A Happy Fuzzy Blog

Hey, you know what?

I figured something out.  If I wait until I have time to take photos of everything I want to show you that I'm talking about, it's going to be another month between posts again.  So while throwing a bunch of words at you with no pictures isn't as much fun, for me or for you, it's probably better than blogging so infrequently that you all start wondering if you should send out a search party to look for me.

So, you know the sweater I've been working on?  The one whose sleeve in progress I showed you and then said, "Though now that I look at it, the sleeve looks like a lot of fabric.  Hmm."? I frogged the sleeve again.  Twice.  My problem is, wait, make that part of my problem is, I just don't know what size I am.  I mean my body image hasn't caught up with reality.  I made a lot of sweaters that fit well when I weighed 265 lbs.  Then I lost a lot of weight.  Then I lost more weight.  And then I started knitting this sweater.  And now I get to the other part of the problem, which is I've lost more weight since I started the sweater.  So it's going to be a bit looser than I had planned. But it'll still fit better than any of my other sweaters.  Once I get the sleeves right anyway.

See, my problem is I'm having a hard time getting it through my head that smaller body doesn't just mean smaller circumference torso, it also means smaller circumference arms.  Duh.  I need to make narrower sleeves.  I thought I was, but it didn't work out that way.  I think I just look at numbers that they possibly should be and think that can't possibly be right so I make them bigger.

I'm really not used to my body being this size.  I weigh 171 lbs now. This is the smallest I've ever been in my adult life.  Other people who've lost a lot of weight, how long did it take your body image to catch up to reality?

The good news is this yarn holds up to frogging amazingly well.

I'm just frustrated, I guess.  I mean, it's not like I'm in danger of becoming underweight or anything, so my weight loss isn't a bad thing.  It's just that my body is a stranger to me.  It kind of freaks me out.  And I've been working on this sweater for so long, it feels like I really should be finished by now.

But I got a lot done on it today.  Amy was at AADL today being her cool self.  I didn't think to take any pictures (I was getting a bit of a headache because I went too long without eating), so you'll just have to take my word that I was there.  Because you know, it takes so much effort to get to AADL, what with it being right across the street from the bus station and all, I might be making it up about going.  Um.  Yeah.  Anyway, I got about 3 1/2 hours of knitting done.  Amy is funny and talks very fast.  She was talking about No Sheep for You, and while I love my wool, I was interested in hearing about the properties of the other fibers and yarns.

One thing that occurred to me later was, if a person has a soy allergy, i.e., they react when they eat it, would they also react if they worked with or wore soy fiber?  Or is the allergen destroyed during processing?  The same thing with the other fibers made from food for that matter.  I just thought of soy because I've developed an allergy to it, but she mentioned fibers made from corn and milk.

Anyway, like I said, I love my wool, and I've been dyeing up a storm.  I've got a pile of wool top on my table that I just want to roll around in or eat or something.  I guess it wouldn't really be so good to eat.  Kinda hairy.  But the colors are so pretty.  It looks like it would taste good.  I should have it for sale in  the shop soon. 

I started spinning the top I dyed a few weeks ago.  It is so nice!  It's so easy to predraft!  It's so easy to spin!  I'm in love!  I'm gushing, I know, but sometimes my wool makes me so happy, I feel like if only everyone in the world would spin, we'd have world peace.  I am a dork.

But hey, nothing wrong with being a dork, right?

I totally would've worn these with safety pins

So since the needle incident disabled my last bus knitting project, I had to start another one immediately.  Now, you know when I dye yarn, I put a little bit of my soul into each skein, but creativity nourishes my soul, so it balances out.  I'm sending the skeins out into the world, like sending my children off to other homes to live, but they're going to live with knitters, so they're going to good homes, right?  They'll be ok. 

Every once in a while, though, I dye a colorway, and I look at it and think, ok, you're staying with me, and it goes into my stash.  Fortunately for you all, I tend to dye several skeins of a colorway and just keep one skein, or nothing would end up in the store.  (If it was just one, it was probably an experiment or an accident I had to save.  Heh.  Nothing to see here, move along.)

Punk grrl was one I had to keep.  Funny thing is, I'm not a "pink" person at all.  But the combination of the pink with the black and the violety blue is so...yes!  I totally would have worn these back when I wore safety pins in my ears!  I love this!  (Oh.  Yes.  It's on metal needles.  Ahem.)

Another cool thing I wanted to mention was you can help Anne at knitspot help Knitters without Borders. (For any non-knitters reading this, Knitters without Borders is a subset of Doctors without Borders.  The money all goes to Doctors without Borders; it's just a way to keep track of how much of the money comes from knitters.) Go Anne!  Go help her!