Grad school really interferes with my blogging
Sorry to have been so quiet the last couple of days. The MFA program is great. Wonderful. Fabulous. If it were possible to hug an entire program, I’d be doing it daily. But, man…I thought I had no free time before!
I’ve also been occupied with trying to get a rather nasty spider bite treated. Last weekend, Billy and I went hiking on the Appalachian Trail and I was mugged by a spider. It leapt at me from out of nowhere. The bite now looks like this (Warning! If you are easily grossed out, don’t click that link.) I went to the emergency room with it after class on Wednesday night because my doctor couldn’t see me until Friday afternoon and the thing was getting worse by the hour. I waited four and a half hours in the emergency room. The med student who finally saw me didn’t give me antibiotics as I’d expected, even though I was running a fever and the thing was scary. He said it looked bad because I’d been putting hydrocortisone cream on it, and that I should use Calamine lotion instead. (Always makes me think of Velvet Underground.) So I dragged myself and the boy (who kindly waited with me) home at three in the morning, got up a few hours later and bought Calamine. Which promptly made the rash even worse. 100 damn times worse. Med students.
Yesterday I went to see my doctor, who said yes indeed I have an infection and need antibiotics. So now I’m on antibiotics and prednisone. I don’t like taking medication, but I do like the fact that my arm no longer itches so much it feels like it’s rotting off.
While waiting in the emergency room, and again at the doctor’s office yesterday, I got a lot of knitting done. That’s what this blog is supposedly about, right? Well, I was feeling a bit sorry for myself and wanted to work on one of my own projects instead of any of the gift sweaters, so I put in some time on the monster sweater (so named because the colors remind me of a Muppet monster). I have one and a half sleeves done so far.
I’m basing it on the brilliant EPS system (Elizabeth’s–as in the mighty Zimmermann, worthy of much homage and veneration–Percentage System). I’ve added extra long sleeves that come to my knuckles, which I’ve belled out and tapered back in at the wrist ever so slightly. It also features the asymmetrical stripe thing I’m doing on my brother’s sweater. I like the look of random bands of color in otherwise tame stockinette. The bands you see now on the one sleeve are the only ones for that sleeve. The rest will continue in the salmon (Peace Fleece, by the way. Love that stuff. The yellow is Naturspun.) The body will have one or two bands. I haven’t decided yet. I’m leaning toward two.
Here’s me modeling the sleeves, so you can see how they fit to the knuckles. Sorry it’s a bit dark.
I’ve got a ton of work to do this weekend, both for school and for money, but I want to put in some time on my brother’s sweater as well. I think he’s starting to feel neglected. Everytime he sees me, I’m knitting something other than his sweater.
E.P.S. = knitting freedom ! The sleeves look fab & extremely stylish.Don’t put the muppet down – finish it ! You know you want to.
Spider bite – yuk,yuk,yuk ! Arachnaphobia [Sp?] … a perfectly logical fear in my view.After all the b******s jump out & bite you !
Hope the arm’s better soon.
Happy knitting – find the time.
Posted by: Emma
Orange Knit-Bloggers Unite!!
Love, love, love the muppet sleeves. Random stripes….I mull over the endless possibilities…
Posted by: claudia
I’m not afraid of spiders (anymore) but I’ve also never had a reaction like that–mine are more like elephantine mosquito bites. So glad you finally got the treatment you needed.
Love the Muppet sweater! Animal was always one of my favorites…
Posted by: Em
Ick! a spider bite!….what did the spider look like? My mom once got bitten by a spider in Virginia (it was pretty embarassing-it fell into her bra!) and it kinda looked like your arm. It took a while but she made a full recovery.
Good luck and I hope you feel better. Where I live (midwest) we have the dreaded Brown Recluse Spider which I am deathly afraid of…so hearing about anyone getting bit gives me the chills.
Hope this doesn’t make knitting too difficult!
Posted by: Lori
Poor thing! Sister Bethany once was bitten by a tarantula while sleeping on the floor of my old apartment – I still feel guilty about it.
and I love the stripes! Makes me want to stripe out something right away. I vote for two on the body also. Different widths. Whoo hoo!
Posted by: Rachael
Love the orange and esp. the bell sleeves! I am very into that this fall for some reason. Bright side of spider bite: at least it didn’t keep you from knitting!
Posted by: Kristine
E.P.S. = knitting freedom ! The sleeves look fab & extremely stylish.Don’t put the muppet down – finish it ! You know you want to.
Spider bite – yuk,yuk,yuk ! Arachnaphobia [Sp?] … a perfectly logical fear in my view.After all the b******s jump out & bite you !
Hope the arm’s better soon.
Happy knitting – find the time.
Posted by: Emma
Orange Knit-Bloggers Unite!!
Love, love, love the muppet sleeves. Random stripes….I mull over the endless possibilities…
Posted by: claudia
I’m not afraid of spiders (anymore) but I’ve also never had a reaction like that–mine are more like elephantine mosquito bites. So glad you finally got the treatment you needed.
Love the Muppet sweater! Animal was always one of my favorites…
Posted by: Em
Ick! a spider bite!….what did the spider look like? My mom once got bitten by a spider in Virginia (it was pretty embarassing-it fell into her bra!) and it kinda looked like your arm. It took a while but she made a full recovery.
Good luck and I hope you feel better. Where I live (midwest) we have the dreaded Brown Recluse Spider which I am deathly afraid of…so hearing about anyone getting bit gives me the chills.
Hope this doesn’t make knitting too difficult!
Posted by: Lori
Poor thing! Sister Bethany once was bitten by a tarantula while sleeping on the floor of my old apartment – I still feel guilty about it.
and I love the stripes! Makes me want to stripe out something right away. I vote for two on the body also. Different widths. Whoo hoo!
Posted by: Rachael
Love the orange and esp. the bell sleeves! I am very into that this fall for some reason. Bright side of spider bite: at least it didn’t keep you from knitting!
Posted by: Kristine