Good news and bad news
My back had been 'twingeing' a bit last week. It was feeling a bit uncomfortable by the evening every day and I didn't think anything of it, assuming that it was tired from doing a fair bit of cleaning and running around. It was the same on Saturday and, again, I was able to ignore it quite easily.
When I got up yesterday, it was quite sore and stiff. I assumed that it was because I'd slept for around twelve hours - lying in bed that long often makes my back a bit sore. It was bad enough by yesterday evening that I took a long hot bath to ease it a bit, which worked for an hour or so and then it was back to being rather painful.
This morning it's at the "oh, ow, damnation" stage. It really rather hurts. A hot shower eased it for a few minutes and then it was back to rather intense levels of yikes. I can't bend over, I can't flex and getting the litter tray and cats' bowls sorted out this morning was not a fun experience. I've dosed myself with NSAIDs and may be spending the day with a heat pad permenantly attached to my back. Argh. Hopefully this is a blip rather than the start of another three years of pain and NSAIDs. I'll buy some batteries for my TENS machine on the way home, I have a feeling that the rechargables in it are dead and they'll take a few hours to re-charge.
The other fun component to this morning is the incredible storm currently hitting my part of Canada. I was shocked that my house had power this morning. Relieved, because power means coffee and heat pads, but shocked. Then I stupidly ignored all the storm warnings and drove to work, because my building has a generator and is less likely to lose power than my house.
Wow, scariest drive to work in history. The first two kilometers of my drive is along a road that is right next to the ocean. High winds. Massive storm surge. You can see where this is going. I'm impressed that I kept the car on the road and didn't get hit by the rocks that the waves were throwing up. Everyone can now tell me how stupid I was.
The rest of the drive was less terrifying. There was no power between my community and the highway, meaning no traffic lights, but driving through high winds and half the Atlantic ocean does put things into perspective. Hopefully the storm will have abated a bit before I have to drive back. I'm not looking forward to it.
If the storm hadn't been quite so fierce (and therefore so likely to kill my power), I would be working from home today.
In less depressing news...
The sweater that I have been working on since late September is finished. Woo! It would have been finished sooner, except I went through several bouts of barely touching the needles for days on end. I've been going through periods of feeling exhausted and ick and sometimes, I don't even have the energy for knitting. The horrors.
It's a design that I fell in love with last year when I saw someone else's version (in a denim blue) and I decided to do my own in deep, chocolate brown. I wanted a sweater that would be super comfortable but smart enough to wear to work or out shopping. As most fashion stores are still obssessed with using fibres that I can't wear in everything (OMG, enough with the angora, alpaca and lambswool!), it became rather important to finish because I just don't have many warm sweaters that don't drive me insane with itching.
It's turned out beautifully. I was a little concerned about whether it would fit (I vacilated between thinking it was too small and too big), but the fit is perfect. Loose enough to wear a t-shirt under, tight enough not to make me look fat or feel frumpy. I love the style, adore the sleeves and the yarn (Rowan Handknit Cotton) feels gorgeous. There will be photos!
My preference is to knit sweaters in pieces and seam, although I won't reject a pattern completely if it's seamless. The seams give structure to a sweater, enabling it to retain its shape better with time and wear. The down side to that is that you don't know whether it will fit until the seaming is done and you can try it. Most seamless sweaters can be tried as you go, to make sure that everything is working properly. That means there is always that fear lurking in your mind about whether this is the sweater where, despite having gauge and doube-checking all the instructions, it's all going to go wrong and the thing either won't go over your shoulders or ends up looking like a tent.
This obviously wasn't that sweater. It's bound to happen to me one day, but I've escaped that fate again.
I finished the sweater last night, did the ritual adding it to my shelves for regular wear (love that moment)...and immediately cast on for something new.
I'm making a cardigan. It's stripey. In Rowan Cashsoft DK. I haven't met a Cashsoft that I didn't love. That family may be my favourite yarns ever. The deep magenta that I bought in the John Lewis sale will be paired with a deep grey, with the pink dominant, and somehow the magenta doesn't look quite as shocking!pink as I remembered it. In fact, I'm rather liking it...
This entry was originally posted at http://selenay.dreamwidth.org/383000.html. There are currently
babbles on the entry on Dreamwidth
When I got up yesterday, it was quite sore and stiff. I assumed that it was because I'd slept for around twelve hours - lying in bed that long often makes my back a bit sore. It was bad enough by yesterday evening that I took a long hot bath to ease it a bit, which worked for an hour or so and then it was back to being rather painful.
This morning it's at the "oh, ow, damnation" stage. It really rather hurts. A hot shower eased it for a few minutes and then it was back to rather intense levels of yikes. I can't bend over, I can't flex and getting the litter tray and cats' bowls sorted out this morning was not a fun experience. I've dosed myself with NSAIDs and may be spending the day with a heat pad permenantly attached to my back. Argh. Hopefully this is a blip rather than the start of another three years of pain and NSAIDs. I'll buy some batteries for my TENS machine on the way home, I have a feeling that the rechargables in it are dead and they'll take a few hours to re-charge.
The other fun component to this morning is the incredible storm currently hitting my part of Canada. I was shocked that my house had power this morning. Relieved, because power means coffee and heat pads, but shocked. Then I stupidly ignored all the storm warnings and drove to work, because my building has a generator and is less likely to lose power than my house.
Wow, scariest drive to work in history. The first two kilometers of my drive is along a road that is right next to the ocean. High winds. Massive storm surge. You can see where this is going. I'm impressed that I kept the car on the road and didn't get hit by the rocks that the waves were throwing up. Everyone can now tell me how stupid I was.
The rest of the drive was less terrifying. There was no power between my community and the highway, meaning no traffic lights, but driving through high winds and half the Atlantic ocean does put things into perspective. Hopefully the storm will have abated a bit before I have to drive back. I'm not looking forward to it.
If the storm hadn't been quite so fierce (and therefore so likely to kill my power), I would be working from home today.
In less depressing news...
The sweater that I have been working on since late September is finished. Woo! It would have been finished sooner, except I went through several bouts of barely touching the needles for days on end. I've been going through periods of feeling exhausted and ick and sometimes, I don't even have the energy for knitting. The horrors.
It's a design that I fell in love with last year when I saw someone else's version (in a denim blue) and I decided to do my own in deep, chocolate brown. I wanted a sweater that would be super comfortable but smart enough to wear to work or out shopping. As most fashion stores are still obssessed with using fibres that I can't wear in everything (OMG, enough with the angora, alpaca and lambswool!), it became rather important to finish because I just don't have many warm sweaters that don't drive me insane with itching.
It's turned out beautifully. I was a little concerned about whether it would fit (I vacilated between thinking it was too small and too big), but the fit is perfect. Loose enough to wear a t-shirt under, tight enough not to make me look fat or feel frumpy. I love the style, adore the sleeves and the yarn (Rowan Handknit Cotton) feels gorgeous. There will be photos!
My preference is to knit sweaters in pieces and seam, although I won't reject a pattern completely if it's seamless. The seams give structure to a sweater, enabling it to retain its shape better with time and wear. The down side to that is that you don't know whether it will fit until the seaming is done and you can try it. Most seamless sweaters can be tried as you go, to make sure that everything is working properly. That means there is always that fear lurking in your mind about whether this is the sweater where, despite having gauge and doube-checking all the instructions, it's all going to go wrong and the thing either won't go over your shoulders or ends up looking like a tent.
This obviously wasn't that sweater. It's bound to happen to me one day, but I've escaped that fate again.
I finished the sweater last night, did the ritual adding it to my shelves for regular wear (love that moment)...and immediately cast on for something new.
I'm making a cardigan. It's stripey. In Rowan Cashsoft DK. I haven't met a Cashsoft that I didn't love. That family may be my favourite yarns ever. The deep magenta that I bought in the John Lewis sale will be paired with a deep grey, with the pink dominant, and somehow the magenta doesn't look quite as shocking!pink as I remembered it. In fact, I'm rather liking it...
This entry was originally posted at http://selenay.dreamwidth.org/383000.html. There are currently
babbles on the entry on Dreamwidth