What is Chronic Pain?

I just came across an excellent, short, TED talk explaining the experience of chronic pain. It's less than 9 minutes long and does an efficient job of describing what is going on in my back as well as the basis for the fibromyalgia I was later diagnosed with. It's nice to know progress is being made.



If you or a loved one is suffering from continuing pain, lasting longer than a few weeks, please see your doctor. The sooner this condition is addressed the better the outcome. My chronic pain has been going on for 11 years now and all indications are that it will be with me for the rest of my life because it wasn't identified quickly enough to make a difference. Of course that is mostly because this is a relatively new field of study, pain as the disease itself. Thank heavens they're not telling us it's all in our heads still. That particular comment is the way to insanity for those of us dealing with this horror.

Challenges of Pain and Balance

The following post was written in the midst of Tour de Fleece. Why I didn't  post it when it was written is a question with which I've been struggling. The simple answer is there was no balance - there wasn't a good to post along with the moaning. I don't like moaning. But I've come to realize a few things as I've perused this post, over and over and over. Here's the original unedited post:

From 7/15/2011
This week has been a challenge from the beginning thanks to chronic pain rearing its very ugly head, and hands. Yes, hands, or to be more precise, hand - the right one, especially the thumb mechanism - along with the back which is always a bear. My Tour de Fleece spinning has slowed down to a crawl with my decision to do a worsted 3-ply of fingering weight.


To those of you not suffering for fiberholicalism suffice it to say it is made up of small repetitive movements of the thumb and middle finger that can be very aggravating to a bad case of arthritis of the thumb joint. I hadn't taken that into consideration when deciding to spin my own sock knitting yarn that would, hopefully, wear like iron (read: needing VERY infrequent darning because I refuse to toss hand-knit socks.)

A bit of time-travelling to bring us back to today, 8/11/2011

This bit of moaning brought my blogging to a near complete standstill. I couldn't get past it, couldn't post it, nor could I delete it. I decided it was a valid post. This blog is supposed to be about spinning and coping with chronic pain. Duh! Pain is going to show up now and then as it is a constant companion and has been for the past 12 years. I figure it's time to post it and then I can move on to the good stuff. After all, when it get's right down to it balance isn't an instant thing. Sometimes it takes years to balance one thing with another. Karma, I guess.

My first Artyarn

My first week of Tour de Fleece has been filled with oodles of discoveries, eureka!s, reading, firsts and even some actual spinning. My favorite moment this week was learning to let go of the control factor and spin with the intention of imperfect. What a wonderfully freeing experience that was and the resulting yarn is my first ever artyarn.

I started with two lovely batts of fiber from another Sherry in CA.  Started spinning, drafting irregularly, letting the fiber spin as it was inclined with a modicum of control from me. I quickly realized the potential for creativity inherent in this type of spinning and started to experiment with different techniques. I wanted to find out what worked and what didn't. It's one thing to read about the different possibilities but something entirely different when you get your hands in there and the wheel is spinning and thinking is a luxury that time will not afford. You have to go with your gut. This time my gut was right. After spinning up the thick and thin the next bobbin was filled with a skinny single. Plied them together and and Voila! Mona Meta Monet was born, my very first artyarn creation. But it needed a companion yarn so out of the second batt I created a calmer, but still a bit bumpy, Mona's Manet.

Mona Meta Monet

Mona's Manet companion yarn

Why I Spin and Knit and Create in General

I happened upon a vid that wonderfully captures my reasoning for the creative process inherent in spinning and knitting, as well as every other art I create. Hope you enjoy it.

Tour de Fleece Begins!

Stash!

Whoa! That's a lot of fiber to spin in three weeks. Can I do it? Hmmm... we'll see.

My first thick and thin

First tdf11 spin prepped for thick and thin

My Tour de Fleece Teams

I'm getting very excited. The tour starts this Saturday and I'm in the midst of planning my next three weeks of spinning adventures. What challenges shall I take on? Which fibers to match up with which projects for the completed yarns? Or shall I just spin for the sheer joy of it and figure out what to do with the yarn afterwards?
Just Jane is ready to fly. My hands are ready to draft and feed. My feet are ready to treadle and dance. My heart is ready to sing the joyful song of the spinning soul. Oh, yes. I'm definitely excited to begin my first Tour de Fleece.

Mary Poppins and Just Jane

What do Mary Poppins and my spinning wheel have in common? Kite string!

Lately I've found myself singing "With tuppence for paper and string, you can have your own set of wings..." while spinning. I suppose it's only natural as along with that flyer spinning faster than the eye can see, what's propelling the whole thing around and 'round since my very old drive band broke a few days ago is...

yep, you guessed it, kite string!

I looked high and low for a drive band close by. On hand were only single drive bands which work just fine when I've got the lace flyer set-up and running. I'm working with the regular flyer, which means double drive. I've learned to really love my double drive wheel. She's wonderful and I've gotten to know her better than ever in the past two weeks. It's hard to believe that before then I didn't even realize Just Jane was a double drive wheel with the regular flyer. I'd only ever spun laceweight as that was why I bought her and that was the flyer she had attached when she came home from the shop.  But double drive she is and that's the way she's going to stay for awhile, and I needed a drive band.

I looked through the few books I have on spinning. I looked online. I looked everywhere for some reference as what could be used in a pinch. I mean, after all, people have been spinning on wheels for centuries now and drive bands have not always been bought. They've been made out of what's available. I figured probably linen, cotton, maybe even wool. Whatever had been spun on the wheel. Made sense to me. But wherever I looked the reference was always to purchased drive bands of cotton, or the turbo-drive which has the ends melted together. Hmmm... what to do, what to do...

I started looking through the kitchen for the kitchen twine. Couldn't find it. Haven't used it in years. Looked for the packet of linen I used long ago when I hand-bound books (in a former life I was a professional calligrapher), couldn't find it. My husband came to the rescue when he held up a large green plastic bobbin like thingy and asked if kite string would work. I took a look at it and said yes.

I cleaned Just Jane up nicely and oiled everything needing oil then set about attaching the new "drive band". But what kind of knot is needed for a drive band. All it says in the wheel's original instructions is tie a knot and trim. Hmmm..... kite string is a synthetic, it's going to slip so a simple square knot isn't going to do the trick. I was never the kind of boy scout that learned about knots. I was a Campfire Girl so I can make a campfire with flint and tinder to this day, I can even do so with a bow drill, but knots escape me, or rather anyone can escape mine.

I finally managed to loop the ends in and over, down and around, under, over and up, in, and through enough that it is still holding quite well.

I don't know if it's the oil or the kite string or the music, but Just Jane has never been so magical. She no longer has that tiny little ka-thunk to her rhythm but hums like the most self-satisfied hummingbird it's ever been my pleasure to meet.

NOTE to concerned purists: double drive bands arriving soon, just in case.

Spinning in the Online Environment

When I took out my wheel to begin spinning again I had no idea the changed world of spinning due to the influence of the internet. I should have. I certainly knew of how much easier research had become on any subject but somehow I wasn't thinking about how much easier it would be to learn more about the old world craft of spinning.

Suddenly I realize how very little I actually know about the craft of spinning. The basics? Sure, I can make fibers stick together to form a continuous string of twisted threads that will snap back around themselves to form what is called plying. I end up with something that is knittable. I even ended up with some lovely fingering weight merino and tussah silk that turned into a beautiful wedding shawlette - but that was actually spun on a drop spindle now I think about it. I realize how lucky I was to achieve the results I did all those years ago but not surprised I was as frustrated in my efforts that I finally consigned it to the corner after the pain became extreme.

How to spin consistently or to a certain ratio; how to attain tpi (twists per inch); adjust tension; all that technical stuff...  I see now I was too impatient to get to the spinning to get into the learning of the craft. I also didn't know where to look and at that point in my life, well, let's just say it was a whole lot more complicated.

If there is one thing in life that disability teaches you, it is patience - and even that takes an inordinate amount of time.

Time is one thing I have in abundance now. I spend a lot of time on the computer and knitting which brought me to the social network known as Ravelry. If you're into fiber crafts and you don't know Ravelry, check it out at Ravelry  My life is much calmer as I've found that stress makes fibromyalgia flare up. Seeking ways to calm is what reminded me of the lovely state that spinning always put me in. So now my day is filling up with spinning related things. But where did I put all my stuff? And the local fiber shop closed years ago. Hmmmm.....

Online! It's all there online. Information, supplies, groups, friends, everything and everyone. It was at Ravelry that I learned about the Tour de Fleece and the Phat Fiber Sampler Box.

Ooooohhhh.... the Phat Fiber Sampler Box.... it will be arriving this week, my first ever of lusciousness from online artisans of fibery goodness. Want to know what it's all about? Go here: Phat Fiber

Thanks to the wonderful people I've met at Ravelry I've been encouraged to buy online and now I've got supplies winging their way to me so I'll be ready for the TdF. I've also been able to visit the local library from my home via the web and reserve the reference books I need for relearning to spin which is going to be a part of my TdF challenge.

I kinda like how my days are starting to fill up again with nice things that make me smile.

Tour de Fleece Coming Soon!

July 2 begins the Tour de Fleece. Yes, you read that right. For the uninitiated, it is a wild and woolly handspinners delight of crafting fiber into yarn the old fashioned way that runs concurrently with the Tour de France of bicycle racing fame. I will be taking part in my first Tour de Fleece. Be warned: whenever you see TdF, I mean the woolly-fleecy-yarn variety.

Each spinner sets their own challenge and keeps a daily record. I will be recording my daily progress here on this blog. I will be choosing my challenge in the next week. In the run-up to the start I am in training - both at the spinning and at blogging, daily.

Spinning Again!

Just Jane (my lovely Ashford Traditional spinning wheel) came out of storage where she's been for way too long to take up residence right beside my office chair. She's there so I can turn to her at a moment's notice when the chronic pain gets to be a bit much and call on her to take the edge off.

I was looking for a way to escape the worst of this nightmare known as fibromyalgia, which would have nothing to do with chemicals, when I remembered what a lovely altered state spinning on a wheel would always put me in. Out came Just Jane. I dusted, polished, and oiled. I visited my local supplier of all things fiber related, Country Yarns, to pick up some lovely hand-dyed BFL and headed home to test my theory.

I love it when I'm right! Spinning takes the edge off. Or maybe it's just that I feel productive. Either way, it works and couple hours go by before I call it quits. If you find yourself needing to relax, escape the crazies, or just need a new challenge, give spinning a try. You just may find it's addictive.

As you can see there is some definite over-twist and there was some major problems with the navajo-plying. I've always had a tendency to under-ply. I set about spinning up some undyed corriedale to practice plying with and soon had that pretty much figured out and went back to work on the BFL. Here's a peek at the rest of the total of 174 yards of average worsted-weight (it varies a lot)

The only over-twist I ended up with in the last two skeins is right there where the tag is attached. My regular plying is doing just fine but my navajo-plying still needs a lot of work. It's a stop and start type of process for me at the moment. I'll keep working on it. It's nice to worry about fibery goodness instead of my pain levels for a change.