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.