The Sick Chick Crafts

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!

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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

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 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!

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.

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…

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!

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 :P)   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…

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.

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….)

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!

I’m going to be brave and sign up for Thing-A-Day 2 – a group project to create one brand new thing every day in the month of February.  Those 29 things (remember, it’s a leap year!) can be in any creative art, including culinary, and you’re asked to spend 30 minutes per day devoted to your projects.  I am probably going to do some loom knit samplers (which I usually do as dishcloths), lots of beading (I foresee many earrings, but that’s what my mom wants anyway), some ATCs or at least backgrounds for ATCs (which will involve painting) and a few cooking projects. Maybe some needle felting or stamping or even the felted soaps I have planned. T-a-D ask for a theme for each week but I don’t know that I will do that, more likely I will do one type of project and cook things on weekends.

Before I can do this, I need to: 1) Organize my craft supplies.  This is mostly done, but I need to get everything in one place. 2) Find a place to leave my crafting supplies out overnight.  Not sure about this, but I know that packing things up and pulling them out again every time is a big hindrance to my crafting.  Hefting boxes and bags is the most difficult step for me! 3) Find a way to photograph finished objects that does not rely on sunlight, since in England we won’t have much sun at all in February.  I really have no idea how I will manage this, so I’m going to rely on t to set something up.  A white box of sorts that we can shine lights onto would be the ideal, but I don’t know if I can acquire one at a reasonable price in time. 

I encourage every crafty person reading this to at least consider joining Thing-A-Day this year. If you do decide to take the plunge, please let me know!  (Perhaps by email until the comment-eating spam filter gets fixed here :/) 

I designed these gloves for two reasons: One, as a sampler of various stitch patterns that you can do on the round looms and Two, because I hadn’t seen any gloves done in the round, only flat panels that were seamed up.

I have a small hand and wrist, but I wanted to be able to wear these over my wrist braces. They stretch a fair bit. The pic below is NOT over braces. I also wanted the cuff to be loose so that it can go over a shirt sleeve or even the bottom of a coat sleeve as I hate how the wind can get in there! So this has a wider, gauntlet-like cuff then it narrows at the wrist. The whole pattern is a little roomy, if you want it tighter use the flat knit instead of the e-wrap.

Each set of stitches is done in 6 rows, hence the 6 in the name The pattern goes as follows:

On the Knifty Knitter Round Blue Loom: 6 rows of garter stitch (e-wrap odd rows, purl even rows); 6 rows of e-wrap; 6 rows of K2P2 ribbing (knit two with the flat stitch, purl two, all the way around the loom), 6 rows of e-wrap, 6 rows of e-wrap as a flat panel (do not connect! turn around at the last peg and go back, this makes the hole for the thumb), 6 rows of garter stitch (as above), 6 rows of K2P2 ribbing (as above).

I’m sorry, but if you don’t know how to do any of the above steps, you need to look it up, I don’t have time to explain.

I used the horrible yarn that came with the Reader’s Digest loom set. Man, that stuff splits and frizzes badly. I probably won’t keep these gloves long as I don’t think the yarn will last!

Next I am going to make some fingerless gloves just in the K2P2 ribbing, which will be much tighter. I find K2P2 very tedious, but it does give a lot more “compression” than anything else I have tried thus far. I may do a sampler of various types of ribbing (K1P1, K3P1, etc.) to compare.

I created this hat in Mid-December. I was inspired by several Fraggle hats I have seen on the internet, but due to the thickness of the yarn it doesn’t really look like those. Instead, it reminds me of Raggedy Ann, and thus the name It’s made of one skein (every last inch of it!) of Colinette Marshmallow in the Fiorentina colourway. I have a small head and no hair and thus the hat fits my 20″ head, but for an adult size you’d probably need more yarn if you want it to be double knit.I made a 12 inch/30 cm long rectangle by double knitting on the long pink Knifty Knitter loom with the figure 8 wrap. I used the lucet cast on. I then took the rest of the yarn and cut it into 6 inch/15 cm lengths and used those pieces to close up the sides, tying in square knots. If you wanted to make this for a larger head (most adults would need a larger size), I’d use the yellow loom and do more rows, but really you can make a long rectangle any way you fancy!It took an evening while watching TV, don’t know the exact timing. I’ve ordered three more skeins to make a matching scarf because I looooove this yarn!

One of my boxes has arrived from the States — and it has the camera cable!  Now I just have to find some sunlight (don’t hold your breath, I live in London!) and there will be pix galore…. It also has some of my yarn in it, mostly the ubercheap stuff I got on sale, some of which I don’t really want any more.  I’ll put them up for trade on Ravelry but I doubt anyone will want them…

Meanwhile, I finally took t’s hat off the loom - man I hate Bernat Soft Boucle (and 4 more skeins just arrived in that box today, blech!), it breaks every time I try to knot it. (And being acrylic I don’t trust it without knots.) I got about halfway through with my second fingerless glove but I think I am going to have to tink the last two rows as I seem to have messed up my K2P2 ribbing somehow.

Oh woe  (I can’t get enough yarn, and since I only started my stash in October I think I am justified!  So everyone whose New Years Resolution is to destash, send some my way )

I just ordered some Marshmallow from Colinette.  It’s not available on their website — it’s similar to Point Five but much softer.  It’s my favourite yarn so far! I had gotten one skein at the Knitting & Stitching show because the colours called out to me, but I didn’t know that it would be so pleasant to loom with so I didn’t get more at that time. Unfortunately, now it is full price, £5.50 per 100g which is about 50m and about enough to make one hat.  (I made my “ragdoll” hat — sorry, pics soon as I can do them! — out of it and used every last inch.)  I got three skeins of Fiorentina colourway to make a scarfette to match my hat, plus one of Lagoon (to make a hat to go with the legwarmers I am making out of the Prism in Lagoon I bought yesterday) and one of Jay just because it looked pretty. (I’m on a blue kick for some reason…)  I LOVE this yarn and would buy every last skein they had in pretty much every colourway if I could!   I did feel Point Five at Loop yesterday but Marshmallow really is that much softer.  I have a lovely sleeveless sweater pattern for the loom made out of Point Five that I’d rather do in Marshmallow, but that’s a bit pricey at 6 or 7 skeins

  Did I mention that I LOVE Marshmallow???  Just checking! *vbg* 

Not much crafty goodness to report over the holidays, but enough to warrant a wee post  I got two new rubber stamp inkpads on sale, in royal purple and peacock blue (two fave colours) on Boxing Day.  On the 27th we hit the sales, and in that we went to Fenwick (didn’t like anything and didn’t notice anything on sale), John Lewis (where I bought 16 skeins, all half price) and the yarn stalls in Grainger Market (there are two, but they’re the same company, all very cheap but mostly acrylic).  From a cheap skein from John Lewis I made a basic loomed hat that evening, but it was for my hostess so I didn’t get a photo of it as I gave it to her within minutes of it being done  It was very basic anyway, you’re not missing anything…

 I’ve also finished the first of my experimental armwarmers, using the horrid yarn that came with the Reader’s Digest loom kit.  It’s working out for my purposes, but I will alter the design for t’s armwarmers.  Still, it is good to know that I can do them on the Knifty Knitter round blue loom rather than having to do them as flat panels.  I will finish the other one of mine in the next few days, then move on to his.  Then I will post patterns for both.  I’m just making things up as I go along but since I hadn’t found any for that loom before I thought other people might be interested in seeing how I did it.

 Other than that, not much crafting happened, but I need to seriously get cracking as I have a medieval tunic to make in the next week! 

[Term stolen from Hankering for Yarn blog. It means forgetting to take a picture before it's too late.]

Now is about time to start tallying up all of the things I have knit since I started on 8 November. Unfortunately, several of the gifts I forgot to photograph and as for the rest I left my microUSB cable at my parents’ house, so unless t (my husband) can borrow one from work, it will be a while before I can get any images off my camera. Sorry!

I’m usually not so good about finishing projects and my mother and t are both blown away by how much I have done with looming. What can I say, I just love yarn! So far I have made one plain brimmed hat from the basic Knifty Knitter instructions (in Red Heart Light & Lofty), 6 children’s hats (in Berocco Foliage) that were gifts to kids in my family, got 1/3 of the way through a scarf in Red Heart Grande then decided I hated that yarn so threw it away (it was splitting and frizzing horribly!!), made myself an 8 inch by 8 foot double knit scarf (in Moda Dea Metro) and a matching hat similar to this pattern from Knitchat.com, a 12 inch by 6 foot scarf double knit in the alternating rib stitch for my mother (out of Trendsetter Yarns Blossom), a magic scarf for myself (out of Lion Brand Fun Fur), three dishcloths doubleknit on the loom for my mother (in Lily Sugar ‘n Cream), an 8 inch by 8 foot double knit scarf for t (in Bernat Soft Boucle) and a plain knitted hat (in same) — working on matching fingerless gloves and legwarmers — and what I call a ragdoll hat (a Fraggle hat that looks rather more like Raggedy Ann) from a yarn I LOVE: Colinette Marshmallow. Plus a couple of coffee cozies that I didn’t like so I frogged.

I’m pretty pleased with that for 6 weeks’ work!

Things I have learned so far: I hate regular Red Heart yarn as it’s horrid to work with and makes my hands itch. I love using knitting boards and definitely want an afghan loom. I want to make socks if for no other reason than to indulge in sock yarn. I like working with cotton. I really want to start felting (I do felty stuff that’s not knitted already.) I’m entirely smitten with Colinette yarns at the moment and want more right now!

Anyway I shall try to get pictures of the things I still have on hand (not the kids hats or the dishcloths) soon, as I am aware that this blog is woefully boring without pics!

Well, I generally think that charity begins with MEEEEE. OK, that sounds pretty bad, but as the recipient of grants and money raised to pay for my wheelchair, assistance from my parents for chair maintenance and other mobility aids, and the outrageously high cost of living as a disabled person, I do get somewhat fed up with people who come asking me to donate money to this charity or that. Not that I don’t want to give, but well, what spare money I have generally goes to charities involved in finding treatments or cures for my plethora of diseases. (OK and for history & preservation things too, but that’s much farther down the priority list, financially.)

That said, I do WANT to help out others, it’s just that I have a lot more time than money. So now that I am finally able to knit basic things on my looms, I am ready to start knitting for those who — well, may or may not be not less fortunate than me, but still need nice things to make them feel special and to know that people care. I *KNOW* how it feels to think that the world has abandoned you, and how even a small gift from a random stranger can totally brighten your week. So I want to give back. Of course, I can’t say that this is entirely unselfish — crafting makes me happy and is good for my mental health, so I am getting a lot out of it, too. I’m just going to have to watch my pennies so that I can make sure that I always have enough yarn to match my semi-endless amount of time.

So, the first charity project is to make a child’s afghan for the Tricot du Coeur (Knitters of the Heart) project which this winter is making afghans and quilts to support a camp for disabled children in North Carolina. The kids get to take their blankets home with them, so they need a LOT of blankies to go around! I don’t yet know what pattern or anything I will use, but someone pointed me to a good deal on a washable wool/acrylic blend yarn in eye-bleedingly bright colours (hey, they said bright!) so I have some yarn on the way (I’m nearly out, it’s a travesty!!!) for that project and also some discounted novelty yarn to make some magic scarves for any ladies I may choose to gift

I’m always on the lookout for good causes to knit for (I prefer disability/illness over shelters but will probably get around to everyone eventually) and also good prices on yarn that I can use for these projects. It has to be affordable, but not scratchy or nasty. (NO Red Heart! That stuff makes my skin itch so I can’t cope with using it, let alone give it to anyone…except their Light n Lofty which is OK)

My skills are still pretty meager, but as my mom puts it, it’s the love that counts, not the fanciness of the pattern. Anyway, I don’t know if my yarn will get here before I leave for the holidays, so it may be 2008 before I wield my looms for good, but I plan to keep charity projects as high on my priority list as all of the friends I plan to inundate with gifts in the coming year (as a way to say thank you for standing by me through last year’s spell of worse-than-ever health).

Note to self: Ask Ricky if the Adults Need Smiles Too programme is still running, as that would be an ideal place to go next.