January 2008 – The Sick Chick's Constantly Crafty

On the Loom: A child’s afghan

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.

A children's afghan, on the loom

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!

Too much downtime leads to dangerous scheming

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…

4 for 3

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.

Curses, foiled again!

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….)

I’ve got Blisters on my Fingers!

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!

Thing-a-day and Things that must come before

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 :/)

Comment Calamity!

WordPress.com has spam filtering by Akismet, and I think it has eaten every comment made on this blog since 13 January. I can’t find a way to turn Akismet off, and it is malfunctioning — it is supposed to save the “spam” for me to look at first, but instead it just deletes them. The problem is that every comment that it has let me see was *not* spam, so I think it’s eating legitimate comments too 🙁 So if you have left a comment here in the past four days, please email me instead. My email is thesickchick at gmail dot com. Sorry for the trouble!!!

On the Soapbox: Fibromyalgia

Warning: No crafting content here, but perhaps some frothing at the mouth.

I can’t even begin to say how much it irritates me that another round of Fibromyalgia-denial has begun. What’s a bit odd is that they are using the US FDA’s approval of a drug to treat fibro (which was months ago) as their excuse to start attacking it (and by extension, us) again. It’s the same old tired refrain: there’s no test for it so it can’t be real. Even one of the docs who invented the current diagnostic guidelines (the closest thing to a test we have) has recanted and said he no longer believes in it. (See this NY Times article for what’s being said.)

HELLO, smug doctors of the world! In the seven years I’ve had a fibro diagnosis (admittedly, my diagnosis is weak: it may be chronic fatigue syndrome instead and anyway it’s not my primary illness) the advances in diagnostics have been impressive. No, we don’t have a foolproof test yet, but there *are* biological markers in the majority of patients. Plus, chronic myofascial pain (closely related to fibro) has been discovered to be discernible on a special MRI, thus making it “real” in the eyes of these same doctors.

I suppose the real problem is that most of the docs who did believe in it are rheumatologists, but recently it has been shown that fibromyalgia is a neurological condition. This baffles the rheumies, but the neuros aren’t up to speed yet. In any case, the FDA is on board and Pfizer is plastering the airways with “public service announcements” (read: sly ads for Lyrica, the approved drug), so public opinion is swinging our way.

But this just goes to show that doctors are not infallible. Indeed, far too many of them have sticks up their bum. And that it’s sooooo very important to find a doctor that believes both in you and in your diagnoses. While the NHS here in the UK has no trouble with fibromyalgia, I know there are some GPs who are still resistant. I’m blessed that I don’t have one of those! I’m also lucky because Lyrica (pregabalin as it is known here, which is the generic name) is *not* yet approved for the treatment of fibromyalgia here, but my neurologist gave it to me anyway for the neuropathic pain that may or may not be fibro-related. So I get the benefit of the meds without having to wait for more drug trials, etc. Maybe that’s just reason number one million and four why the NHS rocks my world. Sure, you have to be a patient patient as waiting lists can be a pain, but it’s better healthcare than I ever had in the US (and I had health insurance and HMOs that were supposedly the best healthcare money could buy).

I’m going to get off my soapbox now and maybe go photograph some hats. 🙂

“Sampler 6” Fingerless Gloves

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.

Sampler 6 Fingerless Gloves Modelled

Ragdoll Hat

Ragdoll Hat 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! Ragdoll Hat Modeled