Back from My Knitting Vacation

I'm pretty much back from my self-imposed knitting vacation of last week. The overall week was ever-so-slightly trying.

I got plenty of spinning done in the evenings, and I managed to do one fiber-related craft item that had been sitting in my Stash for quite some time. So I pulled it out to work on it, while I couldn't knit.

I had a kit from Lorna's Wool of these adorable felted sheep. The kit came with a felted egg, needles, some pretty silver & white locks, and some colored wool (fit only for felting as some of it was matted and there was lots of VM in it).

The instructions were pretty clear, and it took a bit to work the legs & head, but once I got the hang of it, it was relatively simple. However, I'm not quite sure felting is for "me", per se. I kept looking at all of the wool and thinking I could spin it (neps, matts, and all)....although I knew it'd be nasty to spin.

I guess I'm just not a felter at heart. Although I do love these sheep.

The black sheep is "Henry"
The white sheep is "Henrietta"

Don't ask me why I named those sheep in that fashion. They just "looked" like a Henry and Henrietta.

Missing My Knitting...

This week without knitting is going well, but I miss it rather horribly. Spinning some fine cormo on Nona is helping ease some of the evening anxiety but...it's not a substitute, esp. when it's a forced substitute.

--> This past Monday, I walked out of the house without a knitting project in my bag. I felt naked.

--> I keep thinking about the knitting projects that I really should be working on in to finish.

--> I hunted around looking for my crochet motif book because I was getting somewhat desperate to have fiber in my hands. DH laughed at me last night. Unfortunately, I had absolutely no yarn with witch to crochet. Everything is pretty much earmarked for a knitting project. ARGH.

--> I'm missing my daily lunch knitting, although I did bring one of my not-yet-used spindle.

I get to see my favorite doctor this evening, and I have two more days of self-imposed non-knitting. Then I can go back in....slowly...with lots of breaks. Because I really don't want to not knit for another extended period of time.

Vacation from Knitting

Sadly, I have to take a whole week's vacation from knitting. All of last week, every morning I would awaken with pain in the knuckle of my left middle finger and limited movement.

Ibuprofen cream did wonders for it, and I wasn't sure what was causing it. In previous weeks, I had this issue, but it was an occasional twinge -- and I thought perhaps I had strained it or whatnought.

But after a relatively intense knitting period of socks just before bed time (on Size 2 needles) left me wondering. Maybe it was because I started using smaller & smaller needles? Maybe my grip is too tight? (I knit continental, and my middle finger helps hold the needle in place, while the left index finger holds the yarn.

The next day, I opted to not work on those socks, but work on the sleeves of my Ribby Cardy (size 6 needles). Again, the pain was there in the morning, but not as bad.

So, I'm going to be taking a week off of knitting to let my finger rest, and see if it still bothers me...or if it's something else. (DH wonders how I'm going to survive the week....)

So, in leiu of knitting in the evenings, I shall be spinning, because I really don't use that finger for it.

School of Dead Fish

Several months ago, I made a Dead Fish Hat for my nephew's birthday. The rest of his family (all 4 of them) loved it...so much so that they asked if they could ALL have hats for the holidays.

So, I took down their favorite color combinations, ordered the yarn, and started knitting them...slowly. I have 2 out of the 4 hats completed, and I'm currently knitting the 3rd.

Forgetfulness....

This morning, I packed up to go to work, and grabbed an UFO that needed finishing. I figured that I'd finish it at lunch as the last bits of it are "easy" and totally do-able during lunchtime. I grabbed my toolkit bag, with my crochet hooks so I could pick up the necessary stitches to finish. I even remembered to grab the pattern.

See anything missing? I didn't.....

Then, lunchtime comes around, and I'm really looking forward to finishing the UFO because, well, it's been languishing. I pull it out...and realize that I completely...
left...
the...
needles...
at...
home....

*facepalm*

I had taken them out of the bag to finish another project that needed the bigger needle size.

Luckily, I had my "to-go" project in my bag as well...basically my emergency portable project, so I wasn't totally without knitting...but oy!

A bit of Knitting & Spinning

Yesterday, I got an itch to get really going on a project, so I spent part of last night finishing up the body of my Ribby cardigan (knitted in the round). Then I steeked it, and started both of the sleeves in the round (magic loop). All the while, getting caught up with various sci-fi/fantasy podcasts.

This project has taken *forever* to finish as I knit primarily at lunchtime, but I can actually see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. (I started on July 4th, 2010!!!!)

In spinning news, I finished up 4 oz of a purple tweed merino fiber, 2-plied it, which was then washed, thwacked, snapped, and hung to dry.

I sampled a 3-ply and 4-ply yarn, but it was too much for the project I want to knit with it (the Citron shawl from Knitty.com). So, I went with a 2-ply that landed me with a heavy-ish fingering weight yarn. Next time, I think I will sample more than I did before and actually knit up swatches of the finished yarn, but I was far too lazy to actually do that this time around.

It's a lovely lovely yarn with a really nice hand. Four ounces landed me about 400 yards. I just now have to finish spinning the other 4 oz of said purple tweed fiber.

And eventually, I'll get around to knitting the Citron...right after I work through the rest of my queue on Ravelry. *sigh*