Monday, December 31, 2007

Flipped Cars and Yarn

Eleganza Yarns has an annual "step-down sale" on New Year's Eve, where if you arrive between 6 and 7 a.m. you receive 40% off; between 7 and 8 a.m., 30% off; and so on. I woke my ass up at 5 in the morning, and got in the car by 5:30. There was a bit of patchy fog, and the wet pavement and low temps told me to be cautious on bridges. Basically, "just don't drive like an asshole and you'll be fine" sort of conditions. But apparently everyone here drives like an asshole, as was evidenced by the insane amount of accidents. I must have passed 4 or 5- and we're not talking fender-benders. Cars smashed to bits, flipped upside down... it was crazy. About a mile from my exit, there was a three car accident that blocked traffic for miles. I sat for 45 minutes at a dead stop. As I sat in my car, watching the minutes tick by, I grew more and more frustrated. I was going to miss my 40% window because some douchebag can't figure out that wet roads + below freezing = icy roads. Gaaaahhh!

Once the traffic started moving, I got to Eleganza in just 10 minutes. Hooray for green lights. Miraculously, I managed to arrive before 7! Yay! And here's what I got:

Tofutsies! Because who doesn't need more sock yarn?



And more sock yarn...

Then I got enough Jo Sharp Silk Road for a sweater

Can't forget the Manos del Uruguay

And as I was waiting in line, I spied some Skacel Laceweight Merino

It's navy (not black) and one day I will tackle one of those awesome super-challenging shawls. One day...

And lastly, I have a finished object! I made a pair of Knucks for a friend, and they were handed over this weekend. They turned out well, but I can't embroider so they lack the awesome lettering. Plus I'm lazy.

I'm halfway through the first sock of a pair that I owe my step-mother-in-law, then I have another pair for my brother lined up. After that I plan on knitting something for myself!

Friday, December 28, 2007

Yay, Christmas!

Firstly, all the knitted gifts were well received (and fit!) which was a HUGE relief. After reading some horror stories on Ravelry, I was preparing for the worst. But everyone seemed pretty happy! Yay!

And I gots me some goodies! From my loving husband: a ball winder and swift!





And tried them out right away with some Noro. The ball on the left is the one I wound with my nostepinne, and the one on the right was done on the ball winder.



There isn't a huge difference in size, but the time it took was drastically different: the ball winder took just a few minutes, while the nostepinne took two hours. That's a lot of knitting time that will be saved!


My in-laws were kind enough to send a monetary gift, which was split evenly between the hubby and I. Scott got a helmet camera and some gloves. Boring! I got a swanky Golding spindle (the Kingwood) and some really awesome roving from Loop on Etsy. I got the Earth Mother colorway, but Chocolate Liqueur was a close second (someday...). I spun up a little bit as soon as I had the chance. Please refrain from making fun of my inability to spin, I know I still suck.



My pictures really don't do the roving justice-it is beyond beautiful. As for the spindle, I'm not good enough at spinning to really know how great it is. But I can say it is better than the old one- there is a marked difference in the way it feels as it spins. Hopefully one day I'll know more about spinning to tell you more.

I also bought two pounds of alpaca from Spunky Eclectic, but it won't ship until Monday. :( More updates then!

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Non-Knitty: Diva Cup Review

Disclaimer: The following review contains much TMI. You are warned.

A while back, my brother's girlfriend wrote a review of the Diva Cup in her blog, spurring me to try it out. I loved it so much, I wanted to do the same; hopefully introducing another woman to the magic that is the Diva Cup.

If you've never heard of it, the Diva Cup is a menstrual cup. Inserted in the vagina, it collects the menstrual flow, and gets emptied (typically) twice a day. If you're completely grossed out, bear with me. It's not as icky as you think. The big advantages it has over tampons are:

1. It doesn't suck all the moisture out of your vagina (which would throw your pH out of whack and leave you susceptible to things like Toxic Shock Syndrome).

2. You only have to take it out every 12 hours. No more hauling around pads and/or tampons and scrambling to find decent public restrooms.

First, let's dispel a quick myth. You have likely been brainwashed by countless Summer's Eve commercials into believing your vagina/period is dirty. In reality, your mouth is filled with way more bacteria, yet you don't think twice about sticking your fingers in there, do you? If you use the Diva Cup, you are going to come into contact with your period. Wash your hands. Problem solved.

Okay. On to the review! Obviously, I loved it. I found mine at an organic grocery store, and also bought the Diva Wash for it. The cup is about $30, which seems spendy at first, until you realize that if you go through a $5 box of tampons each period, it pays for itself in 6 months. When my period came about a week later, I was eager to try it out.

I inserted it the morning before I went to work. One of the great things about the Diva Cup is that you can put it in before your period even starts, unlike tampons. It hangs out kinda low in your vagina, but you can't feel it. I was really paranoid that it was going to leak, so I used a pad too. At work, I must have ran to the bathroom five or six times, convinced it was going to leak. It didn't.

That evening, I took it out at home, emptied it, washed it with the Diva Wash, and stuck it back in. No problems.

Now, on the second day I did have some issues, but they were my own fault. When I reinserted the cup in the morning, I could feel it. That should have been a big clue that I had put it in wrong. It leaked until I got to work, where I reinserted it. After that, I had a teeny bit of spotting, which I believe was due to a small amount of menstrual fluid that was below the "seal" when it was reinserted. That happened a few times after emptying it, but nothing a pantyliner couldn't handle. The third, fourth and fifth days of my period went off without a hitch.

There are a lot of questions that I felt the website didn't answer in a super specific way (probably to avoid sounding icky), so here's what I found:

-I got some blood on my fingers. Not much, but I did. Have you ever accidentally soaked through a tampon, then got a bit of blood on your fingers from the string? It was like that. Amazingly, it washed off!

-It doesn't smell. The "period" smell you're probably familiar with comes from menstrual blood oxidizing on a pad. A healthy vagina and menstrual fluid do not smell- if they do, there is something askew and you need to talk to your doctor.

-During a typical period, I went through a regular tampon every four hours or so during the heaviest part of my cycle. With the Diva Cup, I filled it halfway or less (1/4 - 1/2 ounce) every 12 hours in the same part of the cycle. So even if your cycle is pretty heavy, you should still be okay.

-I couldn't poo with it in. The website says you can, but I was seriously afraid of "pooping it out" since that's how you get the Diva Cup out- you bear down on your abdominal muscles. But I prefer to go #2 at home anyway, so for me it wasn't a big issue.

-It never once spilled while taking it out. And I am a completely uncoordinated clod. Although, it was always only half full or less, which probably helped.

-My favorite part? Having something to use at night that won't leak! Before I would have to use a tampon and an extra huge pad at night, in order to avoid changing the sheets. Ugh, I hated sleeping in a huge, bunchy pad! But no more, thanks to the Diva Cup!

The Diva Cup is pretty great. Try it, and you won't be disappointed! After using it for just one cycle, I can't imagine going back to anything else. If you are interested, you can order one from the website, or look for one around town. You'll probably have better luck locating one in a college town, or places that cater to the organic and vegetarian crowds- since another advantage of switching to the Diva Cup is reducing the amount of trash you produce. So help save the planet, save some $$, and go get a Diva Cup!

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Yeah, It's Been a While...

I know. I suck. It's been almost a month since the last post. But I bet this past month has been craptastically busy for everyone, and that none of my four readers even noticed. Hopefully the good people at the Knitting Blogring didn't notice either...

Anyhoo. The Year of the Knitted Gift has nearly come to an end! All the knitties have been sent off, except for two- a pair of socks for my step-mother-in-law, and a pair of socks for my brother. Foot measurements are needed for both of these folks, and they have received IOUs. Also waiting to be finished: a pair of Knucks for my husband's friend. He was warned in advance that he would have to get in line behind all the Christmas knitting, and so far I've finished seven fingers, both thumbs, and joined the fingers on one hand. Here is the list of completed knitted gifts (now that they have been received and/or the recipients won't likely read this before seeing them):

Matching hat and scarf for FIL
Shawl for my sister
Hat and wristwarmers for BIL
Sweater for other BIL
Washclothes for SIL (sent with pretty soaps)

I had pictures of the BIL sweater, but they have disappeared. I learned that I don't completely suck at seaming, but I hate it like poison. I tried to find Wool Ease Worsted in the same color (the sweater was knit with Wool Ease Chunky) for the seams, in order to keep the bulkiness to a minimum, but couldn't locate any. Although it turned out okay, I think- the only bulky parts were the armpits where there were about a thousand ends to weave in.

Remember that lovely cabled wrap? It still looks exactly the same, and it will not likely advance for some time. The mojo has just been sucked right out of me. Never again will I knit more than one gift per year. It's just too much piled onto a time of year already rife with stress.

I didn't even take new pictures because frankly, I was tired. All I wanted to do was get it all into a box and ship it hundreds of miles from here. Once that was done, it felt sooo good.

Adding to the stress was the fact that work finally picked up in a major way. We got a shipment of supplies a couple weeks ago (our customers ship us the supplies we need so we're at their mercy), and suddenly it's all about overtime and trying to make up for lost time by the end of the year. Ugh. But my company let everyone go home early on Friday, we have Monday and Tuesday off, and the rest of the week will be a bit lazy-daisy since most of the company has taken those three days off. From here on out it should be more relaxed, and there will be time once again for a break now and then.

The Knucks won't take too long, and I can bang out a pair of socks in two weekends. That means by this time next month I might have all my projects done, and can knit something for myself!