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So on Christmas Eve, Lala and I sat down to open our presents from each other. I gave her a nice little stack, and waited in anticipation for my prezzies.

She put one in front of me.

She opened some, and yay! She liked what I got her! I opened mine — it was a cute sheep tee-shirt (this one, in fact). I loved it! Awesome!

But then she said, "I'm really sorry but I don't have anything else for you."

I goggled.

"I mean, I ordered you something but it didn't make it to the house."

Now, I've been working on not being passive aggressive. It's a bad, ugly trait, and I hate it when I get that way. So I took a deep breath and said, "Oh. I really like this shirt! But I have to admit, I'm disappointed. I planned your Christmas presents early, and I've been working on things for a while, and while I appreciate you've been busy, I have to let you know that my feelings are hurt."

She took it well. "Yes," she said. "I can understand that."

Fast forward to her brother's house. Our nephew Isaac was opening presents (okay, he opened one present, a book, and didn't have any interest in opening anything else. He loved the book). Lala gave me a box. Oops. I started to think that maybe I'd been played but then I opened the box, and I KNEW I'd been played. She totally shocked me and got me something I've never been able to justify purchasing for myself. 

A WOOLEE WINDER for my Ashford Joy. Dude! 

Okay, for those not in the know, attaching a Woolee Winder to your spinning wheel is like moving from a 1962 Fiat to a 2011 Lamborghini. The Fiat you have to futz with every few feet. You have to lift the hood. Add coolant every ten miles. Adjust the take-up, using hooks:

Whereas the Woolee Winder Lamborghini? It takes up BY ITSELF. We're talking SPEED, baby. I'm so excited about it I'm blogging before I use it, because I love to prolong anticipation. (Seriously, I cleaned the house before sitting down to write this blog.)

"I had it mailed here," she said. "Not to our house. You know all those studies I was doing? I used that money."

I was overcome. She did good.

Then I gave her her other present (and Isaac's too), so at least I didn't feel too shabby:

Hee. (It's the Mangyle pattern for her, and I just kind of made up his as I went along.)

And NOW I'm off to spin. I'm a little nervous! But I love to drive fast, so BRING IT.

I made a shawl! I haven't blocked it, and boy, it needs it, but I thought I'd show it to you now, since I think it's super cute when it's bouncy and flouncy like this:

Ravelry link here (I can't seem to find a non-Rav link for the pattern, so if you're not part of Ravelry, you should join!)

It took approximately forever to bind off (but in typical Rachael fashion, I put it away months ago, exHOSSted by it, and when I picked it up last week, I was HALF WAY THROUGH the bind off. Who does that? And then forgets about it? Sheesh).

It's out of Regia sock yarn, and I'm not even sure what kind (but I'll look it up).

Do you think that only knitters like shawls like this? I mean, really, think about it. It was pointed out to me that the only people below the age of 80 wearing shawls are knitters. Does that make us naturally uncool when we wear ours? Or does it make us more cool? I actually wonder this a lot, and while I wore this the other day, I vascillated between thinking I was ultra-hip and uber-out-of-it. I'm (obviously) more comfortable with the latter than I am with the former.

Bonus Digit shot!

To you: Happy holidays, if you celebrate, and if you don't, enjoy the days getting longer. Thanks for being a part of my life this very exciting year. xoox

The random winners of the knitting abaci are: C.C., Margaret W., and Haley. You've been emailed, and congratulations! Enjoy your useful bling.

Useful bling. Is there anything better? See, like this: 

See? Good looking AND it tells Digit where to find his favorite dog. (Clementine looks like she just saw Digit coming for her, doesn't she? Although she did not mind those ears AT ALL. She kept 'em on a long time.)

I absolutely love the knitting abacus bracelets from Hide and Sheep (list to the right to see all the bracelets) and they're giving THREE away to lucky commenters! Leave a comment below to be entered — I'll draw the winners on Friday. Good luck!

Click HERE if the video doesn't play.

(For those of you visiting for the first time, I swear I don't talk about acupuncture pillows much. Or ever. Nope, I can pretty safely say I've never done it before this last post. But forgive me — it's just so awesome!)

I haven't had real neck/shoulder pain since I started using it. The other night I was weaving and I felt the tension start, so I immediately took ten minutes and used it, and the pain was GONE.

Yesterday, though, I got a doozy of a migraine that started in my sinuses (they often start in my neck but not this sneaky bastard). Since I didn't think impaling my face on the pillow would be a prudent (or attractive) idea, I didn't. The migraine came — I was miserable. But later, after I got the shot at the doctor's office, when I was still nauseous and the pain had lodged in the base of my skull, I used the pillow and both that pain and the nausea subsided.

So for me, I'm still in love. It's not a cure-all (HA! typoed cure-ass first) but it's close.

For your reward, those of you not interested in painful pillows you can't sleep on, here's a picture of the scarf I wove (all handspun):

And what I warped last night (Noro Silk Garden Color S289):

(That's Willie on the floor, back right)

And I'm using this handspun for the weft:

And for those of you who neither spin nor impale yourself on thousands of pointy little pieces of sharp plastic, you can't deny the cutness that is Clementine's tongue:

(Post walk. Clara needs a cigarette.)

It's time for Rachael's Favorite Thing! Kind of like the defunct Oprah's Favorite Things, only mine is singular and there isn't one under your chair. I'm sorry about that.

This is what I'm lying on twice a day:

It's called the Bed of Nails acupuncture pillow, and I stumbled across it completely by accident.

See, I get neck and shoulder pain a lot. That's fine, we all do — stress blah stress — but my neck pain can quickly morph into a migraine (and often does). It had gotten to the point where I was almost not knitting at all because the tension in my neck would knot up tighter and tighter as I went. Also, the more I work on computers, the tighter the tension gets, and both my jobs require lots of screen time.

So late one night, out of desperation, I was prowling Amazon, researching things that came up when I searched for "neck pain."

This mat came up, along with the pillow. I thought, Who would be that crazypants? Those look sharp! Then I noticed all the 5-star reviews. I read, with amazement, as people said this actually helped their pain.

I've given it almost two weeks now.

This helps my pain.

This cray-cray pillow of (seriously) sharp needle-like plastic bits has helped me to the point that I've had about four ibuprofens in two weeks (instead of four every four hours).

Full disclosure: it hurts to start out. Yes, it does. I only got the pillow since my pain isn't in my lower back, and MAN the first time I used it I wondered if it was worth it. Then, about five minutes in, my neck started to warm up. Then my whole body relaxed. I can't explain this, it just worked. After fifteen minutes, I had to have Lala help me up, and then I tottered off to bed where I took a mammoth nap.

After about a week of using it, it gets easier to lie on — any pain there is is gone within 60 seconds. Then the heat starts, and then the relaxation. I'm lying on it once during the day, and just before I got to sleep, 15 minutes each time, and I'm sleeping better than I have in SO long. It has literally chased away every headache I've gotten. (I don't know if it will chase away the hormonal migraine that I can never get away from. I'll keep you posted.)

I love it. Oh, that endorphin rush and the resulting warm happiness! I'm buying another one for my work locker so that if I forget it I'm not without it. Best purchase I've made in a very, very long time. Read the reviews. I bought the pink one, Bed of Nails brand, but all the brands look really similar. (Amazon links are mine, as always I get a teeny proceed from click-buy-throughs.)