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Archive of ‘yarn’ category

arm bands, cupcakes, PICC line, yarn | 0 comment

First Sale!!

Last night I got my first order for a PICC line cover through my Etsy shop from a lovely gal in the Mid-West. Needless to say I was over-the-moon jumping-up-and-down excited! I had only finished the armband that day, and hadn’t even had a chance to put it up on Etsy, so that was very quick turn around. I can’t wait to hear her feedback about the armband. Although I wear them myself, and am very self-critical about the product, it will be wonderful to get another opinion from a fellow PICC line user! The armband is already in the hands of Canada Post and on its’ way to a new home. I suppose this officially makes me an entrepreneur! Wow.

lace stitch panels in “Spun”

I know non-knitters could argue that most knitting stores sell the same products, by the same companies and most often in the same popular colorways, but that never feels like the case. There is always something new and exciting, and it would be impossible to remember all the different kinds of yarns available in specific colorways. Spun Fibre Arts is a Burlington store specializing in natural and organic yarns and fleeces for fibre artists! It was heaven. There was a lot of stroking as we strolled/rolled around the store. It just so happened that they had several colors of this cotton/elastic yarn I love to make the IV armbands from in new and exciting colors, and on sale. I can’t find it in any of the 3 knitting shops in Victoria, so I picked up three very beautiful colors; mixed hot pinks, mixed stormy blues, and a teal/purple/lavender/stormy blue striped mix. Hopefully these will soon be transformed from ordinary balls of yarn into something rather unique! I was excited to find a few more stereotypically male colors (blues), because until now I have had mostly  stereotypically girlie colors, and some gender neutral ones. I would love a blue armband myself, however, so I am careful to not always assume that blue/pink are for boys and girls, respectively. That is so last century!

prettttttttyyyyyyy

An equally exciting stop was at KindFood vegan/GF bakery & cafe, where we picked up 4 delectable cupcakes: Mint, Coconut, Chocolate, and Vanilla.

los cupcakes

Oh my goodness. We are saving them for after dinner, which is killing me. Fancies of icing and sprinkles are dancing round in my head. I was a tad bit excited about the whole experience. I’ve decided that at some time in my life, I am going to open a GF Vegan bakery & cafe, although I will need to firm up these plans with an idea of ‘when & where’.

outside the famous KindFood

Nothing could be better than the combination of cupcakes and yarn. Paradise.

efforts, fiber art, meds, reflections, side effects, yarn, yoga | 1 Comment

Start the Ball Rolling

this ball won’t run away from me!

After what felt like weeks of spinning (really about 2.5 weeks in all in all), I finished the incredible batt of mohair/wool fiber that dear Arleigh sent me, dyed by a friend of hers, Leola! What is more, I set it warm water (to make sure it wouldn’t twist back on itself!), stretched it for awhile (as it was super dee duper curly!) and today finally put yarn loops on the back of a chair and then proceeded to put the yarn into a ball. Wow that was a lot of work! Sheer the animal, wash the fiber, pick and card the individual fibers, dye the fibers, spin the fiber, set the fibers, and ball. I only had to do 3 of those things. Imagine if you followed the process start to finish. How rewarding! I am very pleased with how it turned off…for singles (meaning only one strand, versus many strands making up a thicker yarn) it is very evenly spun (meaning that it is almost all the same thickness!). I have no idea what it’s going to look like knit up, so I just can’t to figure out what I can make with it and cast off!

top view

Unlike a lot of mohair yarns, this one is very soft and dreamy, which has mostly to do with the animal and perhaps from where on the body it was harvested. It is mixed with sheep wool too, which would help add softness. The yarn has a wonderful sheen to it, and it almost sparkles in the light. Spinning handspun yarn is supposed to be one of the most enjoyable experience out there for a knitter. I can’t wait to report back all the wonderful bonuses of knitting with your own yarn. All that treadling and sweating paid off enormously, and I feel very proud of myself. I feel that in the coming weeks/months I might have to ease back on the amount of spinning I’m doing per week, because the IV meds exhaust me.

I am already noticing icky affects from the medication. The most annoying being that I am very tired and lethargic, and that my mouth tastes of rubber bands and deceased mice all the time. Because IV meds enter through the bloodstream, and because my dosage is so high, I can taste the medicine through the tiny spider webbed blood vessels in my tongue and nasal passage. It would be much more fascinating if it wasn’t my own mouth. These vessels are very close to the surface in this area…maybe that’s why it can be tasted? I wonder if anyone else has noticed this while taking Clindamycin? I did a bit of research about it and a lot of people mentioned a bitter taste. This seems a bit non-specific to me, because for me it so very clearly tastes like rubber bands…as though I have been chewing on them in place of gum. My naturopath said that people who can taste the saline and heparin flushes (done before and after IV) have trouble detoxing. I found this an interesting principle and wonder if it also applies to the medicine, or maybe it’s just caused from a side effect.

Yesterday when I had yoga class with Barbara, I had to take lots of breaks because I was so exhausted. Bringing my arms and legs up made me feel so weak and faint, something I haven’t been complaining about in previous weeks. I was so exhausted after the practice, rather than feeling energized. This is disappointing and frustrating, but hopefully as my body becomes more adjusted to the rhythms of the medication this will improve? It will be interesting to see what happens when I am off the IV meds for 3 days (we ‘pulse’ 2 weeks on, 3 days off).

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