the Akamai Knitter

Look what I got in the mail the other week! Judy from The Knitter sent me my order of the Flirty Ruffles and the Paisley Long Shawl. I’ve decided to start off with the Flirty Ruffles since I’m much more comfortable with the construction of this type of shawl.

So I’ll start the new shawl as soon as I can get copies made which should be tomorrow, but I’m so impatient I’m tempted to start the Shetland Garden Faroese instead. I need to be strong and hold on for one day.

I do have a shawl that I’ve been knitting, but it’s incredibly boring. It’s the Shaped Triangle from a Gathering Of Lace and the first 108 rows is a 6 stitch repeat. After the first 20 rows my mind started going a little numb, which is okay when you have a mind numbing fever, but I’m getting a little restless.

My wrist has been loads better though, so I do feel ready to start knitting more adventurous projects.

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So far my dreams and aspirations to become a designer haven’t really coalesced into reality. I think the heat has really put a cork on my creative juices along with all the painkillers I was taking my arm. I also think that this just isn’t the right time for me to be designing. I’m just not in that stage in my lace knitting “career”. Right now I’m too in love with all the other gorgeous designs out there.

For example, Nan from Fibery Things turned me on to Sharon Winsauer’s shawl designs. Like this great beastie: and this…

If you’re interested in obtaining a copy for yourself, please email Sharon. I have!

I also wanted to thank all of you for such a lovely rush of support for my designing aspirations, and I’m more confident now that it will happen. So again, I can’t thank all of you enough and I wish I could thank more of you individually, but my wrist still acts up if I type for extended periods of time. So MWAH! to you all. :-)

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This is what happens when you knit too much! At least this is what the doctor says. It appears as though I have Repetitive Motion Disorder. The treatment plan is rest and painkillers. This means not knitting. *gasps* No Knitting?! Surely you jest? Right? This is some kind of joke? Doctor? Doc?

Ha! No, it’s not a joke. But it’s not a complete truth either, since my doctor is also a realistic and sympathetic human being. *phew* I can knit as long as I rest my right upper appendage regularly.

With the amount of pain involved it hasn’t been that hard of a prescriptin to follow. Yesterday I knit 3 rows. Count them! Three! Rows! Gack. Today I knit 4 rows. Double gaaaaack. I haven’t even been able to type much. Thus, the long absence from blogland. Besides, no one wants to hear Opal whine! But I’m going to end up in the looney bin if this keeps up much longer.

So the brace you see gracing my wrist is a new one that I just got from the orthopedic shop. I’m hoping it will improve my pain levels and so far so good! Especially since I received my Zephyr from Sarah’s Yarns.

Plus, my brilliant and amazing friend Liz suggested I start designing while I recuperate. So I’ve been fiddling with my own stitch patterns. Nothing to write home about, but it’s terribly exciting. I’m hoping to get Margaret Stove’s Creating Original Hand Knitted Lace from Schoolhouse Press sometime soon and get more tips on getting what’s in my head charted and on “paper.”

Now I’m off to play with my yarn! This Bottle Green Zephy has been crying to be the Forest Path Stole for ages and ages. Now that I actually have the yarn I might be able to answer the call.

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Poor Cookie is sick with a very bad UTI. I think she got sick when we had all those workmen here fixing our window sills and redoing the bathroom floors. She’s on anti-biotics now and I think she’s starting to feel much better. It’s a good thing she’s one of the most sweet tempered cats though. Because I’m not sure if I could pill a cat twice a day if they were too frisky with a tender wrist. Luckily my big lump of love sits absolutely still when I give her the pill. It’s most likely because she knows she gets some treats when she’s done.

In knitting news, I started the Icarus with the Pacifica I bought from FurrYarns for my mother. It’s not the most interesting shawl to make but it’s a great take along project. I joined the Icarus Knitalong and the finished shawls of the members there are really inspiring me to keep knitting away.

Finally, I took another picture of the Diamond Fantasy 2 because I just couldn’t stand the one I took. So here it is looking much more itself and here it is longing to be finished.

Of course while that one is crying to be done, the Mystery Stole 2 is just calling my name. I have a chocolate brown merino from KnitPicks that is dying to be used as well as some Ice Blue Zephyr. What to do, what to do, what to do….

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DF2-70606
Originally uploaded by AkamaiKnitter.

The lighting wasn’t the best when I took this picture, but you can see I’m up to the 5th repeat. I’m having a better time with this pattern this time around then the first, but I think that’s because I’m using a different pair of needles. When I did the first shawl, the stitches kept getting caught in the join. The needles I used were Bryspun needles and I really adore their points, it’s just too bad that the laceweight yarn seems to get stuck on the join.

The one thing I don’t like about this pattern is that it is getting a little boring, but for the most part the repetitious nature of the pattern is what is making it easy for me to read the stithes. Suddenly I can see where each stitch is going to go and what I’m going to do next and this makes for considerably less errors then simply counting to make sure my stitch count is accurate. So there really isn’t anything I truly don’t like about this pattern.

Since I’m still having problems with blurry vision and my right wrist is giving me problems, I’m not working on anything else. So my World Cup and Amazing Lace projects are languishing. I’ve mostly been working on the Diamond Fantasy shawl for 15 minutes then taking a break for 20-30 mintues, which is incredibly frustrating. Luckily this seems to be working out well for my wrist as it is getting better. :-)

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