Back to Making Progress

Back in October, pain did me in... First it was my right wrist—a varicose vein developed in my wrist—and the pain was horrid. I stopped knitting and restricted other activities as well.. I started looking for the Crafter's compression gloves (Lion Brand is one supplier) Time, rest, and eventually a pair of compression gloves did the trick. I just found the gloves,  last week—by then my wrist was feeling much better--(but I will wear the gloves to prevent future problems.)

Secondly, I ended up with a pinched nerve in my neck that sent waves of pain down my left shoulder and arm. This hasn't passed—but I have been working on it, too. First I am careful how I move (and more importantly, how I position myself as I sleep) and I have been working on range of motion exercisers—These have worked, and while not yet pain free, everyday, is better and better.

Meanwhile, in an ongoing project, I have (finally!) gotten my bathroom painted. All the old accessories, (shelves, and storage stuff) have been cleaned—but not all of them have been returned to the bathroom (or replaced yet.) All of these things were acquired piecemeal, or as impulse purchases, or as  recycled stuff—and I am not putting in holes to mount these.  Some are going to be re-used, some recycled—and some new ones will be purchased—but I haven't decides which or what, right now, I haven't found the “right stuff” for replacements, so the redecorating isn't complete. The bathroom looks better already with the painted completed, a new cotton pique shower curtain, and a replacement towel rod was found and installed. Small changes, but significant. More to come!

Work is also going on in my bedroom, too. It started last year (May) when I bought a new bed, and was gifted a new coverlet. Since then, I have added a new wing chair. The plan is to remove the wall paper ( an Laura Ashley print that I hung when I first moved here 15 years ago (it's time!)) and painting the room a new color—One wall a dark teal accent wall, the remaining 3 pastel turquoise(that is a paint color swatch on the chair.  White and Cafe au Lait (the color of the coverlet) will be the accent colors—I already made the chenille neck roll (white and dark teal)—that perfectly matches the chair- a bit of good luck!  I always love it when plans work out so perfectly. I have some new art work (it needs to be framed) for the room too. I also plan to knit some edging for the new sheets—Embroidered sheets with hand knit lace edging are a small inexpensive (a bit time consuming, but not really too time consuming) details that will be the finishing details. I especially like lace edges on my 100% cotton sheets. In the summer I don't use a coverlet, and the lace makes a simple bed look elegant. That has been something I have done for decades--

So, now that I am feeling better, I am getting back to working on my pink alpaca cardigan sweater. It's a top down seamless one, with no real pattern, just a plan. The plan is: seamless circular yoke—in garter, that features a button band, (and 5 buttons) Below the armholes, a lozenge shaped garter and lace pattern—I will knit the body of the sweater first, and then make the sleeve until I run out of yarn—I'd like long sleeves—but I won't be upset if I only have enough yarn for ¾ length sleeves.

So far there are only 8 rows of the 32 that make up the pattern on the body of the sweater, --so you'll have to wait a bit to see how the pattern works out. But here is a idea of what I mean by lozenge shaped—a double pointed arrow sort of shape. The lozenge will be staggered/off-set as they are in the image, too.

So lots of little bits of progress—Nothing yet completed... just a little progress here, and there and everywhere.