Bragging Rights

So, Onigiri's been featured on Lime and Violet's Daily Chum :) I'm super excited, because that's one of the few blogs that I follow quasi-religiously.

Woo for me! That said, I've been sewing some gifties for... whoever. Really, it's sad how different they look from the sketches I made :(

Here's a really bad cell-phone-teaser-picture:

HUH!? What!?!!!!! z0mg!!

I got into the Honorable Mention Gallery for Knitty's Calendar! Really! Truly! I'm like, about to die...

I can't believe it :3 Why didn't anyone tell me!?

Well, here I am... <3

I'm a little bummed that I didn't get actually ON the Knitty site... and I thought honorable mentions got like, listed and linked to somewhere... but, oh well ... I'm still super proud!

... Painlessly Romantic Good Life

Okay, okay, I WANT TO KNIT. It's not even funny anymore. It may be funny to those of you who like to laugh at drug addicts, but to me, we've exited the realm of funny and we are now entering the realm of FREAKING OUT.

Here's a brief timeline of my life since I've stopped knitting.

Oct. 20th, Day 0
My arm hurts strangely. I decide maybe if I put down my knitting and go to bed, perhaps it will feel better in the morning.

Oct 21st, Day 1
Morning- I decide to go to the health center before class; the visit takes me from 8AM to 11AM. The nurse tells me to come back at 2:30. My arm feels like it may fall off if I clench anything tightly. At 3, I see a doctor. She laughs at me, says my arm is very badly sprained, gives me a worksheet, asks if I need help quitting smoking, and sends me on my way. I cry.
At 6PM I call Dr. Mom. She informs me that I need to put ice on my wrist, and not use it until it stops hurting. When asked for a timeline, she gives me "Friday."

Oct 22nd, Day 2- Oct 25th, Day 5
I buy a brace, ice packs, and use about $10 in ibuprofen. I stop taking notes in class and master one-handed typing. I use my new one-handed-typing skills to browse ravelry. Ravelry queue increases 75%, then drops, then increases again. The sweetie tells me that when I can knit again, he'll take me yarn shopping. I see this as a beautiful self-sacrifice, or at a pitiful sign that I will never knit again, I cannot decide which.

Oct 26th, Day 6
Dr. Mom makes a telephone diagnosis. I probably won't be allowed to knit until Winter break, Nov. 14th. This timeline depresses me, but I spend half the day online anyway, looking up patterns.

Oct 27th, Day 7- Nov 1st, Day 12
The week passes quickly. I begin to doodle again in small steps, mostly things to knit. By Day 10, there are enough items in my Ravelry queue to last the rest of my life. I try to convince my significant other if he will learn to knit so that I can at least live through him, if I am never going to knit again. He doesn't take this well.

Nov 8th, Day 20
The strangest thing happens. I'm waiting outside the restrooms for the boyfriend to come out, and I find myself moving my hands as if I'm knitting. Sweetie stares at me as if I've gone insane.

Nov 11th, Day 23
Ravelry queue is, for the most part, deleted.

Nov 14th, Day 26
Dr. Mom dictates that the Winter break will be spent "relaxing," and by relaxing I suspect she means "NOT KNITTING." This causes me considerable stress. I begin to make a yarn will.

Nov 15th, Day 27
I go to the yarn shop and drop a few dollars, pretending that I might knit something with what I buy, even though it's blantantly obvious that one skien of sock yarn would make a very bad sweater, and that super bulky cotton-eyelash blend will make someone very uncomfortable socks.

Home... SWEET! HOME!

My break officially began today, when I got home from school.

And... my hand still feels like it's been slammed in a car door.

It's like you're telling me I can't BREATHE.

So, this past week has been incredibly frustrating for me. My right wrist has been pretty much immobile, I've been forced to eat tons of food while taking about 1800 mg of ibuprofen a day, and on top of that, I can't knit, write, draw, or even really carry things. These experiences have helped me learn a lot about myself, including:

• I am a tactile learner; I learn best when I take notes and outline readings.
• I can only eat so much food in a day before I feel miserable.
• I knit when I'm stressed out.

So, what do these things tell you? I'm sick to my stomach, my grades are dropping, and I'm really irritable... at anything,

I feel like a huge chunk of my life has been taken away. I can't knit; I can't draw out ideas for knit things; I can't write a depressing poem about how I feel; heck, it hurts to write up homework assignments. Knitting is just the tip of the iceberg: basic functions like brushing my hair or eating something that requires a knife and fork are painful to do, and I don't really want to stoop to the level of forcing people around me to help me take care of myself. It's not like I'm dying of cancer...

Moral of story: pity me. And, if you don't see a really happy post sometime next month with the subject matter along the lines of "Yay, look, I'm knitting!" Assume that I've committed suicide from being utterly and totally useless.

TaDaaa.... and, crappy turns of events.

So, I finished the hat! late last night, I wove in the ends and forced the boyfriend to wear it around to that it would block to his head. I've yet to snap a good picture of him, but here's evidence of how much bigger his head is than mine!

A little pity party note... Sadly, I would've published this post sooner... but I was at the Student Health Center all day. It turns out my right wrist is badly sprained (okay, it's not like surgery bad, but it's grade II.) How it happened, I have no idea. I'm hoping knitting more won't harm this, but you never know :D I've got a nice Ace bandage around it, and I'm trying to find a ride to somewhere I can buy a proper brace... that's proving to be a little tough. I have such bad luck!

Spur O' the Moment Knitting

All right! So, I usually spend quite some time thinking out projects. There's usually I doodle I have in my head for a few months. Then, I spend about a week or so shopping around for yarn that will work. After that, swatching, and casting on, and tearing off the cast on because I don't like how it looks, and on and on.

If I had to label myself, I'd say I was a perfectionist knitter. Slow, steady, and meticulous. The past twenty-four hours, however, have seen a drastic change in this routine.

I'm making a hat. From a pattern. Online. Guess when I bought the yarn? Yesterday at around 1. Guess when I cast on for the project? Yesterday at around 6. (I probably would've cast on earlier, but I was at the Strong Museum of Play... don't snicker. I'm a big person! ) Oh which leads me to... PHOTO PLUG!!!1:







Anyway, back on topic. Guess how far I am on the hat? About 2/3! What's come over me? Maybe it's the fact that I'm not really challenging myself with this pattern. The needles are big and the yarn is bulky.

It just feel so strange... I'm so used to size 1's and 2's, this size 8 hat seems like it's knitting itself!

Hopefully it'll be done by Tuesday :)