Monday, September 14, 2009

Too Much to Do, Too Little Time

Now that would be my life's story! I'm constantly struggling to balance what I need and want to do, while trying to find the energy to do it. I have discovered something interesting, though. A couple of weeks ago I went to a new primary care physician. She took about a gallon quart pint of blood for numerous tests to see if we could find a reason for my never-ending fatigue. The tests came back last week. Everything is normal, except that my vitamin D level is way low. Hmmmm...never had that tested before. So I googled and found this article. Fatigue and chronic pain? Oh, yeah, I have those!

I'm not totally surprised, seeing as I do NOT go out in the sun. I hate being hot and I burn very easily, so I pretty much stay indoors all summer. And this summer I've done almost nothing in the yard, so I really was getting no sun at all. I'm still not comfortable with spending a lot of time in the sun, but I guess I'll have to get at least a few minutes in, along with taking supplements. I never even thought of a vitamin deficiency--or if I had thought of it, I suspected a low B-vitamin level--but apparently you can't always get enough Vitamin D from your diet. Who knew?

On to other important things. Nan was the winner of the Addi needles from the last post's giveaway, and those will be going in the mail to her just as soon as I get done with this post. I appreciate everyone's comments and suggestions, and I have plenty of ideas for the next dyeing session.

I made my first Etsy sale over the weekend, so I'm anxious to get more dyed and listed. I spent a while this morning making ads for Ravelry, so I hope those are approved and put in circulation soon. That was not a fun experience at all. I'm a complete digital doofus, and trying to get the ads the right size, then saved and uploaded to Ravelry had me shrieking in frustration. I never imagined what a steep learning curve there would be to doing all this!

I do have two new finished projects to show you. I finished my Fan-Stitch Half-Circle shawl a couple of weeks ago but hadn't had the chance to post the picture until now.

It's so hard to show details of such fine yarn, but you get an idea of how it turned out. I'm extremely happy with this shawl, though I thought the knitted-on border would never end. I had to add an extra increase row and about 40 extra pattern rows to make it big enough, and that's what made the border so long--probably about 1200 rows.

I didn't pin-block this, but steamed it with the iron as I stretched it on my padded sewing table. Pin-blocking would have made the border open up more, but I didn't have enough patience (or pins!) to do that, so iron-blocking was my best option. I doubt anyone will look at it and say, "Gee, it's okay, but you really should have pinned that border out and steamed it better." If they do they'll get a well-deserved poke in the eye!

I'll save the other finished project for a later post. Oh, okay. I'll admit it. I don't have pictures of it yet. Add that to the never-ending "To Do" list!

4 comments:

Tommye said...

That is GORGEOUS! I am so impressed.

tjbdesigns
http://stitchingandbeading.blogspot.com

Anna said...

Drat! I saw your link too late to get the giveaway! But it's ok, 'coz now I can bother you for another (just kidding!) I'm racking my brain for my Google password; I don't know if I'll actually be able to post but I found yours on Ravelry in the "Bloggers" thread. And I have to agree with Tommye, that's a fine shawl!

knittingdragonflies said...

Congrats on the sale!
yay!!
The shawl is georgous! And you must have a lot of patience. Love the boarder, and yes, anyone deserves two pokes in the eye, one with each needle, if they say anything about your blocking, ha
Vicki

Daniele said...

I hope getting the Vitamin D up does you a world of good. No one should have to live a life filled with chronic pain. I'll pray for you sweetie.

Also - Love that shawl!