Bam!

Due to the hard water in Arizona it is usually very difficult to get the shower clean. I've tried every product out there and until now the best one was OxiClean but then today I tried Easy Off Bam. This stuff is the best! Its a little stinky but soap scum and hard water stains come off with just a little scrubbing and it even cleaned the textured plastic floor. I can honestly say my shower has never been cleaner!

Cable sweater

I finally started working on my first sweater after having bought the yarn about 8 months ago. I'm somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 done with the back panel and I really like the way its coming out so far! This sweater is based on a the Cable Vision pattern from the book "Easy Plus-Size Knits" but I just couldn't figure out how 8 cable stitches and a chart calling for 3 cable stitches turned into the pattern in the photo so I went with a different cable pattern that actually made sense.

The yarn is Fable from Artful Yarns in color Boy Who cried Wolf (Not a name I would pick for a yarn but I like the colors!) and is an 85% cotton/15% silk blend that is really easy to knit and shouldn't be too warm for an Arizona sweater.

Here's a close-up of the cable pattern for your viewing pleasure:

I can see clearly now....

...the haze is gone!

Yesterday I went to the eye doctor for a procedure called YAG Capsulotomy which is a fancy way to say the doctor used a laser to break up the scar tissue that formed around the implant they put in my right eye when the cataract was removed. Apparently if you have a cataract removed before age 40 then you have a 70% chance of this scar tissue forming and making your vision just as bad as it was with the cataract. It didn't hurt at all but was pretty weird since they had to put a sticky goop and a huge lens in my eye to do this. I had a little burning sensation before I went to bed last night but woke up this morning with no pain and vision as good as I've ever had!

Thanks Dr. Liang!!

Stashbuster

I needed a new bathmat for my recently remodeled guest bathroom but I couldn't find anything that I liked. I did have some yarn in my stash that matched the red paint quite well so I made this using a dishcloth pattern that I modified and knit with 3 strands together to get the thickness I was looking for. After sewing some non-skid carpet backing to the back I have a new bathmat and 3 less skeins of yarn in my stash! I wouldn't recommend this for use as a shower mat but it does quite well in my guest bath.

AZ Craftsters and a yarn sale

This past Saturday I went to my first meet up with the AZ crafters. The intent was to go to the sale ad Fiber Factory which was great but the best part of all for me was meeting and talking to all the wonderful women (which I don't get much chance to do due to my career) and learning about all the different crafts everyone enjoys! I forgot to bring my camera, so see Rick Rack Ruby's blog for photos.