Spinning Wheel

One of my newer fiber hobbies is handspinning. I've been playing with it more than really producing anything useful, but it's been fun. And, once again, it's a testament to the power of the internet. After some searching around online, I found a 'viral video on YouTube from Abby at Abby's Yarns. (I've also purchased very dreamy fiber from her, but that's another post.) She shows how to start and handle a drop spindle, and it completely opened a whole new level of fiber obsession. I had been playing around with a student grade spindle I bought at Wild Fibre during my beach trip in Savannah. I also found something online about creating a drop spindle with a dowel and a CD and played around with that too. Then, I discovered Spinsanity's store on Etsy.com. And, now that I have a grown-up, real spindle, life will never be the same. It's loverly. It has a flower on it. It spins like a dream. Yes, it's my pressscccciooouuussss.

Now I want a kick spindle.

By the way, I notice my blog seems to be having some photo issues. I'm not sure why that is, but I'll get to working on that after I finish getting the garb done....like tomorrow.

Dancing with Myself

Every so often, I get in a weird place, where I just want have to back away and sort of crawl into myself. It’s a combination of avoidance and self-preservation, I think. I’m not a huge believer in astrology or that kind of thing, but my birth sign is Cancer, the crab.

Exactly.

So, apparently, I’m allowing my more social personality to venture forth. And, truthfully, getting back into the swing of work has been tough, as well as dealing with the current health issues. But, enough of that. Today is for fiber.

I’ve been knitting like a fiend in my spare time. Here are the fruits of my labors.



Mananita Magic. Pattern from Shawls and Scarves: The Best of Knitter's Magazine. I did it on sz 9 needles with a lace weight yarn (most of a 900 yrd skein) by The Plucky Knitter I got from The Loopy Ewe. It's a colorway called Wuthering Heights, a fabulous burgundy with some dark grays throughout. It turned out rather well, and was an easy knit. I added an additional row at the bottom, and I did a different border than the one called for in the pattern.





Black Water Socks. Pattern is my own. It's a generic toe-up pattern with the waterfall lace pattern chosen from Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting Patterns Vl. 1, with some slight alterations to accommodate knitting in the round and the look of the sock. Yarn was most of 1 skein of Lorna's Laces sock yarn in the Black Watch colorway (hence the name). Again, a totally easy knit. Pardon the dangly in the above pict. MUC took these photos for me. Not bad for a 6 year old.

The HUGE bag I knitted with idea of felting it. It's supposed to be a messenger style bag. It felted nicely, by the way. I knitted it on a sz. 8 in stockinette. Looking at the kids with the bag makes me laugh, because it really was a freaking huge bag before I threw it in the washer. I'll have to get a pic of it all nice and felted. Knitted with Lion Brand Wool.

Shawl knit on No. 9 needles out of a mohair/wool blend that I found at my LYS. I can't remember the name at the moment, but I do remember there are about 400 yrds in the shawl. The pattern is my own, something I kind of made up as I went on, in keeping with Aunt Dion's Shawl, since I'm still working on making something out of that, eventually. The last photo is the truest to the colors. They really are that vibrant, and that's what drew me to the yarn in the first place.

And, this is just what I had pics of. I still have 2 socks on needles, completed a Baby Surprise Jacket that I forgot to take pics of, have since completed another BSJ and it's awaiting buttons, with no less than a more BSJs on the needles. I have an Elizabeth Zimmerman Tomten Jacket on the needles for MUC, another planned for GLB, a Shapely T on the needles, and a mitered square blanket on the needles.

Those are just the projects I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more. Oh, and I have a 2 garb projects coming up at the end of the month as well.

In the arms of an Angel

I am trying to get back to regular posting. I have a ton of fiber stuff coming up. In the meantime, while getting rid of the multitude of junk I accumulate on my desktop, I ran across these photos I took at Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah while I was there. If you've read before, you know my camera woes, so they're not the great. I was also in a hurry, and the battery was threatening to die at any moment. I have plans to go back when I can really spend the time and take better, more careful pictures.

In the arms of an angel

Fly away from here

From this dark cold hotel room

And the endlessness that you fear

You are pulled from the wreckage

Of your silent reverie

You’re in the arms of the angel

May you find some comfort there

You’re in the arms of the angel

May you find some comfort here

Dropping the F-Bomb

It has been brought to my attention recently, that I left my faithful readers hanging as to the state of my health. Rest assured, I'm still alive. I have no life-threatening conditions, and I'm not in any imminent danger of contracting some weird flesh eating virus.

To describe the process that lead me to this point would take more time than I want to spend reliving it. But, the Reader's Digest abridged version is I have had some times of chronic, non-specific pain, insomnia, migraines, fatigue and several other symptoms. I have seen a sleep specialist (and have the CPAP machine to prove it), 4 general practitioners, and a couple of specialists with no real diagnosis or relief from the symptoms. I finally got one.

The word of the moment is fibromyalgia.

I've learned a lot about it over the past month and a half, and it's been an interesting read, to say the least. After several appointments with my internist (who is quite nice), I was referred to a rheumatologist. After being poked, prodded and bent in several positions that would make a master yogi proud, I was pronounced as having fibro. I then received some of the most condescending advice I have ever received from a physician. I was told, in a nutshell, to lose weight, get some exercise, see a counselor and come back in two months.

I don't know about you, but I don't need to pay someone to tell me I'm a fat-assed, out of shape hypochondriac. Frankly, that was a lot of what I have been thinking about myself for the past couple of years, given the number of doctors, appointments and medications I have taken. To say I was insulted is putting it mildly. Actually, at first, I was totally shocked at what I was hearing. Then, I was very upset at the fact that I now had a 'word', but no real assistance, medical or otherwise, was being offered. Then, I got really angry and began to educate myself about what fibromyalgia is and isn't. It *is* real, and it's *not* in my head.

I go back to the rheumo in about two weeks, and I'll be loaded with a ream of information.

To quote a famous Savannahian, "Don't mess with The Doll, sugar."