The Prodigal…returns?
OK, so it’s been nearly six months since I last posted. I could explain, but you’d probably be bored to tears. Basically it involves poor health on my part and continuing poor health of relatives on my side and t’s side so international trips, etc. I’ve been very ill and still am, but at least on Tuesday they finally figured out the latest of my diseases and it’s being treated so I should feel a lot better soon as the meds kick in!
Also this little nuisance has been keeping me from crafting:
Pixiebelle "helps" me loom knit
She’s a bit older than that now (4 months) but still has a yarn fetish and a sixth sense — she can be anywhere in the apartment but the moment I pull out yarn she comes running to investigate! She’s at the vet right now getting spayed so fingers crossed for her speedy recovery!! I’m keeping her shaved fur to spin, hee hee 
So anyway, since I’ve been gone so long I imagine not many folks are following me anymore, but those of you who are still out there, do you think it would be a bad idea if I moved this blog elsewhere? I have my own server now with WordPress on it and other blogs I’m setting up there so it would be easier for me to have it all in the same place, but I don’t want to disadvantage my readers too much or lose too much traffic that I’d get from wordpress.com searches. (And yes I will definitely post the new address here so people can find me later!)
Thoughts? Suggestions? If no one says anything I’ll take that as a sign that I should move the blog as no one’s watching here anyway 
It’s my birthday and I’ll post if I want to
So the prodigal returns, at least for a few minutes before dashing off for a much-needed birthday weekend break.
I know that most people here don’t like long-winded diatribes about personal life so I’ll just say that my father has been gravely ill since mid-May and I was in the States with him and my mom at various hospitals and assisted living facilities (he’s still in the Army and they didn’t let him come home – even to visit – until after I had to get back to the UK :/ So we had to go to him.) As I said earlier I got to go to Convergence which was awesome and has gotten me to take up weaving on paper looms (no space for proper ones at this time maybe looking for an inkle soon tho). And due to the stress of the situation (Daddy was really touch and go for a while there in and out of ICUs) we did a ton of retail therapy in an attempt to keep ourselves half-sane and so I now have a starter supply of scrapooking and card making stuff.
I did get to go to I Knit Day, but sadly missed seeing most of y’all who were there. But I have proof that I went! (In my totally non-goth, non-steampunk look I’ve been sporting all summer as my mom hates goth so I’ve reverted to neohippy )
I’ve done a ton of craft projects over the summer but most are not yet photographed. I’m still completely exhausted both physically and mentally and am not really up to dealing with people still so have not been reading blogs. I am sorry and I hope to get back to it as soon as I am able. But right now my priority is my health which is why my husband is whisking me away for a short break at the (all-too-chilly) seaside for a few days for us to relax and chill out before preparing for the next hurdle: him having to go home to *his* ill father and me having to fend for myself for two weeks. That’s so scary I can barely think about it yet (and haven’t the health or wealth to go with him). All I know is that I am going to have a lot of people over to craft with me in the evenings so if you are going to be in the London area in mid to late October and want to come play let me know But I have several hats and a mini scrapbook to make before he leaves so when I get back I have to get a move on! )
I’m also planning to be at The Big Stamp & Scrap Show next weekend and the Knitting & Stitching show on the 9th and 12th of October, both at Ally Pally, if anyone is going to either of those. I hope to be able to catch up with people I missed at I Knit due to being in a delightful haze of fiber-buying
Well, I am going to go finish packing and wait for the boi to wake up and give me presents. Wheee!
I’ll try to post more of my summer projects next week if I have any energy left
Update, organize, advance!
The update: My dad is still in the hospital in Tampa, but due to schedule conflicts Mom and I came back to North Carolina this weekend. It was a long drive but there are lots of craft stores along the way She’s flying back on Thursday for the long weekend but I can’t handle that much flying so I’ll be here on my lonesome with a huuuuuuge stash to play with! We’ll have to go back to Tampa again to pack up his apartment by the 26th and move his stuff to NC, while he is being transferred to an Army hospital at Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA. We may or may not be visiting him there, the schedule is tight as it is since I go back to the UK on the 30th.
Organizing: I have bought so much stuff! I had ordered more fiber from the Homestead Wool and Gift Farm before I found out that I would be able to attend Convergence 2008. No, not the goth one, the biennial conference of the Handweavers Guild of America. I was only able to go for one afternoon at the exhibit hall but oh my, what a wonderful experience! I don’t weave much yet (although that’s something I want to do more of in the future) but the vendors included sooooo much for spinners and dyers. Dyeing, too, is something I have only toyed with really, but I hope to take a natural dyeing course through a lovely SCA lady in the UK if she is ever able to resume doing the courses. Plus there was plenty of “weaving” (read: knitting) yarn for me to buy So I loaded up a lot on fiber and yarn and got two new spindles, a nostepinne, a new lucet, some wooden bobbins, a sock loom from a company I’d never heard of before and several books for spinning on spindles. It was fabulous! (And many thanks to Mom for financing it all ) Mom really, really fell in love with the Ashford Elizabeth 2 but I have yet to make up my mind as to whether I prefer a double treadle or a double-wide single treadle (like on the E2). I just don’t know which is better for my knees. And anyway, I want to get a drum carder before considering a wheel! (Plus I am holding out for a reasonably-priced electric spinning “wheel” to appear in the UK, alas I can’t just get a US one because of the power/voltage issues :/)
We also stopped at 5 scrapbooking/stamping stores and one quilt store plus Michael’s had a big sale on scrapbooking stuff while we were down there and we hit a Hobby Lobby. (No Serenity looms though, do they still make/sell those???)
So as a result of all of this wonderful stash enhancement, I’ve been spending most of today trying to organize everything so that I can get the most out of what little crafting time I will have available to me this trip.
Advance! On to bigger and better things, I say! I’m really gunning to get crafting, I just have several more chores and a few doctors appointments this week and then I can hopefully get my pics off my cameras to post them and also get back to making stuff!
Hope everyone is having a great week, and happy 4th of July to those who celebrate it.
PS. Don’t miss today’s episode of Yarncraft (the podcast by Lion Brand) which is on Loom Knitting! I’m bummed that I never really got the chance to call in for it but oh well. I’m going to go listen right now!
Back in the world
I have a computer with all of my stuff on it. Admittedly, it’s still not MY computer, but that’s because we had to leave for Florida before mine came back from the shop. We’re still in Florida, we still don’t know when or how they are going to transfer my dad (who is back in the hospital after being so miserable he couldn’t take it anymore) or even where to.
I do plan to start posting and reading blogs again but I am taking today off to rest as I’ve been pushing it too hard for the past week and my body is not coping well. But hopefully from tomorrow we’ll be able to settle into a new routine for a while, until they medivac him either to Georgia or (ideally) directly to North Carolina. Then we’ll be driving back pulling a trailer with all of the stuff he has accumulated in the past seven months and will if all goes well be back in NC by the end of next week. Fingers crossed!
I haven’t done much crafting while we’ve been away but we have found some really nice shops that I plan to write about tomorrow. Until then, I have a lot of CraftTVWeekly.com to catch up on!
Safe and almost Sound
Just a quick note to say that I am safely arrived in America (despite an unusually gruelling trip). However, my computer did not arrive intact and needs to go to the shop to fix (or worst case replace) the hard drive. I have my data backed up so this is more of an inconvenience than emergency. But still, I may not be online much until it gets fixed — or maybe I will as Mom’s work is loaning me a MacBook Air until my Mini is back from the shop, wheee But I may still have problems accessing Mail and the like depending on how much I can recover from that hard drive before it goes into the shop as my backups are in the UK and will take some time to get here if needed.
Have done a ton of crafty shopping today, mostly books, magazines and second sets of supplies that are going to live here at my parents house so I don’t have to keep dragging things back and forth across the ocean (beading pliers, Knifty Knitters, etc.). And 10 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun, at last! Now to find a Serenity loom if we make it to a Hobby Lobby (sadly, an hour or so away from here), or to ponder an afghan or prayer shawl loom from somewhere else if it would get here in time before I leave (which may be as soon as 9 weeks from now). Meanwhile I have the Fine Gauge double rake from Decor Accents to play with and 15 balls of Peaches and Creme so many dishcloths are in my future! Still waiting on the DA single rake and sock loom which should get here in a week or two.
Oh and did I mention that mom gave me a yarn budget of $200? (Not counting the Homespun or anything else that is being made for her.) Yaaaaaaay! I love being a spoiled only child!!
BTW the trip to Tampa, Florida is back on but Pennsylvania is still cancelled. My dad’s colonoscopy is on the 29th so fingers crossed that the news is good. They did find that he had a massive infection of the intestines requiring IV antibiotics so maybe, just maybe, that was behind the mass they had seen on tests before. *hope hope* It may be something like Chron’s or Diverticulitis but those are very manageable and certainly less life threatening than cancer. So he’s not coming home for the summer and we’ll have to go visit him. He retires from the Army in December so will finally get to come home for good then, no more tours of duty!!
But first up I have to finish the item for the Functional Felt Swap and mail my ATC for the Creative Mom swap. And get my computer fixed. So until tomorrow…
News
First, thanks to those who donated for my Fibromyalgia walk, I am pleased to announce that I exceeded my goal thanks to the help of Denise Layman talking about it on her blog and offering a raffle prize Pictures will be forthcoming once I steal them from t’s Flickr.
My dad’s health is getting weirder. They couldn’t find the mass/alleged tumor on the CAT scans so now he’s scheduled for a thorough colonoscopy on the 29th. Maybe the mass went away? It’s a medical mystery at this point. But until we know what it is, the Army is keeping him down in Florida, so it looks like I will be headed to Tampa after all. Don’t know for how long.
My health — which I try to avoid talking about too much for fear of turning people off — is getting worse in a number of ways and my mom and t think that since I’ve already cleared my schedule for four months it might be worthwhile me staying in the US for some private treatment that I can’t get here on the NHS and so that we can do family weight loss efforts together since it’s getting to be life threatening for my dad and so I’d still be there to support/harass him (if they let him come home or I go to him). I’ve only managed to lose 8 pounds in the 10 weeks since I was diagnosed with Diabetes so I need to step it up more too as there’s still 40 more to go to be officially in the healthy range.
So it’s still unknown just how long I will spend in the US, what part of the US I will be in when (NC or Florida) and whether I will be over there for my treatments or my dad’s or both.
Thus I may be fairly quiet here until I get to mom’s house on the 25th. I have swaps to make stuff for, packages to get out and the gargantuan task of trying to pack for 2-4 months in one suitcase and one carryon.
One from the vaults: Scooter Hat
I made this around the end of February but never got around to posting.
I call this the Scooter hat because it reminds me of the hair of Scooter from the Muppet Show. Inspired by the Rasta Hat of Annie Modesitt, I’ve never seen the pattern just the pictures. Made with Colinette Prism yarn in the Zebra colourway on the Reader’s Digest circle loom. Fits me snugly so approximately youth sized or very small ladies.
Prayer request 2
I just got off the phone with Mom and it looks like it is cancer and they may not be able to operate because of his problems with blood clots in the lungs a few weeks ago. Even if it’s *not* cancer (we will hopefully find out next Tuesday), he’s still having major problems and they still might not be able to operate. It’s so serious that the Army is considering sending him home as he’s going to need care.
So my summer of getting care and giving t a carer’s holiday is turning into me looking after me dad and my mom looking after us both. I may also need to stay indefinitely, probably at least through September. So I guess I need to lay in a lot more craft supplies. Send sock yarn There’s going to be a lot of sitting in hospitals waiting around this summer, no matter what :/ And lucky me has to remember how to drive again as I’ll have to be the one to drive him to radiation, chemo or whatever they decide to do as Mom only has limited time off. I haven’t driven anything bigger than my power chair in 5 years so this will be a challenge :/ Mercifully I still have my US license and insurance.
So whoosh, this is kind of heavy and I’m in a weird headspace at the moment. We’re trying to save so that t can go to Australia to see HIS dad, who is still waiting for a kidney transplant, and now my dad has gone from having a minor little cancer that was mostly in remission to possibly having a big huge cancer that they might not be able to treat very well.
This totally sucks.
Getting Ready!
My walk is tomorrow! Please consider donating! I lied about wearing my sequinny All-Stars, it’s a bit too hot and t managed to fix my broken Z-Coils (sandals with springs in the heel, much easier on the back) so that’s the plan.
I’ve started making thank-you cards. Not quite satisfied with the design yet but I’m still working on it.
I’m also starting to make my packing list for my trip. I’m trying to be minimal about what craft supplies I take — tools only — but when dealing with things like hand carders and jewelry pliers it’s starting to stack up :/ I need to be less than one suitcase on the way over and will bring three home but one of those will be mostly magazines and the two small quilts we plan to make, plus I’m stocking up on pillows as I can’t get the ones I like over here. I vacuum seal them but it’s still a lot of bulk.
Homestead Wool and Gift Farm got another batch of new fibers today so I finally placed an order. Several pounds of fiber, about half raw and the other half roving. That should keep me for most of the summer for spinning and felting, I don’t know when I will find time to dye, quilt and embroider! My beading stuff is mostly going over to do the annual repairs on mom’s substantial collection, including re-knotting all of the pearls this year.
But I’m worried that we may spend a few weeks in Florida in the hospital if my dad doesn’t get better. He has a mass that is squashing his intestines that they don’t know what it is yet. I think it’s a hematoma like Helen has, but there’s a chance it may be cancerous 
Anyway I may also be stranded in NC when I first arrive as Mom may be down in Florida with Daddy. (Remember he’s only in Florida because of the Army, he’s due to retire any day now but they are keeping him down in Florida until this health crisis is over which may be many more months. So Mom goes to visit as much as she can.) So I need a lot to keep me busy as my looms may not be in by then!
I also have a ton of beading work to do for her before I go. I don’t want to take beads over if I can help it, so all of the stuff I have bought to make things for her needs to get done next week, ideally.
Plus I have two swaps to do (already started on both but need to finish) and two care packages to send out (Project Superstar and Purlpower).
So I am a very busy bunny the next few weeks! But unfortunately my body has other ideas and is making me rest a lot so I’m just going to have to prioritize. But just right now I have cards to make and emails that need writing, so I’d better be off!
I’ll leave you with a picture of some of the fiber I have ordered, a beautiful white baby alpaca…I bought a pound but there is still more for others!
Etsy Harlotry
So I finally bought something on Etsy! (Not for lack of drooling, mind you, just that money is kinda tight at the moment.) I read the Yarn Harlot who was singing the praises of Unwind Yarn Company’s superwash merino sock yarn. Well, I’m looking to build my sock yarn stash (and thanks to those who have given suggestions so far, I shall seek those out!) and if the queen of sock knitting recommend a yarn, well of course I had to look. UYC was having a contest where the 175th person to favourite the shop would get a 50% discount so I just had to click and huzzah, I won! Alas, because of the Harlot it was sold out in a flash but the shop was updated last night (I stayed up til 2 am but didn’t get to see the whole range ). When I woke up I snagged some sock yarn in the Wendy colourway which are the exact colours for my Project Superstar work!
So this beauty is mine:
Click here for more info about the yarn.
I don’t yet know what I will do with it, if I will make something for Project Superstar or just make something for myself as a memento of Project Superstar. It’s being sent to my US address so I’ll have to wait until I get there to see it and decide if I love it too much to give it away — a distinct possibility! I’ll keep you posted about the yarn and my eventual project when it happens!
I strongly suspect that I will be ordering more from the Unwind Yarn Company (craftygirl83 on Etsy and Ravellry) — there are so many yummy colourways that I simply must have, like See Rock City, Riverwalk and more. I also love that she uses her local area (Chattanooga) as inspiration. I’ve been there many a time when I lived in Tennessee during my formulative years.
Gratuitous photo
Because I feel bad about not having had photos today, here’s a pic of my Lagoon legwarmers (Colinette Prism yarn in Lagoon, knit in a 2×2 rib on the Reader’s Digest loom) and my sparkly Converse All Stars that are the closest thing to “dress” shoes that I can get my orthodics into!
PS, yes those shoes are what I will be walking in on Saturday’s walk! Sorry, I’m a long way from my donation goal so I have to keep plugging it
I can’t believe it’s not Monday
We had a nice Bank Holiday Weekend (three-day weekend) here, the weather actually warmed up — rather too fast IMO — and the sun has been coming out more than in the last nine months put together. Which has actually made photography a little difficult, I’m not used to full, bright sun!
Anyway, important reminder: My 5K walk for Fibromyalgia research is on Saturday so please donate now! If you are new to this blog, Fibro is one of the many diseases that I have and walking 5K is well beyond my normal limits but it was important for me to do this as it’s a very worthy cause. You can read more about my struggle on the donation page linked above.
So meanwhile, back to other things. We went to the National History show which was genealogy, archaeology and military history all together in one Expo. Once again I was shocked that no scrapbooking suppliers were there as that seems like a great audience. We saw some of the Time Team members (Tim, Tony and Phil) doing various presentations and generally found out about new stuff out for the genealogy market, etc. The only thing we bought was mead from Three Drunken Monks but then we went to the huge Whole Foods in Kensington to stock up on supplies.
I’m still recovering from that day even though I was in the chair. I also seem to have come down with some kind of stomach virus which is unpleasant to say the least. So my crafting has been pretty minimal. I made two coffee cozies (which I would show you but my camera doesn’t like bright sun apparently, the colours went all weird) and started a legwarmer for a friend but I started getting hotspots on my fingers so had to give it a rest. When I can’t knit or do something productive I feel guilty or at least out of sorts while sitting and watching tv or movies but sometimes my body just needs the rest and there’s nothing I can do about it.
I’m off to lay down again and get more rest. I need to plan the route for Saturday’s walk ASAP and just spend the week resting up that’s going to be very, very taxing. But I have so much crafting to be done in the next few weeks that I’m already feeling the stress and need to get things done for the sake of my brain,so we’ll just have to see what I can manage in between naps!
Stencils for beginners
iHanna does some of the most amazing things at her blog, you should seriously check it out! One of the things she has turned me on to are the myriad of challenges around various crafty sites. I decided to start the Green Pepper Press Crusades which are monthly challenges in various paper-crafting techniques. April’s challenge was cutting your own stencils. (I want to note that I did technically do this in April, but the deadline for posting was extended to May 7 so I’m on time anyway )
The tutorial Michelle Ward posted on the Crusade site is very good and if you are interested in making your own stencils I suggest you go read it now and come back here later I do not have a burner tool so I just had to make do with craft knives.
The first step is to decide what you want your stencil to be. Michelle noted that it’s handy if you can cut the stencil all in one cut so that you will have both a stencil (piece of plastic with a bit cut out of it) and a mask (cut-out shape that stands on its own). There are good reasons for wanting both to work together, but this post is going to be too long already so I won’t go into them.
I decided that I wanted to start with a letter “J” (for Juliann, of course!). I scouted around my large collection of fonts and found very many suitable ones but really wanted to draw my own so I doodled a little and came up with a letter similar to my actual handwriting but with clean lines so it would be a little easier to cut. Then on a whim I also doodled with the letters “tsc” (for “The Sick Chick”) and was surprised when I came up with a design I liked for that, too.
Next, I drew out these designs in a larger size onto the backs of used envelopes. I ideally want something small enough to use for ATCs but figured that a larger size would be easier for this novice cutter. (As it turns out I think the J will fit on ATCs but only just.)
[You can click on any image for the full sized version.]
So here are my initial doodles, the larger designs drawn in marker, and more supplies for making stencils:
Cutting the Stencils and Masks
Next I taped things to the cutting mat to help steady them. First I taped the paper template, then I taped the plastic down over it. This helped a little but things were still a bit wobbly and the masking tape didn’t hold stuck through the whole process. Still it was better than nothing.
Taking a craft knife (Exacto, scalpel, whatever you have), carefully cut around the outlines *without picking up the knife*. I used a very small mat that I had gotten free from a magazine so I was able to turn the whole thing around any time I needed to change direction which made things a lot easier. If you do wind up lifting the knife, try to start cutting again as smoothly as possible. You can always go back and clean up joins later but this is a little hard (and you have to do it on both stencil and mask). Unfortunately, I didn’t think to photograph this stage as visually it was pretty boring and I was too busy trying to keep my knife firmly planted.
Using the Stencils and Masks
I used rubber cement to hold the stencil down as there we lots of little fiddly bits that wouldn’t stay in place just by taping the outside. You can rub off the rubber cement later after the paint has dried.
So here are a series of me painting the stencils and masks…
The Finished Products
That’s just what they look like solo, I hope to make some art projects soon to incorporate them into.
I have enjoyed my first Crusade with the GPP Street Team and hope to be able to be involved in more projects in the future!
Create @ Late
Alas, in this case I don’t have many pictures. I took video last night but I have yet to edit it and that’s pretty far down the priority list at the moment, so you’ll have to wait. Sorry!
Last night, the Museum of London had its monthly late night opening (link may rot) but for this occasion it had a crafty theme. There were booths of people making felt mustaches, animals out of pipe cleaners and wool, a diorama of London with plasticine sculptures, a sign language music video about London and in the other room the booths of knitting, crocheting and spinning. You can guess what room I was in!
First I met up with my acquaintance, the lovely Claire from PurlPirate, who was teaching hyperbolic crochet which makes a coral-ish sort of shape. She gave me several pointers about the second row issue (using a larger hook to cast on, not trying to get “under the v” when stitching into the chain, etc.) so I hope that I will be able to improve when I try it again next week. She also had quite a crowd of people trying out the hyperbolic forms, including many totally new to crocheting. Go Claire! She was also teaching people how to crochet with plastic bags and gave an excellent demo on how to cut them up into jag-less strips.
Next I met Rachael Matthews and Louise of Prick Your Finger (their blog), a yarn and fiber shop that I am sad to say that I have not yet made it to. Especially since they are involved in the Walking Stick Cozy competition with Missability (run by Felix). (As an aside, I am sad that I have not yet been able to make a cozy for any of my walking sticks, I think I need the Knifty Knitter Bloom Loom for that to get the right sized tube and shall get one this summer but alas, too late for the competition which ended yesterday.) Bethnal Green is geographically closer to me than Waterloo (home of I Knit) but it’s harder for me to get to due to the weird nature of the London bus system, and that’s why I have yet to go to Prick Your Finger. They were demo’ing spinning and had drop spindles available to play with and a big bag of what I think is Black Welsh Mountain fiber.
I sat there forever and made this bundle of yarn:
Not bad for my third time on a drop spindle, but all the credit goes to the fiber, which was sooo easy to spin and wanted to be spun so fine it was almost scary. Just in case it was the spindle rather than the fiber I tried a bit of my signature flouro pink roving but it came out crap as always. The moral of the story is that I am not very good with roving but am much better with carded batts, so I need to card my fiber! I have handcarders but man, I covet a drum carder now.
Black Welsh Mountain is a mountain fiber so it’s very scratchy. I don’t know that I would use this sort of yarn for much of anything but it was heavenly to spin so I shall endeavor to get to PYF before I leave for the summer to get some more to play with!
Finally, I went to meet some of the lovely ladies of Stitch and Bitch London. I’d only just signed up for their newsletter about three days ago so I haven’t had a chance to attend their events yet (I couldn’t do their sewing up event on the 30th as I had to rest up to go out on the 1st). But it was very nice to meet people and show off the world of loomknitting. Photos of me will probably be appearing on their blog in the near future.
I didn’t really have anything to do with the other crafty things,which seemed either aimed at kids or designed for people who aren’t usually crafty to dip their toe into the waters and have a little fun. I have nothing against that, I just wasn’t in the mood.
Still, it was a very fun evening and many thanks to all of the lovely ladies I met who made it such a great experience!
Tidbits: Tried and not quite true
Some more photos just so I can catch up on the past week. (I still have several months backlog of photos and events to blog about, but I am at least trying to stay on top of things as they are happen now!)
This week I attempted to crochet:
I didn’t get very far, I’m still having difficulty with the second row issue, but I got lots of tips last night (which I shall blog about in a minute) so I think I shall give it a go again this week with hopefully better luck. Buthey, at least I did get stitches made in a second row!
I also made a partial gauge swatch:
I was supposed to knit a 4 inch swatch but by three inches in I knew that I didn’t want to use this yarn for that project. I did get gauge though, so I am chuffed about that I will use this yarn on a felting project, probably a laptop cover. But it (Debbie Bliss Soho) is just too scratch for a hat and I don’t really want to have to line it.
Also in the photo is my new temporary wedding ring, I think I have blogged about it but not sure :/ (Brain is sooo not what it used to be, thanks fibro!) My real one doesn’t fit at the moment but as I *have* to lose weight because of the diabetes I didn’t want to get it resized so I got a temporary one from the same place as t’s wedding ring and he is getting one to match (but wearing it on a different finger, it’s been backordered for a while though ). I couldn’t wear rings at all for about five years because my fingers swell a lot during the day but that is lessened now and also I don’t need to use two sticks quite as much, I can make do with one, so that makes it easier to wear a ring on my left hand. It’s just so nice to have *any* wedding ring Plus I can wear this one on a different finger once I do lose the weight.
FO Friday: Project Superstar Bracelets
I mentioned these last week so here are the pix:
The upper bracelets are plastic beads on elastic cord, the lower (for their mom, Valerie) is glass beads mixing the girls’ favourite colours with a silver awareness ribbon charm, strung on 49-strand silver-plated Beadalon. The colours here aren’t great since I photographed them on my red flannel sheets but you get the idea.
And, because I thought it was amusing, I snapped a pic of how I have been storing them, on an empty dvd spindle (with my alarm-clock watch):
FO Friday: Basketweave hat and neckwarmer
I actually finished this last weekend but with photographing, tagging and all that am only just posting today. Hope that still counts for FO Friday ;0
I had contemplated sending this in to LKC magazine as a submission but A) it’s pretty basic and more importantly B) it fits me perfectly, which means it will be too small for most adults with hair. I didn’t want people to get disappointed.
So here it is instead! I had two skeins of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk in Aran weight (I still think Alpaca smells of dog when wet but oh well, it’s sooo nice to knit with!) that I had gotten half off at the John Lewis after Christmas sales in Newcastle. It had gotten lost in my stash for a while until I was looking for something to go with my Harley jacket (the jacket you always see me in in photos where I am in the chair) which has charcoal grey lettering on the back. So I pulled this out hoping to make something in time for the Paris trip and I might have succeeded if I hadn’t frogged the first three attempts. The yarn’s softness was lost in a detailed stitch pattern (frog #1) but I found I wanted a pretty edging rather than purely functional (frog #2) and eventually (after frog #3) settled on a basketweave border with plain stockinette for the rest.
I used the Reader’s Digest loom and used a little bit tighter tension for the borders as I want a little bit of “grip” like you would otherwise get from ribbing. I did five rows of k2p2 ribbing, then five rows of p2k2 and then five more k2p2. Then knit as long as I wanted (28 rows in this case) and do the border again for the neck or closed up for the hat.
The neckwarmer looks insanely long but it actually pulls up over my mouth, nose and the bottom of my ears. The hat comes down to meet it around my ears and thus is forms a pseudo-balaclava but a little more dainty and of course they can be worn separately and the neckwarmer can be scrunched down when it’s not so cold. (I have problems in very cold weather with my lungs due to my asthma and doctors have suggested that I breathe through a scarf to help pre-warm the air before it hits the lungs. It does seem to help.) I also wanted something that could go under the collar of my jacket so that when it zips up I have a layer protecting me from wind — my biggest complaint with that jacket is that the neckline is a little too big. (My second biggest complaint is that if I am wearing a sweater under it it looks like I have scary uniboob happening around my waist, soooo unflattering, especially as it flattens the actual boobs so they don’t show and I get this weird look instead :/ But I have yet to find a knitted solution to that!) So this has fit both bills
I have to say that I LOVE this yarn. It handled the frogging pretty well and I think it will bloom a little when washed, but right now the stitch definition is excellent. It feels a little softer when sliding through your fingers while working with it than in the finished garment, but the end product is still really nice. WEBS has this for half price (I think it was just under US$5 for a 50g ball) so I got four skeins in an eggplant colour and I hope to do a cabled scarf to go with my burgundy coats (maybe a hat if there is enough left!). I totally recommend it.
Oh and for the record the neckwarmer took a little over one skein and the hat a little under, but again that’s because I made the neckpiece longer than most anyone else would want it.
I’m also proud that it looks needle-knit rather than loom-knit. The flat knit stitch (Isela’s way) really makes sooooo much difference to the finished project that I have switched to it exclusively.
Malabrigo Organic Cotton: The Order
Many thanks to Daniella for pointing out that Malabrigo Organic Cotton is now available at WEBS. It’s pricey, but with the pound being strong it worked out to be affordable for me. I also took the time to get some of my new everyday-workhorse favourite yarn, Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk (I need to photograph those FOs), in a deep purple colourway (half-price), some more Arucania Pima Cotton (not organic, but at least fair trade, half price) to go with what I bought last year, and lots of onsies and twosies of other sale items for a total of £52 including shipping (to my US address). t gave me a budget of £50 since aside from Project Superstar (2 skeins, now used) and the Paris trip (2 skeins), I haven’t really bought yarn since the after-Christmas sales.
My gothpoints are utterly in decline as once again I bought really bright colours I even considered several blacks and then thought “Well what would I make with that?” (as I haven’t tackled fair isle yet to do the piratey things). But in my defense, many of these yarns will be used for presents for children and I think children need eyepopping hot pink, right?
For some reason this blog is the top Google hit for Malabrigo Cotton. How odd. I’m sure I will lose that status in the future as others come to know and love this yarn, but for now I felt obliged to order two skeins of the organic. I plan to crochet a bag out of it. Guess I’d best get cracking practicing my crochet first!
I do believe in using organic cotton as much as I can afford to. It’s hard when the price tag is up to ten times more than non-organic (considering that I have a mill that is localish to me in the States that at least hits my low-airmiles button, which most organics do not). It’s not so much about the environmental aspects in an altruistic sense but because I believe that the widespread use of pesticides is part of the reason why fibromyalgia and other neurological disorders are so much more common nowadays. (Remember to sponsor me for my walk for Fibro research!) Cotton growing accounts for 50% of the world’s pesticides which is why it is most important to buy organic cotton to prove to the rest of the industry that it can be done. But, I guess the lack of pesticides reduces the yield which accounts for part of the increased cost, although I am sure the rest of it is just the organic fad, alas. But Malabrigo is a higher-priced brand anyway and is fair trade as well as organic and these yarns have only natural dyes. Pity about the airmiles though
So with looms, swap goodies and now yarn coming my way, I think May 25 is going to be a lot like Christmas I can’t wait to get there and see all of my stuff. But first, several projects to finish and a swap package to make!
Blue shirt thanks
Thanks to everyone who wore blue shirts and wished the girls well. Their grandmother says that the transplant went smoothly, but now Marian has two weeks of feeling very rough while her bone marrow hopefully converts to be like Audrey’s.
I finished the bracelets (3 each for the girls in plastic beads on elastic cording, one for mom that is glass beads combining the girls’ favourite colours and a silver awareness ribbon charm on silver-plated Beadlon) but I’m still feeling a bit rough so I haven’t set up the lightbox to photograph them properly.
Now I just have three cards to make and can finally send off this package! I’ll be sure to get pictures of everything before they go out. The hats are already on my Flickr and havebeen for a while now but I will post about them properly when the package is sent. There’s also Playmobil, Hello Kitty, stickers, books and cutie (machine washable!) rat stuffies from IKEA and stuff for the mom. OK so I got a bit crazy! (Their dad got left out, as I had no idea what to get him…)
I’ve also been doing a bit of spinning with my uber-cheap spindle and the leftover drumcarded (but a bit mangled after carding) merino that was leftover from my felting class. It’s super ugly but hey it’s only for practice and the fiber was just going to be thrown out otherwise. I have two people who have offered me a little raw fleece from the UKKarma group on Ravelry so I am really looking forward to getting those packages! Plus I mega-envy everyone at Wonderwool Wales this weekend.
Well, I have to go put away the beading supplies so that our guest tomorrow has somewhere to sit and eat!
Please wear a blue shirt tomorrow!
Tomorrow is the big day for Project Superstar: Audrey (age 9) is donating her bone marrow to her sister Marian (age 6). Please wear a blue shirt (light blue if possible, Marian’s favourite colour) to wish them success! Marian’s request is on her blog.
The official shirt (but wear whatever you like, just send prayers, vibes, good wishes their way!):
April in Paris, part 3 – Crafty Shopping
This is really long and photo-heavy. To save on your downloads I have tried to keep the photos small, but you can click on any of them for the full-sized versions.
Day 1: Galaries Lafayette
We were staying quite near the “Grands Magasins” (big department stores) so on our first day we went to our quasi-favourite*, Galaries Layfayette. The craft department is a respectable size but I didn’t like any of their yarn. I did, however, find a delightful set of stamps from a French company:
I didn’t take photos of the store as we’ve been there a dozen times but t has loads of photos, although you may have to search a while as he has sooo many photos from this trip! I also bought socks and leggings there but I’m only showing the crafty stuff in this blog.
* our actual favourite is Samaritaine but it’s closed for remodelling
Day 2: Flea Markets (Les Puces)
Because it’s not very wheelchair-friendly, I walked this day — with many rest stops of course! We saw so many wonderful things, but alas our budget was limited. I do somewhat regret not buying the wooden hat block that was only 40 Euros, but it was so old that I think I would have to baby it and I’d rather a sturdy new one, even if that means a plastic one.
We saw: 
We bought: 
Again, a lot more pictures in t’s Flickr (see above)
Day 3: Closed shops on Rue Saint Denis
Unfortunately, it was Sunday and these shops were closed. We never did get a chance to come back to them, but they looked interesting.
Knitting shop: 
Button Shop: 
Day 4: Shop-a-rama!
We made it a point on this day to hit as many craft stores as we could.
L’Art du Papier: a paper goods store with stamps, scrapbooking supplies and lots of journals. This was my favourite craft store from the trip!
I bought a Fleur-de-Lys seal, an Eiffel Tower stamp and a nice “J” stamp
La Drougerie: Famous for its knitting patterns, I found the yarn selection pretty poor, the beads plain but the trims were mind-blowing! I didn’t buy anything as I don’t have any sewing projects at the moment and I couldn’t get the attention of any of the shop assistants as it was packed in there.
Bazaar du Hotel de Ville (BHV): I’d heard great things about this store (a department store with a very large arts and crafts department) but was disappointed as a lot of the material seemed to be American imports. Which is fine, if you’re not able to shop in the US, but as I’m spending most of the summer abroad I only bought a few things (erasable disposable fountain pens by my favourite brand). Their hardware section rocks though and we spent a huge amount of time there, I bought some washers for beading projects and a wooden wheel to make a spindle out of once I find a decent dowel for the stick.
Day 5: Montmartre, at the base of Sacre Coeur
This is fabric store heaven, with several very large establishments to choose from. Unfortunately, many are too crowded to get the wheelchair into so we chose Tissus Reine (Fabric Queen) and got some lovely stuff: upholstery fabric to make a bag, iron-on crystals and pirate patches. They had fantastic wool very suitable for re-enactment gear but it started at 17Euro a meter so was out of my price range.
Diagonally opposite Tissus Reine was a knitting shop that seems to be named “Laines” (”Wool”) that carries a lot of lovely Spanish yarn. I indulged just a wee bit
We saw a really cool shop in lower Montmartre, near the Place de Clichy, called Tombees du Cambion. It sells all kinds of antique bric-a-brac and ephemera. We didn’t buy anything as it was a little bit overpriced but man, they had great taste! (Creepiness of the photos aside, t was just playing when taking them.)
Last but certainly not least, I finally found some craft magazines at the train station on the way home. The Marie Claire Idees is pretty beaten up as it was the last copy and I found it was nice but I’m not gushing over it. It’s sort of a very girly/romantic version of Martha Stewart and that’s not my thing. The Idees Magazine, on the other hand, is exactly my sort of thing, especially as this is the black and white issue — my favourite! There were several other mags to choose from but as my French is still pretty limited I decided not to buy any more.
Order up!
I finally ordered my first “big girl” looms from Decor Accents — an extra small gauge straight rake for dishcloths and an extra fine gauge sock loom (will fit me and t both, yay!) to be delivered to my mom’s house. Now to find some cheap sock yarn to practice on — anyone destashing? Mom has already bought something like 25 skeins of Peaches & Creme for me (she went to the factory outlet unchaperoned and went a bit crazy!) so I’m good for dishcloths for now
I’m sure I will eventually get plenty more looms — I’m especially hoping that Duxall Inarow (love that name!) will resume producing her stunning rakes soon.
I’m also going to try my hand at crocheting dishcloths this summer as I’m feeling a lot more confident wielding a hook now after using it so much for casting on and finishing things on the loom. I sooo need a light-up hook for the road trip, methinks (Oh yeah, forgot to mention we’re driving to PA — I have a sneaking suspicion that there will be many quilt stores on our route!)
Sorry I’ve taken so long with getting all of the Paris and spinning class stuff written up but t and I have a stomach virus right now so we’re behind on everything — except our tv watching
Support London Crawling!
[crossposted]
As many of you know, I suffer from a condition called Fibromyalgia among many others. Fibromyalgia — called fibro or FM for short — is believed to be a disease of the central nervous system. People with this condition suffer intense, widespread pain and crushing fatigue. It can completely disable a person and destroy their lives. Up to three percent of the population may get this disease at some point in their life, although many go for years without obtaining a proper diagnosis. There is only one drug so far (approved in the US only) and that only works for a percentage of the population and only dampens some of the symptoms. We usually have pain every moment of every day and can find it difficult, perhaps even impossible, to find the energy to get out of bed, dress or leave the house. It is not a lack of willpower, but a chronic, permanent illness. It is like having the worst case of the flu you have ever experienced and it never goes away.
On the 10th of May, the National Fibromyalgia Association (US) is hosting a walk to raise awareness and funds for research. They have called for others — yes, even in other countries — to help them as Virtual Participants, and I am organizing a team. Walking for me is still a painful process, but I am committed to giving my all in support of this cause. Please honour my pain and hardship (it will take me at least a week to recover) with your support.
London Crawling is a pub crawl through the West End on that Saturday evening. We’re going to walk our 5K (hopefully, fingers crossed!) but take regular breaks to sit down, rest and perhaps have a half. (Alcohol not required, indeed not recommended for many on certain pain medications!) It’s social but socially conscious all in one! We’ll also be pointing out things which are hazards to the mobility impaired along our route for those who have never had cause to notice such things before.
Join our walk, either as an official Virtual participant (Cost: US$35, a non-tax deductible donation, you get an official t-shirt and your name on the virtual walkers roll) or just come along and make a cash donation. Perhaps you can match the pounds spend on beer with pounds given to Fibromyalgia research?
If you’re not in London, I urge you to become a Virtual participant anyway. You (apparently) don’t have to even walk. Maybe just walk virtually Second Life anyone? You can still be on our team even if you can’t crawl with us in person. Join in and help raise funds for this very worthy cause near and dear to my heart!
If participating doesn’t appeal, then I beseech you to consider donating. My personal sponsorship page has some more details of my personal struggle. You can join our team at the London Crawling page. You can donate either to me or to the team. And if joining the team, you can walk in my honour or anyone else you know with fibromyalgia. Let me know if you want more details for that part of the form.
Please spread the word!
I know the fad now is to offer prizes draws to those who make donations but I am not in a position to offer anything special. But I will promise a hand-made thank you card to any donor who requests one. These take my time and energy and can be a bit painful in the making so I hope that this gift will be as meaningful to you as anything else on offer.
The NFA has already helped make my life better and continues to search for ways to improve the lives of allof us with fibromyalgia. Please contribute today to keep the ball rolling and fight against this dreadful disease! I believe that donations are tax-deductible within the United States.
April in Paris, Part 2 (Project Superstar photos)
(Photo: Me in the Project Superstar shirt with the view from Sacre Coeur in Monmartre, Paris. April 12, 2008.)
The Project Superstar photo program is people taking pictures of themselves in the Superstar shirt and sending them to Marian (the very crafty little girl having a bone marrow transplant whom I have mentioned several times here before, see the link for “I’m a Craft Artist” in my blogroll) who is now in the hospital after her chemotherapy. I’m not the farthest away or the most exotic locations (a family in the Slovak Republic has sent in photos!) but maybe I can be the most posh locations
More photos, click to see larger:
My crafty photos are edited and on Flickr, I just need to write up the post about everything. Which may be broken into several parts as there are a lot of photos! There are also many more photos of me that t is posting, these are not PS shots but are usually for the wheelchair travel groups or they involve a lot of wine and thus are not appropriate to send to six year olds ;0 If anyone really wants to see those, drop me a line.
April in Paris, part 1
So we’re back, and yes we had a lovely time. Mostly because we abandoned all plans except eating (hitting many of our old favourites) and shopping in what craft stores I could find. We had some problems with the wheelchair not liking the steep hills (it drained the battery very quickly) so t had to push a lot, and it poured down rain for two days, but in general it was a pleasant and relaxing holiday. It’s going to take me a while to recover.
Paris has changed a lot in the four and a half years since our last visit. We used to visit annually when we could afford it (this is not that grand — remember, it’s just the next major town over and only 2.5 hrs by train so it’s one of the cheapest possible vacation spots for us) but I guess the changes seem a lot more pronounced when more time has passed. I’d read that many French people think that the city is becoming a museum rather than a living, vibrant center of life. I didn’t want to believe it but I’m afraid it is true. Maybe models find places to party but it’s becoming a tourist trap; there are more tourists than locals in most of the city center and the shops and venues have changed to reflect that. It’s a little sad, really.
I certainly won’t say don’t go if you have never been. I won’t even say that I won’t go — I’m always researching the history of Paris and/or using the museums as resources for other historical research. But just to chill out and mellow, I think we’ll go to Provence or back to Italy (where I lived for a while). Or who knows, maybe somewhere out there is a city that really is wheelchair friendly. I’m not holding my breath on that one though!
We’ve got about 500 photos to sort through and tag, but I’ll try to post the crafty ones (shops and my purchases) as soon as I can.
I’m trying to catch up on everyone else’s blogs so bear with me!
Failure
I really hate letting people down. Especially when I know if I had just not procrastinated I wouldn’t have had this problem!
I failed to finish my afghan for Tricot du Coeur. I let other things (Thing-a-day and Project Superstar) take precedence and then in the three weeks I had left — which should have been enough — I was too poorly to do much knitting. Where I normally could do about 2 feet per day I was barely managing five inches. So that just sucks.
I really hate disappointing people. I also hate letting myself down and not being healthy enough to finish things in the amount of timethat normal people could do them in. t has made me promise not to craft to deadlines any more. I really exhausted myself trying to do this and now I’m really overstretched and our vacation is this week.
I’ve got to conserve what energy I have so that I will be alert and not a total drag for our week in Paris! I’m going to give the blanket to the girls of Project Superstar when I finish it. I think I will be able to finish it (except for sewing up) whilst away so I can just add it to whatever I buy for them there. SO it’s still going to a good cause, even if not the one I had intended.
I still feel crappy about it though
I was on Knitting 911
Oh yeah, I simply must mention this! I was one of the guests on the latest episode (4) of Knitting 911, the loom and needle knitting podcast by Denise Layman of KnitChat.com and Loom Knitter’s Circle Magazine fame. You can listen on the webpage.
This has gotten me fired up to resume my own long-neglected podcasting and I will be posting more about my plans soon.
Coming out for Spring
I know I have been very remiss in my blogging endeavours, but I have to plead illness.It’s been a very hard month+ for me and talking to people is one of the most difficult things at times so I’m afraid I have just been hibernating away. But today, perhaps because of the spring weather (oh how I wish it were going to last!) or perhaps because I saw mallard ducks in my back lawn (why I have no idea and sadly I didn’t have my camera with me) or because I have a lot of announcements, I have finally felt like talking to the world at large.
But before I say more about what has been going on, here are some piccies for your entertainment:
That is a scarf that I made for my mother last December, didn’t photograph until February and am only managing to post about today. It was made using Trendsetter Yarns Blossom using the Alternating rib stitch (5 rows each direction) on the Knifty Knitter long yellow loom. At least, this is how it looked before I washed it and sadly it is far more anaemic looking now I’ll try to photograph it again to show the difference. t says he can’t tell and looking at the scrap yarn I can’t tell differences in the strands individually, but it just looks less fluffy I’m very mad at myself for chancing a machine wash (delicate cycle) on a handwash yarn, even though I know my mom will only machine wash it anyway. I feel like I screwed up US$45 worth of lovely yarn and am really beating myself up about it
Beating myself up about things is sort of the theme lately, as that’s part of what happens in my depression cycle. The big D is what has been making life miserable lately (mentally and physically as it increases pain levels). I’m not really going to talk about it much here as I know people don’t like hearing about that very much and so I’d rather save your illness attention spans for when I may need it in the future But I’ll just say that it has been the worst episode ever but finally my meds are adjusted and things seem to be on an even keel again. I still don’t feel that my meds are quite right, but I plan to study the meditation course for the prevention of depression relaspe so hopefully the meds will become less important in time.
The big news is that I have decided to go to America for a while this year. Normally this wouldn’t be news as I spend between 5 and 10 weeks a year there but I had actually been planning to *not* go over this year and have my parents come visit me instead. But my dad got sick (another reason I have been silent online is being stressed over him being in the hospital, etc.) and can’t do a long haul flight for a while and now my health problems are just getting to be more than t can handle. We’re going to have to look into getting me a carer but to do that I need to get disability benefits and that’s going to take several months so the temporary answer is that I will be going to the US to stay with my mom for two months to give t a break, then she will come over here for a few weeks to get some stuff organized so that we’re in a better position for the future.
SO: I’m going to be going to North Carolina from late May (ish) to the end of July (ish), with stops in Pittsburgh (and maybe Philly) and Tampa to see my dad (and maybe Disneyworld, that would rock!). I’m going to work on my knitting, practice spinning and maybe do some re-enacting. Also probably doing some scrapbooking and maybe a bit of quilting (Mom’s a big time quilt freak). And buying craft supplies. Oh yes, the best part!
All that comes after our trip to Paris next week though
I have more to talk about but I must rest my hands, my spinning class is tomorrow so I can’t afford to be crampy! I’ll try to post again soon, really!
Doldrums, Sock Lust, and more ramblings
Thanks to those who have written me with encouragement in the past two weeks. I’m coming to terms with everything but things got delayed as my father was in the hospital most of last week with blood clots in the lungs. He’s fine now but since his father died from blood clots unexpectedly, we were all more than a bit nervous. And it may be another genetic condition to which I may be predisposed, so I’m awaiting the results of his testing almost as much as he is. Since I have so far gotten every single disease known on either side of the family, and often younger than the “normal” onset, I’m starting to become a little obsessive about knowing just what may becoming down the pike. (And desperately praying that I miss out on Alzheimer’s!) I’m not crazy enough to think that I will get everything, but my odds are batting 1000 against me at the moment so I want to know what to be screened for.
Anyway, all of this has sent my mental health into something of a spiral. I normally have a depressive episode in February each year so it’s probably just a slightly delayed reaction combined with family illness (father inlaw then father) and the upheaval of my new diagnosis. It’s not that diabetes is a problem per se, it’s that I’m having to give up several coping mechanisms and unorthodox (but working for me) treatment strategies so my symptom load is going very high and I just feel like things are still very chaotic. Well, in fact they are, as we’ve yet to decide on new treatment regimes so I’m kinda of flying blind. Hence the “doldrums” part of the title. The grey, rainy weather isn’t helping any and knitting with my brightest yarn isn’t helping there either. When not even beading magazines can cheer me, I know it’s getting bad. So I have a med review this week, one of my four appointments this week when I don’t have the energy to get out of bed let alone trek to the doctors and hospitals. It has to be done though as I can’t handle much more of the way I am feeling…
But enough about that, let’s talk socks I have been wanting to order a sock loom but have been put off by how many sizes there are (so if I make socks for myself and my mom I’d need a different loom for my husband and dad) and how long of a wait it is to get a loom. I think I’m just going to have to bite the bullet and order one though as I know that with diabetes foot care is important and that means wearing socks all of the time. I generally try to escape socks as much as possible and right now can only cope with toe socks or part cashmere (luckily I got a bunch of lambswool and cashmere at TJ Maxx last year for $5/pair). I’m hoping though that hand-knit socks will be every bit as amazing as everyone says. I also know from trying to get people to make hats for me that I won’t just be able to lean on folks to get some socks either so like hats I’m just going to have to make them myself. So if anyone reading this has sock looms and likes or dislikes them, please let me know which one(s) you have! I am hoping to use proper sock yarn (and do not like slipper socks or anything bulky!!!).
(As an aside, if anyone has single socks languishing without mates, my husband refuses to wear matching socks so will happily give them a good home He also could not care less what gender they were meant for or even if they fit him properly or not! So if you have second sock syndrome but can’t bear the thought of frogging the one you already made, he can put them to good use.)
In other news, I’m finishing up the mate to the Lagoon legwarmer. I had hoped to have it done by today but I was getting hotspots again so I am taking it slower. Then I need to really get cranking to finish my afghan for Tricot du Coeur as that is due this month. I made a hat inspired by Annie Modesit’s rasta hat but have yet to photograph it. I think I need to order a styrofoam head form for better hat photos plus I can use it for making felted hats. So another thing I just need to get off my rear and order! I’m just being a bit stingy since we’re going to Paris next month and always waaaay overspend there so we’re putting off nonessential purchases as much as we can just in case. Ooh, I should start looking for the Parisian yarn shops…:)
Oh, and I shall need to buy a spindle as my spinning class is very soon and I’m sure I will want to keep going at home!
Well I have to go, I’ve got an appointment to attend and miles to go before I sleep….
Elevator troubles
Sorry I am still not doing well, but I thought you might enjoy seeing the complete ragdoll accessories set (which I have yet to blog about) in this picture my husband took last week.
A little downtime
Apologies that I’vve been quieter than usual. This time it’s not out of forgetting to blog, just life getting in the way. I’ve added another disease to my portfolio, which has meant tests, lots of GP visits, angst over the changes required for management (which as usual sound trivial but when put into the jigsaw puzzle that is my other disease management are far more profound), plus the new symptoms to cope with. So it’s been a crazy week. I’m very tired and emotionally worn out and I just need to take a bit of time out to get the lay of the land. I’ll be back to blogging as soon as I am up for it.
In lieu of a real post
This is a self-portrait from Meez.com. You’ve probably seen it on other blogs, as there is a knitting animation that you can have your virtual self doing This is pretty close to accurate, but of course all avatars look better than the real thing! Here you see me dressed as usual in a t shirt and pyjama pants in a terribly messy room. I’m not usually in the chair in the apartment (in fact never, there isn’t room here), but they didn’t have an option for canes or crutches or my usual of leaning on the walls as I slink around… Usually if it’s less than 20 meters I don’t bother with a cane, so that can confuse some people who see me walking “normally” (like at my felting course this weekend which was in a small place) and then hear me talk about using a wheelchair.
In other news, I have found a new charity to knit for (after I get caught up on the projects already on the go). It’s pretty near to my heart as it serves people with neuroendoimmune disorders including fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and multiple chemical sensitivity. (I have two of those for sure, maybe on the middle one.) Anyway, having been the person begging for warm hats a few years ago (when I first had to give up having hair) I feel it’s the perfect place to give back. P.A.N.D.O.R.A. is the organization, but I couldn’t find their request for knitted items on their website, only on their page on Liom Brand Yarns’ charity finder.
OK typing this has killed my fingers so I guess they need more rest. I’ll try to write up about the felting course tomorrow, achy fingers crossed!
Fall down go Boom
Lene of The Seated View has just posted a wonderful entry entitled Thoughts of Pain & What Comes With It. I encourage you to read the whole thing, but here is the bit that moved me the most:
Chronic pain teaches you that pain isn’t the worst thing that can happen. Not living your life is the worst thing that can happen. And so, you develop filters that mask the pain, block your perception of it and get on with your life. I once tested this – convinced that making a cup of tea in my microwave didn’t hurt, I decided to pay attention and discovered that it indeed did hurt, but on the days where I have adequate pain control, isn’t loud enough to make it through the filter. One of my favourite barriers to pain is the fun filter – you’re out, with friends, dancing, talking or whatever floats your boat and you are fine. Absolutely fine. You’re so fine that you may stay out having fun for longer than you should, but you ignore this, because the music is playing or you are about an hours worth of debate away from solving the world’s problems. It is not until you come home and close the front door behind you that the fun filter abruptly falls away and in a nanosecond, you go from an entirely manageable level of pain to wanting to curl up in a fetal position, whimpering in a corner. It usually takes days to recover from something like that, but what you quickly learn is that it’s worth it.
That is not only 100% true in general, it’s also exactly what is going on right now. I spent all weekend getting up in the wee hours, sitting outside in the 27F cold for over an hour each day waiting for trains and buses, having a truly fabulous time at the feltmaking course — and then I came home and SPLAT! I had rubbed my hands so raw (and bloody) that touching anything was excruciating agony. I can’t type or move or even cough without high levels of pain. I laid down for a nap at 6 pm and woke at 6 am. I’m gonna be paying for this all week. And it was worth it.
But it’s going to be a few days before I can type enough to do justice to my writeup of the course, so I’m afraid that you shall have to be patient. As shall I, as t says I can’t wet felt again until my hands heal up. And I have about 20 hours of sleep to squeeze into this week else my body will not be as forgiving as I insist it must be. After all, the Stitch & Creative Craft expo is next week, so I’ve got to rest up! (Bunnies to pet there, ya know..)
Lagoon legwarmer
I had started this thinking it would be a thing-a-day but the blasted thing took me twelve hours over two days. Knowing that has put me off doing its mate until thing-a-day is over.
Anyway, the gory details: One legwarmer, extra-long (I like em to come up over my knees), made in K2P2 (2×2) ribbing on the green loom that came with the Reader’s Digest set (does this thing have a real name?). Made from one skein of Colinette Prism in the Lagoon colourway, to be worn with the Ponytail hat. With lots and lots of flaws where I purled instead of knitting and vice versa. Doing ribbing for a few rows isn’t so bad, but for over two feet is a lot harder than I thought! But I guess part of knitting, especially when something is meant as a utility garment rather than stylish one, is that you have to learn to live with the mistakes. Still, I think I have a lot more love for storebought legwarmers after this. (And the ones I shall be making for friends will be ribbed at both ends but e-wrapped in the middle!!!)
Early stuff: hats
Three Basic Hats
This is probably boring to most of you as it’s very basic hats like we all make when starting out with loom knitting. The purple one on the right is what I made the very first night I loom knit, it took me about three hours while watching tv in a hotel room in Virginia. Thats Red Heart Light & Lofty, which we’ll see more of soon as I’ve just done a more fun project with it. THe gray hat is the Bernat soft boucle that I hate, again the basic hat form with a brim, blahblah. This one’s for t, and has a scarf and fingerless mitts that go with it (but they’re not photographed yet). The teal one I made because I wanted something without a brim for sleeping in — Ifind the brim annoying under my neck. So I took some Moda Dea Metro (more of that to come, I like this one) and whipped up a hat quickly with a garter stitch border instead of a brim. Perfect for keeping the draft off my scalp.
This photo was taken at the end of the day but as these hats are pretty boring to me I didn’t feel it was worth taking the shot again another time. I’m a very lazy photographer, I am finding, which in some ways disturbs me as I’d love to have gorgeous, professional-looking shots like on other blogs, but just can’t manage to go into the other room, set up the lightbox and tripod and all the other faff that is involved. I think I will have to do all of that for my beadwork though, we’ll see.
The baby mohawk hat
(Sorry it’s a little blurry, I have a hard time holding steady..)
This has been all over, starting with a gorgeous Union flag mohawk hat in a punk knitting book and with variations all around the net. I just made a hat in 2×2 (k2p2) ribbing on the Knifty Knitter red round loom and then added the “hair” in the same way you’d add fringe to a scarf (lark’s head knots, I use a crochet hook to pull things through).
Yarn is Colinette Prism in Cherry for the body of the hat and Colinette Marshmallow in Lagoon for the mohawk.
It’s been a rough week
I’m still pretty much keeping up with my thing-a-day, but I haven’t been posting anywhere. I’m still in a fibro flare and making my thing is about the oly thing I am doing some days. But we did get out for a day to run some errands, I’ve knitted several items and photographed them, I just need to get myrear in gear and post things here.
I’m sorry I have been quiet in commenting and replying to comments, it’s just that typing is hard at the moment. I’m going to try to catch up when I can. Meanwhile I think I will shut up and start posting pics
Prayer Request
I don’t usually do this, but it’s really important.
I’d like to request prayers/candles/energy/anything that might help on behalf of t’s dad (John). He’s been in hospital for a month now battling a series of infections and is now resistant to all but one antibiotic. If he can just beat these infections and come home, he may get his new kidney within a few months (he’s been waiting over two years). But they can’t give him a transplant while he has an infection and anyway, being drug resistant is a very dangerous thing!! So please, do what you can….we’re very worried at this point
I am soooo spoiled :)
For Valentines my parents are giving me the feltmaking and spinning courses at the Handweaver’s Studio. I can’t wait! They’re also buying me some books on fiber that I have been wanting: the Knitter’s Book of Yarn by Clara Parkes and Fabulous Felt Hats by Chad Alice Hagen. I’ll review them when they come in
They’re trying to butter me up before coming to visit later this year…but still, I <3 being an only child
In other news, I’m having a pretty bad flare (where many symptoms are intensified, right now it’s the pain and fatigue) so I’m having to just lay low and take care of myself for a few days. I’m still trying to post and to keep up with Thing a day (which I am posting on their site, stuff will filter over to here eventually) but for now I just have to rest.
Ponytail Hat
I call this the Ponytail Hat because, well it looks like the hat has a ponytail Not suitable for wearing with actual ponytails, although I suppose you could modify it. It is youth sized (my head is 20 inches in circumference without hair which is very small for an adult, more like pre-teen sizing).
This hat was made on the Knifty Knitter long yellow loom knittiing in the round. I used a “ruffled” cast on (not that it looks very ruffled), then a K1P1 ribbing for six rows. Next was ten rows of e-wrap and then I started the decreasing: first just the end pegs and then four pegs per row until I had eight pegs left. I knitted the tube at eight pegs for about four inches, then decreased to six pegs for about five rows and then down to four pegs for the remainder of the ponytail. Add fringe and voila!
This used most of one skein of Colinette Marshmallow in the Lagoon colourway. To do an adult hat I’d go up to the green long loom and it would probably take one and half skeins. (It’s actually a little short for me as it is, if I were to do it again for myself I’d add 3-4 more rows of e-wrap but that would have put me over one skein and I didn’t have any more.)
A very special Sick Chick who Crafts
Marian is six years old and has been blogging for over a year now (by dictating to her mum, Valerie). From what I’ve seen she so very enthusiastic about crafting which is so great to see in a girl her age.
But there’s something potentially getting in the way of her crafting this year: her bone marrow transplant. Because of the way this transplant will work, she will undergo chemotherapy in March and then go into the hospital for her transplant surgery. Her older sister is her donor, a perfect match, but that’s still a painful operation for both little girls Anyway, after her transplant, Marian’s immune system will be so fragile that she will only be able to use brand-new craft supplies that can be easily cleaned. She will be in hospital for a long time until she is recovered enough to be able to take her new immune system out into the world so will need a lot of supplies!
Not taking this lying down, she’s raising money through the sales of craft kits and other artwork to fund her supplies with leftover money going to a charity called Caitlyn’s Smiles which provides craft kids for children in hospitals. The kits and things are for sale through her mom’s Etsy shop, Purple Petunia which is due to be restocked today.
I don’t know what else can be done for this amazing crafty family, but I’m going to try whatever they ask I’ve written to get a t shirt (which features a drawing Marian did of a pop singer with the caption “Project Superstar” which is the codename for the fund raising and Marian-cheering efforts) but I don’t know if they are sold out already. If I get one though I shall take a photo of me in it in front of major landmarks in London and Paris and email them periodically while Marian is recovering.
So I encourage everyone to go over to the blog and post comments, to go to the shop and buy some of the snowglobe necklace kits made by the girls, and to watch this space as I’ll post if I hear of any other ways to help. Let’s do what we can to keep this sick chick crafting!
The Awareness Scarf
This is what I am calling the Awareness Scarf, cince it looks so much to me like an Awareness Ribbon. It is a skinny keyhole scarf (one end goes through the other to hold it snug on the neck) made on the Knifty Knitter long looms. This one is made in Colinette Marshmallow yarn in the colourway Jay and was made for a friend who is an ovarian cancer survivor (which had nothing to do with my choice of colour, she just happens to like blue ).
I’m thinking about making several of these to sell on Etsy for about US$20 plus shipping, with $2 from each scarf given to a charity relating to one of my diseases. I’d not really be charging anything for my time but I figure this is craft therapy time for me and the rest of the profit can go to more craft therapy for me. I found making this was very soothing to my anxiety levels, better than meds 
I’d always use Colinette Marshmallow as long as I can still get it and then Colinette Point Five after that, they have a wide range of wonderful colours to choose from.
What do you think? Is $20 a reasonable price? On the one hand it’s too little as it doesn’t pay me much at all for my time, on the other hand skinny scarves are very popular and going for much cheaper when mass produced so I think people will baulk at $20. All I really care about is the opportunity to raise some money and awareness of some of my diseases, but getting to knit more and more is a very big plus
Comments very welcome…
I want: Malabrigo Organic Cotton dyed with Cochineal
While listening to Ready, Steady, Knit (the podcast of WEBS yarn store aka yarn.com) they mentioned that Malabrigo is coming out with a very limited edition organic cotton this month, all dyed with natural materials in Peru.
WANT! is all I have to say about it.
Wonder if anyone in the UK will be getting any….else I shall certainly order from WEBS since hey, they put me on to it
Meanwhile on the topic of organic cotton, I really need a dishcloth rake. Mope mope.
EDIT on 29 April: order placed!
Photographic Stop-Gap
Well, we stil haven’t completed a light tent to my satisfaction, but t just got a new camera (out of his ten year service bonus) and it does muuuch better with colour than mine. So it will do for now with yarn type things.
But I am really tired, so for now I shall just leave you with this pic of a work in progres that was on my loom earlier today (now finished for Thing-a-Day).
On the Loom: A child’s afghan
I’m still trying to sort out taking photos in poor light: as you can see I’m not there yet as this is pretty horrid.
This is a children’s afghan that I am making for Tricot du Coeur that will go to a camp for disabled children in North Carolina. I’m not sure if I am going to block it or not: blocking means less work to get it to fit the guideline sizes, but if the kid’s mom isn’t going to block it will the kid wind up disappointed when their afghan suddenly “shrinks” in the wash?
I’m using the Alternating Rib Stitch from ProvoCrafts and the yarn is Sirdar Stampata Chunky that I got on deep discount right before the holidays. It’s part wool, part synthetic and is washable up to 40 degrees C (about 100 F).
We’re going to go back to working on the photo corner tonight as this was with a moderate amount of light coming in through the window and that’s a luxury I don’t usually have. I’m feeling a little bit vindicated though that a couple of lamps and a sheet does NOT cut it, despite what t says I want a proper lightbox/light tent and that means more lamps and some kind of structure!
Too much downtime leads to dangerous scheming
I’ve made my peace with pain, for the most part. I won’t stop trying to get new and improved meds, but probably 29 days out of 30, pain is not stopping me from doing what I want to do and on that 30th I just have to rest up, pace and work around my limitations so that I can still do much of what I want. I still spend a lot of time in bed as it’s the only way to keep up my treaty obligations, and that leads to an overactive brain frustrated by inability to do anything. More on this later.
Fatigue is another story. I have not made peace with it, we’re still at war. It is my primary nemesis and the cause of most of my inability to get things done. You see, 90% of people with chronic pain will experience fatigue. On top of that I have two more diseases that cause fatigue, lucky me. It comes in many guises and has more causes than a bleeding heart liberal. (Not that I have anything against bleeding heart liberals ). For me, fatigue can come at full blast or sneak up on me on silent cat feet, usually attacking *because* I am at peace with my pain.
Confused? Well, part of my being at peace with pain is learning to ignore it. It becomes just another annoying signal coming from the body, like hunger or the need to pee. When you are wholly engrossed in a project to the point where you don’t notice time passing or hunger pangs rising, you can also ignore pain too. Hours later, you look up from your craft table and realize that you’re really hungry, have a desperate need to pee and you’re in massive pain. Hey, I’d rather have a burst of pain quickly quashed by big drugs (quickly being a relative term) over annoying pain all of the time. Your mileage may vary, but that’s what I have chosen.
But ignoring pain like that drains you of energy without you even noticing it. (After all, you’re not noticing the pain either…) And unlike pain, the fatigue that can come doesn’t wait for you to look up from your fantastic project. Oh no, it sneaks up behind you and pounces, knocking you flat. You have no choice, you are wholly within its mercy. And mercy, it has none. So you can be doing your favouritest thing in the world but when fatigue strikes you have no choice but to go lay down and probably sleep.
This happens to me a lot and is the main cause for UFOs. Actually, Fatigue’s nasty sister Insomnia is equally to blame for UFOs. If I’ve crashed out in the middle of the afternoon for a few hours, it’s practically guaranteed that my sleep schedule will be borked. You see, insomnia is not a lack of sleeping, it’s the inability to sleep when you want to and can be coupled with the inability to stay awake when you want to. It’s simply a messed-up sleep schedule. But oh, how a messed-up sleep schedule can mess up your life!
There are three types of insomnia: not being able to get to sleep in the first place, getting to sleep but then waking up in the middle of the night unable to get back to sleep for several hours, and waking up well before your alarm and unable to get back to sleep. I get the middle one, my husband t gets the latter, but due to the fact that he sleeps half as much as I do, we often wind up dealing with insomnia at the same time.
Insomnia is insidious: you want so badly to go back to sleep, you hope and pray that you can get to sleep any minute now. So you don’t do anything that’s going to wake you up even more and you don’t get too involved in anything so that you can go back to sleep the moment insomnia releases you from her evil clutches. You’re awake, but can’t really be productive unless you’ve given up entirely on getting back to sleep. You pass the time, knowing that every minute you’re awake in the middle of the night is probably one that you’re going to be asleep during the productive part of the day. (At least for me, as I have the option to sleep whenever my body demands it. Unlike poor t whose work frowns upon keeling over in meetings, etc.)
For me, passing time without doing anything so taxing as to wake me up fully involves a lot of random web surfing and a great deal of churning my mind over and over. (Actually the mind churning over and over can be why I can’t get to sleep in the first place on those sorts of nights. Go generalized anxiety and ADD!) I have to admit that a lot of my great craft ideas come from this semi-meditative state, but it’s not always a consolation. I can’t *DO* anything during this time, except maybe fairly mindless online things like adding my entire blogroll to this site, so it means I am filled with ideas that have to wait until I have the energy to do them. Often without regard to whether I already have a project on the go that I really should finish first…
This week I was upin the middle of two nights and caught myself blog surfing and actually commenting. Rare for me, but hey, I had nothing better to do and was already awake enough to form coherent sentences. I came away from these periods of meandering with two burning desires:
1) I want to do MORE with this craft blogging thing. OK, I want to do a podcast but my track record with podcasting isn’t so great. But maybe I will get into interviewing Sick Chicks who Craft for the blog? Or would that be better as a podcast anyway?? (Thoughts welcome.) The problem of course is that I am barely keeping up with this blog this as it is, so a desire to do even more than I’m attempting to do now isn’t really helpful at this stage
2) I want to learn to spin. This is not a new feeling, I’ve wanted to learn to spin since before I’ve wanted to knit, I just fear failure a lot more in this area. I’ve even looked up spinning classes in my local area but none of them tell the prices and well, if I have to ask I know I can’t afford it.
This spinning-lust has been made even worse by egging on from Violet of (of Lime & Violet), which happened because I commented on a review of a new spinning book and she actually responded with said egging. (Thanks ) It’s pretty overpowering now and I think that when I make a run to the Handweaver’s Studio for some fiber (for felting), I will ask about their spinning classes. And maybe their fiber dyeing classes, as I love dyeing (and am going to do some Kool Aid dyeing as part of Thing a Day). *deep sigh* I can just see my craft budget for the rest of the year slipping away to course fees…..
And now it’s half five in the evening and I have nothing but this post to show for what I’ve done with my day. I’ve been too drained to do anything else. I know it’s not my fault, but I can’t help simultaneously feeling guilty and silently cursing the fatigue monster that made me sleep sixteen hours straight….oh well, my fingers say I have typed too much for one stretch so even if I wanted to get more moody at you it’s time to stop. So goodbye for another day…
4 for 3
In the 4 days since my Colinette arrived, and bearing in mind that I didn’t knit any of it on the first day, I have completed three objects. Not a bad track record at all, IMO. Proves that when you have exquisite yarn it motivates you to great speed I’ve even got a design that I think might sell (well it’s terribly similar to a lot of other things that are selling).
Unfortunately, a trip to the hardware store has not provided the material I want for a nice light tent, so we’re going to have to improvise. Because this blog is pretty boring without pictures of all these things I am making!
I have a ton of more insightful posts to write, but my health is not doing too well right now so sitting and typing are alas not among my top efforts at this exact moment. Soon, I hope.
Curses, foiled again!
So instead of the forecasted rain it was actually sunny for a while today. I dutifully trudged out to the back lawn (we live in a high rise but it has a garden around it) with yesterday’s knitting and camera, got everything laid out in the one sunny patch (hey, even when we have sun it’s not *that* much!) and turn on the camera. It makes its cute little startup noises and then the screen goes black. Ah, I’ve left the lens cap on, doh! Flick it off and on again and this time it makes its cute startup noises, and lets me see the neckwarmer on the LCD screen for a second before going black again. The ONE sunny day we’ve had in weeks and my camera batteries decided to die! I’m so doomed…..
(I’m gonna sing the Doom song now….)
I’ve got Blisters on my Fingers!
OK, only hotspots. But still, that hated Bernat Soft Boucle is such a pain to work with, the nubby bits just get caught on each other and so trying to do a K2P2 ribbing (which I am doing for t’s wristwarmers — sadly, he liked the first one so I am having to do another) is nightmarish. Hoping to make it end quicker, I worked for 2-3 hrs on them yesterday and got *hotspots * (pre-blisters/swollen hot areas) on my thumb and forefinger from constantly yanking at the yarn to close the loops properly. I think it might be easier with needles but the way that you do a purl on the loom involves lifting it off the loom, putting the new loop on and then tightening, so that’s a lot of manipulating the yarn. Owwie!
Yesterday my Colinette order came through so I am taking a day off the blasted boucle and making a neck warmer to match my Ragdoll hat. I’ve yet to figure out how much “fringe” I want, but I have plenty of yarn this time!
Pictures are a bit of a problem with the utter lack of light in London at the moment, but we’re building a light tent this weekend so hopefully I’ll be able to take decent photos whatever the weather. Blistery fingers crossed!
