Thumbs Up Weekend

 This weekend marks the official end of the summer season.  Tomorrow is Labor Day.  I decided to make it a longer weekend and took Friday off work.  I needed a day to just do some fun activities, like sew or knit. I started by sleeping in.  Things had cooled off a bit so I decide to open windows and let the fresh air in.  When I was opening one of the windows in the family room, I forgot that the television antenna was attached to the upper pane behind the blind.  As I opened the window, the antenna, which is a 1/4 inch thick 8-inch square piece of hard plastic, came crashing down and smashed my thumb.  It was one of the worst pains I have ever felt, bringing tears to my eyes.  

I'm now sporting a swollen thumb and bruised nail base. It is a bit hard to see in the above picture  but the skin near the cuticle is tinged green.  The nail is all kinds of shades of black, blue, purple and red.  It must have done some temporary nerve damage because I had no sensation when I touched the end of my thumb.  That has come back now, but I still can't put any pressure on my thumb without pain.  Friday was spent icing my thumb and watching television.  I was concerned I wasn't going to be able to sleep, but luckily that didn't bother me.  By Saturday I was able to bend my thumb a bit and was able to sew.  However, anything that required pressure on the tip of my thumb was out of the question.  Ed helped me with my watch and I used my left had when I put pins in.  Last night we played cards with friends.  I had to do the messy shuffle when it came my turn to deal.  Today I was able to use it a little to do some spinning.  I tried knitting but it still puts too much pressure on the thumb holding the needles.

I decided I wanted to spin up the Shetland wool I bought a few weeks ago during the I-75 Yarn Shop Hop.  This is 1927 Shetland roving from Yesterday's Ewes in a dark brown.  My goal is to make a 2-ply skein that is hopefully about the same weight as the skein I won as a door prize.  I also have some cream colored roving which will also become a 2-ply skein.  Someday, these will become a color work hat or gloves.