Aloe Dye Fail, Skully stitch marker success.

Not being able to spin has left me a bit discombobulated.  I've limited my knitting to a few rows at each sitting.  The arm/shoulder/neck pain is improving, but the arm weakness is about the same.  I saw PT today and will see Sport's Medicine tomorrow.  The meclomen is helping the pain and not irritating my stomach so far like other NSAIDS, and it is on the WalMart $4 RX list.  YAY.  I really dislike taking meds.  My son had fun reading the two page handout that came with the pills and keeps asking me if I've had any sudden weight gain or puffing up. 

I'm knitting  Foolproof by Louise Zass-Bangham from Inspiration Knits. Not free but clever.  It starts off like a shawl and ends up a cowl.  There are no seams.  I'm using a self-striping yarn, Tangier to avoid having to weave in ends.   I must say, the striped versions with higher contrast are more eye-catching.

My aloe dyeing was a bust.  I was inspired by the lovely pink Kai got with aloe. I got a rather pale yellow which is actually quite nice.  I learned a lot.  First, always label packages of white powder.  I'm now sure the white powder was soda ash and not alum.  Secondly and most importantly, don't be in a rush when it comes to dyeing anything.  Third, my churro spun on the Navajo spindle was not spun well, and fell apart with the abuse. 

Mom brought a good point when I whined about the process...at least I have tried it.  I may try it again, too when the aloe plant gets out of control.  Somehow it seems better then throwing the thinnings away. Also cooking aloe does not smell too bad and is non-toxic.

In lieu of spinning in the Tour de Fleece I'm shopping online (mostly card-making supplies), surfing for inspiration and re-potting my poor neglected plants, including 3 sea island cotton plants.    I even managed a set of skully stitch markers and some very dangly acorn earrings.  The bone skull beads were funky smelling when I got them, and they were boiled, soaked in bleach and paint thinner and left in the elements for awhile (like years, lol) and they no longer smell bad. 


I'm signed up for Stitches MidWest...one felting class, and one rigid heddle class.  The only knitting class is intarsia in the round, so I'm hoping my shoulder/neck/arm problem will be better by then.  I was going to take Cherry Baby with me, but I decided not to spin for all of July and maybe August.