The Sick Chick Crafts

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.

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!

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..)

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!!!)

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.

(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.

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

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

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.

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.)

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!

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 :P   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…

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!

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).