The Vast Right Wing Knitting and Needleworkers Circle: Topic for today - Charity needlework

11/2/05 | Knitting a Conundrum

[alwaysconservative]

I'm left handed and my right arm or wrist seem to get tired awfully easy. My friends laughed when they saw me wedge the right knitting needle into the crook of my leg and hip, but it sure helps ease the wrist pain. Apparently the "Continental method" or "picking" is supposed to be easier on the wrists of left-handed or rabid (LOL!) knitters.

[pinz-n-needlez]

I'm a right-handed 'English' knitter, carrying the yarn in my right hand. Knitting Continental has a different cadence and actually torques my right arm more. :-(

I taught myself how to knit left handed a couple years ago, to better teach a left handed friend. I should give that a try, and see if I can hurt myself in a different way. ;-)

I've been wearing a wrist brace on my lower arm near the elbow and that helps immensely. I've been doing a fair amount of hand sewing and needlepoint for the last few months with few problems. Let's hope it lasts, at least until I finish my current projects.

I would love the comfort of a sock on active needles. :-/ Well, spinning and weaving ain't exactly chopped liver. lol

Pinz - an all-round rabid fiber freak

[Knitting A Conundrum]

It was a technique back in England to stick the needle under your arm or in your waistband...you are following an old tradition!

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I do some multistrand knitting occasionally, and when I do, I carry one color in my right hand, and one color in my left hand...knowing how to throw the thread in multiple ways is a good thing. When I do that, I do the normal continental with my left hand, and a variant that is done in England with my right hand, sort of like backwards continental.

If I knit too long with my right hand that way, it cramps, but it's still faster than American style! Being able to knit with either hand has its advantages.

You should see me during the winter. I will have some sort of elastic bandage over my first finger knuckle, an elastic glove like a handeze glove with a wrist band, and possibly a knitted or fleece mitt over that.

If I had known the damage I was going to do when I spent all those hours crocheting afghans non-stop, I would have taken more breaks!

[pinz-n-needlez]

I hear you. ;-) But when those stitching frenzies hit, they're hard to resist.

Ten years ago, I made a filet crochet curtain for our dining room picture window (6'X6') with a size 8 crochet hook and #30 Cebelia. I haven't crocheted for more than 10 minutes at a stretch since then. :-(

I'm quite taken with lace snowflakes, whether knitted, crocheted, tatted or bobbin lace. I was thinking the other day of putting together a 'snowflake kit' to use every afternoon at 2:30 while I watch Divine Design on HGTV. (I love that show! lol) I figured that way, I'd get in 30 minutes of stitching, but that's all. I don't like whatever it is that follows.

I figure between now and Christmas, I could get a couple dozen snowflakes made, and it would actually benefit my hands/arms if I used a different technique every day.

Living in NC, we don't get much snow. I love the weather here, but like the *idea* of snowflakes. lol

Thanks for the idea of something warm to keep on sore hands...

Pinz

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Taking ginger helps a little, too...like real ginger beer, and glucosamine. I'm always looking for alternatives that work cause Naproxen and Ibuprofen and most of the prescription meds hurt my tummy...

[pinz-n-needlez]

Thanks for the suggestion. I love ginger.

Have you had any luck with capsacin? I'm afraid of rubbing my eyes/nose to use it very often, but feel better when I do.

Pinz

[alwaysconservative]

Another excellent anti-inflammatory herb is curcumin, or turmeric, and it is considered quite safe. Apparently it has all these wonderful properties (including likely disruption of tumor formation), but I can only vouch for the anti-inflammatory ones. Too much, and it will upset your tummy, though. I have been using both the powdered herb in broths and stir-fry dishes as well as the tablets from the health food store on a daily basis, and think it is helping.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Tumeric sometimes doesn't like me, sigh, so I am shy around it. Ah well.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I have used capsazin, and it works, but like you I am nervous about using it on my hands. I have used it with gloves, but that feels bad to me.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Speaking about knitting socks, here's one from 1861


Knitting for the Soldiers

Knitting for the soldiers!
How the needles fly!
Now with sound of merriment--
Now with many a sigh!

Knitting for the soldiers!
Panoply for feet--
Onward bound to victory?
Rushing in retreat?

Knitting for the soldiers!
Wrinkled--aged crone
Flying flying needles
By the ember stone.

Crooning ancient ballads
Rocking to and fro,
In your sage divining
Say where these shall go!

Jaunty set of stockings
Neat from top to toe,
March they with the victor?
Lie with vanquished low?

Knitting for the soldiers!
Matron--merry maid,
Many and many a blessing
Many a prayer is said.

While the glittering needles
Fly "around! around!"
Like to Macbeth's witches
On enchanted ground.

Knitting for the soldiers--
Still another pair!
And the feet that wear them
Speed they onward--where?

To the silent city
On their trackless way?
Homeward--bearing garlands?
Who of us shall say?

Knitting for the soldiers!
Heaven bless them all!
Those who win the battle,
Those who fighting fall.

Might our benedictions
Speedily win reply,
Early would they crown ye
All with victory!

Charleston Mercury, October 24, 1861, p. 4, c. 1

[Utah Girl]

Have you seen the book Scarf Style : Innovative to Traditional, 31 Inspirational Styles to Knit and Crochet? Someday I want to knit the Vintage Velvet scarf, it is knit in Touch Me yarn by Muench Yarns. $9.99 a skein at 5 skeins for the scarf make it a trifle pricey. Someday...

[alwaysconservative]

No, I hadn't, but I will check it out. Thank you!

[Alia]

So right and in tune you are to post these wonderful poems. That's what I do when autumn begins... I pick up my craftwork.

[Alia]

Thank you for putting all this together. It's quite a story.

[FOG724]

The quilter's guild I used to belong to always made lap quilts and baby quilts for the local hospital, weave and rest homes.

The Grange also has a project where you make hats for the premies.

Does anyone here enter their projects in the local fair? The Grange also has competitions. County fairs were a direct result of Grange competitions.

[A knight without armor]

This is a long Saturday night here. I would like to share this poem because it comforts me and maybe someone else will enjoy it, too.


Let Evening Come
by Jane Kenyon

Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.

Let the cricket take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.

Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.

Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.

To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung
let evening come.

Let it come, as it will, and don't
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Nice!