Deadfish Hat #2

At long last, I have a finished object and I'm very excited! My elbow and just being busy in general slowed my knitting down dramatically these last several weeks. The elbow, so far, feels fine. :) Here's my second Deadfish Hat. This one's for Earl, the gentleman that did my tattoo.

I used "Dark Fantasy" yarn from Backstitches for this hat and to be honest, I didn't like it as well as the "Loops & Threads" I used for the last hat. The Fantasy is too fine, too split-able and it doesn't want to retain the shape as well as the Michaels brand.

Oh, and here's the skein of hand-dyed yarn that I did at WWKIP. :) Can't wait until we do the jacquard next!

Next up: A plum colored wrap, a third (and final) Deadfish Hat for my five year old nephew and the start of the Great American Aran Afghan (I'm using, naturally, Ann McCauley's pattern first). Yes'm...big case of start-itis now.

Self-Medication

Now that this situation is over, per se, I can talk about it. Something strange happened to my right arm after the fiber festival and I had no idea what was going on. First, the muscles in my upper and lower arm, as well as the elbow joint, began to hurt very badly. There were dull aches and at times, sharp, dagger-like pains. Then, I noticed a really large lump under the skin of my forearm. Initially, I thought I had bruised myself helping break down vendor set ups, but the bump kept getting larger and the pain, more intense.


I went to the doctor and had the lump examined. In a nutshell, she said it was either a non-cancerous lipoma (aka "mutant fat cell") or a lymphoma. An ultrasound showed it was a lipoma (whoo! and yay!) and now it was time to deal with the muscular/joint issues. I went to the orthopaedist yesterday and after the examination, he stated that I have tennis elbow.

"Do you play?" Dr. Henning asked.
"Dude, look at me. What the hell do you
think?" I thought.
"No, I knit...rabidly," I replied.
"Well, we'll take care of this right now."

And I was given a cortisone shot in the ligament. I hate shots. Have I ever told you that? I really, really loathe needles. My veins are hard to find and my record of IV attempts is 12 tries! I've spent the better part of my life trying to avoid shots. Ask me sometime about avoiding a series of shots in the Cote d'Ivoire/Ivory Coast Airport in Africa. There's a little man in a dirty lab coat there who thinks Bill Clinton and I are lovers.

One railroad spike later, I do feel better. My arm doesn't hurt nearly as much, but that could be the codeine talking at this point. Anyway, next time my elbow kicks up, I plan on self-medicating...Aspercream and vodka. Wanna join me?

Ten Ways to Enjoy Summer

Ten Ways to Enjoy Summer

1. Let's start with an ice cold Appletini, or a Purltini, or a Peartini;

2. Play with my Sony Reader! Denise bought me one for my birthday and I am eating it up. I've downloaded books, e.g. Eat Pray Love, multiple knitting patterns and the fiber festival photo collection;

3. Visiting with family and friends (my summer was made in May with Julie & Marianne's visit);

4. Swimming at the lake;

5. Strolling the boardwalk - - any boardwalk. There's a small one here in Bedford County and I really enjoy the one at North Beach near my sister's house. I haven't done it yet this year, but I plan to;

6. Watering plants. I've NEVER considered myself a green thumb, but my neighbor asked me to water her outdoor plants while she's away for a month. So far, I've only killed a small peach tree, but everything else is flourishing. I have to admit that I find it very relaxing and honestly, I could camp next to her hydrangeas - - they smell that good!

7. Grilling. I love the smell of grilling food; and

8. Leisurely road trips where you just go somewhere for the beauty of the drive, not the destination.

I can't come up with anything else right now, but that's a good start. I hope you enjoy your summer!

Ten on Tuesday

My Ten Summer Reads....
Yes, I'm way behind on this one. It's been sitting on my bedside table for months, along with the book below.


Can't wait for this to be released in late August!

Feeding my love of vampire books...lol

Charlaine Harris is one of my favorite authors. She writes the Southern Vampire Series, which is also known as True Blood on HBO.

Knitting reading

More Charlaine (and I've actually already read this).

Isabel Allende is another favorite. I love both her adult and youth fiction series.

No, it's not ten, but there'll be more than ten when summer's over. Trust me. :)

WWKIP 2010

A group of us met last Saturday, June 19th, for WWKIP. Sheila at Wool2Dye4 was kind enough to host us and open her doors. Her selection of both dyed and undyed yarn was MOUTHWATERING; I kid you not. She also taught us the principles of dyeing and all of us dyed a skein using different Kool-Aid colors. It was great day! Thank you so much Sheila. :)

Cynthia's skein came out looking like blue-based Araucania; very pretty!

Dianne lightly dyed hers in shades of blue and red.

Linda

Jessi, the dyeing pro, knitted and watched us learn the basics. (She took 'Best in Show' at Sedalia's Do or Dye this year).

Have a great weekend everyone!

Ten on Tuesday

Welcome to my first "Ten on Tuesday". :)

Ten Ways to Entertain a Child
(*only the brave at heart would do this with kids in their home)

1. *Painting;
2. *Play-Doh and/or Sculpey;
3. Museum trip;
4. Playground and picnic;
5. Building a fort out of chairs and blankets and then playing inside it together;
6. Bicycle riding together;
7. Baking cookies or cupcakes and then decorating them;
8. Hide and Seek;
9. Scavenger hunts;
10. Reading a great book to the child or children.

Meet Jaws

This is a hat for people who will wear anything. It's Thelma Egbert's Fish Hat (Dead or Alive)? from Ravelry. I made this hat, my first one, for Dynaknit's husband, Mike.

Dynaknits and I had been laughing about Mike coming to the festival in some handknit (and crazy-colored Red Heart) socks. She stated that Mike would wear anything and when I saw this hat, I decided to put it to the test.

Happy Birthday Mike! :)

And...the tattoo contest winner is Marianne! Here's your Fyberspate's; the colorway is "Crayons."

Shore Parkway Wrap

Here's a recent finished project, the Shore Parkway Wrap. It was painfully easy to knit and there's no frills, but it is a warm and comfortable wrap.

I knitted with two strands, a variegated Universal Worsted and a solid Plymouth Encore (3 skeins each). Have a great weekend!

My Turn

Okay, Linda's tattoo is over and mine is about to begin. Through her tattooing, Linda remained calm and almost silent. She gasped on an occasion or two, but that was it. I was completely impressed!

Chris had assured me that tattooing wasn't bad and using the new "air" machines made a world of difference, e.g. less pain. I climbed into the chair, grabbed the metal bars behind me for support and was ready to go.

Had you been there, you would've thought I was giving birth to a watermelon. I moaned, I writhed, I whimpered and jumped. I was so pathetic that everyone was giggling, but I couldn't help myself. "Are you almost finished Earl?" I whined. "No. I've only done the word, 'Knit', so far." I have no idea how long I was in the chair, but Linda and Logan assured that it wasn't long at all. LMAO

And this is the finished job. The photo's fuzzy, but the tattoo isn't and I just adore it!

Last, but not least, came Logan and he put me to shame. (I'll get a kick in some time, some where). :) He was in the process of being tattooed when I snapped this picture.

Finally, while Logan was being done, I logged on to my Ravelry account and Chris spent an hour or so going through the Star Wars-related knitting patterns on Ravelry (his favorite movie). Earl liked the hat I was knitting and asked if I did commissions. I don't, but I told him to choose his colors and I would make him a Dead Fish Hat. :) The long and short of it is...Linda and I entered as "weirdos" and left with "recruits." That's knitting power for you.

Linda's Bucket List - Part 2

And the pain continues....

And keeps coming...

Argh. I don't have a photo of Linda's finished tattoo, but it's an adorable

little sheep. You can picture it from the outline above.

The sheep's head is filled in with black, as are the feet. Linda had Earl give

the body black and gray swirls/whorls.

So how was your Sunday afternoon?

Knitter Tattoo

Linda, Logan (Linda's grandson) and I strolled into A Kiss of Ink in Lynchburg yesterday. We were met at the door by Earl, the tattoo artist, and said we had come for a tattoo. Earl looked a little surprised, but accepted it with aplomb.

• "What kind of tattoo do you want?" he asked.
• Linda replied, "Sheep."
• He looked at me and said, "Sheep? Seriously?"
• "Yes, sheep. We're knitters." I answered.

You could tell that he had NO CLUE what to make of us, but Linda and I went on to look for a sheep tattoo that she liked. We found one in about twenty minutes or so and by that time, the second employee, Chris, had arrived. Both Chris and Earl were shaking their heads, but they were starting to get into the idea.

"Wait a minute. I have to pay for my pain???" Linda asked.
Getting setup by Earl
Getting nervous...really nervous.

Getting inked.

"Breathe, Linda, breathe. Relax."

To be continued....

Weekend Getaway

I had a Maryland weekend getaway. The highlight was time spent with the kids.

Only for this pair would I sit in cold hose water while fully dressed.

And it was cold as Briana's face shows.


And for the knitting...Bri modeled her new sweater, a "Fresh Picked Color Cardigan". :)

And here's a cute one of Mr. Creamsicle Mouth.

H E L P & Win a Prize

Vote for your favorite tattoo graphic by leaving a comment and

you're entered to win a skein of luscious sock yarn!

And the nominees are....

Just the graphic, not the "Knit-a-holic" text. This image has taken on a whole new meaning after the last fiber festival. :)

Just the sheep, not the "Baa."

Chinese character for knit. It also means, "weave" and "unite" as well.

Peace, Love, Knit

I Came, I Saw, I Knit