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Friday, February 04, 2005

Small Doses

Some things are best taken in small doses.....like knitting bulky acrylic yarn with plastic needles. I am working on a cabled baby sweater in "Bernat Softee Chunky" Although it is a nice pattern, soft yarn, a pretty color, and relatively quick to knit, it is a real bear to work on. The combination of thick acrylic yarn and plastic needles makes one fight for every stitch. I get the numbness of carpal tunnel syndrome in a very short time period. I've been switching off between this baby sweater (I can only handle about an hour at a time) and knitting on socks with nice slippery Addi Turbo needles. The socks are a reward for slogging through on the baby sweater.



Luckily, the baby sweater's color is NOTHING like it looks in the picture. In reality it is a pretty baby blue. It is #39119 "New Denim Heather.

For those watching The Drama of the Mismatched Socks, my replacement yarn from Elann just arrived. Should be fun to see if I can get a match this time hmmm?

3 comments:

dragon knitter said...

baby sweater looks cute, even if the color is off in the pic. i've made grey baby sweaters too, lol. good luck with the replacement yarn!

DJ said...

Of all the neat things in you blog, I am choosing to comment on you carpal tunnel syndrome! Can't help m'self. I have this problem and nobody is taking aknife to my wrists! So, my dr ordered me to get braces for my wrists I have been using them for nearly 15 years and they help me immensely. They are the "cocked" style (they have a bent spoon type thingy inside of them) and they hold the wrist at just the right angle to take pressure off the problem area. i wear them to bed every night and I have very little trouble with my "carpal". Don't know if they would help you as much, but they are only $10 or $15 at the drugstore. I tried one on the worst wrist first and then went the expense of the second one. They are "wrist specific", at least mine are. Probably by now, they are making them inter-changeable. Hope you get some relief, what ever you chose to do.
DJ

Marlene said...

So far, my wrist problems only flare up if I am knitting something that takes a fair bit of hand strength or if I knit first thing in the morning. Occasionally I get numbness at night too, if I have been overusing my hands/wrists during the day. If the condition worsened I would certainly look into the wrist braces. I have friends and relatives that have been helped a great deal by wearing them.