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,

Síle

Catching Up

 It was "Bell Let's Talk Day" here in Canada this Thursday. It's a mostly social media based initiative to get telecommunications giant Bell to part with some of their massive profits by way of donating 5 cents for every interaction (shared tweet, Instagram, or TikTok post with one of the hashtags, call or text made using Bell's network) made during that calendar day across the country to mental health initiatives. Let's Talk is about starting the conversation around mental health and erasing the stigmas associated with it.

Many people take the time to use the day to highlight their own struggles or initiatives they support that are frontline organizations that do the work 365 days a year. I do a lot of retweeting on Let's Talk day, and make sure to use the hashtag on any of my open tweets, not necessarily responses depending on whether the other person has used it or not. 

What I didn't plan to do this year was open up about how my chronic pain and the resulting brain fog has an impact on my mental health. But after receiving and responding to an email from a friend in an online group who was concerned I hadn't checked in for quite a number of days, it just tumbled out of me and into a twitter thread. You can find it here if you're interested.

That's the thing about mental health: it's inextricably linked to physical health. Depression and anxiety begin to have physical repercussions. Losing one's mobility often leads a person down a path to depressive thoughts if not outright depression. I'm a firm believer that healthcare should mean all aspects of health: mental, physical, dental, and eyes. Having a problem with any of them left untreated can lead to severe illness and/or death.

So that's where my thoughts have remained since Thursday. What ways can I be there for those around me, and not just in person but online as well, and not just on Let's Talk day but the entire 365 days a year (366 in leap years)?

I don't have any knitting progress to share today. In complete honesty, I don't think I've done more than a stitch or two this last week or so. I am feeling a bit better physically since I started on the new course of vitamins and iron; definitely a plus :) I wish my appointment with the specialist weren't all the way in May but we are in the midst of a pandemic and waits are longer to accommodate the extra precautions. "Better safe than sorry!" to be totally cliched about it. Ah, well. Hopefully my next post will have photos of yarny things again.

Yours in deep thoughts,

Síle