And then there was knitting

For a while there I wasn't all that interested in knitting.  Having broken fingers and not being able to do it, you find other outlets, you know?  But lately I've been appreciating the compact size and portability of a sock to bring along to meetings and concerts. 

I get so fidgety if I have to sit too long.  This is something I consider a personal failing because it suggests a lack of discipline in our Sit Down And Pay Attention culture, and at the same time, it's something I feel like I should celebrate since I keep reading new reports that sitting is not good for you. 

Okay actually, I thought this was because of the ol' 'use it or lose it' mantra as applied to leg muscles, but now I am getting the impression that sitting compresses some veins in a less than healthy way.  Don't quote me, I may not fully comprehend this particular objection to sitting, but I do plan to dig deeper because it seems to me that lying down would therefore be a perfectly acceptable alternative and I am very happy to lie down and knit while reading or watching some show or other.  Or, if not lie down, 'recline'.  Anything health related that justifies splashing out on another recliner is interesting to me.

This is the yarn I didn't take with me to Germany because I thought it might get on my nerves, being so bright.  But no: I am quite enjoying it.  The colour shifts are pleasant, and the way the stitches stack up is very calming, and I like the way the knit fabric feels when I pause to check for more dropped stitches.

Speaking of which: I finally figured out what I am doing wrong with this dropped-stitch business.  I never notice these problems till I'm ten or twelve rounds past them, and they fall into two categories:

1/ an elongated stitch on the front with a bar of yarn marking the same spot in the back

2/ a tight looking stitch on the front with a lump of yarn marking the same spot in the back

In both cases, I think what I am doing is knitting into the stitch below, rather than into the loop that's on the needle, so that the loop on the needle falls down and becomes a bar at the back of the fabric.  And in the case of the second example, I am compounding the problem by somehow - magically, I am pretty sure - working the new round's yarn into the stitch below while working the old yarn into the stitch I am currently working.

I realize that doesn't make sense.  But this should illustrate the gist of the problem nicely:

Yes.  I have to rip back about that far, EVERY TIME. 

But hopefully not too many more times, if I really have figured this out.  So far, my focused effort to knit only into the stitch on the needle seems to be working.

Ahhhh, smooth knitting.

Last week when I was sick - WOW, did that cold want to hang on - I watched a lot of Netflix.  I binge-watched the first season of Stranger Things in a day, and really enjoyed it and knit a lot of sock, and then I watched a ton of Brooklyn 99 for comic relief, and finally started into Season 2 of Hinterland.  This is winter-level knitting, the density of work I would normally indulge in during January, but of course I missed my chance at all that thanks to the broken fingers, so I don't feel guilty about wasting lovely summer evenings indoors.

The other day, Pete told me an acquaintance of ours broke her THUMB - her right thumb, and she's right handed, and I thought ohhhhhhhhh poor her.  Breaking your fingers in winter means you're never burdened in the night by the fact that a cast or splint is super hot and uncomfortable.  And breaking fingers that aren't your thumb or index finger means you can still grip things as needed.  This poor woman is going to be super incapacitated and uncomfortable and not even able to teach herself how to use watercolour paint, which is what got me through.  She won't be able to go swimming either, which is the whole point of summer, isn't it?  And I bet she will even find it hard to hold an ice-cream cone.  Though if she's like me, she will find a way.

(and yes, I am still staying away from sugar, so of course I am not even thinking about eating an ice cream cone, let alone a Fudgsicle, even though I know for a fact there are some in the freezer even as I type because they have stopped calling my name and set up a chanting system instead.)

What would you turn to for entertainment, I wonder, if you broke a hand?  Or would you just take advantage of the opportunity to sleep a lot, banking on the possibility that lying down is better for you than sitting?