Crochet Time

Well, I went from knitting to crochet. I couldn't handle not working with yarn. Okay, so it's probably doing NOTHING good for my hand, but I don't care anymore. Pain... It's just one more thing that will hurt. Whatever.

I have decided what I don't like about crochet.
1) There aren't as many good patterns.
2) Most of the patterns are "clunky." Almost representative of the old "Grandma Squares" that are out there in abundance.

Yeah. Those are the 2 main things I don't like. I love lightweight, filmy things. That's why I mainly knit lace. I adore that delicate look. Crochet just can't quite capture that as well. It's because each "bar" in it is created by making chains. There's no easy way to get the hole that's necessary in lace when it comes to crochet. So, enter the "clunky" look. Don't get me wrong. There are designers out there that manage to pull it off, but they're few and far between and rarely do they come up with something I want to make.

So, if I can handle the pain, I'm going to switch back to knitting. To heck with it. I was good for about 6 weeks and there was almost no change in my hand's ability to get better. Stupid hand. So, spoink on it. I'll finish up Nerd Wars with crochet and then maybe take some time off since the next Nerd Wars tournament won't start until February. We'll see though.

I'll admit it. When that pain flares up, it HURTS. It takes a lot for me to stop doing what I love, and I was good for about a month. That's saying something for the level of pain. Doctors tend to notice pain levels when it hinders your ability to handle day-to-day tasks, and I'll admit it. Knitting is a very important part of my day. Okay. And doing dishes and folding laundry wasn't going well either.... But that's just normal, boring stuff. ;-)

Gack! I'll get there. Until then, I'll do my best to enjoy learning a new craft and being able to expand my creative outlets. In the end, it's all good.

And the pity party continues

So, here we are, mid-December and my hand is STILL messed up. Some of that is my fault. I'll admit that. The first and second braces just didn't fit right! The first was too small and the second was too... I don't know. All I do know is they were messing up my wrist since it wasn't allowed to move. Add in the fact I have narrow hands but long fingers, and NOTHING was meshing. It was a mess. I wasn't wearing it as often as I should have been because of the crappy fit.

I also started to go completely insane, so taught myself how to crochet. hehehe I learned how to hold the hook with minimal pressure needed from my thumb. I'll admit I still prefer knitting, but it's fun having another craft I can fiddle with.

I started occupational therapy and ... yeah. I'm wearing a different brace now that allows the rest of my hand more movement while keeping the "important" part of my thumb stationary. Only the first round of ultrasound therapy revealed something scary. On two parts of my thumb, I kept getting "zings" of pain. It felt like someone kept sneaking up on me and shocking me. At that point, my therapist got a little worried and started to go easier on my hand. Turns out those "zings" usually mean a tear in a tendon. *big sigh* So, we ended the session early with a little gentle hand massage and orders to wear my brace all the time. A day later, I took my brace off to do my exercises and noticed something HORRIBLE! The top of my thumb was veering off to the left. I haven't the slightest idea how that happened or what it even means.

I did trip and fall on that Monday. My son thought it would be amusing to crouch down by my feet and I didn't know he was there. I bet you he won't do THAT again. However, that was the only thing that happened out of the ordinary that week.

I have since returned to my doctor, reported the fall and the results of the ultrasound therapy and showed him my thumb. Of course, I got send right in for x-rays to find out what happened. Unfortunately, Radiology was busy that day. It's cold and flu season, so little kidlets were in there for chest x-rays and well... We do live on a military base. There were quite a few soldiers in there for training accidents. The radiologist hadn't gotten around to reading my x-rays by the time business ended. So, I'm still waiting for results. It's possible I 1) broke my knuckle as it's swollen or I 2) tore right through one of my tendons and only 1 is controlling my thumb now. All I do know is my thumb is still messed up and it hurts even more now. If a tendon did give way, I'm in trouble.... It means surgery and enforced rest for it until it heals. If that's the case, everyone will want to stay FAR away from me because I will go completely INSANE!

For now, I'm working on learning to live without my right hand as much as possible. It's so hard. I have to keep fighting the fatalistic thinking of "Well, it's already screwed up, so who cares if I...." It's not pretty. Usually the pain of that stupid thinking chases me right back in to my brace. That's the only time the pain subsides to some extent. I just hope I can find out the results of the x-rays before long. With my luck, they will show nothing and everyone will be confused. I DO know that the original problem is fixed. I am no longer showing signs of De Quervain's syndrome. So the question is, "what now?"

Feeling Sorry for Myself

Well, it's official. I can hurt myself with any craft I do. Though, oddly enough, I quilted for 7 years without any problems. I guess that one is varied enough that it's harder to give oneself a repetitive motion injury. Too bad knitting isn't the same way. It's also too bad I wasn't smart enough to take more breaks while I was knitting.

I'm now "on profile" as they say in the military. That just means I'm injured and I've been limited on what I'm allowed to do until I'm better. In this case, I inflamed the tendons in my right thumb. Isn't that stupid? However, if anyone could do it, it would be me. I'm now wearing this snazzy brace that's keeping my right thumb and wrist stationary. Whee haw... I think it's going to drive me nuts. I'm supposed to keep it on for about a week in the hopes it will allow those tendons to return to normal.

I'll admit I'm not in the best of moods right now. I'm fluctuating between depressed, bored, and plain flat irritated. Mind you, I knew I'd end up in this brace. I went to the doctor after the pain in my thumb refused to subside after 3 days even though I stopped knitting. At that point, I knew it was serious and I needed help or I'd cause myself permanent injury. At least I'm not completely stupid there.

Ugh. I knew I shouldn't knit with a heavier weight yarn. My hands have been telling me off and on for the past 2 months to not knit with anything heavier than fingering weight. Though I WILL continue working on my cardigan. I'll just be more careful and take frequent breaks until it's finished. I have too much invested in it already to let it fall by the way side. However, the hats I was planning on knitting might never see the light of day. And I can sell the yarn that was to go into them. I'll wait and see after the brace comes off what's going to happen, but I'm thinking that might be for the best.

*big sigh* Oh, well. Once this is healed, at least I can continue knitting my favorite things, which are lace shawls. ;-) I'll get there eventually. I just need to relax, read a book, watch TV, and time will pass.

I wonder if I could use a Knifty Loom with one hand.....

The New Challenge

If you look over and read my brief little bio, you'll see I'm an Army wife. Well, with that comes difficult times in our lives that usually take the form of deployments. As our country has been at war for a long time, deployments these days usually take the people we love into either Iraq or Afghanistan. Unfortunately, it was our turn. Recently, we waved goodbye to Daddy as he went off to war. He's much loved and will be greatly missed. It is, of course, my job to take care of the kids and keep our home moving smooth while he's away. I pray for his safety every day and hope that he will return to us unharmed. With that in mind, I have to do something to keep myself sane! So, I came up with a challenge for myself, and my friend was crazy enough to join me. ;-)

My challenge is to create 12 lace shawls in a single year. I'll admit that I semi-cheated. :-) I had a shawl I was working on while he was home, but I put the last bind-off stitch in yesterday. It's not even blocked yet. So, I have decided that it counts as 1 of the 12. Hey! I have 3 boys to take care of. It counts. lol

What are the rules of my little challenge? Well, it 'should' be a shawl, though my friend wants to toss in scarves and things of that nature. As there's a shawl I want to do that is rather pretty, but will be a quick knit, we decided that around 400 yards of yarn qualifies. Besides, our list so far is daunting.

On our list is Evenstar, Galadriel's Mirror, Lothlorien Cape, and Crocus. To tell you the truth, if we can get those four finished in a year, we'll be doing good. lol

So, wish me luck! Here's to surviving a deployment and creating beautiful works of art at the same time.

Still Putzing Along

Yeah. My "Slow Going" post is still about right. Add in a lot of baseball and a husband who's currently on a month-long leave and I'm not getting anywhere fast. I'm still in the middle of Clue 3. Clue 4 released today. I have to admit that I'm rather disappointed in this shawl. Renee has done some spectacular shawls in the past, but I'm not sure this is one of them. I'm wondering if her idea to do it as a half-hexagon is playing with her mind or what? Either way, it's boring....

The next clue is a mix of different size 'flowers.' I've already decided to place a bead in the center of each one and call it good. That should make Clue 4 go quick and I might be able to catch up. We'll see though. We have company again for the next 2 weeks, and the kids are getting out of school in a few days. Knitting could be hard to fit in. Oh, well. I'll do my best and see where I end up. :-)

Slow Going

I'll admit that my momentum on the Anniversary Mystery Shawl has slowed down considerably. I have received my yarn for Evenstar. I have beads coming in later this week for it. And I have the needles on hand. I can't even begin to say how much I want to practice the cast on for it. Since it's a circular shawl, it has an interesting cast on. I also have decided to do Renee's next mystery shawl. I have the yarn for it, but not the needles. I know I can get them in 2-3 days after I buy them though. I'll order them this weekend. That mystery doesn't start until June 11 though.

I think I slowed down when clue 3 was released. It's the same pattern as clue 2, so I'm bored. I did manage to get my goal of 6 rows last night though. At some point, I'll have to pick it up today to get my goal again. I only have 2 more pattern rows of beads and I'm free for awhile. Of course, the rows without beads are faster. Only, I don't have the desire to work on it right now. I'm getting bored though, and I don't want to do housework, so I'll probably pick it up as soon as I'm done with this post. How sad is that? lol

Here's a photo of clue 2 finished. I like how the beads are turning out. Since that zigzag pattern is repeated in clue 3, I'll do the beads there, too. This is only one of the three panels. My cable is only 32" long, so that's as much as I could show. From here on out, pictures are going to be interesting to get. The white lines there are my lifelines. I use white crochet thread to keep any color from my lifelines from bleeding into my projects. Though this lifeline is in danger of becoming pink as I know for sure my yarn is bleeding color. I see some washing and rinsing in my future. ;-)

Crochet Hook and Beads

Yesterday, I ran out to the store to go ahead and get a crochet hook and see if I could make it work with my beads on the Anniversary Mystery Shawl. My friend and I went round and round in circles while she argued that it should work and I argued that it wouldn't. Since I was going to Hobby Lobby anyway, I figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal to at least look at a size 14 crochet hook again.

Those size 14 hooks are tiny! You look at them funny and they will probably bend. The one I ended up buying is made by Yarnology. Probably some random brand Hobby Lobby is carrying currently. It's also only 0.75mm. Told ya it was tiny.

I have learned that, with a little practice, it will work with size 11/0 seed beads and I can now get those beads on the yarn easier. It does take a two-handed approach, but it's still infinitely faster than the wire/bead method that I don't mind.

As far as I can tell, these little size 14 hooks work best with single ply thread. In order to get it to work with a 2-ply lace yarn, I use my left hand to tighten the yarn over the hook to make it small enough for single ply, and use my thumbnail on my right hand to push the bead down over the hook and yarn. Once I got the hang of it, it went fast. I managed to finish a beaded row in about half the time as with the wire/bead method. Needless to say, I'm thrilled and it was worth the $2.50 price tag on the new crochet hook. My friend did tell me, "I told you so," but she earned it. lol Okay, and I'll admit it. It's so much faster that I don't mind her being right. I'm glad that she was. :-D