Tired Knitter

Everything I knitted for the county fair has been delivered: purple socks, knitted & felted bag, knitted doily (the "Sun in Splendor" doily), and three small Christmas ornaments (a tiny Christmas stocking, a small pointed-at-both-ends round ornament, and a little double-knitted tree).

Pictures will have to wait on those until I either get to the fair when it opens (and remember to bring the camera), or I pick them back up after the fair.

That's what I've been doing instead of blogging: knitting frantically away on tiny little things to get them finished in time.

I had a delay over the Labor Day weekend, when I got stung on the wrist by a yellow jacket, Vespula sp..

Instantly the bite swelled up, and it was on the bony knob of my wrist bone. Shortly the rest of my wrist, the back of my hand, and slowly my whole forearm swelled up. My knuckles disappeared, and even my knobbly wrist bone.

I found it is very hard to knit when your hand is so swollen you can't make a fist! I took off my wedding ring for fear I would wake up and not be able to remove it.

Meanwhile, I kept knitting. I wanted to finish my fair entries, plus knitting distracted me from the pain and the itching. Itching, itching, lots of itching. When I'm knitting, I couldn't scratch, and scratching at it seemed to cause more swelling.

Today my hand finally matches the other hand again.

Tonight I went to a meeting of the Lakeshore Fiber Arts guild, and we did a little wet-felting with feltmaker Kelly Brandt. I think I finally have a use for a couple of Shetland fleeces I picked up in the spring!

Kelly's philosophy of making things is a lot like mine: when asked which technique she preferred, wet felting or needle felting, she said that they each have a place. Like a chain saw and a hand saw, each one is useful for certain jobs.

It's not an "or" thing, either wet felting OR needle felting. It's a design decision.

That's very much how I think. I don't have to pick one. I can use both, plus other techniques, like knitting and then felting.