Owl Be Back...

Just a little play on words LOL. 
I got my stitches out on Tuesday, the doctor was rather concerned about the amount of swelling and lack of movement in my thumb (for the story, see here).  Gave me a Rx for a high tech anti-inflammatory that sports athletes use.  See?  Knitting is a sport!! 

Wants to see me in a month to see if I need physio!
Wednesday at work, it was nice to be wearing my warm felted orange mittens again outside!  Then I bumped into the metal gate in the kindergarten yard. 

Oh My Goodness!  Ooowww!

When I got the mitt off, it bled a little, but I could see a 1mm gap now :(  I knew my family doctor would be in the walk in clinic on Thursday, so I got there just before it opened and was 4th in line.  She was so nice, as usual.  She put some steri-strips on, and lots of gauze and tape.  Got to keep the strips on for 48 hours, and keep the thumb wrapped up for 7 days, to protect it from further bumps.  I think it had been pulled so tightly together that the skin was under tension and not quite healed all the way through, so it just pulled apart really easily.  The strips didn't get it right together, but will prevent further pulling apart.

I did start knitting again last weekend.  Loosely, on a mitten to felt.  I don't thing I could do anything too strenuous, and now with it all mummified again, even that mitten might be too much :(

What's with the owl word play in the title?

Back in early January, I created a mitten photo album on my Facebook page, www.facebook.com/tracykmdesigns.  My sister in law saw the grey owl mittens I made a few years ago for a friend of Lucy. Her sister loves owls, and has a boy turning three who has been smothered in owls his whole life.  She knew he needed these mitts!  I swatched, and swatched with a variety of navy blue yarns, and ended up with four strands--two of different Kroy sock yarns, another navy sock yarn, and a very fine strand of a cone yarn.  I got the first mitten done, and started on the second in record time (finding the pattern and swatching took longer!).  Then I was comparing the mitts and realized I had messed up on a cable crossing on the first one.  Fixed it and moved on.  I got them both finished, but the ends needed weaving in and buttons/beads found for the eyes.  I knew I had lots of time, and set them aside to work on a prize from a contest on my Facebook page. 

 Then, I sliced my thumb open before I got the owls finished!!!  Ack!!  I waited as long as I could, but less than a week after the stitches, I was finishing them up.  The darning needle kept getting caught in the gauze!  I couldn't fit my thumb into the scissors.  Even once I took the gauze off, I couldn't pinch anything, or really even use my thumb for anything other than a oversized lobster claw.  It took forever to thread the 4 strands of yarn into the darning needle repeatedly, and weave in the ends (I'm a little picky on this job!).  Then trying to sew on little seed beads for the eyes?  I couldn't find a needle that would go through the bead, I just kept having troubles.  Don't want to bore you.

I had looked all around to find a pair of mitten clips with an owl ribbon, but everyone was sold out.  I had a set of fitted sheet clips, so I cut the elastic off two of them, and crocheted a short strap.  Got them all finished and wrapped with about an hour to spare!

These mittens look best with a hand in them, to fill them out because the front side is purl and the palm is stockinette, so the curl in a little.  A dishcloth stuffed inside works just as well :)  They were apparently well received!

Yarn In:  354gr
Yarn Out:  44gr + 289gr = 333gr
Balance:  21gr more brought IN than out
Costs:  $19.85/59 days = $0.34/day

I think that's my lowest "per day" cost of yarn since starting this record keeping.  This winter has been very cold, and business a little slow, so I just haven't been out to Value Village or the yarn stores!