Tiny needles of torture and despair

All right, maybe I'm being a little overdramatic. But my panic over finishing all my holiday projects was becoming worse and worse because of one thing. All of a sudden my right wrist, hand, forearm, and even my shoulder had started aching every time I picked up my knitting during the day. After reading all about knitting injuries on the tips board at Knitty I decided I'd better limit myself to knitting 15 minutes at a time. It didn't really help. My arm would start hurting immediately. I tried supporting with pillows, sitting with better posture, a number of other things. I was still in pain. I began to despair that my so-far short life as a knitter would have to be over. I couldn't knit without pain even for a few minutes!


Then over the weekend I cast on a new project (golf club cover for my step dad). I knit for at least an hour without noticing it. No pain. No problem. I began to suspect the problem was all in my head, as I'm getting completely bored with the scarves I'm making.


So today, I picked up the dreaded scarf of pain. I began to knit. Ouch. All of a sudden I had an inspiration....What if I changed to different needles? Surely I have a different set of #5's sitting around, why not try it? Amazingly, upon switching needles the pain stopped. The problem? I was using a 16" circular, knitting flat. When I switched to a 24" circular, on which the needle portion is about an inch longer, all was better. Ahhhhhhhhh! Seems that I need to save those 16" needles for soakers and other times that they're really necessary. That golf club cover? Its on dpn's.


And here are two photos of the dreaded scarf of pain as knitted on tiny needles of torture and despair....





Hopefully you can tell its an illusion scarf, and the illusion is supposed to be mouse ears (ie. Mickey). This is a gift for my dh who is a certified Walt Disney World fanatic. He'd probably prefer some sort of Star Wars image, Star Wars being an even more all encompassing obsession than Disney, but I was having enough trouble with the Mickey. I tried charting a Darth Vader, but it wasn't working. Maybe someday. I just didn't have time this year.


Pictures of the golf club cover wip will follow soon!