A Little Yarn On The Side

I probably manage to burn myself every canning season, but aside from sunburns, I've never had such a widespread burn and it's been years since I have had a sunburn, so I don't know how long mild burns hurt.  My hands hurt less today, but I was rather hoping they wouldn't hurt at all.  I managed to do a little crafting yesterday, getting a set of 6 lace icicles done.  I had time enough I could have made more, but hooping the stabilizer was pretty painful, and I couldn't bring myself to do it again.  One of my goals for the year is 12 threads on a needlework project that I believe I started in 2009 when I was laid up after surgery.  For a while I thought the project was doomed because I couldn't find the directions, but last week I found them with another project. My organizational skills might be next year's project.  It's a needlepoint kit, and I thought if I could prop the frame up I could start working on it, but I can't grip the needle ti...

The Ravellenics (and some unnamed sporting event) begin in 3 days, the bronchitis is finally letting up, and yesterday I burned my hands.  I was making pasta for lunch, and I didn't realize the plastic handles on my stockpot would be hot, so when I picked up the pot to drain the pasta, I got mild burns on my fingers and inside of my hands.  Because it was hot, I dropped the pot as fast as I could and the water splashed out and burned the backs of my hands.  Luckily, they are all mild, mild burns and this morning my skin isn't even red, but they do hurt and there will certainly not be any knitting today.  I'm not actually sure what I'll be doing today, but I have a bag pinned at the sides that I'm hoping I can run through the serger at least.  After that.....we'll see. Dang it........

I have almost kicked the bronchitis, I think.  Aside from a little bit yesterday, my cough is almost gone.  I still have some chest congestion, so Tuesday I picked up a cold medicine supposedly for chest congestion.  I say "supposedly" because that third one is an outright lie.  I think it is supposed to be cherry flavor, but whatever cherries ever did to anyone to deserve such an insult is beyond me.  It's so awful that yesterday I was nauseous every time I took it.  Someone in the marketing department for these folks is just a sadist--that's all there is to it.  Tomorrow will be 5 weeks of this garbage, and I feel like I should have a lot more knitting to show for it.  I've been working on the Alice Starmore sweater--possibly because an oversized sweater in fingering weight yarn and a never-ending cough seem to go together--and I just finished up another ball of yarn, which makes almost 1300 yards of yarn in this baby already.  Thi...

Last weekend I really was over the bronchitis, but I made the mistake of stopping the nights of Nyquil as well.  After 3 weeks of the stuff, I seem to have been a little addicted to sleep aids, so for two nights in a row, I couldn't sleep.  Monday morning the darn but was back and I'm not over it yet.  Dang it. I am feeling slightly better today, so I thought I'd play a little catch-up.  In little bursts of feeling good this week I've been working on some shaping ideas for bowls.  I wanted to see how far one could curve the sides inward, which isn't that far unless the bowl is large, and there's a point where it goes from "possible" to "impossible" all at once.  Next I thought I'd try to curve the bowl down instead of up, which only goes to show you how far the month of cold medicine has addled my brain.  You cannot slant a bowl downward because there's a bottom of a sewing machine in the way.  So, I practiced my slanted-side...

Perhaps it's because I feel a bit better today, or perhaps it's because I have been spending soooooo much time knitting, but today I found the gumption to try a fabric & rope bowl. The book Andy gave me for my birthday, is written by a free-thinker after my own heart (when on cold medication, one can mix metaphors).  She says scraps of fabric work just fine, and it doesn't really matter how you cut them.  The book I bought says quite specifically that one MUST cut strips on the bias and they MUST be a very specific width.  I'm always suspicious of "musts," as they are so often wrong.  In chemistry, I believe "musts." In making baskets, I have my doubts.  So, this week while wallowing in self-pity, I cut fabric strips I just used pinking sheers and not a single one is perfectly straight, but again, the author said it wouldn't really matter.  I've only seen these baskets made with cotton fabrics, and being me, I wanted to see what ...