Sunday, November 13, 2011

The Price of Not Paying Attention

So, here I sit, late at night, knitting away. I'm dealing with back pain tonight and I managed to zone out on knitting and Sims when it suddenly occurred to me that I just put the thumb stitches for the glove I'm working on in the wrong place, not over the thumb gusset. I had already finished the thumb and cut the yarn.

So I ended up having to splice the yarn and remove the thumb stitches from the wrong place. I then started the thumb over the gusset like I should have to begin with. When I got to the area of the splice, I found that I didn't like the way the yarn was separating so I tried to make sure the fuzziness was on the inside. I dropped a stitch and it ran. I was beginning to get frustrated, but I worked the yarn back up with a crochet hook and it was going fine till one of my needles dropped out and now I had four more stitches that were loose and threatening to also run. Ack!!

I managed to save the thumb, but I felt it was a really good example of the difficulty of knitting with Fibro. Fibro fog and pain can really take your concentration away from your work and make some difficult saves. The good thing that I got out of all of this was that I was able to save the thumb and continue the glove. A couple years ago I would have had to chuck the glove and just start from fresh.

Now lets just hope the gloves are nice enough looking to sell or give away after all of that.



Saturday, November 12, 2011

knitting and crocheting while dealing with hand pain

There are a lot of things I've had to give up while dealing with fibromyalgia and neuropathy, but I refuse to give up my knitting! I figure I'll knit even if I have to hold the needles with my teeth.Ha! I just can't give up something that brings me as much joy as this craft and that allows me to be creative, make a little extra money, and give nice things to people that need them.

I'm definitely challenged right now. I don't have a car so I have to walk to the post office to mail out my knitted goods. As much as the knitting hurts, the walking is even harder for me. I make the trip at least once a week and I have to take time afterwords to recover. Sometimes it takes several days. I'm dealing with foot problems that are common for people with fibro (heel spurs and plantar fascilitis). I gave up driving when I realized that I kept dazing off in a fibro fog and I had a couple close calls. None of my doctors have taken the fibro fog issue seriously and they don't have a clue of anything I can take or do to make it better. So there went driving. Most other things I've been able to find ways to do them, just had to alter the way they were done. I also have to pace myself so I don't get too worn out or sore.

My mantra now seems to be to not give up and keep plowing along. If I give up and stop doing things, I sit and get depressed and the soreness and fog take over.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Eep! Its been that long?!

I've been an awful blogger. Hopefully there isn't a Blog Police Force or I'm busted! I have several projects that have come up, been knitted, sold, and moved past. I finally decided that I won't get rich by knitting.LOL I have been selling my knitting on e-bay and on another auction site called Listia. I sell my items usually on e-bay, but never for as much as I want. I'm lucky to meet the buy it now price when people bid on it and I have never had anyone actually "buy it now". Listia is just plain aggravating. I put my items up, they go for a fair amount of points, but when I try to use the points to purchase yarn, it never happens. I always get outbid. All I've managed to win were some buttons and a set of knitting needles that I really didn't need to begin with. Even letting people know that I'm using the auctions to finance a charity doesn't seem to matter.
Soooo, my next thing is to try Yardsellr, a site that pays cash (or paypal) for things you would normally sell on a yardsale. We'll see if I can get enough from my knitting there to help. In the mean time, I'm doing all this knitting and so far have donated nothing. It all goes to making money to get yarn to make money!?
I refuse to get frustrated. I will not stop. I have a facebook group that is just for my charity and I have a following finally! Maybe I can make something happen from this. Maybe I need to stop putting up auctions and start concentrating on making stuff to donate for a while. It will definitely make me feel more appreciated.LOL. This is what I'm working on right now:
These gloves are made from Caron Soft Yarn and I decided to put fingers in them. I'm pleased to say that what holes there are between the fingers are small enough to not be noticeable this time.



These are the gloves that I'm auctioning off right now. They are actually handwarmers, but a lot of people just call them fingerless gloves:



I knitting a bunch of other things and didn't keep the pictures.LOL A couple of Jayne Cobb hats and some socks and gloves. Lots of fun!

Well, I should stop blabbing ... oops blogging, and get some actual knitting done.