. I have always felt that most recipes I see fixing something with sauces, spend too much time on cooking the main thing, such as chicken or fish, and not enough on the sauces. Generally, the sauces is the only difference between many preparations. This book is just sauces. Most I will never even consider trying, but a few look quite useful, for the rare time I wish to do some real cooking.
We never looked for the estate sale. We had enough.
After sorting our stuff and putting some of it away, we talked a bit, relaxing.
Bending down to examine things on the ground, leaning over tables and a lot of walking and standing, all added up to do a number on me, even with the breaks between each yard sale. Mom was tired too.
Settled in, we all laid down and napped. I needed it desperately. I only got up when my body hurt too much. While the couch is soft and comfortable, one cannot roll properly to get into a good new position.
There was an event at a local park where it is sort of an appreciation day by the city. They have vendors giving out free food and drink, along with coupons as advertizing. I went there last year, but even without my being bad off today, I learned last year that the parking spot I would likely get would use up my walking distance ability, let alone the walking and standing around in the small area on the meandering pathway they have set up. Much as I would have loved to go as a nice outing, I stayed at Mom’s house and accepted the situation.
Last month, someone had E-mailed me a link to a very simple teddy bear pattern to make. I really want to make it since the real reason I am into Crochet is to make stuffed animals and dolls. I also have a bunch of “handle gloves” that fit over the metal handles of pans so you can pick them up without burning your hand or messing with a hot pad or oven mitt. I also have a couple special dish cloths I need to make.
I went outside and looked around for a project. Crochet decided to scream to me. I think being kidnaped by the yarn may had something to do with it. I then decided I needed to see exactly what yarns I had available. I got the yarn out of the space behind the seat of my truck, and the yarn I had recently added for projects I am planning to work on (near top of basket) and some spare yarn (bottom of basket) I always have. I keep in the truck that was there “just in case.” I laid out all the yarn to examine what I had and to sort it to see if some could return home. I did not realize I had all that yarn.
The yarn I purchased today is really thick wool yarn. One of the skeins was unraveling. The person who had it tried to pull the yarn out from the center and could not get the end to come out. The loop of yarn was messing up getting the yarn off it. I wound the yarn into a ball, the yarn sticking out made it a little tough until near the end when I was able to get past it. I then tried to make a new skein that would allow me to pull it out from the center. One runs the end down a rod or dowel and then wind around the rod until the whole ball is made. I made one tiny mistake. I did not leave enough of the end out to get hold of later and it disappeared. When I removed the rod, I could not get the end to come out. The space was too small for my fingers to grab the yarn. It will be worked from the outside now. I did not feel it was worth the effort of winding the yarn again but doing it right.
Being wool and being big, I can think of a few projects that this yarn would be fun to experiment with and would look good.
I am not exactly sure what kind yarn the thin yarn was that came with the purchase. It was fine and multi colored and has glitter in it. I believe it is acrylic. I will fire test it later. If it is acrylic, it will melt rather than burn. The person who had the yarn, was knitting something that used both yarns woven together. I feel the two yarns were too close in color to each other to get the effect they were looking for. I may unravel it since it would be hard to get the knitting needles into the loops to continue the project. Eventually, I will larn how to knit.
I to make my first teddy bear in bright red yarn. While looking at the yarns I had, there was a tan yarn with the truck stash so I decided that was going to be the first teddy bear color.
I re-sorted the yarn. The yarn kept in the truck is for that future rare event that I need a color or just some yarn of some kind. It is all acrylic. Once early last year, that yarn saved a project I was working on. I split up the yarns according to how soon I intend to use it.
All this took some time, especially the rewinding the yarn. I finally settled and worked on a two colored handle-glove that is using two tiny bits of yarn. I had finished it previously and found I made it too big around and too short, so I ripped most of it (often referred to as frogging, as you rip it, rip it out) and got a new start. I made good headway on it and now it looks like it is a much better diameter and because of that, will be long enough when done. I have another one in different colors that was also coming out too big and frogged part of it and decided to do another two color design with the second color a tiny ball of yarn also. I made this project under control so I can pick it up a bit later. These handle gloves are great for eliminating those stray bits of yarn laying around.
About that time, I decided it was time to end my day.
I am trying to decide whether to stay home tomorrow and work around the house or to go to Mom’s house. Much will likely depend on whether my brother is going to come up.
I will see what I do tomorrow.
Year 16, Week 03, Day Two (week 748)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-01-15 Sunday
60 degrees early morning, 73 late in the day, heavy clouds, slightly broken. Repair people were called to fix the clouds... Light breeze in the morning. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Sunrise Department of Tourism.
I decided to stay home and do some projects around the house. I started out by going grocery shopping. I needed something from the store’s pharmacy was reminded that it was not open yet. I had forgotten they open at noon on Sundays. I only got two of the things I needed to get there. Because of the Superbowl being played today, I got a few “snacks” for game night. I likely will be eating them all week since I can’t eat that much in one sitting.
I saw I needed to stock up my freezer with pre-cooked food. I would rather make it myself rather than buy frozen dinners. I decided I could make some lasagna, which has been good in the past, especially when taken to work for lunch. I went to a second grocery store, one I love to go to, that is near my house, and stocked up on other supplies I would need. I decided I was hurting too much to make my own pasta for lasagna so I got some commercial noodles. I tend to wait on making my own pasta until I forget how much I hurt after I make it. I still remember from the last time so commercial would have to do. I tend to not be able to tell the difference between commercial and my pasta once the sauce or other flavoring is added to them, except I tend to make my pasta thicker then the commercial stuff. I have not gotten into exotic pasta mixes yet so the really big advantage has not shown yet either.
Between work on the computer to rest, I ended up making four lasagna cooked in three cooking sessions, and a bunch of frozen raw hamburger patties. There is only one little problem with this. I now am going to have to empty my freezer and re-pack it so I can cut up the lasagna and freeze it in there. I am not up to that project today. I have done enough already.
The last two lasagna, smaller than the first two, was missing some ingredients that I used up on the first two, and won’t be near as good. Since I am going to be the one eating them, I don’t dare complain or the cook will be offended. Don’t want that to happen. He won’t cook for me and make me eat out.
Even without making my own noodles, it ended up being a big project and quite a mess. I intended to only make two lasagna pans (these are bread loaf pans) but I had so much fixings left, I decided to make use of them since they would not be as good for other uses. I intended to keep a bunch of the sauce I had made (filled my largest sauce pan), freezing the sauce in small baggies for quick meals, but the lasagna used the sauce faster than I ever expected. All the sauce was gone. I had forgotten how much filling those pans use.
Other planned projects are not happening today because I cooked.. I plan on getting loads of rest before the Superbowl starts, so I can stay up past half time for once, or else catch up on the sleep I missed this past week.
Next weekend, I do hope to do some wood working. I won’t have any excuse except possibly the weather. I am good at excuses. I am very imaginative....
I will see what happens next weekend.
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