Handmade~by~Sheri

A Weighty Issue

2026-10-22T01:05:24.243-07:00

I finally realized just how out of touch my mom was with body types today. All it took was 3 friends walking by while we were waiting for our food to come to the table. They all had very different bone structure. They were all looked good in their bone structure and weight. A pound or two would have not made a difference in how they looked. My mother was always telling me that being overweight by a mere 2 pounds was a deadly sin. I just would not look good in clothes. I would not be able to get a husband ( I got married to y husband since so last century) it was the 1970’s when early marriage was still a thing. That just one or two pounds less was always better. Ten or 25 pounds less would have been ideal. I would like to say that a pound or two would not have changed the fact that my body was curvy more like Marilyn Monroe’s, than a thin wisp of a teenager.

What my mother thought is that enough dieting would allow my body to literally change bone structure. and look as good as Twiggy did.. By the way, in my humble opinion, Twiggy looked much better after her modeling career ended when she added a few extra pounds, even then she was never that heavy.

What my mother failed to understand is that bone structure is a genetic thing. No amount of dieting will ever change a person’s bone structure. A pound or two will not change anyone’s bone structure. Instead I opt for a lifestyle that relies more on fresh fruit, vegetables and lean cuts of meat. (excluding the present moment in which my mouth is full of stitches due to dental issues brought on by Sjögren’s), Food is just not that appealing when my mouth hurts and everything that I eat has to be mushed or blended to death. The least amount of processed foods in my diet the better I feel. The one exception I have changed is that I no longer eat whole grain bread and instead opt for locally baked sourdough bread. Without the extra preservatives that most grocery store bread contains. For some reason it is easier on my tummy. I think it may have to do with the sourdough starter being fermented, that might take a research deep dive into bread.

Anyway I have noticed a big uptick in body shaming. I would like women in particular to ignore these less than kind people and just realize that these people are very broken if looks are the only thing that matters to them.

Just remember that all print ads are altered for the models to look better, just ask your friendly neighborhood graphic artist.. a lot of tick tok is altered so much, it is just AI sloop.

The best revenge for all of this is to eat a wide array of fresh foods. Exercise as much as you are able to do comfortably without overdoing it. Don’t hurt yourself. Start off slowly. Tell yourself every day that you are the best person you can be. That the people who are not nice are just broken and it is not your responsibility to fix them.

The Apple Pencil Pro

2026-10-20T19:00:08.515-07:00

When I got my new iPad after I wore out my last one, I had to upgrade to the Apple Pencil Pro. Generally, I have been very happy with the pencil pro. Except for last night. My Apple Pencil Pro stopped working entirely. So I googled what could be wrong. I went through pages of incorrect information. I was in my settings for over an hour trying to fix it with my settings.. Even as good as I am with my iPad, I could not figure out the instructions. One step instructions even said the pencil was not compatible with my new iPad, which I thought, gee, this is really odd, because it’s been working up until this point.

After about an hour, I stumbled upon a random page that it very simple. Unlike the previous Apple pencils, the Apple pencil pro has a screw on cap covering the point that you write with. Well, apparently even if you screw the cap on correctly, the cap can come loose. When the cap loosens by itself, the pencil stops working. Now here’s the tricky part: you can’t screw the cap on too tightly or you’ll break the pencil. And you can’t have the cap on where it’s not tight enough or the pencil doesn’t work. So I have two pictures of the pencils below: one with the cap in the position where it wasn’t working. And one is how it should look. Now you all know I’m a fiber artist and I am not going to explain this in technical terms, but let’s just say a 16th of an inch here makes a huge difference. In whether your pencil will work or not. I hope this blog gets a lot of action because I’d like this blog post to be up near the top so people have a simple explanation on how to get their pencil working again. This way you won’t lose an hour of your life trying to figure out what you did wrong and why your pencils not working. Or the other thought, do I need to go to the Apple Store to have my new pencil fixed, the answer to that one is no. This gives you more time to do what you need to do or to play with your fiber or your other art medium.

My personal wish is for the Apple Corporation redesign the pencil tip so it does not unscrew so easily. Perhaps giving the product to a mechanical engineer might yield a better design in which the pencil tip would be a little more stable and resilient.

Please be aware that the Apple Pencil Pro is a registered trademark of the Apple Corporation. My husband bought my Apple Pencil Pro and Apple M4 iPad Air for me. This is my personal research into how to fix the Apple Pencil Pro without going through pages and pages of nonsense. By nonsense, I mean going into the settings, uninstalling and reinstalling the pencil. Going into the settings and to find and flip switches. I am receiving no compensation from the Apple company for this blog post. The content and opinions are entirely my own.

I Am Really Trying to go Slow

2026-10-19T23:07:37.880-07:00

Today was a pretty laid back day. I took time to do self care and a short trip to the grocery store. I only made one mistake at the grocery store. I purchased pre cooked dark meat turkey that looked very tender and smelled wonderful. The on.y problem with the turkey is that it had enough salt to qualify as a salt lick for farm animals. I stopped at five bites. I figured that those 5 bites had over a week’s worth of salt for me. There is absolutely no excuse to use that much salt in anything but brine.

After my morning activity and lunch my body required a three hour nap. I was honestly so tired that I don’t remember my head hitting the pillow.. my dear husband woke me up for dinner. Unfortunately what I brought was not worth eating. To compensate for not eating much dinner I had oatmeal and a banana before bed.

I am trying to finish projects this week, so I pulled out a Tunisian crochet scarf made with fingering weight yarn. I managed to crochet about four inches. This scarf will be my television crocheting until it is finished. Then I will work on the next item in that project bag until the bag is empty.

It’s getting late so TTFN.

A Change Up for Me

2026-10-18T23:30:20.469-07:00

Today I made a decision to put off more complex knitting or crochet projects until after my stitches are out. This has not been an easy recovery for me. I can also clear out a lot of UFO’s. This will result in the greater possibility of bringing more hats and scarves over to the Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank before the holidays.

I am keeping the patterns simple so the two scarfs in progress are going fairly quickly. As soon as I finish the couch scarf, I am going to try to get a few more hats knit up. Think of this as me being in slow production mode. More completed projects, however, not enough to hurt my hands.

It has been a long day so TTFN.

A Book Series Recommendation and more.

2026-10-17T16:06:34.774-07:00

We have had super crazy winds here in Tucson the last couple days. The winds were so bad last night that the whole house was rattling. I was afraid to go to sleep because the gusts were over 60 miles an hour. I’m not sure how much that has to do with climate change or if it’s an El Nino phenomenon. The air was so thick with dust yesterday that we could not see the mountains around our house. Some of those mountains were only 2 miles away. Forget about seeing anything in the valley. Now that the wind has stopped, it looks like rain clouds are coming in.

It’s a good day to stay inside to craft and clean. I am Almost finished reading book number 31 in the Bobbi Holmes series Haunting Danielle, mystery series. Bobbi Holmes is also know as Anna J McIntyer.. Since I am so far into the series of books, I would like to recommend this series of books. Truth be told, this is the series books I listen to while I’m knitting. or crocheting. Since I am feeling better being on the right medicine, I have been listening to the books faster again. I don’t know how many books are left of the series, but it’s one of those that, even if there were 100 books in the series, I would read every one of them.

Now that I’m done with my 5 to 10 minutes of cleaning a day. It is time to kick off my shoes, put my feet up on my mushroom footstool, that doubles as warp storage for weaving supplies. Would you expect anything less from me? My current project for this particular knitting space involves what was once a 3 pound cone of cotton yarn. I am still making scarves from that 3 pound cone of yarn and I am at the beginning of the second year of working with the yarn. All the scarves are going to the Flowing Wells School district clothing bank. I’m just using up different color yarns that go with the cone on yarn. In the pattern that I want to do at the moment.

TTFN

Almost Finished

2026-10-13T23:21:34.887-07:00

I have less than a dozen rows of Mosaic Tunisian Crochet left before I finish my cowl tom. I am hoping not to play yarn chicken, however, my main color is looking very slim at the moment. I promise pictures when I am finished tomorrow.

This and That

2026-10-12T23:12:49.052-07:00

I finally found my rhythm, for the mosaic cowl that I talked about yesterday. It is going so much faster and looking so much better now that I found my rhythm. Hopefully I can finish that tomorrow and start my sheep and treat, area 51 hat for Halloween.

Recovery from the dental surgery is still driving me nuts. It’s still draining my energy too. Hopefully this too shall pass. I really hope the follow-up surgery for this tooth will not be as bad.

I’m really not liking the mashed diet. for the surgery follow-up for the next 3 to 4 weeks. The only thing it’s good for is losing between 1 pound and a half a pound a day. I did find one new food to add today that is low on the glycemic index, the Korean glass noodles. Made with yam starch. They are not very flavorful plain, but they are filling. Which is more than I can say for most of the mashed diet. If you’re wondering about the mashed diet, just think of putting graham crackers in a bowl of applesauce and mashing them till all you have is a paste, and you get to eat the paste, no texture, just paste. Soup is put through the blender until you can drink it with a straw, except that I can’t use a straw because of the stitches. You can see why find this diet so boring. If you have any good mashed food recipes, I’d be interested. I have already pulverized chicken to death, vegetables, I’m eating two bowls of oatmeal a day, and of course there’s the yogurt.

In other news, It was bound to happen someday. Today was the day I burned my very first pan. Because of the dental surgery and the swelling, I’ve lost my sense of smell and couldn’t smell the pan was burning. Oops. Well, tomorrow I go get a new fry pan. Apparently when you have surgery on back molars, you lose your sense of smell, I wish somebody would’ve told me that in advance..

Well, it’s getting late. So I guess it’s TTFN time.

The Gentle Current Cowl

2026-10-11T22:26:46.042-07:00

I finally made it to row 63 in the Aklori Design, Gentle Current Cowl. I only have to make it to row 83 before I can cast off. That is only 20 more rows. What I initially thought was a mistake, is actually part of the pattern. I am on the second row of mosaic, Tunisian crochet. It is fairly easy. This gives me the confidence and courage to try to finish another mosaic design by Aklori Designs.

Since I am at the beginning of row 63 I might pull back a few stitches to get the stitch right from the beginning of the row.

I bought this pattern as a kit. If I were choosing the yarn I would choose a lighter contrasting color to make it easier to see what I am doing during the mosaic Tunisian crochet . The Ott light is helpful, but not as helpful as I would like. This dark color requires daylight and the ott light combined.

A Flare Up

2026-10-09T20:39:16.791-07:00

The dental surgery on Wednesday has lead to to a full scale Sjögren’s flare up today. After a few activities this morning, I slept the entire afternoon. Now the fever has kicked in. It has been years since I have had such a bad flare-up. So I am going to be resting and cutting back on my activities for the duration. I am in Croissant mode.

This means that there will be lots of craft projects to complete and since I am already behind in taking photos of my completed work, I will have to catch up on that. So expect to see lots of pictures soon.

Well it’s time to complete the next project.

TTFN

I Survived

2026-10-06T14:02:52.256-07:00

I had unscheduled dental surgery this morning. Even though the local anesthesia is wearing off, I think I’m doing pretty good. I did not have a full blow panic attack either. I did a lot better than a few of the Doctors pieces of equipment that broke during the procedure. Although I am not sure whether doing the procedure being awake was the right thing. Although it’s to late now to change my mind.

I am currently on the mush diet for three weeks. I have no idea how that’s going to effect my blood sugar. It’s mostly mashed potatoes, yogurt, oatmeal, protein, drinks, and pasta, scrambled eggs and anything you can eat without chewing. I am going to try pancakes, I picked up a couple mixes. I also picked up some pea protein To make milkshakes, this will be a great way to eat the last of my summer fruits. Also no straws so I will have to squeeze my applesauce pouches onto a spoon to eat.

I am currently eating Cocojune plain, unsweetened Organic Greek style cultured coconut yogurt. It’s pretty decent and it has 10 g of protein so I guess since it’s the first food I had since last night it should be ok to break the fast.

What is going to annoy Me for the next three weeks, is the fact that I can’t have bread or crackers untill the stitches come out and possibly three weeks after that. No bagels or bread for up to 6 weeks agh!!!

In four months, I get to have dental surgery again, to put the implant in to hold the new crown. I think that should go pretty easy. Then a couple of months after that and my mouth should be better than it is right now.

It is surprising To me that doctors appointment appointments right now are being scheduled into next year. Sunday morning I had a crown fall off. Monday morning I got a dentist appointment. Tuesday morning I had the dental surgery. I think this might have something to do with the economy with people thinking dental work is not as important to their health or not covered by health insurance that they skip it if money is tight.

Well, it’s time to go fill out the paperwork for my next appointment of the week and then to put my feet up and rest.

It’s Not a Good Day to Eat

2026-10-04T22:47:33.284-07:00

Today was not the best day for eating. In the middle of the night one of my first dental crowns just decided to fall off. I think I got it in my late 20’s thanks to my very dry mouth, which over a decade later was linked to Sjögren’s. But the cavities started in earnest when I was about 8 thanks to a very dry mouth. But I regressed a bit. I rinsed the crown off and put it into a Ziplock bag, and then into my purse. By the looks of the crown I can see another dental implant in the very near future. It’s not the first implant that I have had and it will not be the last.

Breakfast was very easy. I made a fresh pot of oatmeal. I cook it in the rice cooker, making 4 servings at a time. I eat the first bowl hot and the next 3 bowls cold out of the fridge. Lunch was another story. I had made a turkey breast to cover a few dinners. I should give you my recipe as Thanksgiving is coming up. Anyway I had enough leftovers to make 2 servings of soup. I was working at my usual work spot. I stepped away to get a container of rice to divide between the pot and the freezer container. While my back was to the soup, somehow a plate left the cupboard, hit the soup pot and broke into an awful lot of pieces. After we cleaned up our part, my husband set up the Roborock to vacuum and then mop the area twice.

Then at the same time we said in unison, I guess it’s time to go out to lunch. My second lunch mistake was trying a new restaurant. I thought that since the restaurant and parking lot were crowded we might have hit on a new spot to eat. Boy was I wrong. Because of the bad experience, as keeping with my blog policy, I will not give the name or location. We had to wait to order, they promptly forgot about our order. When the food did come out my food was very spicy, I ordered very light spice. My husband did not even get what he ordered. Both items came out stone cold..Needless to say we got home just in time for my body to get really sick. I spent the next hour in the restroom.

Dinner was hard cooked duck eggs, sourdough bread and 2 mini oranges. It almost sat well. I think my tummy was still out of kilter from lunch.

I hope you hat your Sunday was better than mine. TTFN.

When a Mistake Becomes a Design Element

2026-10-04T00:12:07.437-07:00

I have to admit that I still have a lot to learn and remember with Tunisian Crochet. I am currently working on a mosaic pattern. The directions still confuse me at times. So I naturally made a mistake in the beginning of making of the pattern.

Here’s the thing though. I like the way my mistake gives one side of the pattern a little color boost. So instead of ripping out so many rows. Spending days working out the directions so that I understand and can implement the directions, I decided to go with the flow and leave the edge stitch alone on the right side of the pattern.

Personally I know that this attitude will drive some designers crazy. Mumbling how stupid the person is that is making their pattern as a newbie. I also want to state that there are subtle differences between knitting, crochet patterns and Tunisian crochet patterns.

I have been under too much stress for too long recently, which has brought my dyslexia to a raging forefront. There is no way around this. At this point, even if I read the pattern upside down and backwards or with one eye closed, my mind still would not process the words correctly. Sometimes the pattern directions are so subtle that I would have to wait a few weeks for the stress to leave and things go back to how everyone else sees the pattern.

Since I want to finish this project as soon as possible, I am using the Sheri Method. The Sheri Method basically compares a fiber arts pattern to a recipe. No one seems to have a problem adjusting the ingredients in a recipe, this is called being a great creative cook. So I feel the same considerations should be given to the fiber artist. In my humble opinion everyone who creates with fiber is an artist. All artists see the same thing differently. So this is my own version.

I am knitting The Gentle Current Cowl by Aklori Designs The yarn for this pattern was dyed Bad Sheep Yarn, in the colors Witch King and Brooks, both are DK weight. The Della Q “ Support Your Local Yarn Store” bag makes a perfect bag so my yarn does not get twisted or knotted. I just keep center snap closed so the yarn behaves very nicely.

Lori has designed a great pattern. Except for the 2 lines I could not wrap my head around ( i.e. my dyslexia) I think this is a very clear and easy to use pattern. The yarn from Bad Sheep Yarn is soft and squishy. So since my ADHD brain loved the design and yarn, my ADHD brain taxed itself and ordered the same set 3 different times in 3 different colors. So I will be making this pattern at least 2 more times.

A Bitter Sweet Day

2026-09-30T23:35:01.956-07:00

Today was a bitter sweet kinda of day. Eric’s lift was removed from his old room, now the knitting room. It is fitting that the room is now the dedicated knitting room, because I spent years by his bed knitting in my rocking chair when he was having a bad days. It was bitter because in the end I had no control over entropy, that is all in G’ds hands. That timing was between Eric and G’d.

The lift was a daily reminder that I failed my only son. I would manage to hit my head on the lift at least once a month. So I am glad that I am no longer going to be hitting my head on the lift. The holes in the ceiling are even patched.

I will have some good reminders like his favorite stuffed animals and books. Gone are all the medical supplies. Also long gone, are all the sick room furniture, like the hospital bed and I.V. pole.

I am still having trouble finding someone who knows how to design a knitting room. One designer treated it like a big closet at nearly triple the price of the designers who called it a classroom. Why the heck would I want a classroom in my house when I have 2 perfectly good local yarn shops in driving distance? I really don’t think it should be that hard to design a room with shelves and drawers. Maybe even a counter to put my drop spindles on display. A fold down ironing board and a place to store both my sewing machines when not in use.

I think the easiest part of this project will be to move the electrical outlets and new paint for the room before the installation of the new cabinets. Also rehoming 2 bookcases should be pretty easy. The current plastic storage cases should also be easy to rehome.

Since I have been busy destashing my yarn, it should be pretty easy to put into the clear boxes we saved and do a temporary storage of yarn until the construction is finished. I still have odds and ends to go through. That won’t take much

Someone Laughed at My Plans for the Day

2026-09-26T23:53:29.673-07:00

I am a strong believer in I make plans and G’d laughs. My plans for today included going to services, talking with family members over zoom and working in the sewing room. Well after last weeks very long and stressful week the woman upstairs had other plans.

By the time I talked with family and had my oatmeal and banana for breakfast I had exactly zero spoons left. It has been quite a while since I had zero spoons left at the beginning of the day. It took all my remaining energy just to crawl back into bed and sleep for most of the day. I do admit that I feel better.

So that leaves 3 UFO’s on the couch. One shopping bag and dress to mend. A sewing room to go through and declutter. This will happen with projects get finished, sorting through things to leave the house and recycling what needs to be recycled. There is always tomorrow.

I did manage to walk .64 miles after dinner. So at least the day ended on a strong note.

The Attack on the Sewing Room Has Begun

2026-09-25T23:34:35.541-07:00

To day I decided to attack UFO’s and repair work in the sewing room. First on the list was putting the final seam into 2 dog pillows.

Next on the agenda was to make a personal scrap bag for my personal sewing, weaving and other fiber arts of my own creation. The bag is no longer empty.

Next on the agenda, to repair 3 bags that I bought at Follow Your Heart in California when I started living on my own. I bought 1 new bag every paycheck for a total of 3 canvas shopping bags. The first bag was easy. I just pulled out some scrap fabric and cut a small square out. I found matching thread. Then patched a small hole. The second and third bags took me a few minutes to figure out. Once I had figured out how to replace the handles without changing the structure of the bag the work went quickly. After I finished the second bag I ran into dinner time. So bag number three will be completed tomorrow.

Below is a pile of most of what I completed today.

A New Recipe

2026-09-20T23:13:35.543-07:00

I have come up with a solution to Sour Dough Bread* that is to dry for sandwiches. No it’s not French toast, I did not have any eggs in the house. They could be used for very large soup croutons. Even better than that, turned into crackers. Yes, that’s right, crackers with a wonderfully tangy flavor. A texture that is perfect and not crumbly, they won’t get smashed when you take them out of the cracker jar. Even better than that is that they are a one ingredient recipe.

Sour Dough Crackers

1 loaf of stale sour dough bread

1 bread knife

1 toaster with a low setting or an oven that can be set to 250f degrees or 121c

1 Cracker jar

The Process

With your bread knife cut the bread into 1/4 inch or 6.35 mm slices. Smaller pieces are better. I cut the loaf into half and made smaller crackers.

Place several slices in your toaster on the second to lowest setting. (Turn the toaster on for one cycle. When the cycle is done let the bread cool down in the toaster until the toaster is cold) *repeat for at least 3 cycles turning over once. Repeat with you remaining bread slices. When the crackers are the way you like your crackers, put them in a cracker jar. Leave uncovered for the first night and the cover the crackers. I used an Oxo storage container, you can use whatever you have around the house.

I had 2 crackers with my cuppa tonight and they were a wonderful combination with my chocolate chai.

*Please note that this recipe will work with other breads and toasting times will be different.

A Hectic Life

2026-09-19T21:34:54.750-07:00

My life has been very hectic lately. I feel like I am running in so many directions with many different goals competing for my time.

I am in the final planning stages for combining my sewing and knitting rooms together. Which means that I am getting busy doing all the mending. Finishing projects that have been started. Going through everything in the sewing room to see what is leaving and what needs to be temporarily stored in the garage. Thank goodness I have spent months on the knitting room. The knitting room is ready to be packed up once I get our new designer updated with some minor changes.

We will then have to pack up the room. Remove the bookcases to be rehoused. Move the metal rack into the garage. The plastic boxes will not be rehoused until after the new room is completed. We need to do some electrical work. Remove Eric’s old lift. Then paint the room. Hopefully that will coincide with the delivery and set up with the new room.

Right now I am in the process of deciding what long term projects that I am giving up entirely, including but not limited to dog pillows. The dog pillow project started as a way to keep my yarn scraps out of the land fill. Then other people heard about the project and started giving me their scraps of yarn, fiber and batting. Over the years it has morphed out of control. Then I stopped the project cold during Covid. Friends started giving me their scraps again. With in a few months I filled two 32 quart containers with scarps. I made an entire dog pillow today. It was just too much physical exertion for me. So considering that as long as my husband and I have been together we have never owned anything but goldfish with our daughter. I am humbly requesting that someone take over this project. The pillows are very easy to put together. It just takes time and energy that I no longer have. I can even write a blog post with the directions. I have to put myself and my health first.

It is now time to call it a day. TTFN.

Travel Nightmares

2026-09-08T23:26:28.272-07:00

On a recent trip to visit our daughter not only did we get some fantastic family time. I also got to experience some travel nightmares.

My first nightmare involved checking my bag into the airport check in in Tucson going to San Francisco International Airport. Then discovering the next morning that 25% of my lingerie was missing. I usually pack each outfit down to the lingerie in one separate bundle. This means whom ever decided to take the lingerie had to go through my suitcase and unwrap the bundle to get to the lingerie. They even walked off with a brand new pair of compression socks which are quite expensive for the one made without polyester. I mean who deliberately takes used lingerie from someone else’s suitcase. I am pretty sure it has no resale value.

A few days later after lunch in an upscale area of Silicon Valley my wallet was taken from my purse while we were walking around. This involved unzipping my purse and grabbing my wallet. Just maybe it might be time to put DPN’s back into my purse as a deterrent. Yes, I will have to go back to Grandmas Spinning Wheel in Tucson to buy a new wallet. This one event generated a lot of work that is not finished. All the credit cards have been cancelled. We still need to file multiple police reports. Put a fraud alert on my credit report. We are hoping beyond hope that they just took the money and threw away the rest of the wallet.

Getting through the airport was a nightmare. I kept repeating “ What part of my entire wallet was stolen don’t you understand?” After an hour of waiting, giving permission for TSA to go through all my emails, including a full pages of emails having to deal with a lost drivers license and credit cards. Filling out an on line form. Paying $45.00 for the privilege of having my wallet stolen. We were finally allowed to go into the terminal. I need a cuppa of Chai, they had the good recipe from India not the American junk. That brought some calm to me that I had not had since my wallet was stolen.

Well it’s time to call it. I have tons of paperwork to do tomorrow.

My Friends Are Really Great

2026-09-02T23:58:47.728-07:00

I have a really great group of friends. Some I have been friends with since my kids were in elementary school. Some have recently joined our group. But the thing is that they all get me. I am so blessed to have such a great group of friends.

One of my newer friends gave me this knitting bag this week. I really think that this will be my new go to knitting bag. The bag is called “Sheep” and was designed by Emma Ball. If you like Emma’s work please follow this link,. Emma Ball and other artists have some great artwork on all kinds of medium. I really like the selection of animal greeting cards. Below is a picture of the knitting bag that I received. This is so me.

Busier Than a Bee

2026-08-31T23:27:46.327-07:00

I anticipate a very busy week ahead. I have already canceled one dinner with friends so that I can have some breathing room.

Just how many naps will this week take. It’s hard to tell right now.

On the weather front, over a 24 hour period we actually got 1 inch of rain. The storm acted like a winter storm We have not had that much rain in 24 hours for years. The cactus just loved all that water. Can this be a sign that our 30 year drought is on the way out? I can only hope for the 1000 year drought to be over.

Arizona is running very low on water and people keep moving here. They also want to keep building water intensive farming and business. Just say no to Alfalfa that goes to the Middle East, where the government says there says that there is not enough water to grow it in country. This does not make any sense to me. Why come to a drought plagued region to grow your alfalfa?

Much Easier Typing

2026-08-30T23:44:28.947-07:00

Part of getting any new electronic devices is the organization process. I just spent one hour organizing my apps into the proper categories. I still have a couple more hours to go. Too bad that they can’t be transferred into the same boxes.

By the way my husband was able to get me this year’s iPad for less than the cost to replace the old battery. Because I tend to keep all my electronics with the exception of my watch in public use military grade protective unit’s, we did pretty good on the trade in. The Apple salesman could not believe that my old iPad looked as good as the new one on the outside. No chips, dents or scratches that are common on most trade ins. The best part is that the Apple Store took the old unit in trade so we did not have to deal with the e- waste. Yes, I have already misplaced my pencil as it is not in the case. My best bet would be for the pencil to be in the bag it came home in.

Don’t Believe Everything You Read

2026-08-28T01:56:29.077-07:00

To file under don’t believe everything you read.

I am sitting on the couch with an ice pack on my shoulder. Then rotate the ice pack to my neck which apparently got messed up too. I will sleep here when the ice pack comes off. As the new sheets are currently in the washing machine, with over an hour left on the washing cycle.

Tonight is not the best night for sleeping. first my beds fitted sheet tore. Then I wrenched my sore shoulder and neck trying to free my big toe from the hole in the fitted sheet. I am quite sure that I made the whole much larger.

I try to keep a spare set of sheets for an emergency. Tonight’s incident qualified for that occasion. So I got the complete set of sheets out. As I was unpacking the sheets, I noticed for the first time in my entire life that the complete set of sheets lacked a pillow case.

So I checked the package and sure enough, the package was supposed to include a pillow case. No worries, I have extra pillows cases. My current solution will be to change the sheets and leave the pillow case on my pillow. I have extra pillow cases because they don’t wear out as fast as the sheets. So I will wash extra pillow cases this weekend.

I am not sure how the Brand Moss & Willow forgot to add a pillow case to the set of sheets. My set came without the pillow case. So if they don’t intend to enclose a pillow case in the set, they should not have said that the set was only a top and bottom sheet Not a complete set.

My rant is now over and it is time to take the ice pack off my shoulder. Then place it on my neck.

An Update

2026-08-27T09:48:29.981-07:00

It turns out that to get the battery replaced in my current iPad will be approximately $800. With no guarantees on how long the new battery would last. So my husband did some research and using my current iPad as a trade-in, we can get a brand new iPad for about $60 more. The new iPad would come with a warranty. So we have to find time to go to the Apple Store together and buy a new iPad for replacement.

With this option, at least Apple has to deal with the recycling of the E waste. I also find it very disheartening that Apple would not encourage replacement of the battery.But instead urge people to get a new iPad when the old iPad was still in perfect condition with the new exception of the battery. This is not environmentally, friendly in my humble opinion. This reek’s of profits over the environment.

So today, I will be spending the day transcribing patterns onto paper and then sometime next few weeks if I have time putting them in making the changes and putting the new patterns up.

My iPad battery is dying.

2026-08-23T23:37:29.091-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. My iPad battery is just about dead. I can watch the battery life go down as I type. I dislike being chained to a tethered cord, butter know as a charging cable.

I find it difficult to do a blog post on my iPhone. The keyboard is just to small. I can hunt and peck with my pointer finger with very few errors. This:however; is quite slow. I am not able to type with 2 hands as 1 hand is holding the phone.

We will see what the genus bar can do for my iPad. I know that the battery is harder to replace on an iPad. Wish me luck in getting the lower price option of a new battery instead of a complete replacement.

Finishing some projects

2026-08-09T23:28:04.980-07:00

I am currently plying four different spinning projects by drop spindle. I will then work to finish three drop spindle projects and one project on the spinning wheel. One of the projects will need to be carded again because the fiber has matted over the last decade.

On the knitting front, I have 3 projects to complete for a charity event which is coming up soon. Then it will be a return to my current projects.

I need to frog one shawl. Once the shawl is frogged I will use Tunisian Crochet to complete the shawl. I have noticed that I tend to bury my mistakes. Mistakes are just bigger UFO’s. Then come back to them when I have developed the skills to complete the project in a much better manner. * Note to self use a bigger Tunisian Crochet Hook.

In between all of the above, I desperately need to warp the loom to start the dozen or so projects that I have already lined up in kits. Hopefully they will be done by the holidays.

I already have the design on the knitting room remodel in my head. Now to get that on paper. That step is necessary in order to hire a contractor.

Did I mention all the new knitting patterns that I need to type up and photograph? I wonder if AI is up to cloning me yet or at least help fix what is broken down in my body yet?. No, forget about that, they can’t even keep the AI models in training in their own sandboxes. Let alone have a working model of the 1960’s G.E.’s Home of the Future yet.

Well it must be time to call it a night because I am rambling on and on. TTFN.