OUCH!

I’m not sure but I think I may have a knitting related injury. Several weeks ago, my left thumb was aching for apparently no reason. The day before, I had worked for several hours on my Charlotte’s Web shawl. Darling Fiancé joked that I may have “knitters thumb” (very original huh?), I did think, “Maybe I had overdone it with the knitting”. I noticed that the thumb and index finger on my right hand kept falling asleep as I was knitting, so maybe I was stressing the left thumb as well.

I picked up Charlotte yesterday morning to get in a few rows before leaving for work. I hadn’t touched her since before going to Vegas. Again, as I was knitting the right thumb and index finger kept falling asleep (that feeling of pins and numbness is horrible). Then by yesterday afternoon, the left thumb was aching, I couldn’t grab a glass without having a horrible pain. Last night I rubbed “tiger balm” down the thumb before bed; it is much better today, just a slight ache.

It’s very peculiar, the numbness and pain does not occur when I knit anything else. I’ve been working on other projects the last few weeks with no side effects. I knit for 2 hours on the plane Friday and was fine. Yet, ½ hour on Charlotte, and I miserable.

Here is my best guess on why this is happening. I am TERRIFIED of dropping stitches on Charlotte. I have never done lace before and honestly do not know if I could properly pick up a dropped stitch in a lace pattern. This has never ever been a concern before, I know what knit and purl stitches look like, I’ve picked up stitches before without batting an eye, heck I’ve even purposely dropped stitches down as far down as 10 rows to fix a mistake. As a result of my fear of dropping stitches on charlotte as I get further and further into it, increasing stitches, I think I am clutching the needles harder then normal. This is the only explanation. I may go home tonight and check my gauge again, I’d bet I’m tightening up. Oh well….
Other then that life is going pretty well.

I'm Back (with pictures)

Back from a few days in sunny, Las Vegas on the company dollar. The user conference I was attending turned out to be less then informative, but never decline a free trip on the company, and overall it was a very nice few days.

Vegas is sensory overload, everything looks so over the top. I didn't know where to begin. Now, I live just across the Hudson river from Manhattan, I'm in Manhattan at least once a week and Vegas is like nothing I've ever seen. The first night we were there Tim took me to the "Venetian hotel" I've seen pictures of this place with the gondolas and painted sky ceiling I was still awed. My dad was right, when you walk into that place you have no idea what time of day it is. We were put up at the Mirage hotel and casino, most famous for Siegfried & Roy. It was lovely.



I've never been to Vegas before and there was so much to see, I didn't get to see half of what was there. One of the highlights though was the fountain display at the Bellagio hotel. I got there Wednesday night while Tim played in a poker tournament. I watched the display twice, I could have stood there all night though.



Yesterday, we had a late flight back so my fiance and I were able to see the "secret garden" of Siegfried and Roy which is a white tiger/lion and dolphin habitat. It was a nice quick tour. Here are one of there dolphins and a sleeping kitty. I love the kitties.




I brought some knitting but didn't do any during the day or night. I was strickly knitting on the plane rides coming and going home. Going out there I finished up the "mistake rib" scarf I'd been working on. Coming home I started working another booga bag. I had a very nice talk with one of the stewardesses on the flight back about knitting, So, if you see this Hi Pat!






I was all excited when I checked my e-mail today. While I was away I got the info on my Knitters Review Secret Pal. I can't wait to start spoiling her.

That's about all for an update, I'm very tired and need to catch up on my sleep.

Hello, Goodbye

Just a quick hello and goodbye.

I'm leaving in a little while for a business trip. They are sending me and a co-worker to a conference in Las Vegas. Viva Las Vegas! I've never been there and my darling fiance is coming so this should be a lot of fun.

We'll only be gone till Saturday, but it's still nice to get away from the office.

Summer leaving a chill

I am so cold right now; this is starting to get out of hand. It is slightly chilly here today, right now it only in the upper 50’s for some reason though, my office is like an icebox. I have no windows in the fishbowl I work in, I don’t have a radiator in this room, and the only ventilation is from the HVAC unit which blows down from the vent above me. Yes, they have the A/C on today. Oh my kingdom for some heat. I just ran out to the car and grabbed a sweater and sweatshirt. One I’m wearing, the other is draped over my legs trying to keep in some heat. One would think that the offices of a company that installs and maintains HVAC units would be a temperature controlled environment, but not here. No sir, there never seems to be a happy medium, just very hot or freezing cold. Oh well…

Would it be inappropriate to keep a lap blanket in my room for when it gets like this? In the winter, I always keep fingerless gloves in here for the days my hands get too cold. Would the blanket be over the top? I think I’ll make one anyway.

It was a crazy weekend with a good deal of rain. I didn’t have much time at home so I didn’t get any laundry or packing done. That means I have to cram it all into tonight, I don’t have too much packing to do since we’ll only be in Las Vegas 3 nights, but I always over pack.

I’m up to the fourth color on Charlotte, and she looks really good. I afraid to take her to Vegas, maybe I’m just overreacting, but I have horrible luck. With my luck I’d pack her and then have the suitcase searched and her come undone, or I could take her on the plane. I could switch her from my addi’s to Denise then I probably wouldn’t have a problem. Uggghhhh… Maybe I’ll just cast on for Rogue and take that with me. I’ve got a 5 plus hour flight, and I need to keep busy since I hate flying. I’ll come up with something tonight.

Scarf

As promised here are a few pictures of the Quickie scarf, modeled by my lovely little sister.

I swear the yarn made me do it.

Last night I'm in my bedroom reading "interweave crochet" and minding my own business when I hear this tiny voice.

"Heather? Heather?"

I look over and there is a ball of Lamb's pride Bulky yarn in "Turkish Olive" Peering out of my stash box.

"Knit me" it says.

"No, no I replied", my lovely Charlotte is right over there and I will not work on anything else right now, that would be neglect."

"Neglect?", replies the lamb's pride "You want to talk about neglect, last winter you knitting me and my pal into a 31/2 foot scarf then frogged us and wrapped us into these balls. You haven't looked at us since."

"Your right, your right" I replied.

So I grabbed the largest needles I have (size 35) Held 2 strands of the lamb's pride bulky together and casted on six stitches and just started doing a simple garter scarf. Three hours later, I have an approx. 7 foot scarf. This morning I added some fringe, and Ta Da: A rather nice looking, Very QUICK, finished Christmas gift.

Pictures of said scarf to come.

And the Charlotte goes on..

I've been able to get somemore work done on charlotte this weekend. The missing skein of Koigu was found, and progress is going slow but steady. Knitting has been quite meditative this weekend, and I've needed it as a few memorials are being held this weekend, in honor of a friend who passed on last week.

Just a short update for now. Keep knitting!

Fall Knitty

The fall edition of Knitty is out and I'm impressed.

I'm completely in love with blaze. I think I need to kick my knitting up a notch to get through a few projects projects on back burner. Darling future hubby doesn't want me buying any more yarn, however, if I finish some big projects I can justify it. I wish I had two extra hands.

Koigu, Koigu where are you?

"O where O where has my Koigu gone
O where O where can it be?
It's a skein of yarn
that's made of wool
O where of where can it be?"


I had picked up Charlotte last night after not touching her since last week and am merrily knitting along when till I got 4 rows from where I would begin the 3rd color. I stop to get my 3 remaining skeins only to find, one is missing.

I thought all three where in the bag with the pattern but they weren't. I'm worried, but not too worried. My room looks like a small tornado came through it. The darling fiance was helping me clean out my closet Sunday because I was complaining about not having room for clothing. He found that I keep my stash in two drawers of my dresser and said, "No wonder you can't fit clothes in here." This started two projects. One was me going through my dresser and closet and getting rid of old clothing I'll never where again. While he started to move my stash into a plastic container for storage. He gently let me know he thinks I have plenty of yarn and that I shouldn't need to buy anymore for a while. I think the missing skein of koigu wandered off during the cleaning efforts. I took the yarn for Charlotte and put it on the bed telling him not to touch that yarn since it was for my current project. It's not in the plastic container with the rest of the stash. It may be in a box buried by the bed. I guess I'll be finishing up the cleaning effort tonight to find it.

Here is a picture on Charlotte as she currently stands. The lighting in this room does not do justice to the colors of this yarn. The MIA skein is mostly a lovely lilac color.

Wow Tuesday already

Goodbye summer, where did you go?

This weekend was a little on the hairy side. I finished up work Friday and treated myself to a nice manicure and pedicure. I took my mom out to the mall, and wound up finding a Tiara there. I was so excited. I just need to order my veil, and my bridal attire is complete.

Saturday night my fiance and I found out that a friend is in the hospital after being in a fire. He is in pretty bad shape, we went to visit the last two days. Everyone is keeping there fingers crossed, lighting candles and saying prayers that he will pull through okay.

That's it. Just a short update.

Days of my worklife

Welcome to day three of "Days of my worklife", otherwise known as what else can go wrong at work. Things have been crazy this week. One of the two bosses is out, our billing clerk is out, and one of our payroll girls is out. Where does this leave me? Well, I'm taking care of some of the bosses regular duties (along with a list of crap), trying to keep an eye on the billing department (and sweating that all will not be well when our billing manager gets back from maternity leave in a week)and I'm now helping out in payroll.. AGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry about that sometimes you just need to scream. I want to go knitting at Barnes and Noble tonight but I'm not sure I'm going to get there. I didn't get home till past 7 on Monday and I really have to get a dent into the billing filing. I've also been in quite a foul mood when I have been getting in. Maybe I should just skip it again. I'll see how the day progresses.