Another 3-Hour Sweater

Thank you so much to everyone for your kind comments on my last post. Your kindness and support really means the world to me, and has made the last few crummy weeks seem a lot easier to deal with. 

Overall, I've been doing a bit better lately health-wise. Being able to knit again (yay!!!) is also helping me better cope on the "bad days". I can't sew when I'm fatigued and suffering from brain-fog, but I am able to knit which satisfies my need to be productive. It also satisfies my creative urge (I go positively batty if I am unable to make/create something everyday). 

In need of a quick project, I made another "3 hour sweater". This makes four of these I've knit and this one is by far my favourite. I made a few modifications on this one: added a collar, used a different stitch pattern on the body, and extended the ribbing. I would have liked to have made the grey part just a tad longer, but I completely ran out of the (discontinued) grey yarn. Oh well, I'm pretty sure it will stretch out after a couple washes. For more detailed notes, here is a link to my Ravelry project page  (Feel free to add me as a friend on Ravelry if you are on there! I love checking out other peoples projects and favouites for inspiration). 

I think my favourite thing about this sweater is now I have something to wear this hat with! It's a 1930's pattern (just like the 3-hour sweater), which I made a couple years ago. While I love it, I've never had anything that matched the colour/style. I had just enough yarn leftover to use for the sweater ribbing (the 3-hour sweater is very economical in it's yarn usage!) and am just chuffed to finally be able to get some wear out of this adorable little hat. Makes a nice change to the black beret I wear almost every day. 

This project used approx 500m of yarn (which is pretty good for a sweater!) and I may have to make a few more to use up the random balls of yarn I have in my stash. The yarn stash is rather large at the moment (a combination of being unable to knit and a yarn addiction), so more projects like this will be needed to whittle it down a bit. I have a lot of single skeins of discontinued yarn, so if anyone has any pattern suggestions for sweaters that are either economical in their yarn usage, or combine several yarns in one pattern, let me know!

In my effort to destash, I've also been going back to some old "hibernating" projects which have languished at the back of the project pile for far too long. After about 5 years, I finally finished this 1920's workbag:

Not sure why it took so long or why exactly I initially abandoned this project, but I am very pleased for it to finally be done. I used a pair of thrifted handles and scrap fabric for the lining. It's my new project bag for when my best friend moves back home this summer and we resume our weekly knitting/coffee meet-up. 

I have a few other projects on the needles, which hopefully I will be able to share before too long. I've been working on a WW1 era sweater for ages and am finally starting to see some progress. I've also started a simple 1920's beaded bag. It's on tiny little needles, so it's going to take a while before that one is done but it looks good so far!  

I hope everyone had a good weekend.

That's All.

Ugh

.... It's been a tough few weeks. Not really sure where to start this entry. 

(I will be punctuating this post with pretty pictures of Victorian flowers to bring a bit of light to what is going to be a bit of a depressing post)

I suppose I shall start a few weeks ago when I was at the doctors and told I have an autoimmune condition, which is why my thyroid and other levels have been so out of whack. Of course the doctor didn't really tell me anything else (what type of autoimmune condition, what I should or shouldn't be doing/eating/etc, any possible treatments, what the hell is going on...), and he only told me that much because I asked ("Why are my levels so high?" "Hmm? Oh, you have an autoimmune condition"). I should have asked more questions, but at that point I was so stressed I was starting to get dizzy. So I got out of there as quickly as I could, but still managed to almost pass out in the reception area while making my next appointment (if there hadn't of been a chair there I would have been on the floor). I've now been on edge for almost two months waiting for my next appointment. I need answers but am scared about getting so stressed again. I've never had a fainting spell like that before and it scared the living daylights out of me. I think I need to find a new endocrinologist. I've been going there 2 years and feel like the only thing I've gained from the appointments is a hell of a lot of stress.

I've also been sick, grumpy, and bored over those last 2 months. I'm finally starting to feel a bit better though and have even been doing some sewing! I'm putting together a bunch of new "spring" items for my Etsy shop and hope to be able to post them in the next couple weeks. I may also film a short little promo for them and post on my youtube channel.

Speaking of which, people on the internet are mean. I've actually had to shut down the comments on one of my videos because it was causing me so much stress. I prefer to deal with inappropriate comments directly but it was having a negative impact on my health. The chemicals released during stress are supposed to worsen autoimmune conditions, so I've been trying to avoid anything that could trigger that stress response (I've even stopped watching some tv shows I really like because they triggered a stress response). Which meant I was forced to shut down the comments section of my pomade video after receiving one too many comments such as "how about you show us your tits", "she's hot for a chunky girl", "your pomade is crap. I haven't tried this recipe, but I tried another and it didn't work", "shut up chubs", "i like her booobs" (typo was included), and so forth. (There were some much worse ones, but they got removed and I don't remember them clearly enough to rewrite them here). The video was about hair pomade, and most of these comments have literally nothing to do with the video or recipe I shared. It takes a lot of work to make a well researched video, and to have this crap spewed all over it is incredibly frustrating. 

I don't actually get personally offended by the content of any of these comments. I get offended by the intent behind them which is either to sexually objectively me or other malicious intent such as trying to make me feel insecure/worthless. I hate that women still have to deal with this crap all the time and that these people (ok let's be honest, it's mostly guys) don't see anything wrong with these comments. When I call  them out on their bad behavior, I'm told to "calm down and take it as a compliment" despite the fact it obviously wasn't intended as one. They also usually turn to worse insults when I explain to them their comments are inappropriate and not appreciated. And I shouldn't even have to. This is not that highly viewed of a video and it's about Edwardian hair pomade for goodness sake! Not exactly controversial. I have so much sympathy for women who are trying to say something more important, as I know they are met with far worse then this. 

Computers allow both the commentor to be anonymous and for the receiver to have to deal with this filth from within their homes. Getting a comment like that while sitting in your bedroom feels somehow violating, like this person has invaded your personal sanctuary and there's nothing you can do about it and no where you can go. The whole thing (especially when combined with all the other terrible stuff going on in the world right now) has left me terribly sad for humanity at large. I had plans to try some men's vintage product recipes on my channel (mustache wax, a different pomade just for men, mens colonge, etc), but I'm holding off for now. 

After that rant, I feel the need to say most people who leave comments on my other videos are not like this. My actual subscribers are lovely people and leave such sweet comments. I love conversing with viewers and other youtubers, and most of the time the conversations are kind, helpful, informative, and enjoyable. It's just there's few bad eggs out there that seem to scream that loudest and which try to ruin it for the rest of us. I'm going to continue with my video making regardless of what anyone says, because I enjoy it. If I need to block comments for a while on a few specific videos, then that's what I will do so I can continue to share my work with those who actually appreciate it.

To end on a happier note, my wrists/hands have been feeling a lot better of late. I bought a TENS machine and it's actually helped quite a bit. The pain isn't gone, but I am able to use my hands for things like reading and knitting again! I'm actually almost done a new 3-hour sweater  with some interesting modifications and can't wait to do an outfit post in a couple weeks (when the weather gets warmer and I can do outside photos again!).  

I hope everyone else is doing ok. Sorry if this post was a little darker then my normal stuff, but I just couldn't go back to fluffy fashion posts without having a bit of a vent first. Don't worry, overall I'm doing ok and plan on getting back to doing a lot of things I enjoy now that I'm feeling a bit better. Fingers crossed for sunny days ahead!

That's All.