Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Knitting injuries


I think I've reached a new level of knit addiction--I've been wounded! OK, I'll spare you the drama. I experienced my first back spasm EVER last week. WOW do they suck!! I'll also spare you the IBS (irritable bowel) details. I left work after only 1.5 hours last Monday, went home, slept, received a massage, guided a yoga class, came home & slept some more. Over the next few days, I gradually nursed myself back into my normal self with the support of tennis balls, a hot water bottle, & LOTS of stretching. My animals thought this was a great opportunity to take advantage of me. I think I overheard them conspiring "OK, she's on the floor, on my count we'll pounce...read...set...". Although my personal favorite was when the cat was on my butt (hot water bottle was on my low back) & she was kneading my hamstring! This eventually was not fun when Zappa decided to paw/scratch at the back of my head. He must have been paying me back for putting him in this awful static sweater!

So how is this knitting related?!? From too much sitting! I have been so focused on trying to promote classes for work, decide if I should cut back my hours at my day job, & knitting to catch up with the Deep Breath knit-along, that I was getting to bed late, working too hard/many hours & not exercising when my back went @#$(&*^!

I took almost 5 days off from knitting to focus on work & self care. Worked on the knit-along Saturday & Sunday, after exercising during the day. I even started to ply "lilly", & got half way when my back started to talk loudly.

I've been focused so much on my back that I haven't addressed the knots in my shoulders that I got while working on the Aran braid socks in the cold garage when my car's water pump was replaced.

Now if I could just figure out how to knit while lying on the hot stones at the massage office.....

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Wool, cotton, & silk, Oh My!

I received an email on Thursday of last week inviting me to a new fiber arts studio in town! Of course I had to check it out. I wasn't in the market for any yarn, but as a fellow business owner, I wanted to be supportive...so I bought one hank of Farmhouse Silk Blend dk wt called "rose garden". I considered this a very good exercise in control since I really want a double treadle spinning wheel & she is an Ashford dealer. This yarn is going to be perfect! I have this one skein pattern that I've been trying to knit up for almost a year but never seem to have the right yardage or gauge of yarn.

I arrive home, search for the pattern (which is buried under UFOs & patterns for the "next" project), find it & .......it is for bulky wt yarn. So now I need to find a yarn to knit with it to beef it up so I can still use my pattern. I can't get out to any LYS until possibly Tuesday. UGH!

I'm also waiting for some hand dyed yarn purchased online for the Web's knit along. I'm beginning to fear that the knit along will be long gone by the time my yarn arrives.

This is all really an act of a higher spiritual power, because I still need to finish the sleeves for a short sleeve pullover then seam it up. I finished the back (which was pictured 2 posts ago) --it's the blueish yarn that's sideways. The next time I include photos, I will orient the pictures properly. If you got a stiff neck from viewing them, I know a really good massage therapist in New Hartford, CT who might be able to help you out. Oh, gotta go, the sleeves are calling.