Category: General Housekeeping

Doldrums, Sock Lust, and more ramblings

Thanks to those who have written me with encouragement in the past two weeks.  I’m coming to terms with everything but things got delayed as my father was in the hospital most of last week with blood clots in the lungs.  He’s fine now but since his father died from blood clots unexpectedly, we were all more than a bit nervous.  And it may be another genetic condition to which I may be predisposed, so I’m awaiting the results of his testing almost as much as he is. Since I have so far gotten every single disease known on either side of the family, and often younger than the “normal” onset, I’m starting to become a little obsessive about knowing just what may becoming down the pike. (And desperately praying that I miss out on Alzheimer’s!)  I’m not crazy enough to think that I will get everything, but my odds are batting 1000 against me at the moment so I want to know what to be screened for.

Anyway, all of this has sent my mental health into something of a spiral.  I normally have a depressive episode in February each year so it’s probably just a slightly delayed reaction combined with family illness (father inlaw then father) and the upheaval of my new diagnosis.  It’s not that diabetes is a problem per se, it’s that I’m having to give up several coping mechanisms and unorthodox (but working for me) treatment strategies so my symptom load is going very high and I just feel like things are still very chaotic.  Well, in fact they are, as we’ve yet to decide on new treatment regimes so I’m kinda of flying blind.  Hence the “doldrums” part of the title.  The grey, rainy weather isn’t helping any and knitting with my brightest yarn isn’t helping there either.  When not even beading magazines can cheer me, I know it’s getting bad.  So I have a med review this week, one of my four appointments this week when I don’t have the energy to get out of bed let alone trek to the doctors and hospitals.  It has to be done though as I can’t handle much more of the way I am feeling…

But enough about that, let’s talk socks 🙂 I have been wanting to order a sock loom but have been put off by how many sizes there are (so if I make socks for myself and my mom I’d need a different loom for my husband and dad) and how long of a wait it is to get a loom.  I think I’m just going to have to bite the bullet and order one though as I know that with diabetes foot care is important and that means wearing socks all of the time.  I generally try to escape socks as much as possible and right now can only cope with toe socks or part cashmere (luckily I got a bunch of lambswool and cashmere at TJ Maxx last year for $5/pair).  I’m hoping though that hand-knit socks will be every bit as amazing as everyone says. I also know from trying to get people to make hats for me that I won’t just be able to lean on folks to get some socks either so like hats I’m just going to have to make them myself.  So if anyone reading this has sock looms and likes or dislikes them, please let me know which one(s) you have!  I am hoping to use proper sock yarn (and do not like slipper socks or anything bulky!!!).

(As an aside, if anyone has single socks languishing without mates, my husband refuses to wear matching socks so will happily give them a good home 😉  He also could not care less what gender they were meant for or even if they fit him properly or not! So if you have second sock syndrome but can’t bear the thought of frogging the one you already made, he can put them to good use.)

In other news, I’m finishing up the mate to the Lagoon legwarmer. I had hoped to have it done by today but I was getting hotspots again so I am taking it slower.  Then I need to really get cranking to finish my afghan for Tricot du Coeur as that is due this month.  I made a hat inspired by Annie Modesit’s rasta hat but have yet to photograph it.  I think I need to order a styrofoam head form for better hat photos plus I can use it for making felted hats.  So another thing I just need to get off my rear and order!  I’m just being a bit stingy since we’re going to Paris next month and always waaaay overspend there so we’re putting off nonessential purchases as much as we can just in case.  Ooh, I should start looking for the Parisian yarn shops…:)

Oh, and I shall need to buy a spindle as my spinning class is very soon and I’m sure I will want to keep going at home!

Well I have to go, I’ve got an appointment to attend and miles to go before I sleep….

A little downtime

Apologies that I’vve been quieter than usual.  This time it’s not out of forgetting to blog, just life getting in the way. I’ve added another disease to my portfolio, which has meant tests, lots of GP visits, angst over the changes required for management (which as usual sound trivial but when put into the jigsaw puzzle that is my other disease management are far more profound), plus the new symptoms to cope with.  So it’s been a crazy week.  I’m very tired and emotionally worn out and I just need to take a bit of time out to get the lay of the land.  I’ll be back to blogging as soon as I am up for it.

Fall down go Boom

Lene of The Seated View has just posted a wonderful entry entitled Thoughts of Pain & What Comes With It. I encourage you to read the whole thing, but here is the bit that moved me the most:

Chronic pain teaches you that pain isn’t the worst thing that can happen. Not living your life is the worst thing that can happen. And so, you develop filters that mask the pain, block your perception of it and get on with your life. I once tested this – convinced that making a cup of tea in my microwave didn’t hurt, I decided to pay attention and discovered that it indeed did hurt, but on the days where I have adequate pain control, isn’t loud enough to make it through the filter. One of my favourite barriers to pain is the fun filter – you’re out, with friends, dancing, talking or whatever floats your boat and you are fine. Absolutely fine. You’re so fine that you may stay out having fun for longer than you should, but you ignore this, because the music is playing or you are about an hours worth of debate away from solving the world’s problems. It is not until you come home and close the front door behind you that the fun filter abruptly falls away and in a nanosecond, you go from an entirely manageable level of pain to wanting to curl up in a fetal position, whimpering in a corner. It usually takes days to recover from something like that, but what you quickly learn is that it’s worth it.

That is not only 100% true in general, it’s also exactly what is going on right now. I spent all weekend getting up in the wee hours, sitting outside in the 27F cold for over an hour each day waiting for trains and buses, having a truly fabulous time at the feltmaking course — and then I came home and SPLAT! I had rubbed my hands so raw (and bloody) that touching anything was excruciating agony. I can’t type or move or even cough without high levels of pain. I laid down for a nap at 6 pm and woke at 6 am. I’m gonna be paying for this all week. And it was worth it.

But it’s going to be a few days before I can type enough to do justice to my writeup of the course, so I’m afraid that you shall have to be patient. As shall I, as t says I can’t wet felt again until my hands heal up. And I have about 20 hours of sleep to squeeze into this week else my body will not be as forgiving as I insist it must be. After all, the Stitch & Creative Craft expo is next week, so I’ve got to rest up! (Bunnies to pet there, ya know..)

It’s been a rough week

I’m still pretty much  keeping up with my thing-a-day, but I haven’t been posting anywhere. I’m still in a fibro flare and making my thing is about the oly thing I am doing some days.  But we did get out for a day to run some errands, I’ve  knitted several items and photographed them, I just need to get myrear in gear and post things here.

I’m sorry I have  been quiet in commenting and replying to comments, it’s just that typing is hard at the moment.  I’m going to try to catch up when I can.  Meanwhile I think I will shut up and start posting pics 🙂

4 for 3

In the 4 days since my Colinette arrived, and bearing in mind that I didn’t knit any of it on the first day, I have completed three objects.  Not a bad track record at all, IMO.  Proves that when you have exquisite yarn it motivates you to great speed 😉  I’ve even got a design that I think might sell (well it’s terribly similar to a lot of other things that are selling).

Unfortunately, a trip to the hardware store has not provided the material I want for a nice light tent, so we’re going to have to improvise.  Because this blog is pretty boring without pictures of all these things I am making!

I have a ton of more insightful posts to write, but my health is not doing too well right now so sitting and typing are alas not among my top efforts at this exact moment.  Soon, I hope.

I’ve got Blisters on my Fingers!

OK, only hotspots.  But still, that hated Bernat Soft Boucle is such a pain to work with, the nubby bits just get caught on each other and so trying to do a K2P2 ribbing (which I am doing for t’s wristwarmers — sadly, he liked the first one so I am having to do another) is nightmarish.  Hoping to make it end quicker, I worked for 2-3 hrs on them yesterday and got *hotspots * (pre-blisters/swollen hot areas) on my thumb and forefinger from constantly yanking at the yarn to close the loops properly.  I think it might be easier with needles but the way that you do a purl on the loom involves lifting it off the loom, putting the new loop on and then tightening, so that’s a lot of manipulating the yarn.  Owwie!

Yesterday my Colinette order came through so I am taking a day off the blasted boucle and making a neck warmer to match my Ragdoll hat.  I’ve yet to figure out how much “fringe” I want, but I have plenty of yarn this time! 🙂

Pictures are a bit of a problem with the utter lack of light in London at the moment, but we’re building a light tent this weekend so hopefully I’ll be able to take decent photos whatever the weather.  Blistery fingers crossed!

Comment Calamity!

WordPress.com has spam filtering by Akismet, and I think it has eaten every comment made on this blog since 13 January.  I can’t find a way to turn Akismet off, and it is malfunctioning — it is supposed to save the “spam” for me to look at first, but instead it just deletes them.  The problem is that every comment that it has let me see was *not* spam, so I think it’s eating legitimate comments too 🙁 So if you have left a comment here in the past four days, please email me instead. My email is thesickchick at gmail dot com.  Sorry for the trouble!!!

Slackerville

I’ve not been posting because I feel so bad about not having any pictures to show. I want my packages to arrive from the US *NOW*!  (Not the least because I have 18 gallons of yarn on its way…whiiiiiine. But the camera to computer cable is in there too…)

 On the 2nd, t and I went to the I Knit London’s New Years event at the Royal Festival Hall.  We both were taught how to needle knit by Yvonne but as anticipated, t did great with it and I just wound up with a mess.  Oh well!  I now know that I want to use circular needles for everything and that years of attempting (and failing) to crochet has warped my brain so that I really want to hold the yarn in my left hand.  So sometime I shall get some circs and have another go!  We met quite a few other people there, such as GhostKnitter and PixelDiva and many others whose names escape me now. (I’m horrid with names/usernames, please forgive!) The yarn we had to play with was very yummy, Sublime which has lots of cashmere and silk and other fantastic things.  I will definitely be getting some of that in its chunky range.

  Speaking of getting yarn, I went to Loop in Islington for the first time yesterday and managed to score some yarn at the sale price even though the sale doesn’t officially start until Saturday (I think, I only overheard that). Must try to go back on Saturday although I’m already pretty booked for that day :/  So I got 6 skeins of Colinette Prism (not sure if that link will work) at 40% off and it’s already all spoken for with projects!  Only problem is two of my long looms have gone on walkabout and those are the two I need most so I’m having a good clean today to find them.

 I keep wondering if it is worth it to add projects to my queue on Ravelry when few of the loom patterns are on there anyway.  I haven’t made anything out of Isela’s book yet and that’s the only loom book on there so far, I don’t know about individual patterns.  I guess I should post on the Loom Knitters and Knitting Without Needles groups, eh?

 I’ve been spending a fair amount of time lately reading more sick chicks who craft and blog, deciding what my criteria is for writing about them here.  I think I’m only going to talk about blogs that are primarily upbeat, because that’s the kind of person and blog I want to have. While I *totally* understand the need to kvetch about ill health, if that’s the primary purpose of the blog and crafting is only a minor element, I won’t list them here.  I’ll probably still read it but….well, you get the idea, I hope. 

Holiday Lull

Just a quick note to keep myself in the habit of posting.  We’re in Newcastle now for the holidays but knitting isn’t going as quickly as planned. I made another magic scarf, this time out of the Sirdar Frenzy, started a rib stitch sampler/wrist warmer on the train up and am about 6 inches into the first (of two) panels of my children’s afghan.  So not much accomplished yet I’m afraid 🙁  My hands have really been hurting which has made me slow down.  However, our hosts do have micro USB cables so if I remember I can take some pix of my works in progress and actually get them uploaded. I’ll do my best to remember!