Granny Clampett and the disappearing dpns.

Why is it that double pointed needles, especially ones larger than sock knitting diameters, have gotten so doggone difficult to find in most stores lately? Maybe this is not the case in actual local yarn stores, but in the general crafting variety that are all I can access by public transport at the moment all I seem to find are blank holes where needles used to be.

I must have bought the yarn to start Boygenius's gifty Hemlock Ring throw like 15 years ago last Tuesday, thinking that I would at some point wander across something pointy and possibly enough like a 10.5 DPN that I would eventually be able to start knitting. After maybe 3 months time I was still needleless. And for future reference, sharpening pencils on both ends only leads to frustration and graphite smudges on your yarn.

Eventually I gave up the good fight, realized the mission would likely continue on in an unsuccessful manner, so I did what any self respecting knitter who spends most of their workday at an internet connected computer would do: I ebayed the crap out of those needles. They showed up in the mail yesterday, much more quickly than I expected, which was so exciting that I didn't even turn fully evil when I realized that they had arrived a few hours before I knew it and Boygenius had accidentally buried them under a stack of junk mail without telling me I had a package.

When I finally found them, my fingers got immediately itchy for the knitting.

So my evening went a little like this: playing, but not quite watching the Flight of the Conchords on DVD in the bedroom while doing battle with the Emily Ocker circular cast on, which I couldn't quite get the hang of since I was 75% migraine addled with no concentration, and occasionally excusing myself from the knitting to barf, which made me feel much better. But it felt good to be knitting.

After an embarrassingly extended amount of time I finally gave up on that cast on out of frustration, crocheted a ring and started knitting into it. Also at some point during the night's knitting and multiple trips to the bathroom I lost my eyeglasses. I still haven't been able to find them, which means I am currently rocking my spare pair, which make me look like a younger version of Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies. (Did I mention that my headaches often make me stupid and I lose things?...anyway. )

Yeah, its foxy. Here's hoping I find my glasses soon. If I don't, at least I know what I can be for Halloween :)

Seams to Me....

How many times have I sewed the seams and ripped them back out on the Minimalist Cardigan? Well, I am embarrassed to say that I have sewn up and then removed each seam at least twice, sometimes more. Apparently I need a course on remedial seaming, followed by a wicked beating if I ever think that knitting a sweater without adding some form of selvage is a good idea. I give you all full reign to track me down like a dog and whoop me if I ever do it again. Not my smoothest move ever, but I think I've learned my lesson.

The good news is that I am almost done with the thing. As I type this, I have only the back seam of the right shoulder left to sew up (tear out and then re-sew again, most likely) and then it will be forever cast into the glorious ranks of the finished object.

I am seriously surprised by how heavy this sweater is. Its got some impressive heft to it. When I tried it on mid-seaming, it seems that I chose wisely with the size I chose to knit, and it fits very nicely. The edges of the lapels roll in and blocking it didn't seem to slow it down, but it doesn't look bad that way, in fact I kind of like it. I'll post some pics as soon as I finish it, which should be a bit after I get home for the night. Woo hoo!

In other news, I have spent the last few days being poked and prodded by various doctors getting various tests to diagnose my busted up migraine melon. Yesterday I had a MRI, today I had a visual field test, and the word on the street at this point is that they are thinking that I have some problems with "some cranial nerve or nerves" that are either sparking the migraines or possible making me have additional migraine like symptoms. If anything, this process vaguely feels like progress, and has made for some decent waiting room knitting. Fingers crossed that I end up with some answers soon. This is wearing me out, but I'm still pretty hopeful.

Over the weekend I discovered the joys of knitting while listening to audio books. I hit up the library on Friday and got a copy of "The Fourth Bear "by Jasper Ffjord on CD. If you love books, and don't know Jasper's work, I highly recommend it...Especially his Thursday Next series of novels. They are smart, witty, and generally a lot of fun. I'm thinking I'll be back up at the library this afternoon to grab a few more titles on CD to keep me knitting through the week.

Hope y'all had a wonderful holiday weekend,

SG.

Run Away!

I've been a really bad blogger as of late. Well, its been more like I've been a nonexistent blogger as of late. You see, I have this tendency to withdraw whenever things take a turn for the not-so good...it lets me re-group and hopefully come out stronger. Since we are all friends here, I'll let you in on the details.

Ever since I was 16 years old, I have had some crazy migraine headaches. They seriously mess with my vision, balance, sense of smell, and pretty much any other thing that they could possibly mess with, and since then I have experienced a phenomenon known as visual snow (which means that the view that I have of the world always looks like a staticky television. Not fun, but you get used to it).

Over the last few months, these headaches have changed. My symptoms have gotten pretty crazy, and they are happening more often than not. I can't remember the last time I didn't have the headache. So, I did what most would people do. I went to the doctor. She became convinced that I have Multiple Sclerosis, summarily freaked me out, and sent me off to the eye doctor to see what was going on in my eyeballs.

It took a loooong time for me to get into the eye doctor, several weeks in fact, and during that time, I was getting more and more anxious regarding the possible outcome. Well, once I went to that appointment, the eye doc ruled out MS (YAY!!!!) but couldn't really do much more than that. So, I'm going to be looking at another round of tests to make sure that I'm still just having sucky migraines and not dealing with something scarier. I truly think that my migraine pattern has just changed, and that my symptoms could just be twisted in with some inner ear thing that's making me dizzier than normal and that everything will be OK in the long run, but the whole thing has been a bit more debilitating that I like to admit, and I was getting pretty depressed about the whole thing. I've been working through it, and definitely knitting through it!

Good news is that I'm perking back up and trying to keep it on the sunny side, ya know? So, here's to all things good and woolly. Next post will be back to good ole fashioned knitting content-with a little bit of sewing thrown in there (I've been cheating on my knitting a bit with my sewing machine. Shhh! Don't tell!) Thanks for hanging in there with me folks!

SG