Stress, and Struggles, and Making it Worth It

I'm back already!  This is because I've got things to tell you all about.  Some of it is even about knitting.  Quite a bit is about penguins.

So we'll settle in by starting with the regulars.  I haven't finished anything in the last week or so there's no FOs.

WIPs

I've mostly been working on the scarf I'm making for Stephens mum.  She has now arrived in Sheffield, but I'm nowhere near finished.  She says she doesn't mind :)

My second WIP is a small blanket, designed to fit a pram for a newborn.  This will be for my new niece or nephew, due this winter.

The pattern is a simple basketweave, with a moss stitch border.  The first time I made a blanket like this was before my first niece was born, and I had only just returned to knitting after a 20 year break, so I stuck to a simple pattern, and worked each colour of square separately.  Then of course I had to sew them all together afterwards.  I hate the sewing together bit.  This time I'm going to avoid all the sewing by making the whole thing as one, and working the different colours with intarsia.  I hate intarsia too, but I hate it marginally less than sewing up!

Stash Enhancement

I haven't got any new yarn to show you!  For a change I haven't broken my yarn diet!

I have found some yarn though.  During the continuing effort to clear the dance studio I found a bag full of Patons Fab.  I remember buying it to make hair falls to be used in dance costuming, but they never got finished.  Now I have to say that I doubt very much I'll ever find a use for this much purple acrylic.  If you think you could make good use of it, then please let me know, I'll gladly donate it to a good home!

A bit of a disaster

My new yarn cave doesn't just contain yarn.  It also holds a reasonable number of my books.  Some are craft related, but most are a strange selection of fiction.  The room is small, so I'd saved floor space by stacking 2 bookshelves on top of each other.  I hadn't taken the advice of affixing either bookcase to the wall with those handy brackets that always come in the flat pack.  The result was that this happened:

For those of you adept a identifying book covers, I'd appreciate it if you'd keep any judgements on my reading materials to yourself please :p  Typically, the absolute trashiest of my collection are the ones most visible!

The worst part about this happening was that Stephen was sat on the edge of the bed at the time, and ended up with his foot trapped between the bed and the bottom of the bookcase. This of course then resulted in my driving him to A&E, and spending 4 hours waiting to be told that his foot isn't broken, only badly bruised.

Also, a full bottle of Clinique Happy was broken during this incident, and I suspect that my yarn cave may smell of this perfume for the rest of eternity.

A difficult achievement

Just to add to my distress at the events detailed above, they happened in the middle of the night on Sunday.  I was already exceptionally tired and sore from my efforts on Sunday morning.

You may recall my rant on the subject of chronic illness - A Game of Spoons.  Well, I don't just rant about it.  I live it.  I try to do something about it, for me, and for everyone else too. 

The doing something about it for me is that I try my hardest to remain active, even though my body tries its hardest to do exactly the opposite.  I run whenever I can, for certain values of "run" anyway.  I run slightly slower than most people walk, I aim to do this 3-4 times a week, and on average I manage 1-2 times per week, but for me that's doing really well.  It's doing really well because I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

The doing something about it for everyone else is that I try to raise awareness of the condition.  I tell you guys about it here, I share information about it on facebook, I tell anyone who will listen basically! and on Sunday last week I took part in a 5k "fun run" with all sponsorship going to help EDS Support UK.  

I'm a big girl, it's taken over a decade since my symptoms started to become a problem for me to get this tentative diagnosis, and for quite a lot of that time I hid in my house crying over the things my body could no longer do, and avoiding anything that caused the pain to get worse.  If you do that, you gain weight.  I gained a lot of weight.  I don't think EDS Support UK make their T-shirts in my size.  But they do make them to fit Kelly, so he got to be my EDS flag for the day:

We got to tell everyone there why we were running, because the chap with the microphone came around the crowd before the warm-up.  He was impressed that we were supporting a charity that he'd never heard of before, and it felt good to know that at least the people there had learned something about EDS that day.

As you can see, it was a sunny day.  The weather report had assured us temperatures wouldn't get above 15°C.  It was already 20°C when we left the house before 10am, and it just kept getting hotter.

On a good day, running 5k is hard, but well within my capabilities.  Sunday wasn't a good day, and the heat did not help.  I struggled.  Before we reached the 2k mark I had to stop and walk for a bit.  It wasn't the effort, or even the pain, it was just the heat!  I honestly felt as though my brain was being boiled.  I couldn't see straight, I felt dizzy, I felt sick.  I started crying as I walked, telling Kelly how much I hate my body.  I hate knowing that it didn't have to be this bad!  If I'd got my diagnosis 10 years ago I could have kept the weight off, I could have started my physio exercises before I'd done 10 years of damage, I could have slowed down the progression of this disease in my system.

That very fact though is what kept me going.  Well, that and Kellys constant reassurance.  If I can help raise awareness now, help fund research now, then maybe by the time my niece and her new sibling grow up they won't face the same sort of off-hand dismissal by the medical profession that I have.  They will have a better prognosis than I do.

So I kept going.  We walked through a bit of shade, and I summoned the energy to run again.  Probably for less than 1k, then we were not only back out in the sun, but also running up a hill.  I was so dizzy I was afraid I might fall in the lake.  So we stopped and walked again.  At the 4k marker we started running again, and we kept running until we'd crossed the finish line.  The chap with the microphone recognised us, and we were cheered through to our medals and the all important bottle of water!

There was an icecream van near the finish line, so Kelly bought himself an icecream, and an ice lolly for me.  I collapsed on the grass, everything from my ankles to my neck screaming in pain, but I didn't care, because at least I'd done what I needed to do.  I ran this race, I raised awareness, and I raised money for a cause that I really believe in.

The icecream wasn't really as big as Kellys head, I promise!

Then this morning (Errm, yesterday morning now, as usual my insomnia means I'm writing this in the early hours) this arrived through the post:

Somehow knowing that the effort is appreciated really does make it feel so much better.  Just remind me of that when I get to the next run... and keep your fingers crossed for me that I'm having a Good Day that day!

Delayed Birthday Presents and Penguins

Errm, so yeah, sorry, a lot of that wasn't about knitting.  Important to me though, so thanks for reading it!  And this is about knitting:

As I said up near the top somewhere, Stephens parents have arrived for a visit, and they brought my birthday presents with them :)  This one is to be hung up in the new Yarn cave.  Oh, I should also say that the bookshelves are now repaired, and back in position, and bracketed to the wall this time!

They also gave me these (again, ignore the books, they're just what was to hand for demonstration purposes when I wanted to take photos):

One of Lizs friends is apparently also a knitter, and she was clearing out some things and found this:

She didn't want it any more, so it has been donated to me!  Which is perfect, as with the trip to Shetland next month, I'm particularly interested in Shetland lace work, and Fair Isle knitting right now.  I've picked out a couple of favourites from this already, although I'm not sure about this chaps facial hair:

My sister came to visit not long after I'd written my last blog post too, and as well as another gorgeous grown-up colouring book, she brought me something that I love, even though it's purely decorative at this time of year.  By the time I get back from Wool Week you can bet I'll be even more grateful for this:

Finally, to cheer me up after the pain and stress of running such a difficult 5k, Kelly bought me not 1, but 2 presents from a little artisan craft shop in Rother valley Country Park, which is where the run was held.  The first present caters to my crafty side:

Apparently the card was added by the vendor.  Possibly because she got the impression that I really like penguins for some reason, but I suspect it was actually because she quite fancied Kelly.  I can't be sure though, because the part of the shop where Kelly bought these was upstairs, and by then I could have flown to the moon as easily as I could have climbed those stairs!

The second present is just perfect for helping me achieve a comfortable sleeping position.  Often my shoulders and hips sort of collapse in on themselves if I sleep on my side, which causes pain, which wakes me up.  A body to snuggle helps, but since my insomnia often means I have to catch up on sleep during the day, when normal, functional members of society are at work, this isn't always feasible, but now I have this:

This is a lovely, squooshy, but firm cushion, and it's perfect to support my saggy joints.  Plus - Penguins!

I do believe that's it for now.  Thank you for your patience with the excessive amount of this post that has been devoted to my illness.  TTFN my dears!