Procrastination!

I'll be leaving for Cancun on Saturday morning and am I ready? Of course not!!! I've got a million things to do still, including a marathon shopping trip after work today.

Sigh....this is what I do, wait until the last minute. The best I can hope for is to be finished tomorrow evening.

I'm really excited though!

Monday Ramblings

First, let me thank everyone who has taken a moment to read my blog and and another thanks to those who have left comments. What's that saying about a tree that falls in a forest when no one is around? Whenever anyone decides to read an entry, that means I really did post it!

The Ravelympics are going well. My wrist feels much better and I'm making sure to stretch before knitting, taking frequent breaks and making sure to knit ergonomically. Great news!

....however, I have some new body quirk that presented itself last week. My hand are itching and there is no rash. Just the top of my hands, too. I get no relief from scratching either and sometimes it feels more like a pinprickly pain than itching. I've searched every internet resource I could think of and I've decided either I'm going completely insane or just falling apart. Seriously, it could be nerve damage, a bad liver, allergies, B12 deficiency, any number of things. If it doesn't get better I'll go to the doctor and let him google it and tell me the same, but until then I'll just deal.

Oh, I've discovered that Benadryl is useless. It only makes you so drowsy that you don't care about annoying itching and you pass out like an addict.

I have five more days before I'm headed out to Cancun. I think I'll ignore the weather forecasts because it's gonna shine my entire vacation and that's that. Being the procrastinator that I am, I've done ZERO packing and have only manage to compile a to-bring list in which I know something is missing. Whatever...I'm determined that I'll have everything completed by Thursday! I did manage to purchase my vacation reading material which is as important as the passport, IMO.

Until next time...

The Ravelympics Are Here!

Wait, are there any of my two readers who don't know what Ravelry is?

Ravelry - Ravelry is a free social networking website. It functions as an organizational tool for a variety of fiber arts including knitting, crocheting, spinning, and weaving. Members share projects, ideas, and their collection of yarn, fiber, and tools via various components.

Basically it's an addictive, social site that sucks hours of time from you. Not just with chatter, but with endless patterns to browse, yarn suggestions and help forums, etc. It's loads of fun.

Alrighty then..

It's the opening day of the 2010 Winter Olympics and I'm waxing nostalgic. My daughter was born during the 1998 Winter Olympics and I fondly remember watching the events all day while I was in the hospital.

So what are the Ravelympics? It's a time where knitters are invited to challenge themselves by starting and finishing projects during the 2010 Winter Olympics. How you decide to challenge yourself is entirely up to you. There are teams to choose from and events to participate in, with many knitters joining in on the fun and supporting one another. I'm signed up with three teams, Team K'nerd (the nerdy knitters), Team Michigan and Team City Knits (my local yarn store of choice).

In a previous post I mentioned the problems with my wrist, which has affected my project/event choices. Since I rested from knitting starting Monday, iced and exercised, it feels better, but not 100%. Therefore, my alternate projects are much smaller, but that's OK I'm happy to compete and will be challenged just by completing these without hurting myself.





Here's Bob, the overall Raverly mascot and ambassador of this year's Ravelympics.

I'll be blogging about my first experience as a Ravelete as I progress.

Only 10 Days Left!

....before I am sunning on a tropical beach.

Last night, here in Detroit, MI it is snowed a few inches, not nearly enough to close my job down (in the 20-years I've worked here I can only remember them closing maybe once due to the weather). This morning I took my time clearing off the car, the driveway, yuck! I've lived in Michigan my entire life so you'd think I'd be used to snow, which I am, but I still don't like it, not even a little bit. (Well, it's fine if I'm curled up in the house with a book and/or remote not having to venture out for the day.)

Actually, I should be grateful as it hasn't snowed here that much...yet. We still have the rest of February and March before we're out of the woods.

That's OK because in less than 2 weeks I'll be in Cancun, Mexico where it's currently 76-degrees (F) out!

Taking a Break

I'm completely putting down the needles for a few days to see if my aching wrist gets better with some icing and stretching. I'm seriously ill about this too, but last night my poor hand felt very stiff, like a set of guitar strings pulled too tightly. It was even difficult for me to make dinner. I need to listen to my body and let it mend itself. I'll be making a doctor's appointment if these home remedies don't help.

The vacation projects are officially on hold right now. I'm hoping that I'll be OK to do the Ravelympic projects, even if I have to change them to some even more simple patterns.

Oh well, it's less than two weeks before I hit the beaches in Cancun where I'll have complete rest from typing. But right now, I'm totally disappointed.

Ouch!

My wrist hurts and it's bumming me out.

I'm not shocked since my job has included lots of typing and data entry for the past 20 years. There are times when my wrist gets sore then heals on its own, no biggie. But due to some less-than-ergonomic knitting sessions last week, no breaks and holding my needles with a death grip, all of this activity has produced a dull ache in my right wrist which has completely dampened the fun in my crafting sessions. I'm not at all happy about this turn of events at all.

I'm trying to rectify this situation by exercising my hands, icing, making sure I'm sitting correctly, knitting with as little motion as possible, wearing crafting gloves and although my discomfort isn't getting worse, it isn't getting better either. I guess there's only one solution...taking a break. I have three small projects for the Ravelympics and two to complete before I go on vacation then I guess I'll have to slow down or stop...even if it's for a few weeks.

I don't want to slow down! I've got my knitting mojo back, I've reorganized my Ravelry queue for goodness sake! I have projects lined up with reasonable timeframes to complete them. I'm feeling confident that I can complete 2010 goal of pushing my skills. Sigh...

Hopefully a break will allow me to heal completely. I have two other things I'm going to try on my own, a nightly ice dip and a little weight strengthening (very, very, light weights). If I'm still hurtin' then I'll have to see a doctor. Now that would be a major bummer.