Sunday, January 22, 2012

Nothing new!





Yesterday's knitting was counter-productive. Literally. I removed 10 inches of the lace edging on my current project! The farther I knitted past the corner that I had just completed, the worse it looked. Mostly, the issue was a counting problem. I had skipped attaching the edging on rows where it should have been attached, and attached it on rows that should have been skipped. That's what I get for multi-tasking. I almost always knit with either the TV or an audiobook playing. I am currently re-doing the corner and 8 inches of straight edging that I frogged. I guess I shouldn't have started my own Stargate marathon while trying to turn a corner.

Today was one of those days. No, my knitting wasn't counter-productive. My arthritis just decided that I shouldn't be productive in anything. Last night, my husband and I went with my sister and brother-in-law to see Underworld Awakening in 3D. Loved it! However, the minimal effort of eating dinner and sitting in the theater was apparently more than my knees (and hips and back and...you get the idea) could stand. I spent the night (until about 5:45 am) with so much joint pain that I couldn't sleep. That meant I slept until noon, and then spent a lot of time trying to get rid of the morning stiffness. It is rare that I bother to use my cane around the house because of the short distances that I am moving, but it was a cane-around-the-house kind of day. I did get some knitting done after I was able to take my weekly shot to get rid of some of the inflammation. I did 20 rows, which sounds fantastic except that each row is only about 20 stitches.

I downloaded a library audiobook: Hungry for You by Lyndsay Sands. That should keep me laughing for a day or two while I re-knit 6 more inches of edging.


Thursday, January 19, 2012

New Name?

For some time I've been wanting to post to the blog, but what I want to say is not always specifically on topic. I decided that I need to change the name, but I can't decide on a new name. In fact, naming things seems to be one of my big weaknesses. When I do have ideas for names, they don't seem to be the catchy, creative things that draw people in to a site. They don't even tend to be quirky and pleasantly nerdy. My ideas for names just stink.
Therefore, I will continue to work on thinking of a new name while broadening some of my blog posts. After all, knitting is a large part of my life, but so is my daily struggle to deal with my psoriatic arthritis. If I can come up with a new name that describes the blog better, I'll change it. If not will continue to pay homage to the character of Nicely Nicely from Guys and Dolls while describing what I hope people will say about items that I knit.

Today

My current project is, of course, centered around the upcoming arrival of another niece. I'm knitting a blanket using the pattern Rose Leaf Blanket by Kristin Spurkland. Here is the Ravelry link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/rose-leaf-blanket
I am using a DK weight yarn rather than the worsted weight called for in the pattern. It will be smaller, but it is a large blanket with the worsted weight. I don't think it will be too small even with the DK weight. The yarn is Ultra Pima by Cascade. The color is close to champagne. I have finished the stockinette blanket part and now I am simply knitting on the lace edging. I say simply because I've done this border on several bonnets, so it should be old hat. (Forgive the pun.) However, I'm running into that old problem that anything done in repetition tends to eventually reach a point where your brain manages to mess it up. In fact, two days ago I managed to knit a negative number of rows in one day. It was the kind of day where I knitted one row and then frogged two rows. By the time I had taken out more rows than I put in the day before, I decided to give it a rest. Thankfully the last two days have not been like that, and I have rounded the first corner!
Add to that the fact that it is cotton, and you have a recipe for seriously slow knitting. The amount of strength it takes to maintain the same tension on the yarn at all times is enough to set off a flare of both the arthritis in my hands and the costochondritis in my chest. So, this isn't a project that I can stay up late and knit for hours. It will definitely be worth it though.