A Stitch in Time

My wrist broke out last week, AGAIN, from a watch band.

I had assumed that since I'd worn the watch for some time without incident that it was okay, but then I hadn't been sweating then. Now it is summer and something about my sweat eats away at any plating or other barrier between my skin and nickel iron. Once that plating is gone I develop a rash of small oozing pustules that look a great deal like poison ivy. Though I've not told the Dentist this, this is why there will be no partial dentures, or implants or hip/joint replacements for that matter.

I've had ear lobes puff up to twice their size from "surgical steel" posts on pierced earrings. If it's not 14 carat gold or sterling silver, I can't wear it without repercussions in the form of weeping open sores.

So, I finally decided to stop looking for those great $5 plastic watches from Walgreens and am making my own watch bands.

This is the product of a day and a half of searching for a good lace insert pattern, turning it into a color coded graph (which you'll find below), starting to knit it three times and pulling it out twice. I used size two needles and some J&P Coats "Luster Sheen" acrylic cabled yarn which would normally be used for a crocheted Shell blouse or doily or perhaps a filet crochet curtain. I found the $2.50 ball at Goodwill for 49 cents. That price is perfect for experimentation, and that is what I was doing.



I'll probably be adding my Lace Graphs as free downloads to the Prodigal Sock site ... let me know if you'd be interested.

This particular lace wristlet, while lovely, is too time consumptive for sale, so tonight at work I'm going to be whipping out some 6 stitch wide garter-stitch bands that I'll be adding crochet edging to them later to make them saleable. Garter-stitch because I can do it without looking and it gives my hands something to do while my eyes are working for a living.

This is all just biding time, of course, while the yarn and roving that I dyed scarlet dries. I'm hoping that tonight I can spin some scarlet and gold thick-and-thin and then tomorrow I can start a new top down Beret. I am so excited by the look of one I knitted for my niece for her birthday that I can't wait to start putting these on Etsy. And now, this isn't a picture of the one I made for the niece. This is a beret pattern that is gorgeous but is more work than I care to spend on something I'd sell because I simply cannot charge what it costs me to make.