TMI alert. If you are sensitive to TMI please scroll down to the craft related stuff.

Sorry for the lack of interesting blog posts around here lately. The truth is I haven't been terribly well. Nothing major but our car broke down over a week ago and it's still not fixed $1,300 later (at least they know what's wrong now) and as a result I couldn't go to the doctor until last night.

Apparently the rash I thought was some kind of virus is just hives. Yep, I'm allergic to something and it's covered my arms and shins in hives for 2 1/2 weeks, made my right foot swell up to bursting point )it's gone down a bit now) and given me high blood pressure for three days. I never get high blood pressure. Ever. Except now.

Sigh.

The doc said if it doesn't calm down in a week I'm to have blood tests to see if it's something else. I have to go back to have my blood pressure checked again anyway. I just want to not itch. I'm sitting here posting a big whinge at 1am to distract myself from scratching because I don't have anything to use as a cold compress. Bah, that would just give me a cold anyway...

So what might I be allergic to? I have it narrowed down to three things aside from pollens (could be that too).

Our new dish washing liquid. Can't do a thing about that because all the dishes were just washed with it. I'll stop using it from now on just in case though.

The brand of tea I switched to when I ran out of my favourite tea (not drinking that any more)

A sudden increase in my sensitivity to the chemicals used to make some machine washable yarns (Oh goddess I hope not). Yep, I was already allergic to that stuff. I've always broken out in hives if I wear certain machine wash wools but knitting with them has never bothered me before. I was going to say that I haven't touched any for at least a week but I've just realised I've been weaving little squares on my weavette with it. Argh. Mostly my squares are handwash only though.

Actual Craft Stuff

I don't have photos yet (maybe tomorrow) but I finished spinning this merino/silk:

I spun it into a 2 ply lace weight yarn at 30wpi.

I also finished spinning the singles of this merino/silk:

I started plying it into a nice 2 ply fingering weight yarn. That's 4 ply to my fellow Aussies. I'm going to wash it and weight it and use it for the weft in a woven scarf. I'm thinking of trying to spin my first warp yarn with some of the brown wool that was used in this blend. I've been advised to spin it with a fairly high twist so that it can stand the abrasion it would get while weaving. I may go as far as to spin twice what I need so I can sample to my heart's content before I weave the scarf. If it turns out well I'll probably use the scarf as a table runner, you never know.

Well, my hives have calmed down a fair bit and I'm exhausted (it's now 1:30 am) so I'm going back to bed.

See you in the morning (and not before, I hope).