I've been unexpectedly in a deadline knitting frenzy. I had a project with a deadline, but the yarn arrived late and the deadline got shortened by 1/3 and ended up in the middle of the holidays so I had a last minute crunch trying to get everything done. Why am I telling you this? Because I was in such a knitting frenzy that I overused my hands/arms and had to end up icing my right arm and elbow. Now, I knit a LOT. Pretty much every single day and sometimes all day and I almost never have hand or arm pain, and that's because usually when I knit, I take breaks, frequently. I get up and make a cup of tea, or do the dishes, or take a walk (or a nap heheheh) or anything that uses a different set of muscles. So I was really mad at myself for ending up in pain. I'm here to tell you that if your hands or arms hurt you should stop - Don't be a dope like me!
But now that the item has been shipped off, and I've taken a day or two to recover, I'm back to knitting form. I'm pacing myself and I decided to work on something easy, something with fat yarn, big needles and plenty of yummy squish.
I took a little stash dive and came up with two possibilities, both equally delicious:
This and this.
The first one is Malabrigo Rios in colorway Piedras, and the second is Textiles a Mano Calafate (polwarth! and silk!) in a beautiful earthy foresty colorway.
In the end I decided on the Malabrigo because I only have the one skein of the Calafate and I want to make something special out of it - I'm just not sure what yet. The Malabrigo was begging to me to become a hat and cowl set.
It really is enticing! And I think it's made an auspicious start.
And now that deadline knitting is over, I can get back to my other love, the colorwork sweater. I've made a little progress. It would have been more, but I had to rip out an entire star's worth of knitting because I changed colors in the wrong place. This is such a satisfying knit.
I hope whatever is on your needles is equally satsifying and enticing, and that you're taking care of your tools (hands) and not having to ice anything! Here's to happy and healthy 2012 knitting!
That colorwork is so so beautiful! Love the Rios as well!
Posted by: madonnaearth | January 10, 2012 at 09:29 AM
That Piedras colorway would be stunning on a redhead!
Love the colorway sweater - blue and green, separate or together, are "my thing".
Posted by: Barbara-Kay | January 10, 2012 at 04:57 PM
It's not every day that we see "...I had to rip out" followed by "...such a satisfying knit". Your positive attitude and your love of knitting shows through in your work - just lovely!
Posted by: Mary Ann | January 13, 2012 at 05:46 AM