End of January

January’s been a strange one.

I gave studying a go, but was running on adrenalin, for which I’m now paying healthwise. Not financially too though, as thankfully I realised before the official course sart date. Someone shoot me next time I get a case of the “should” or “ought”!!

Knitting wise I got all evangelical about finishing my UFOs, but it’s been slow after the christmas knitting rush. A big purple balnket that I made and then ripped back, is ALMOST a new blanket, but not quite-the colour is finally growing on me though. I sold/traded some of the yarn I got because it was cheap, but didn’t really like the colour-lesson learnt there, colour matters big time to me.

THIS grey cardi:

gained a purple border and owned some buttons before I decided that by adding the purple button band, the shaping at the sides made my flabby bits look even worse (although they have lost the 5 pounds that’d crept on over winter)…. so over the past few days, the grey has become

this:

and is currently taking a bath

am planning a long short-sleeved top down sweater with it-how i ever managed to get a hoody cardi out of it I don’t know-but should have enough for the new project.

apart from announcing that Shannon has won the buttons. (I decided to roll a dice for the winner, and I rolled a 2. I’ll contact you!) my brain has run out of steam completely, so for now …

Dear Doc

Dear Doctors,

(or anyone else interested)

I have a mystery I’d like solving-so here’s the lowdown:

16 years ago, aged 12 I lost my peripheral vision in both eyes. Leaving me with visual fields like those seen in people with pituitary tumours with pressure on the optic chiasma.(bitemporal hemianopia)

I was obviously immediately sent for an MRI. No tumour.

There was scaring on my brain however.

There was also Oligoclonal bands in my spinal fluid.

I got an MS diagnosis and within the year developed other symptoms: such as not being able to tell hot from cold water, the feeling of spiders running over me. My legs stopped functioning about a year later and I had bad spasms. Months of inability to walk were interspersed with relatively well times for the next few years. Initially I was given high dose Cortisone which appeared to help. I also had a few brief episodes of deteriorated vision, which were helped with low level cortisone.

The scaring on my MRI did not change. Oligoclonal bands were no longer present. MS diagnosis was revoked.

After several years of no diagnosis including psychiatric referral for assessment (dismissed as healthy!) I got a diagnosis of M.E./CFS.

Scaring on brain was put down to head injury as a child. It was briefly suggested that vision problems occurred at head injury time-this can categorically be ruled out as after said head injury I developed a nystagmus which was operated on age 5 and regular (max 6 month interval) eye exams were carried out. Pale optic discs were apparent though.

On the Ayme ability scale, I have been at 0% at my worst, but with careful management of energy seem to have levelled at 30-40%.

My vision loss has still not been explained and within the Uk system you have to be referred via your GP for investigation and as there has been no change in my fields, my GP will not make a referral. My visual acuity has deteriorated over the past 2 years from -1.5 to -2.25 and now -2.00

So if an interested doc happened to google any of my symptoms… I’m intrigued.

Tidying

As a non clutter person, but someone who likes stuff, I’ve been surprised my a major declutter bug that has hit me this January. It’s involved finishing off UFOs of knitting and ruthless sorting of “stuff”. The charity shop did very well and I’m also in the process of swapping/selling yarn (Rav link)  that I don’t particularly like but I’m sure someone else will.  Feels good though, especially getting rid of stuff with negative emotional baggage. I’m all for nice things around me, but they either need to be intrinsically beautiful/useful preferably both!

For one of my knitting projects I ordered some buttons to finish it off. Turns out that they’re more of a forest dark deep green than grey though. The seller kindly refunded me and let me keep the buttons. So, I’m giving them away for free here. Just leave a comment if you’d like them-tell me if you’re a regular reader through ravelry/rss/random clicker. If you’re here for Urbis, or if you occasionally pop in or if you’re just here for the give away. I don’t mind whichever way, I’m just nosey-though I won’t find out about those of you who the buttons don’t appeal to will I? Open to everyone-I’ll use a random number generator and announce the “winner” on Sunday 31st.

36 vintage greeny grey bakelite buttons 18mm:

Other than tidying and knitting, I’ve also started studying. Signed up for an OU course in Science which starts at the end of the month and I’m getting a head start…

my little snow sweater story

deciding to rinse and spin my sweaters which didn’t leak colour in the washimg machine ended up being a mistake to day… time saving? nope!

I was just putting the bread on to rise before phoning my parents out in australia when i heard some trickling from the utility room… My immediate thought was the drain outside had frozen again, so after switching off the machine, shoving some towels on the puddles, i went and poured hot (not boiling) water over the drain, heard some creaking-thought great! poured some more, just to be sure then put the washer on to drain… no water in the drain, more in the house. at this point I decided either the pipe outside is frozen more solidly or the pipe from the washer to outside is frozen… I mopped up the floor, then hoped that the washer would let me open it to rescue my sweaters. It did luckily as they were sat deep in water… instead of using the little drain thing at the bottom of the washer, I continued using the microfiber cloths to empty the drum (didn’t know what would fit under the washer that would be big enough!) Whole mop bucket of water from the utility room and now two sweaters that need attention. BIG OOPS.

apologies for snow stories-we don’t get this much snow in england often

Neat Freak and Photos

Christmas saw me knitting right to the end…

• I’d finished my nieces owls way back, but they remained unphotographed until Christmas eve. (pic below)
• 1.25 pairs of socks knit for mum (the first leg part had to be knit twice-typical when you’re short of time!
• I successfully managed to knit and block Simon a scarf without him knowing
• I knit mum a Pretty Thing – finished 23rd
• I also knit 3 owl hats – finished xmas eve.

2 of the Owlet Sweaters:

I didn’t manage to photograph anything but the hats and the aforementioned sweaters!! OOPS.

3 Owl hats

The 3rd owlet sweater, 5 weeks into being owned, now with a matching hat and pose in the inglenook fireplace with new toothbrushes as props lol:

Christmas was lovely and chilled out, a lovely icey walk, good food and company, a visit to the panto and some not half bad pressies… Speaking of which, we got given a second dinner service to compliment our existing one…What did we do when we returned? We got excited about reorganising space for them to coexist and I went one step further and photographed our fun. Yes, I do believe (thanks in part to comments here) that I have a neat freak bug in me. Second pic is of some Russian doll mugs we picked up for a fiver-reduced from 20 (spot the glue and wallpaper paste lol-not so neat!) Guitar hero is calling, so I shall leave my oddness there and upload some photos.

shnowy silence

Christmas knitting and a mental blank on how to photograph FOs means that I’ve been/am pretty silent at the mo. It’s beautifully snowy outside-maybe it will cure my photoless blog posts?

shoe/boot issue was resolved by mum posting back some DM (non classic) boots i’d given her as they hurt me too much-she has worn them and was bored with them-which meant they are worn in enough for me

Shoe recommendations?

I need help!!

Looking for shoes that:

1. Flat: (need to retain what balance I have)
2. Lace up/have huge amount of adjustability (I have odd size feet. 2.5 sizes different. Odd size shoes look too weird.)
3. Don’t need wearing in to be comfortable. (I don’t walk much/1 foot doesn’t bend much)
4. preferably aren’t trainers!
5. don’t cost more than £60
6. can cope with wet weather
7. have room for wideish feet in home knit socks

in an ideal world they’d be slightly quirky. in my walking more days I wore flowery doc martens for example… bright is good

Kites

In true british fashion, the weather had me fascinated today. Beautiful blue cloudless skies that shouted “it’s bitterly cold out here” one minute and then black as black can be with icy rain the next. I often looked up from what I was doing as it’d suddenly go dark, or light and it was on one of those moments that I had a kite moment. Nannyo blogged about seeing 3 bird kites the other day, today between the roofs of the houses and against the black sky was a bright yellow “Mary Poppins-let’s go fly a kite” kite. Well no actually it wasn’t  a diamond-shaped kite with bunting but a stunt kite, but I stood and watched it for quite some time today. Am utterly puzzled as to where it was being flown from, but to the kite flyer, thank you.

messy knitting

I promised photos of my messy knitting house

we have, knitting pattern and pencil on top of knitting bag, trailing tape measure to 3 blocking boards with kiddy owls and more pattern paper.

then we have the other side of the room  we have yarn, a zip removed from the hoodie that’s on the sofa, more yarn, another knitting bag…

I didn’t photograph the dining room the day I decided to line my gloves with fleece… I recently got given my grandma’s sewing machine and I’m definitely stil a novice sewer, so there were false starts, endless bits of paper… they’re done except for the tacking in of the lining

The Navy blue owlet that I knitted above (largest baby size) was given away whilst we were away. I don’t have the photos as they’re on my dad’s camera, kids definitely pull off the cute in knitwear look though. I was close to giving up knitting before that-well close to giving up garment knitting. I finished the cardigan for my dad and gave it to him. I’d blocked the bottom similar size to the chest forgetting I’d allowed for tapering of  torso, so it flared out (mind you bad posture is part to blame too) so, it’s an OK cardi that’s OK to wear at home, but…

Although I’ve picked up all the stitches for the change to my cardi, I haven’t as yet done anything. Took up sock knitting instead… Oh and since then I’ve bought myself a petrol greenyblue sweater and I am concerned I’ll be greened out (the contrast colour I went for is kingfisher tealy greenyblue)

Let me finish this whiney entry with a funny oops moment. I was preparing the 3 sweaters for blocking. I’d soaked them in hand washing stuff, then put them in the machine for a rinse and gentle spin (most of my handknits get this treatment, even elizabeth zimmermann recommends it!). I’d left time tight before my afternoon nap time. Blocked the first sweater, get to the second green one and BIG HOLE. Somehow I hadn’t case off on stitch and it had laddered down the neck. Picked it back up but not secured it yet! Glad I blocked and washed before giving it away, I can sort this but…

hibernation of the human kind

writing blog posts just hasn’t been happening in large part as my body is in serious hibernation mode. Now on top of the afternoon 2-3 hours in bed/napping it’s decided that 8.30 is my bedtime! Off to my parents for a week, upon return I have photo evidence of what knitting and hibernation do to my tidy house