Weekend Woes

This week at work has been insanely busy for me. That entails copying, lifting, moving, drilling, punching (sounds violent, doesn't it?) and stress. It caught up with me yesterday. I woke up with a neck that decided to go out without me, resulting in a LOT of pain. Most of the day was spent lying down, drugged up with muscle relaxants and the application of my Magic Bag (aka "the beanbag"). John spent the day at work, so I had the freedom to do nothing.

That said, I did go out for a walk. Well, a walk with a purpose. I had to pick up the yarn I'd ordered from my local yarn store. It didn't help the neck any, but at least I got up and out the door for a while.

Stephen, at the yarn store, graciously offered to wind the yarn for me, but I told him I wouldn't subject him to that torture. As a matter of fact, I've even refused to wind it for customers when I worked at the yarn shop because the yarn is so fine that I've had it break and tangle easily. I didn't want that. And apart from those challenges, this is 1200+ yards; that takes a long time to wind!

By mid-afternoon, I decided to see if the skein would fit on my "swift"; it did, so I wound it up myself. It took almost an hour!

My swift? A standing lamp. All I did was loosen the screw at the top, so the lamp shade moved freely, then positioned the yarn on the shade and wound away. The ball winder, incidentally, was me. It works. It's cheap. Doesn't get much better than that, unless John had been willing to wind it for me, but he wasn't home.

This yarn is fine! It's a little difficult to tell in the picture below, but it's probably half as thin as the Knit Picks lace weight yarn that's beside it. The yarn, by the way, is Skacel's Merino Lace; it's what I ordered to knit the Christening Dress from Sarah Don's "The Art of Shetland Lace". I've also picked up a pair of 2.0 mm straight needles (the whole dress is knit on straights), but I don't think they'll be the best for the yarn; the point is too rounded to easily work the knit 2 togethers. I'm still swatching, but I think I might end up knitting it on a Knit Picks circular needles. The points are much sharper on the KP needles.

In other things, I started another project (surprised?). This one, though, is one of those things that I can pick up whenever I feel the need for some plain, almost unthinking knitting. I have no intention of working on this for any length of time at a time (does that make sense? If not, I apologize; I'm still a little dopey from the pain meds.) This is the "Ten Stitch Twist" by Frankie Brown. It's a great project for using up bits and pieces of leftover yarn. In this case, I'm using leftover sock yarn, something I have plenty of.

The beginning (center) was a little fiddly to start with, but the row-by-row directions are well written and easy to follow. Once past the beginning, the knitting is simple, something I'll be able to put down and pick up easily.

In other knitting, I plan on finishing the Selbu Modern hat today. I'm into the top shaping and only have about 24 rounds left, so it should be very possible to finish it and block it today. I'll post pictures when it's done.

Oh, while I think of it, Robbyn mentioned that the linen stitch could result in a fairly firm fabric. She's right. Working fingering weight yarn in linen stitch on 4.0 mm needles made a nice, drapey fabric. Anything smaller than 4.0 mm, though, would have been too tight for a scarf. I might have cast on for a scarf for John, but in doing the math, I figured I'd have to cast on well over 400 stitches. I just didn't have the energy for that. Maybe one day. At the very least, I've written it down in my trusty notebook, for later reference.

Now, though, it's time for a shower, if only to wash some of the cobwebs out of my head. Then, back to my knitting! It's time for another FO!