Through the Wall

I went out this morning and cut Hydrangeas
off our bush in the backyard. Gorgeous morning!


Runners talk about hitting the wall and breaking through it - I think I've done that with the knitting.

When I knit for extended periods, my hands begin to hurt - it's a natural occurance for any repetitive motion. I usually stop and stretch, and of course I try to be as ergonomically sensible as I can in my sitting and stitching.

Yesterday I finished off a skirt and in the morning I noticed that every 15 minutes or so I'd get pins and needles in my hands. I'd stop, shake them out, spend a few minutes on the computer and return to my knitting. Right around 1:30 - after returning home from picking up the kids from camp - I began to noticed that the gaps between the pins and needles period was extending to 20, 25, 30 minutes. By last evening I was working 45 min - 1 hour without the pins and needles. Could this be the breaking through of the wall?

I'm positive that my hands were so sore because of three things:

1) The needles were size 10 (I generally like a size 7, it's my favorite size).
2) The work was on circulars (I find knitting on straights less taxing to my hands, heavy projects notwithstanding)
3) The needles were wooden (I'm more used to metal needles with less drag - less work for my hands)

This is one of those great, big, beautiful oddnesses of knitting; What may make My hands hurt might be exactly wehat someone else needs to make their hands sing with joy. Isn't that odd? I think it's important to bear this in mind, though, as an example of how important it is to respect the differences in knitters, and not assume that what works for you will be what works for the rest of the world.

And here's the skirt - front and side views. I used South West Trading's new yarn, Amaizing (made from CORN!) and really liked the feel of it. I doubled it up because I wanted a heavier drape to keep the godets from getting too ruffly.

So today I make 2 hats and fix the ruffle on a sweater. I should have several things waiting for me at the PO, and I also have some packages to send.

Apology
Here's an open apology to every one who's emailed me in the past few weeks who I haven't answered! I'm So sorry - it's just that I'm nutty busy and haven't had the time to respond as I'd like. Sometimes those emails keep sliding down, down, down the list in my macmail box and I even forget they're there. It's not like me - I try to at least shoot an email to folks letting them know I've recieved their note and promising an answer - but, as I said, I'm just stupid busy right now.

The Dress
Remember last week when I said I was casting on for a dress and then left you hanging? Here it is! It's in Berroco Suede Deluxe, which was a pleasure to work with. Yes, it's short. How fortunate that it's a knitting pattern so you can make it just as long as your legs desire!