Thursday, April 20, 2023

21 days and counting

The earlier fog and rain have changed to snow. Ah, April in Canada.

Of course this makes me want to hibernate even more than I have been. Why have I been hibernating? Well, I can't really do much else at the moment.

The tendinitis, due to (at this point) ancient injuries to my left rotator cuff, has flared up badly this year. It started twinging back in late February if I'm completely honest. I continued the exercises my doctor had given me for it ages ago. I tried slowing down, and limiting how much I was knitting in a day. I took rest days and used my best friend, Icepack. All to no avail. I lost use of the shoulder/arm on March 31st. It's now April 20th.

This leads to some issues straight off. As an independent knitting pattern designer, every stitch you see here is knit by me. Every sample, every swatch, every tutorial. It's all my work. So you can imagine that 3 weeks (so far) of not being able to knit really throws a wrench into my plans for literally everything. No finished tutorial leads to no new pattern release. No new sample leads to no updated photos for a pattern update/re-release. Those lead to not being able to open a preview knit for the next pattern, and another pattern release this summer, because of lack of funds.

Things here at Knit Dance Repeat Designs have ground to a halt.

I'm hoping this soon decides to quit flaring. My doctor and I had discussed cortisone shots the last time it was this bad, but that was 3 years ago. I have an appointment with her on May 2nd. That's still a lot of days away. 

I have knitted 102 stitches this month. One row on a swatch yesterday, that sent my shoulder into spasms and caused numbness in two fingers plus discoloration in my hand. Won't be trying that again for a while! I like blue but not when my hand starts changing to that color 😳

So that, dear fiber folks, is what's (not) happening here! My days right now consist of cuddling with the fur crew while watching Youtube videos. I find myself avoiding social media, especially Instagram, because happy knitting posts are making me depressed. I have at least 2 wips glaring at me as I type this. One being a birthday present for an adorable 4 year old that's already late for the party sigh.

I hope your crafting is going much smoother, and your health is better than my own. What are you working on? Any fun spring plans?

Yours in yarn and carefully applied icepacks,
SĂ­le