Shouldering Too Much?

Haven't had time to write much on here lately. Things have been truly crazy busy. Work has been extremely stressful and weird lately. Unsettling actually. Lots of people quitting. Not sure WHAT is going on at my office but I don't feel either happy or secure. Very worrisome. Especially with my boss leaving - I just hate the idea of adjusting to my 4th boss in two years. Ugghhh!!!

We are thinking we might need to eventually relocate with Bob's job - long story - but with the real estate market being what it is, I don't know that it would be easy to move. Staying put for now, but that could change.

On top of all that, I am having pain. Lots of pain. In my shoulder. I've spent the last few weeks going to my doctor, to an ortho specialist and now to two weeks of physical therapy. It's called informally a "frozen shoulder" but the actual name is adhesive capsulitis. I noticed symptoms a few months ago, but it just has gotten worse and worse over time. Finally a few weeks ago I was in agony every time I moved the wrong way, and I could barely move my left arm or sleep on my left side. Let me tell ya, that's a problem when you are left handed! I've gone through some really painful physical therapy sessions 3 times per week and doing exercises for it 3 times a day. It's finally getting to the point where it's merely painful and not excruiciating.

I am so grateful for physical therapists, though. They are really and truly miracle workers if you do your exercises and follow their advice.

Maybe it's no coincidence that when I'm "shouldering" so much my shoulder gives out? Let me tell you, the thought has occurred to me that maybe this pain is more than physical and maybe my subconscious mind is trying to tell me something? Who knows.

The only thing that has brought me pleasure is spinning and weaving. For some reason, I've been able to do a BIT of that this week. For a few weeks, I haven't done much at all craft-wise because of the shoulder, but now I'm able to do a bit. This is the woven laptop bag I'm making on my rigid heddle loom. I LOVE weaving.

Celebrating with a Friend

Last weekend was Luann's birthday - so I headed over for a quick one-day trip to her house - it's about a 90 minute drive each way, but a very pleasant day and a nice drive. On the way down, I listened to a book on tape.

We had a fun day - spent some time spinning. First time I'd spun in a few weeks. I've really missed it. I saw her new Border Collie, her animals, and she gave me some raw fiber - some Shetland, some Finn, and some Blue Leicester. Guess I will have to learn how to wash and process fiber, huh? It's beautiful stuff.

She showed me her looms and taught me how to warp a loom using a 14 foot warping board. I've always just used the direct method of warping before. I can see how a warping board might be easier with some projects. I have a warping board on the back of my Harp but have never used it.

Last but not least, I finished making a birthday shawl for another friend, an online pal named Debbie. This is the first woven shawl I've ever done on my Kromski 24" rigid heddle. It actually didn't turn out half bad for a first attempt.

Luann has been making some really cool woven banners that hang outside on your deck and make gentle sounds in the wind. I am probably going to try my hand at making one of those too. We both agreed that we should use some novelty yarn, particularly ribbon yarn, in our shawls and banners. So we went out on a novelty yarn buying mission - found some really cheap for $1 a skein at Big Lots near her.

I keep promising a return to knitting, and I really have been trying to do more of that. Cast on some Monkey socks. But admittedly, my preoccupation is still weaving. I'm eager to get going on another shawl on the Harp. It's just too fun to stop. Warping tonight. Yippeee!

A Need for Synthesis

Granted, this year I wanted to learn a bunch of new skills - spinning better, weaving on a rigid heddle, carding better on my drumcarder, continuous strand weaving, learning more about art yarn. All these things I've been delving into for several months now.

So what has happened recently is that I've sorta lost track of where I'm at. With every new interest that comes along, I have allowed myself to randomly pursue it. And now things are getting to be a little - or a LOT strung out and disorganized. I jump from one set of needles, or looms, to another without enough direction to really complete projects the way I used to do.

Even my daily spinning (i.e. sanity check) has fallen a bit by the wayside while I pursue an obsession with weaving. Though I love weaving, unlike spinning, it isn't always relaxing and instead of unwinding, sometimes it makes me more tense.

The result is that I very much feel at "loose ends" right now - starting many things but finishing very little. So maybe (probably) I'm feeling scattered.

So I've decided to get things back in check by:

Finishing the turquoise recentagular shawl I've been weaving for a birthday gift - it's getting fairly far along, but not quite finished.

Spinning more on some sock spinning that has been sitting idle for several weeks

Clean out and organize my fiber stash so I know what I have and can get ready for Tour de Fleece.

Finish knitting a Haruni shawl that I've been working on very sporadically and see if I can make some headway on that.

Pick out a project I want to work on for Tour de Fleece - probably preparing and spinning the Coopworth fleece I picked out a few months ago at the Jefferson City Fiber fair.

Hopefully this realization for the need to get organized and focus my energies will help me put a rein on myself a bit and lead to perhaps getting more accomplished.

Update on diet frustration: Guess what? Since doing my calorie counting plan all this week, I went from 154.0 on Monday to 150.4 today. So I have lost 4 lbs in one week. Realize that this is probably mostly "water" weight but I am quite happy to have finally made a big budge in the scale. I went out and bought a cute little journal today at Borders, it has an oriental theme and is narrow so it won't take up much room in my small purse. With the shoulder trouble and pain I'm having, the big monster purse was replaced last week with a very small bag that holds only my essentials.

Maybe this shoulder trouble is symbolic, telling me I've been shouldering too much, and needing to simpify and unburden myself of the heavy things that are weighing me down? Who knows!