• About

  • 

• Finished Objects

  • 

• Patterns

  • 

• Reading List

  • 

• Archives

  Select Month February 2012 January 2012 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006

• Categories

  Select Category April Blankets for Birmingham Dyeing Eye Candy Friday February Finished Objects gratitude Hiking January life is unfair March May memes Music NaKniSweMoDo Not-A-SAFF-Sweater Challenge of the utmost importance On the Cheap Patterns project spectrum quilting quilts Recipes self indulgence she’s cast on again! socks spinning Stash Growth sweaters The Money Pit Things that inspire me Uncategorized Up-n-croaked voyeurism
• Search for:

• Recent Posts

  • signs of spring
  • busybusy
  • everything in sight
  • new year
  • Asheville

• Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org

Hurrah!

Posted on | February 1, 2007 | 3 Comments

I’m back among the living.  For the past two days I’ve had migraine headaches and the stomach virus my son had last week – no fun!  The migraines were unrelated to the virus; I believe they are due to hormonal fluctuations.  I haven’t talked about the wonderful (roll of eyes) effects of getting older, I’ve opted to keep those experiences to myself, but I have to say – it can royally suck.  I guess I’m going to talk about it now.

Last winter, I hit bottom.  We’d had an incredibly stressful year and it all hit home.  At least, that’s what I thought was going on and the reason I wanted to do nothing but knit, knit, knit all day, all night.  I didn’t want to cook dinner, I didn’t want to clean, I didn’t want to spend time with anyone.  I just wanted to withdraw into myself.  And I’m sure that the stressful events we’d gone through were partly responsible for my reclusiveness, but it finally dawned on me – oh, around April – that Aunti Flo hadn’t come to see me for several months.  Ah-ha!  Could it be?  My God, I was only 41 – didn’t that stuff happen to 50-something, Edith Bunker types?  I couldn’t believe it, but blood work revealed that I had the testosterone level of an 82 year old woman.  Lovely.  No wonder I felt like crap all the time! 

But what to do about it?  I knew about synthetic hormones and that they helped with perimenopausal symptoms, but I also knew about the side effects and possible link to breast cancer.  I didn’t want to go that route.  I’ve always hated taking medicine unless it was absolutely necessary.  I’ll even suffer with a headache for hours before giving in to an aspirin, thinking it will go away on its own.  I started researching natural alternatives and one google search blew me away – so many options I knew nothing about and no idea where to start.  I asked the opinion of a friend who is very knowledgeable about herbal remedies and in the past month she had learned of an alternative to synthetic hormones – Sotto Pelle natural hormone replacement.  I went to see her doctor and decided it was worth a shot, so I’ve been on plant-based hormone replacements since last May.  Within a week, SB said I was like my old self.  Hallelujah!  But – you still have to stay on top of it and when the “Pellets of Power” (as I’ve dubbed them) begin to wane, it’s time to go back or you’ll find yourself back in the wanna-hole-up-everybody-go-away-and-leave-me-alone-where’s-my-knitting/spinning mindset.  I’ve been teetering on that edge for about a month, but went to see my doctor yesterday and already feel better today.  So, hurray!

I write this not because I think anyone’s interested (I don’t find it particularly interesting, myself) but in case anyone else is going through the same thing.  If you’ve read this far, here’s something pretty to look at!  These are some pictures of the roving I dyed last Saturday and how some of it’s spinning up:

8 oz. California Variegated Mutant – not terribly happy with this.  I can’t remember what I was going for, but this isn’t it.

8 oz. merino/silk – it’s more aqua than it appears here.  Robin’s Egg Blue with speckles is what I wanted and I’ll probably overdye this, but it’s SO soft that I had to spin some up.  It is pretty, I may just leave it alone.

I dyed a pound of mill’s ends with two different shades of red and really like the way it came out.  The roving was in pretty bad shape though, mostly bits and pieces which make it difficult to photograph as it looks like a clump of fiber rather than pretty, braided roving.  But it spins up nicely, so I won’t complain too much:

I have another almost-full bobbin which I hope to ply with this tonight.  I think it’ll have a nice tone-on-tone effect and I may dye enough of it for a sweater.  I don’t know, do you think it’d be pretty as a sweater?  Definitely Valentine-y.

I’m three quarters done with a pair of mittens, but I’m not going to show a picture until they’re finished.  Soon.

Comments

Simple2Column Layout is a Wordpress Theme crafted by Tad Hunt | Email: "tad (AT) thaddeushunt (DOT) com".