So. I get four puka in my right ear for earrings, and chree in my left. I had them done in my wilder days and have just kept studs (no, not dat kine, u sillies!) in them. I kept everything clean lidat, and this time I decided to really clean the posts and give them a good soaking overnight. All well and good, right? Not.

I took out three in my right ear (cuz da bottom puka is for my fancy-kine earrings). I get a lot of them from Traci back home, cuz I’m homesick, yeah, and this way I feel small kine closer to home. Like these ones made with cone shells and ʻopihi shells. I just love them!

Or these glass float ones from Ilihia Hawaʻi.

Or these beauties by GirlLovesSea:

So I had one more stud earring to take out of my right ear, and auē! Da buggah wouldn’t come out! I couldn’t get da back off! Was dis kine stud and back:

I tried and tried to pull off da back, but it was stuck good. I wen broke two fingernails trying to get it to come loose. “Aha!” I thought. I’ll use my Leatherman pliers and get it off that way! It’s a great tool. I inherited it from my dad-in-law and I love it.

So I grabbed the earring back with the pliers and tried to pull the stud out. You should’ve seen me…I was quite the contortionist! But that didn’t work, either. So then I put the pliers on the stud (I know, that sounds really weird, yeah?) and tried to pull of the back. No luck.

By this time, I was getting a bit worried. Will da earring be stuck there forever? Will the Dr. have to cut off my ear? (LOL). The area wasn’t crusty, and the post rotated easily in my earlobe.

K’den. I posted my embarrassing dilemma on Ravelry, my knitting/spinning community. I got lots of great suggestions:

1: Soak the area in alcohol. Did that. Didn’t work.

2: Try two sets of Leatherman pliers, Nolemana with one, me with the other. Kinda scary dat one, but we tried it. Didn’t work.

3: Try soaking the area in oil. Nope.

4: Warm water with a washcloth. Nope. Ice with a washcloth. Nope.

I was quiet for a day on in my Ravelry group, and some one posted this:

“Anyone else waiting to hear the rest of the earring saga? It was the first thing I thought of this morning.“

I tell you, I was da daily entertainment in my group! And that was confirmed by this post from a good friend of mine:

Lets just say we are all easily entertained! Seriously, I hope you get a solution soon.

One reply I got:

My DH suggested a propane torch or electric drill. Which is why I seldom ask for his help unless I need a tall person.

5: Windex. Another friend on Ravelry said a jeweler got off her stuck ring that way. I was going to try that. Good idea.

I figured I was going to have try that or go to a jeweler to get the earring out of my ear, which I really didn’t want to do. So hilahila au…I felt so embarrassed about having to go in and ask for help. But then Icepocolypse hit and we weren’t going anywhere. So I had to just let it rest for a few days. Then one night, in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep (probably because I was worried about da dang earring), I had one idea, and posted this in my group:

Don’t laugh again…this morning I’m going to try a new method: Dawn Dishwashing Liquid. It’s so good for cleaning things! When I was a wildlife rehab volunteer we used it to clean water birds after an oil spill. We’ll see how that goes! This almost needs a whole new thread…The Stuck Earring Saga!

K’den. I got da Dawn and saturated the whole area with it. I moved the post back and forth, ’round and ’round, like ʻuwehe, ʻami, and slide, (hula dance steps) and just left it for a few minutes. Then I grabbed my Leatherman again, and pulled hard, and shazaam!! Da buggah wen come apart!!! My poor ear was sore, but ainokea. I immediately tossed the post and the back in da rubbish as well as all da odda ones I’d been wearing.

One friend suggested some hoops from Amazon that she wears and likes; I ordered them and when they came I immediately put them in my ear puka. I love them!!

So ends da earring saga. Thinking about it later, I shoulda tried WD-40, too. I bet that would have worked. I got lots of congratulatory messages on Ravelry. I was definitely their entertainment for a week, and now I’m yours!!