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.....

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.

The poisoning!

I came home from teaching yoga yesterday & Matt, my husband, couldn't wait to ask me what was in the pot on the stove. See, I had a touch of the stomach bug that has been going around the hospital where I work. So I decided that I should have steamed veggies & rice to go with my soup for lunch at work(nothing spicy, yet packed with vitamins). I steamed the veggies in the afternoon, got my plastic lunch containers ready for the week & left to workout & teach yoga.

While I was away, my husband came home from work & noticed a pot on the stove with an oddly colored liquid in it. He decided that the liquid looked like the color of my bicycle. Then, being more curious that most cats, he decides to taste it. I don't know why he would want to taste something that reminded him of paint, but that's Matty for you. While he was savoring the lack of flavor of the mystery juice, he realizes that the pot may have contained something for the knitting & might even be poisonous! He promptly spits the juice into the kitchen sink & rinses his mouth with copious amounts of water.

Roughly an hour later, I return home. He tells me of his poisoning scare & he's greatly relieved when I inform him that the pot did not contain poisonous dye...only juice from the steaming of beets, carrots & zucchini for my lunch.

Now I know why the little white packets in my wasabi peas are labeled "Do not eat".

Works in progress

Getting ready to ply!! I finally finished spinning the last of "Lilly" (the name of the sheep) that I purchased last year in Lewisburg, PA after learning to spin. I'm looking forward to totalling the 2 ply yardage (completed skein shown below on left) so that I can determine what to make. I'm curious about the consistency of the gauge due to the long stretches of knitting time between actual spinning sessions.

Last week while attending local SnB groups I finished the back & started the front of a short sleeved Brilosso top. The yarn was purchased at Webs after a snowboarding lesson at Mt. Snow, & has been living in the stash until last fall when I began the project. My goal is to have it completed before the end of April (I would prefer before Easter). Pictured to the right is the front of the top...I just don't feel right about calling it a sweater with short sleeves.

Not pictured is the Knit Picks aran brained sock. The reason for this is that I believe that it is a cursed project (thank you Brenda Dayne from Cast On for putting words to this phenomenon). I have started it twice & un-knit 1/2 of a row twice due to starting the pattern in the wrong spot. Plus, it makes my fingers hurt. Well, ok not really, but I stretch a great deal after completing each row. I'm hoping it gets better.

Maybe one of these days I will follow my own advice & not have 2 simultaneous projects that use small needles. The next time I need a break from the socks I just may catalog my stash, for a baseline. My stash is by no means large which is intentional...small houses save on heat & have limited space for stash.

My podcast addiction

Hi, I'm addicted to pod casts. It all started when my husband left me a ski widow a few weeks ago. Before he left, he showed me that he found a knitting podcast for me. He showed me how to copy it to my ipod so I could listen, subscribe if I wanted too, and look for others. I started at episode 2 of Cast On & was hooked! I now subscribe to about 5 knitting/spinning pod casts.

I'm glad that the art of storytelling is still alive. I'm more grateful that there are thousands of other people that are as addicted to yarn as I am and who also subscribe to or create knitting pod casts. Now that I'm aware of this culture, I'm joining in with my blog (besides my dictionary was lonely--just kidding).

The name for the blog comes from my desire to have a pet alpaca. I first learned of alpaca at my knitting guild 2 years ago. Since then I know search out & pet alpaca yarn whenever possible. I save newspaper articles about alpaca farms in CT. I found out that 2 other people I know also want an alpaca. I dream that some day I will have an alpaca to knit all my own.