Well, wasn't that fun...

I've been having problems with my left shoulder for quite a while now (Knitting Camp was excruciating this year - 6 hours on a bus to Chicago didn't help, either). Sometimes it's fine, and sometimes it feels like somebody has punched me in the shoulder repeatedly. When it gets really bad, I can't move my head to the left, and I drop things with my left hand because my whole arm goes numb.

Today was my trip to the orthepedic surgeon. After x-rays and lots of poking and prodding, it seems that I have a rather severe case of subscapular bursitis. When it's inflamed, it's affecting the nerves around it, causing the pain, the muscle spasms and the neck/arm problems. I received a cortisone shot (ow) and prescriptions for Vicodin, Flexeral and the Flector anti-inflammatory/pain patch. If it doesn't get better in 2 weeks, the doctor wants to do an MRI.

Just what I need. I have 3 projects in the works - for Michael delVecchio (for Knit 'N Style), KnitPicks, and Lois Young (for Knitter's). I'll get them done, though! :-) I won't be able to show you any of them for several months (until the catalogs/magazines come out)...and I don't know how much Christmas knitting I'm going to be able to do.

With a perfect sense of timing, Sabrina sent me this. Just the giggle I needed when I got home from the doctor's! :-)

Sheer (surprise!) decadence!

My primary fiber enabler sent me a surprise package! It's a good thing that transporting fiber across state lines is not illegal, because Sabrina and I would most definitely be in trouble. :-) She put a card in the box that said "Since you couldn't go to YarnCon, YarnCon had to come to you."

This didn't come from YarnCon, but it's definitely been on my "I really want to try it" list since it was introduced. This, for those who don't recognize it, is a sock yarn blank from KnitPicks. It's 2 strands knitted together - when you dye it and then unravel it into two balls of yarn (or knit both right from the blank), both strands are identical, so both socks will match.
This is (ahem) an 8 oz bag of alpaca! It's from Karen Poulakos' Fiber Arts Studio, and the alpaca's name (from the tag) was "Miss Snuggles." Notice the extra tag in Braille - the spinner is blind! That in itself is amazing...and this fiber is sink-your-face-in-it soft.
See the sheen? The beautiful colors? Yep, this is a ball of dyed silk! Sabrina knows my favorite colors - and she knows how I feel about silk. :-)
These are the coolest things - they're called pattern tamers. There are 3 of them (of different sizes) in the package. The insides are magnets, which hold the pattern still. These will be great for holding my place in a lace chart!
Sock Yarn!!! Sophie's Toes Sock Yarn, to be exact, in the "Hunky Lifeguard" colorway. It's hard to photograph, but the colors are just stunning - this is beautifully dyed, and will make gorgeous socks.
This part of the box is absolutely awesome. Yep, I now own my very own copy of "Goodnight Bush!" It's a dead-on parady of the children's book "Goodnight Moon," and it's wonderful.
Sabrina is the bestest! :-) She always knows how to make a crappy week better!

The Sampler Afghan! And Franklin!

The new KnitPicks catalog is out, so I'm allowed to show you the Sampler Afghan (finally! I've been dying to show you!)

Here she is, drying on my hotel room floor in WisconsinAnd - the catalog picture! I started it when I got back from England on June 23rd (except for the tiny bit - about 1/2" - that I did in front of Canterbury Cathedral for WorldWide Knit in Public Day) and I finished it at Knitting Camp on July 27th.

I really wasn't expecting a beagle as a model, but it's still a very nice picture of the afghan. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it's actually 58" x 62"

This is from Melissa Leapman's book, Cables Untangled, and it took 15 skeins of Wool of the Andes Bare (knit as a single strand instead of doubled).

The funny/cool thing was, the woman who knit the original (on the cover of the book) was at Camp 3 with me! Her name is escaping me at the moment - I'll update it when I remember her name...

Here's a helpful tip - if you want to guarantee that nobody will sit with you on the Megabus to Chicago, work on a very large wool blanket. This works especially well if it's the end of July. :-)

Speaking of Chicago - I made it onto Franklin's blog today! Check out this entry - scroll down until you see Dolores hanging out under a phrase in Italian. :-) Bonus points if you can identify the phrase, and super-dooper extra credit if you can tell me where it's from!