My Hands Hurt

I bid on some yarn on my friend eBay and won.  I was really excited as it is hand spun wool from a real sheep.  I've never had anything quite so exotic - I'm more used to bargain basement acrylic.  Now I have actual real wool from a real sheep!  It's listed as Welsh bred sheep, and I should have known.  Welsh blankets are famous for being plaid and hard-wearing.  They are not really known for snuggly softness, though they can be great.  But I received 1000g of actual, handspun, real, grown on a real animal, wool at a very reasonable price.

I would say it was a rough chunky weight, and it's quite coarse.  I decided to go for making a blanket which would be warm and fire resistant.  I just went with a basic pattern of row 1:k, row 2: k1p1 rib.  It makes a great blanket.  Like I said, however, it's quite coarse and I was wondering how to wash it as it definitely smells faintly but definitely of farmyard but I was enjoying knitting it up.  Then I realised.  Whenever I knitted this instead of the gazillion other projects I was working on, my hands flared up.  They are really sore and red and itching so much that I've drawn blood scratching without realising.  I don't know if I've suddenly developed a reaction to real wool or whether there is something from the fleece that lingers.  I am definitely not up for washing yarn before knitting it up.  I'm going to have to learn to knit in gloves, because I think that once it is knitted up and washed it will be awesome. 

Bear has junked his previous quilt attempt, which is a sensible move in my opinion.  Instead he has decided that he is going to put together a piece that is 10 squares by 19 squares and I am going to turn it into a quilt for him.  He has been very diligent and measured his bed, measured the squares (4 inches or 10 cm) and worked out the number of squares.  However I have just realised that he hasn't included seam allowances in his calculations (why should he - it's only his second attempt at sewing stuff together) so it may need a few extra. 

I'm wondering if bear is feeling quite well.  He came in on Monday with homework and did it straight away and practiced the piano without being reminded.  He needed a little support with his homework as he needed to do things like identify a determiner in a sentence.  What can I say?  When I was his age, due to a combination of a poor school and some odd ideas about education going around, I didn't know what a noun was, let along determiners.  I asked Google, who came through for me.  Thank goodness he didn't ask me about the maths!

I'm stepping away from the real wool for a while.  If my hands continue to flare up then it's something else and I can go back to the blanket.  Fortunately I have some other projects I can get on with...