Knitting injury!

ARRRGGGGG I can't knit!! The last couple weeks I've been getting pains in my wrist and arm when I knit and it has been getting steadily worse. The last few days I would get them after only knitting for 10 minutes. I consulted the ladies on my knitting board and the general concensus was that I'm experiencing carpel-tunnel-like symptoms and need to rest my wrist, ice it, and wear a brace. I got a brace today and that helped, the ice did a bit too. I did 2.5 rounds on my socks this morning and my wrist was screaming so I'm going to try to not knit at all for a couple days. I have my knitting night on Wednesday so hopefully I'll be able to knit then. My socks are screaming for me though! See how pretty. . .



Toe up monkey socks in knitpicks imagination, colorway "wicked witch" OMG I love this yarn. It's my new favorite sock yarn. Of course I say that about every new sock yarn LOL. But this is so soft and yummy and georgeous colors. my only complaint is the yarn is a bit hairy, as it is alpaca, but I can live with that for the softness. I also have the "looking glass" colorway, and I want to get pixie dust and damsel, but they're out of stock until September. They're on my wish list though, as soon as they have them back in stock I'm ordering, along with some of their kettle dyed yarn that is be-e-a-utiful. They have a purple that is SO me!! :-)

I'm going to try to rest my wrist as much as I can for next week--we're doing a knitting olympics on my knitting board. I've signed up for the sock put, the hand dyed hurdles, and the work in progress wrestling. I hope to get one or two pairs of socks done plus finish at least my pinwheel sweater (just need to rip out the sleeve I don't like and do both sleeves the way I want) then maybe a few other WIP's like Brendan's socks, Meg's afghan (no chance of finishing that in the alloted time though unless I ONLY did that) and these toe up socks if they aren't done by then, which at this rate they won't be. ::::::sigh::::::: I was making good progress on them too, and they are sooooooo pretty!! Since typing and painting also hurt (I've been painting identification signs for my veggie garden, stenciled lettering, cute and whimsical) I've been catching up on my reading. I have several Nora Roberts books I got for super cheap ($1 for 3 books!) at the library and haven't read them yet. At least it will give me something to do when I'm not chasing the kids or taking someone (dog or human!) potty or fixing one of a billion snacks or cleaning one of 3 billion messes each day :-) I do love my kids though. Really.

I'm also going to do some stamping, gotta get something crafty done! Mom and I are having an open house for our Stampin' Up! stuff in a couple weeks. Gotta get ready for that.

Well, starting to hurt, going to sign off this 'puter and put the brace on and go to bed. Good night!

Sock tutorial, bind off and finishing.

Sorry this took so long to post! Life has been busy. So has my knitting, I've been working on WAY too many projects! Anyway, here is the final part of the sock tutorial, the bind off and finishing. Sorry about the picture quality, we need to buy a new camera battery charger so these were taken with my cell phone. Gotta love technology!

Here they are, finished and ready to bind off. I got lazy and decided to make them short.

First, knit/rib across the first sock, this leaves it in better position to bind off without having to stop the bind off mid-sock to move to the other one. One sock will have 1/2 row more stitches than the other, but I promise it won't be noticeable.

Here I am introducing a 3rd needle. I'm using a size bigger to do the bind off because I tend to bind off tightly. There are also a few other types of bind offs that are stretchier, I recently tried the sewn bind off from Knitty.com and I like that one too. For these socks I used a regular bind off though.

I bound off in pattern, my socks were a k3p3 rib so I knit 2, pass first stitch over second, k1, pass, p1, pass, etc. If the stitch below is a purl stitch, I purled. Same for knit stitches. That makes the bind off look more even.

half of one sock is bound off. See that needle 1 only has one sock on it? When you get to the end of the needle, just turn the work and continue working on the other side of the sock. This is why you start the bind off on the second sock. see photo below:

Continue the bind off all the way around. When finished, cut the yarn with a 8" tail and pull the last loop straight through. Do not pull the yarn thru the last stitch, just pull the last stitch all the way out. Then thread it on a needle, pass it under the loops of the first bound off stitch and then back through where it came from, making it look like another stitch. This makes the bind off even all the way around. Weave in ends, I even tie a tiny knot just to be safe but you don't have to if you have sensitive feet because you might feel it.

Now you will have one sock left on the needles. Repeat the bind off and finishing the same way.

Tada!! They're done, they're comfy and they were EASY!!

Don't mind my dog in the photo--that's pretty much her normal position 20 hours a day :-)

If you have any questions, please let me know. Again, please send me photos of your finished socks and I'll post them here for everyone to see how wonderful they are. I hope this tutorial was helpful to you! Happy knitting!

tutorial socks finished! with a catch. . .

and the catch is, they aren't MY tutorial socks! My pair still aren't done, but Brenda finished hers! I think she deserves a prize for finishing before the teacher! And they look GREAT!

According to her blog, http://addictedtodigital.com/knitting/, she used some stash yarn from an etsy seller, the plucky knitter. She added ribbing too. Great job Brenda!

In other knitting news. . . not much happening LOL. I have too many projects going at once (who, me?? GASP! No way! Not ME!) and can't seem to make much headway on any of them. I have about 1/8 of mom's stole done, hoping to have it finished before her surgery sometime next month (Kidney transplant for those of you who don't know). My friend Suna helped me rip back my MILs socks b/c I didn't make the foot long enough and didn't know it until after I had done the heels and started the cuffs. Suna's a champ though, she managed to rip them all back and put them back on the tiny ass size 0 needles without dropping a single stitch or anything! THANK YOU AGAIN!!! :-) Just a few more rows on the foot for those then to re-start the heel. She wants short socks so they should be a quick finish. Then I started socks for my son because I'm not happy unless I'm making 800 things at once. I'm also working on some baby blankets and hats for a lady online who is buying them from me. I finished both blankets, 4 hats to go. Plus my tutorial socks. So, yeah, just a few projects. Oh yeah, also my daughter's envelope afghan, which used to be my car knitting but has been pushed aside for mom's stole. However, I'll need mom's stole before Meg's blanket (we're getting her a big girl bed in September and the blanket is for that) so it's OK.

I just now re-read the paragraph I just wrote. What the hell am I doing on the computer when I have all that knitting to work on?!?! Hubby has the kids outside, it is the perfect opportunity to get some stuff knit but here I sit. Well, not for long my friends. I'm off to try to finish,. . . something! :-)