Rabbits and Knitting Zen

Unfortunately, I have been suffering from frozen shoulder.  This means a constant low to moderate pain  in my whole arm that hinders me all day every day, and occasional electric like zaps of debilitating pain.  So terrible.  Worse yet, I had this before in the opposite arm some years ago.  Some people never get this--and here I am with it twice!!  It is amazing all the little things we do every day that involve our shoulder muscles.--But enough on the complaints.

Today was warm, though mostly overcast, and I gave the rabbit hutch a nice clean-out. After skipping the chore last weekend because of snow and freezing temps (hard to believe now), it was ready.  Then I sat out and knitted while my little bunnies frolicked in the yard.  (I can't leave them out alone, even with a cover on the run.  The hawks here pay no mind to covers). I am working on a long plain-ish sweater jacket that is reminding me of a dog bed right now (!).  Funny how knitting is Zen like.  I was able to forget my pain for awhile and think straight and not worry.

I worry because I am going to have my arm manipulated and will miss school for a few days.  I worry about the procedure and what I will have to leave to occupy my wily students so they don't drive a sub out of his/her mind. Honestly, I don't know which of these worries me more!

It was good to be outdoors today, even though the yard is the usual winter mess.  No daffodils yet, and the camilla blossoms are all singed from blooming early and then freezing, but I'm okay with that.  Winter here is brief and I don't mind it.

A few weeks ago, I made a new pair of fingerless mitts.  I've decided I really like making mitts.  They are a little challenging and they finish up quickly.  These were made using self-striping yarn like these
on Ravelry.  I ran out of yarn right at the last picot hem and didn't have enough for the second the thumb (the purply-blue one).  I mean, honestly!  Luckily, I had something that matched enough to finish the task.  They don't look too bad.--And certainly are more fun to look at than my dog-bed sweater-jack! Hahah!

The Pain of the Process

This has been the week--or should I say--the weeks of the knitted fingerless mitt.  Two weeks, one mitt.
You may remember me beginning this waaaaaay back in February.  Well, something was going wrong with it, and I couldn't figure out what, and I was in the midst of school, so knitting went to the very end of my list and I went back to crochet and happily made a sweater--a little step up in my skills, but not overly complicated.

So, now that school is out, and I have decompressed for awhile knitting a simple garter stitch saw toothed scarf and reading a Maeve Binchy novel (always soothing), I decided I had the brain for getting back to the mitts--which became a project I was certain was not meant for me to make.

I made every beginner's mistake possible many, many times--dropping stitches and not knowing exactly how to get them back and unraveling so much in the process that I lost my way and had to rip out altogether, loosing stitches off the needle, making inadvertent yarn overs and adding stitches, etc., etc.   One morning I'd have all but four rows left to go, and in two hours, I'd be back with a big ball of yarn.  I watched video after video.  I tried DPNs and magic loop.  I read disheartening and unhelpful comments on Ravelry ("quick and easy," "so easy,"  "I made these over the weekend").  I dreamed the pattern.  I was just determined not to let this thing get the better of me.  If other people could figure out how to do this--well!  so could I.

Meantime, during my frustration at the hours and hours spent casting on and going again, and again, and again, I kept reminding myself that learning is about the process not the product--or that's what I always preach as a teacher anyway--"Don't focus so much on the grade," I have told my students, "Think of what you learned in the process."  Oi!  I was not enjoying my knitting process very much.  No wonder my students look at me like they'd like to throw a pie in my face--or worse.  Yeah, lady, right, I can hear them say.  Which is how I felt--still feel--about this make.  It was hard and frustrating, yet I was choosing to do it.  Why??  After all, I could just go out and buy some fingerless mitts if I really wanted to--and I won't even need any for another half a year or so anyway--if then.  It's Atlanta for pete's sake--you never really need gloves of any kind here.

But there was something that made me want to be able to do this, and now that I have and am starting on the next mitt (and actually I will have to make a third too because after all that, this one is a tad too small, which is why I didn't finish up the thumb part) I really do feel a kind of victory and satisfaction that giving up would not have satisfied.  I know that I am a little unusual in this--that I have a tremendous tenacity.  So, I think I am going to use this mitt as an example--a visual aid for my students in the fall--when we talk about grit and success and towing the hard line.

I am sure my next two mitts will come a little easier, but I am also sure that I will not make them all in one go without stopping a lot to breathe and rest and clear my head and probably ripping out.  I'm going to have to figure out the thumb part and re-examine that bind off.  The process is ongoing.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of a salad we ate yesterday with vegetables from our fabulous garden!  We grew the sugar snap peas, the eggplant, the cucumber, and the tomatoes!  Yea!

And--here's my crochet sweater. (It gave me a bit of a chainmail vibe before the detail work.  My sister thinks it could be part of a Joan of Arc outfit!)