My five loyal readers will have noticed by now that I don't tend to post very often. It's not because nothing's happening (although knitting-wise, not a lot IS happening right now--more on that in a moment). It's more that blogging just doesn't come naturally to me. Interesting events, people, yarns, and projects come and go, and while they're here I'm too busy with them to write about them and when they've gone on to wherever they are meant to be next, I tend to feel like the time to say anything meaningful about them has passed by as well. I was never any good at keeping a journal, either.
     But here's a quick update on some of the things that are going on:
     For one thing, Interweave Crochet published another one of my patterns, the Veronica Sweater. Yay! I get such a kick out of seeing my stuff in print. The deadlines for magazine projects are often pretty tight so there's usually some fairly intensive knitting/crochet going on at the last minute. By the time I stuff the sample into the priority mail bag and dash to the post office five minutes before it closes, I'm usually thoroughly sick of the project and praying the editors won't absolutely hate it. Then I forget all about it and get going on something else. Weeks or months later a magazine arrives in the mail box and there's my project again! Nicely photographed now, and ready to be looked at with a fresh pair of eyes. (Even better, a check usually arrives around the same time).
     So that was the good news. The bad news is that my hands are killing me. They're really sore with all kinds of weird pains in my wrists and forearms. I've been down this road before, the last time when daughter #2 was about the same age/size as Chubby-chan is now. The strain is probably a combo of lugging around a fat, squirmy baby and working on a couple of tight-deadline projects. I think the real solution is to just rest my arms as much as possible so I've farmed out one project to my understanding mother and am working very slowly on another. It's pretty frustrating not to be able to get to everything I want but I'm anxious for this to not get any worse.
     This time my RSI issues may have been aggravated by an upholstery class I just finished; lots of hammering tacks, tugging on fabric, chiseling out rusty old staples, etc. The class is run out of Parkland College's Adult Ed program (the same program I teach some of my knitting classes through). The couple who teach the class, Dave and Dorothy Deem, have been doing upholstery for most of their lives. [As a side note, they've been married and working together for 53 years--how cool is that? I mean, I can see being married for 53 years; sheer laziness and good health will get you that far. But if you're going to run a business together and raise a family and stay married for 5+ decades, well, that takes true commitment.] They're super helpful and nice and I enjoyed the class a lot even though I am a total spaz at upholstery. Put a crochet hook or a pair of knitting needles in my hands and I'll tackle anything. Give me a hammer and I'm a danger to myself and others.
     The class did make me more determined to learn how to sew, though. Sewing machines have always made me nervous (all those moving parts!) but I'm starting to appreciate the ability to sew a quick seam when you need to. And one of these days I'm going to steek something.