Thanks guys.

On the ravelry "spam posts" issue...yeah, I kind of suspected she was off base. It seems that there are a certain proportion of the people on there who have the attitude that when a bulb in an overhead light fixture burns out, all they must to do change it is stand underneath the fixture, holding a new bulb aloft.

(...I hope I'm not being too oblique there).

The thing is, I have enough of a people-pleaser personality that if I see someone complaining about something that I tend to do - even if they are not complaining directly about me (the person in question is NOT one of my "friends" on Ravelry), I begin to wonder if what I'm doing is a problem.

I don't know if this is genetic or learned. I do know in my early childhood I had a couple of slightly dysfunctional friendships where my friend would say things like, "If you want to stay my friend, we'll only play Barbies for the next month." And I hated playing Barbies. But I wasn't mature enough or independent enough to say, "Forget it; I hate Barbie. I'm going home." Just one of the legacies of perceiving oneself as an "unpopular" kid - you take the friendships you can get.

(I say "perceiving" because more and more, as an adult, when I talk with my friends about early childhood stuff, it seems like EVERYONE was an unpopular kid. I don't know if popularity was a sham, something everyone was on the outside looking in on, or if all the "popular" kids are now business owners or politicians, and therefore unlikely to be in my circle of friends.)

I suppose different people have different modes of posting, and it's just something we learn to accept. I admit I get annoyed when some blogger that I enjoy and think writes well only posts once a month or so. (Though I recognize it is likely because he or she is far busier than I am). Also lifestyle differences affect it. I am required to hold 10 hours of office hours a week. Some of those are as long blocks of time where no students are coming in...and while I DO work much of that time, my mode of working tends to be "half hour on intensely working followed by needing a break"

So the Internet is my coffee break. (I don't tolerate caffeine at all well, and besides, if I TOOK coffee breaks, I would probably become the de facto coffee-maker cleaner for the department...)

Anyway.

The skin is clearing up too thank you. I think it was a combination of allergic overload (it is really a very bad pollen season here) and dry skin. (I have horrible, terrible dry skin in the winter. It abates some in the summer and in fact if I used too much goo, I get break-outs). I took (at the urging of my mother) a bath in water to which baking soda had been added (I didn't believe it would work but she claimed it does) and I've also gone back to the lotion. ("It puts the lotion on its skin or it gets the hives again"?)

I did go out to the Walgreens and buy some new Burt's Bees stuff to replace what I had used up. I know, it's not "medicated" or anything but I tend to feel that when my skin's really flaring up, using something with as many "natural" ingredients (provided none of those are chamomile or echinacea...two things I know set me off) and as few "synthetics" as possible seems to help.

The one I got seems to have both coconut and something mint in it so I smell a bit like a pina colada mashed up with a mojito, but at least I don't itch any more.

Part of it may be that I've been pushing pretty hard for pretty long - trying to get several research projects finished up, doing lots of new prep for a course - and I haven't had that much time to breathe. I do think one's state of mind can affect things like allergies; sometimes I wonder if histamine is released as a stress-response in some people.

(Edited to add: yes, it apparently does So what I'd suspected for years is supported by research.

("Yes, yarn counts as a medical expense. Knitting helps my allergies by reducing stress"? And I guess I could also count apples as a medical expense because apples are high in quercetin, and another anti-allergy site suggested that can help. Good, because I like apples.)

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At least today is Mid Semester Assessment Testing, a/k/a I Have No Commitments Until 1 pm Day. (And I chose one of the more "fun" labs to do today with my class). And tomorrow I give an exam in my only class.

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I think I need some "quality time" winding yarn using the swift and ball winder. When I'm in a stuck place, that usually helps. (Besides, I have to wind off the rest of the Araucania for the Cobblestone sweater some time; I only did the first two skeins because I was eager to begin.)

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When I get a bit farther on the sweater I'll photograph it. (I may do as Lydia is doing and show you how far I can get with one of the 220 meter balls of Araucania).

I do like the Araucania. It's a nice "natural" feeling yarn, you can feel the sheep (it's a tiny bit rough) and you can smell the (idealized) sheep (the lanolin is left in but the wool is very clean...so it smells like you'd want a sheep to smell and not how sheep most likely actually do smell). I tend to prefer yarns that remind me that they once grew on a living thing; I don't like stuff that's processed to death.

There is a happy medium though, I also don't care for wool that's like steel wool and still has most of the barnyard attached to it; I washed the Kureyon socks in "Soak" and a vinegar rinse and they are still a bit more scratchy than what I'd like for socks.