Wear Goggles With DPNs

Thank you, Dear Lord, for blessing me with the nearsightedness that requires me to need glasses to be able to see my own hands in front of my face. Otherwise, tonight I might be suffering from no-sightedness.

Today, I learned that DPNs should come with a safety warning and a pair of goggles to wear while using them.

First, let me reassure you, I'm okay. Nothing broken, punctured, or requiring stitches or hospitals. It was merely a mishap; or a gentle reminder to pay attention to where I'm pointing those things.

I was working on the Besotted Twins (knitting two at a time on one set of needles for efficiency's sake) when I noticed a cable misfire a few rows down. I dug out my trusty DPNs and laddered down just like EZ demonstrates on the Knitting Glossary DVD. Things went well-ish. (The pattern and row counting confused me, so I had to frog and reknit a couple of times before I got it. Gee. That's been happening a lot lately. Could it be I need new glasses? or is it just old age? or am I simply incapable of reading even the most basic of patterns?)

As I sat back and reveled in my triumphant cable restoration (saying Hail EZ full of lace), I went to put down the DPNs so I could pick up my working straights and carry on. Being ever-resourceful, I pulled the DPN from the final set of perfectly-crafted cable stitches with a flourish and went to put it over my ear (like we do with pencils) until further need arose.

Except I missed. Must've been a muscle twitch or something. Instead of sliding atop my ear, it jabbed me in the eye socket. Glaghck! I dropped my knitting and the DPN and ran to the bathroom to assess the damage, fully expecting to see gushing eyeball juice pouring out of my eye or a dangling orb on my cheekbone (not the shiny fuzzy ones we're all making for Xmas).

Eyeball still intact. The wet stuff on my face was only the standard tears that emerge when the eye is insulted. But, no damage. I can still see, though it was a tad blurry and achy for a minute there. It feels okay now. Glasses are what saved me. The needle, a size #8 Crystal Palace Bamboo—thank God I wasn't knitting socks!—slid up over the frames, which diverted it from reaching its target.

Quite an eye-opening experience (pun intended!).

posted by Jeanne @ 11:33 PM