Tag: The Seated View

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..)

Inspiration Point

Part One of Blogs I Love:

Saying that you admire the Yarn Harlot is like saying that Macs are the prettiest computers: pretty much everyone will say the same, even if they might not want to admit it. Indeed, I stayed away from her blog from a while because I thought it was *too* trendy. But you have to admire Stephanie Pearl-McGee as a philosopher and quintessential blogger. She writes not only about knitting (which she does very well), but about life in general with three teenagers and too many things to knit before Christmas! This is a general blog about the crafting life and I think a lot of people also read to see how she has managed to turn her craft writing into a full time business.

What blows my mind is the TECHKnitting blog. This blog goes deep into the knitty-gritty of knitting problems, exposing all of the little tips and tricks that make a knitted piece look better and/or more professional. I don’t know much about needle knitting, but I know enough to understand just how entirely over my head this blog is and yet I read it because I’m sure it will be very useful someday. So much about the physics of knitting doesn’t change whether you loom or use needles. Plus I am astounded at how thorough and well-written the posts are, and illustrated too! TECHKnitter inspires me to keep learning!

Finally for today, someone who inspires me on a more personal level. Lene Andersen of The Seated View is a long time knitter *and* lifetime survivor of chronic pain and chronic illness. She’s the sort of person who I hope to be if I ever grow up 🙂 She’s warm and funny while also being introspective and, like her friend the Yarn Harlot, very insightful into issues of daily life. I can’t say what it is about her blog that pushes me the most, it is probably just knowing that she deals with a lot of the same things I deal with and still manages to create such wonderful stuff (both in terms of craft and writing and her photography).

I suspect that writing about all of the blogs that I really enjoy will take weeks, and I feel that I am being a little bit skimpy on the descriptions of these, but my hands are hurting a lot today so I can’t really manage any more at this time.