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When I re-learned to knit, while living in Oregon after having the second ankle surgery (thanks to Theresa in Washington...not the surgery, she taught me to knit again), my first project was felted slippers. I learned pretty quick (I think) and had fun making them. Went to a knit store after to find something else to work on, told them I'd really just started knitting. They asked what I'd made and I told them and was told in an astonished tone "those are hard!". Well, not if I didn't know they were hard! Seemed pretty easy to me!

I think a lot of the difficulty thing is just preconceived notions.

Hugs, Tigg

Hi Tigg, your message said that your knitting and crochet needles are difficult to hold. Well, I was looking through Wal-Marts school supplies and found some soft plastic things that you slide over a pencil to make it easier to hold. I had to tape them around a crochet hook that I use in sewing, but they work great for this! There are about 12 in a package, two of each color. If you can't find them, I would be glad to mail you a pack, or a couple of mine.. Think the cost was about $3. Guess you could also use masking tape but it wouldn't be as soft. Barbara in SC

I've found that using bamboo knitting needles is easier on my hands. I don't crochet anymore as it hurts my wrists (don't know if it's the motion or what, but it's just too much for me to work with when two rows puts my hands out of commission for at least two days). Knitting doesn't seem to hurt my wrists or hands. The part that makes them difficult to hold is the way my middle fingers bend and don't bend (clear as mud, right?). I have what they call a swan neck deformity in both middle fingers, more pronounced on the left than the right (dominant side is always more affected (or is that effected?) with RA). A friend tells me they look broken. Basically, the tendon that keeps a normal person's fingers straight has slipped to the side (actually, most of my fingers have some degree of this but the middle fingers are the worst of the lot). At rest on a pillow, it looks like I'm flipping people off. The middle knuckle bends up away from my hand and the top knuckle bends down (I'd try to type it out but there's no down pointing arrow.). I've been accused by my past college professors of flipping them off while taking a drink (I have no real grip with my middle fingers, they don't bend properly (can't make a fist) so I just hold them out of the way). I have found in the

I'll look for the pencil things but since I tend to knit in the round, I'm not sure they'd come in handy or be in the way. I do know my limits, and usually I will listen to my body when it tells me I've had enough (although not always and then it forces me to take a break...like when I sit for far too long working on a quilt and ignore my left shoulder when it starts to ache...then there's a forced two to three day break while I sit and curse myself for not listening and can't lift my left arm away from my body without wanting to scream (better living through chemistry on those days for sure...and hey, sometimes the left shoulder does that just because with no over-taxing from me).). All in all, I really do okay with everything, and my dear sainted Mom makes me feel like such a wuss sometimes as her RA looks much worse than mine (she says she has no pain, but to look at her hands would make most people cringe (picture James Coburn in his later years and how his hands looked as he had RA as well...me, I do everything upside down and backwards (Mom says it's because I was born butt-first and I'm left handed) so the drift I have in my hands is not going to towards my pinky fingers but towards my thumbs (which is actually better in my opinion as I can still get my fingers and thumbs together). Plus, she's had it since she was 18 so a whole heck of a lot longer than I've been dealing with it, raised 3 kids, traveled around the world with my Dad and around the country once all of us kids were grown. She's an amazing woman!!!

Hugs, Tigg (who, for those who don't know me, tends to talk in parenthesis. ;) )

On Aug 18, 4:05=A0pm, "Bobbie Sews More" wrote:

I just don't think these plastic things would work for knitting "in the round.." It would just make the knitting part bigger---maybe 3 X bigger. Have you considered one of the knitting machines that sit on a table? I'm thinking that it cost about $45 - 65 and after you get it threaded up, you just slide the hand thing back and forth.. I have a round Singer that makes hats and scarf's and you crank it like you would a "Jack in the Box" and I mainly got for it for a blind aunt who lives in a "home" and I haven't had the extra time to go demonstrate how to "feel" how it works. Usually I call her on her phone and she meets me at the door, I sign her out, and we go to Hardee's for my breakfast and social time. It's like McDonald's, but better. Barbara in SC

hi,Tigg. your mother is really an amazing woman. and do you feel well knitting with bamboo needles? have you used the circular knitting needles before? there is a website specialized in manufacturing bamboo needles with various kinds of bamboo's such as single pointed, double pointed, circular knitting needles. while i dont know whether they have the bamboo crochet hooks( i agree with you the knitting and crocheting are entirely different) maybe you can click their links www.8season-knittin= g.com for more infor. if you desire you can have an online shopping. hope this will help you greatly. marisalovecat

As long as I "listen" to my body when it tells me I've done enough, I don't have a problem with knitting in the normal way. I do have a set of those knitting loom things but have yet to really figure out how to make more than a tube and find the little I've done with them to not be as much fun as actual knitting. Lately, it's been more of a motivational thing than anything else. I could knit, or quilt, or work on ornaments. I just haven't felt like it.

We have a Hardees here. I don't go there often. I live in a small town so we don't have a lot to choose from in the way of places to eat but have the normal McDonalds, Hardees, Pizza Hut, KFC/Taco Bell (in one building...in Kansas City they have what they call an All In One, which is KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut...I call it a KenTacoHut), then we have a local Mexican chain, a place called Washington Street (similar to Applebees or Chili's) and Lakeview, which is the restaurant attached to one of the two motels here. Oh, and a Chinese place but I don't like that place as the food is always cold (even when you get there right when they open) and it's not very good anyway.

Where in SC are you? My sister used to live in Sumter.

Hugs, Tigg

Tigg, i live close to Greenville, up close to the mountains. It take more than an hour to drive to Columbia and more than 4 hours to drive to any of the beaches. So it is about 2 hours ir si to Sumter. Does your sister still live in SC? Barbara

No, she moved to Washington state last year. Now lives in a small town within a stone's throw of Canada.

I miss living near a mountain. Here, we have some hills but nothing like in Oregon...or even when I was growing up in southwest Missouri. Northern Missouri is more flat, but not totally.

Hugs, Tigg

mter. =A0Does your