(no subject)

So. Had another eye appointment today. That makes it the fourth.

I was all prepared just to give them back the contacts, but apparently there's a few more things we can try.

Right now part of my tear duct is plugged up with collagen. The part that's plugged is the drain, so to speak. Plugging it means more tears on my actual eye. Which, in theory, may cure what's making my RGP lenses so damn uncomfortable.

If that works, I get semi-permanent plugs. The ones I've got dissolve in a few weeks, the other ones would just stay in there. Freeeeaky.

If that doesn't work, there's another kind of soft lense that might work, but it's iffy.

Hooo boy. At this point I'm wondering how hard it would be to pay for the surgery, which Dr. Meier estimated would set me back $4,000. Ouch.

Knitting!!

So, the next time I announce I'm going to knit a hat on a size 8 circular, with Berocco's "Chinchilla Bulky," whack me upside the head.

On the upside: Can't see mistakes, and it's a wonderful texture. On the downside: I can't tell which stitches are knit and which are purl. The first 1.75 inches are supposed to be seed stitch, and I have a suspicion that it's a 1x1 rib in places. This matters because seed stitch doesn't stretch much, and rib stretches a lot. So it'll be stretchy in some places but not others, for that first inch or so.

I gave up and started doing stockinette. You can't tell, visually.

I also can't count gauge (the stitches per inch). The pattern called for a different size needle and a completely different weight of yarn, and I'm making it up as I go. Not being able to count gauge makes that a lot harder. I'm completely guesstimating.

It's making my left hand sore, from trying to hold loops open.

But I've got a good inch or so on there. So it wouldn't take me that long to finish the hat, I did that in half an hour, tops. Plus, the yarn is so fuzzy that I'm afraid frogging it (rip it, rip it) will cause the yarn to catch on itself and just make a tangled mess that I will never get undone.

So: Keep going? Or: Attempt to frog it, and wait until I have a chance to get to a yarn store and buy a larger circular needle?

Definite Good News: Addi Turbo circular needles really do kick ass. I swear to gods, from now on I'm buying them for any pattern that calls for circulars. This is damn slippery yarn and I haven't dropped any stitches, although that'll be more of a worry if/when I get a larger needle. Having a join that doesn't catch is quite nice. (Join: Where the stiff part of a circular needle meets the wire/plastic cable.)

I'm fully aware that at least half of that made no sense to anyone. Knitting Help is the best site I've ever seen, if you're curious about anything I've talked about. She has quicktime videos galore!!

I need a knitting icon.

(no subject)

Every arachnophobe needs one of these. I need one. (Forewarning: there's a small image of a large fake spider)

While I can sit here and logically think out that spiders shouldn't be killed just because I'm afraid of them ("causing me to startle and/or shriek" should not be a capital offense), my actual gut-level reason for not killing them when I can help it, is I fear spider karma. I kill one, his friends come crawl on me in my sleep.

When I was on Strattera, several of the nightmares it caused, involved spiders. *shudder*