Tag Archive | tennis elbow

Boxy Issues

Yesterday I turned on the tennis and settled in with my Boxy fade sweater. I was ready both to split for the sleeves and to start fading in the last color. I knit across the stitches for the front half and hit a roadblock: I needed one row per color, but there wasn’t an easy way to do that when you’re knitting back and forth with two colors of yarn. It works perfectly when you’re going round and round, but I didn’t even think about how it would have to switch to back & forth later. So, I was in a pickle. Now, I’m sure there are smarter knitters than I who have a good answer, but my answer seems to be working for me: I knit one color across, then I knit the other color across. Then I purl color one across, then purl color two across. Whatever works, right?

My second issue is one of color. When I chose my five colors for this fade, I alternated variegated with solid. The first solid was at the bottom and it’s fine. But then I have the second solid up here, separated by variegated/fades, and it’s just this stripe of lavender. I can’t decide if it stands out a lot because I’m looking for it, or because it’s obvious.

Maybe it will calm down once I get the rest done. I sure hope so because I am NOT interested in frogging 22 miles of stockinette just to switch the order of the last two colors.

And that’s as far as I got yesterday, because of Issue #3: my elbow. I had a bad case of tendinitis several years ago, and every so often it’ll flare up a bit if I’m not careful. Apparently I’ve been doing a lot of knitting during Duncan’s recovery, and they’re longer stretches of knitting, and now I’ve got this pain in my elbow that says “Hey! Time to take a break!” So instead I caught up on some TV and read a book, like a real book with pages and stuff, and that was nice. I’ll give it a couple more days with limited knitting and all should be fine. Maybe switching to my worsted weight cowl will help too, since I hold the bigger needles more loosely than the smaller ones I use for fingering weight. And really, it will work out all right because I’m getting my purple hair refreshed today, so that’ll be about five hours with little to no knitting time!

Enjoy your Sunday, friends!

A Cowl on a Puppy

Jan9

I didn’t go to Michaels yesterday. That feels like a triumph. I could have. I had the car, the freedom, the time, the coupons. But I didn’t. I didn’t need anything from there. I have yarn galore, better yarn than I’d get there. I have needles galore, better needles than they have. So I did my grocery shopping and went home, where after lunch I started a quickie project with yarn from my stash. I had an urge to make a chunky cowl that would work for older kids, so I grabbed two skeins of denim blue Knit Picks Brava Bulky and cast on for a simple cowl. I held two strands together and used size 17 needles, and a couple of hours later, I had a finished object. Jack was my first model. I can’t stand how cute he is here. Now I understand why people put their dogs in sweaters and snoods and things. I can’t, because Grace would chew this up in seconds. But oh, it was adorable while it lasted.This Christmas tree is coming in handy, since it’s right by the big bay windows. Good lighting. Too bad we’re finally going to take it down today!

That’s all the progress for today, kids. I think I need to take a short break from knitting. My elbow has been paining me the last few days, so I told myself last night that I would go a full week without knitting. Of course, in the light of day, I’m second guessing myself, and I don’t know if I’ll make it. But now that the foot is (mostly) healed, I’ve started taking some ibuprofen to reduce the inflammation, and I’m going to keep icing it because that seems to help a lot. So I’ll play it by ear, and let you know…maybe you’ll see knitting, maybe you won’t! But you’ll always see cute puppies. This is what happens whenever I sit on the couch. Puppy friends are the best of friends!

Another Minor Setback

Nov17

This is not ideal. If you remember, I managed to acquire some tendonitis in my elbow over the summer, and I’ve been battling it ever since. Well, being on crutches has made it worse, as has all my extra knitting time while I’ve been resting my foot. I’m not supposed to take anti-inflammatories because they’re not the best meds for my foot, but the pain meds I do have don’t do anything to help the elbow. Sigh. So right now I have a really sore elbow and I know I need to quit knitting for a few days to let it rest. I’ll try working on the crochet mermaid blanket, since it’s a different set of movements and uses the right (good) arm more than the left. But these might be the last knitting photos for a while. The doggy scarf! It’s about 2 1/2″ wide and 13″ circumference. I really hope it fits well. Another Broken Rib slouch hat, this time in Oscar the Grouch Green.This is the last piece for my craft show, which is tomorrow! I can’t say I’m looking forward to it, but that might just be because of how hard it is to shower/look presentable right now. I’m sure once we get there and get it all set up, we’ll have a grand time. And maybe I’ll sell a whole bunch of hats!

Today I’ll distract myself from yarn with a small editing job, a short children’s story. I haven’t done any editing in a while so it’ll be a nice change of pace. I’ll leave you with a couple of photos, one of my “helper” puppy and one of our current refrigerator Scrabble. It’s fun to get up in the morning and see what my family has added! Today I saw “strong” and “grit”. Must remember those. “You shall not pass!”