What I made, by Sharon

 On Wednesday I got home for work, played with polymer clay for two hours, and went to pole, where I made progress on my self-spotted backwards half crucifix. Go me. I rode home, and sat on the couch, reached for the tea-pot and realised my right wrist was so sore I couldn't pour the tea. I made Leon pour, we finished our evening and went to bed. In the morning I woke up, went to pull my sports bra over my head and , half-way through, discovered I was in disgusting pain. I couldn't make a fist and my wrist just hurt. My ribs were also bound and it hurt to breathe, but that's a thing that happens on occasion, so I wasn't worried, neither was the physio who poked at me for a bit and suggested wearing a brace. Oh here we go again . In 2014 I was in a brace for at least a month, and a while after I was finished with that I threw it out, because I couldn't stand the sight of it. It was a shade of blue that seemed fine when I first chose it, and was infuriating by the end...

It was a bit of a nothing weekend, since I didn't organise any coffee walks or anything else much. it just feels like we are waiting - next announcements changes come on the 23rd, when Vitoria will be 70 percent first vaxxed. I'm hoping we will be able to have park drinks, that's always a good time. I don't feel like I knit a lot this weekend, but I knit enough that I sliced open my finger! Nothing a bit of Roc Tape (gymnastics tape) couldn't fix. I also finished spinning the singles for the main colour of Waiting for Rain . I'm going to ply it with the black mohair. While spinning I've been watching Craftsy classes on dying and on spinning colour. I have learnt a lot already. The platform itself is very odd, all the classes seem to be original - from about 2014 and none of the attached PDF documents actually work.  But I've already had more that my three dollars worth, and there are a fair few more classes I want to do. 

I kept thinking that I would blog when I finished my socks , but they are taking a surprisingly long time, considering I'm at the (plain) foot of the second sock. I haven't had quite as much tie for knitting as I sometimes do - on Saturday we can 34 kilometres, and that rather took it out of me.  Then  this morning I went to Crossfit   and did a workout that involved 90 kipping pullups. I didn't feel it at the time, but I got a blister, and tore the top off it during the workout. Basically there is a hole in my hand. I'll spare you a photo of the actual problem, suffice it to say that holding a small needle hurts a bit. But I've never let a bit of pain get in the way of what I want to do, so hopefully the socks will be finished in the next couple of days.

My finger is getting better. I saw my finger therapist last Thursday, and he said I don't have to wear the splint, except at night and when the finger gets tired.  I'm still wearing the splint when I knit - I'm two thirds trough the Endless Rainbow Shawl and I don't want to risk my gauge changing. Anyway, I find it harder to judge "wear it sometimes" than the absolute "wear it all the time" that I was doing before. With my finger being better and all, I finally found a physio for my foot. He said I probably shouldn't be running, and booked me in with an exercise physiologist. I kind of knew somewhere in my heart of hearts that I would be told that, but it's time to get this problem sorted. I feel a bit sorry for myself right now, but I'll be over it soon. In the meantime, how cure are my nails, and how cute is Tarragon?

The other day I mentioned that I have a new splint for my broken finger. It's black. When I got it I asked if I could have another colour.  Remember  my bright blue hand brace ?  I was hoping for hot pink this time.  My finger therapist said “no. this is Melbourne, almost everybody asks for black.” So I got a Darth Vadar black finger splint.   Continuing the theme, I got my nails done to match. Because everything must be matchy in my life. 

You know how I love everything to be matchy matchy – when I bought the Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn that I used for Leon’s Ardmore , I bought a matching skein of sock yarn in the same colour – Meet brown, Joe. They look a little different because they are dyed on different bases, but they are the same colour: I finished the jumper this week, it’s blocking now and we’ll do a photoshoot on the weekend. I cast on a matching pair of socks – I’m using the Ardmore pattern transcribed onto a 68 stitch sock.  This is such fun, although it has progressed slowly this week, partly because it is quite cabled: But look how the cables pop in the Socks That Rock! Mainly they have been slow because we’ve been out every night this week. I saw my finger therapist this week and he gave me a new splint: I’m seeing him again in two weeks. Hopefully I’ll be done with the splint by then. I want to finish a project at the same time as I get free of this splint, because it’s p...

We had a fantastic time at the Festival of Voices . There was lots of singing - or in my case listening to other people sing - and drinking and hanging out with friends.  I did pop into the two yarn shops in Salamanca, including one that had lovely hand dyed yarn, but I just couldn't buy anything. I've worked so hard to get my stash down, and I want it to keep going in that direction. Glee Plus singing at MONA It was freezing in Hobart, which meant everyone was wearing their best knitwear all the time! Sheep on the ferry to MONA And I had time to work on the Village Sweater Wrap . I was good to knit, even with my finger in a splint although doing the long tail cast on was very challenging. I finished the wrap on the aeroplane home. Which seemed very balanced, since I cast it on at the beginning of a very different plane tri p,  I'm pretty much unspeakable excited about. I haven't tried it on yet, so here's hoping it looks ok. I'll block it and take ...

My trainer Jules asked me to make him a pair of socks. I find this ironic, since one of the reasons I need professional care for my hands, arms and shoulders is the amount of knitting I do! I see Jules once a month, and every time I do he comments on my sneaker liners . It’s nice that someone notices! He often jokes about stealing my socks, but since I’m a women’s six and he’s a men’s twelve, they are not likely to fit. So, last time I saw him he asked me to make him a pair. I asked him what kind of socks, and he said he didn’t care, he just wanted some crazy socks like I wear. It’s all rather flattering really. I know I could make striped sock from the left over sock yarn collection , but I need to take a break from that. I’m going camping for four days, and I wanted something simple and light to take with me – I’m loving knitting my mother’s ASJ , but it’s already become rather bulky. So I stopped off at Wool Baa on the way home tonight and picked up a couple of  balls...

I remembered, while purling back on the long purl rows on the yoke of my mini manu, that I hate purling . Now, this won't be news to anyone who regularly reads my blog, but I had basically forgotten. I looked on Ravelry and discovered I have not knit anything with significant amounts of purling since May. I wasn't deliberately avoiding them, it just happened that way.  My hands are largely pain free these days, but I avoid 1 x1 cables, and purling doesn't make them feel better. And it's so slow. So when I heard about Portugese knitting I decided to buy the Craftsy class and learn it. Now I just need to take the time to do the class and learn the skills! 

Six weeks ago I went to the hand therapist  and I've been very, very compliant about following her instructions. And it's gone really well, I'm basically not in pain, and my hands don't go numb when I knit, and I've had some serious knitting time over the last month. So that's all good. One of the exercises that can help nerve problems like I have is learning to juggle, (I was pretty happy it said "learning to juggle" rather than actually juggling, because I still can't keep more than two balls in the air). so I made some juggling balls :   These are quite nice, but I thought it might be nicer to have some that are knit or crocheted. I knit this one from the " oh Balls " pattern (and watched the movie the pattern talks about too).  I need to get around to knitting or crocheting to more, to have a set. I haven't decided if I'm going to make them all matching, or experiment with different patterns. Either way, it's going...

I've been having intermittent pain in my shoulders and hands for a while. It got really out of control two Thursdays ago. I couldn't hold a pen, I couldn't cut my own meat - but I could knit, so that was okay. This morning I went to see a hand therapist, who diagnosed nerve issues.  She's put me in a  rather dramatic brace for the next three weeks, which is going to be interesting. Since the purpose of the brace is to immobilise the wrist, if I can comfortably hold my needles I can knit, which is something of a relief. Even better, the therapist does not think knitting caused the issue, and seems to think that knitting is, if anything, beneficial for the hands, and who am i to disagree with someone who looks after people's hands for a living?

I didn't knit from Sunday night until Thursday. I thought not knitting would help my arms, but on Wednesday I woke up in even more pain. I was so upset and angry, and I did knit on Thursday night, which didn't seem to make things worse. But they certainly weren't better. On Friday I had an appointment with the Osteo and I was planning to have words with him because what we were doing was clearly not working, and I was really quite frustrated. But then the first thing he said to me was "this is really not working, lets take a different approach". During the treatment he said to me "I don't want you knitting for a week". Mm, I thought, Whatever. But then he said "I want you to promise me that you won't knit for a week". So I promised.  So, Leon's vest is on hold. Which I would be happier about if I wasn't a bit concerned that the fronts seem to be turning out too long. And I can't do anything about it for another five da...

As my regular readers will know, I knit all the time. I knit in front of the tv at home, I knit at the pub, I knit on public transport. I knit with friends and I knit alone. For the last two months I’ve had sore arms. It doesn’t hurt when I knit, but it hurts when I more my arms from straight to bent, and from bent to straight. This morning I woke up and straightening my arms hurt, with a hot liquid pain. I’ve decided to take a day off knitting. Hopefully that will help. I’m willing to try this for up to a week, because this constant pain is really not much fun. Although the idea of not knitting is also not much fun, which is why it has taken so long to get to the point of taking a (hopefully very) short break. So, what will I do instead of knitting? Tonight I’m going to clean the house and rearrange the cupboards. If I still can’t knit tomorrow I might do some sewing. If I’m out of the game on the weekend, I’m going to follow Sonia’s lead and document my whole stash in Ravelr...

Not much to show on the knitting front. I'm on the second sleeve of my Lettuce jumper now, which is fine, but it feels really slow to take a week to do a sleeve, when it took a week to do the body of it. I guess having to go to work is slowing me down, although I do have one country trip planned for next week, so I'll get some knitting done then. Anyway, one of the good things about coming back from holiday is using the yarnie again. I really love that little tool. I came back from New Zealand with sore arms. To be honest, I've had sore arms for a month or so. It's not caused by knitting as such, it seems to be caused by years of bad shoulder position, and then triggered by doing weights at Crossfit. I'm seeing an osteo, and one of the things I like about him is he doesn't tell me not to do things. Also, he doesn't think the knitting caused the problem - as such. So he hasn't told me not to knit. He hasn't even suggested I knit less, but he has s...

Last week I found a gambling safely brochure, on my way to dinner. For my own and Leon's entertainment I read out the signs that you might have a problem with gambling. And then I re-read the same list, substituting knitting for gambling.   Knitting should always be fun. If knitting stops being fun, you should seek help. Here are some of the signs to look out for: Spending increasing amounts of time or money on knitting Not knowing when to stop knitting Borrowing money to knit or to get out of financial trouble caused by knitting Spending more money on knitting than you can afford Feeling guilty about your knitting Someone close to you complaining about your knitting Become angry or distressed when losing or trying to cut down on your knitting Doing things that risk a relationship, job, home life or good opportunity for the sake of knitting Remember to set a knitting limit according you your circumstances. Sigh. That describes my behaviour ra...

I knit Skew in record time. It was a fast fun knit. Because I am in a new team at work, we often have lunch together and do the quiz. This was a great opportunity to get in an extra couple of rounds. I knit Skew on two metal circulars. My first one came out a bit looser than I expected. I must have tightened up the tension for the second one. The upshot of all this is that I have a pretty pair of socks and sore wrists. Having looked it up on the internet – which is where I get all my medical advice - I don’t think there is anything seriously wrong, it’s just an overuse injury. On Wednesday I decided to take it easy, and only knit to finish the sock, which was literally 1 row and the cast off. Oh, and Leon came home late so I sat and spun for an hour. Yesterday I also decided to take it easy, so I just cast on my next project and knit 8 rows. At 120 stitches a row. So today I am actually going to rest properly. No knitting and no spinning. Going forward work has ordered me a more ergono...