i really am never taking up sports...

had confirmation today - my golfer's elbow has mutated into tennis elbow.

woke up this morning, and after merely an hour of being awake (in which all i'd done was eat an apple and review an article i'm editing - reading a printed copy, no computer involved) my elbow was excruciatingly painful.

tears followed, as did anti-inflammatory gel and painkillers. in the end i made an appointment for the afternoon at the chiropractor's. she massaged the affected area (owwwwwwwwwwww) and suggested ways of dealing with it (like, never ever typing again. oops).

obviously, i can't knit for a good while now. it is possible i'll have to figure out how to knit continental in order to take it up again. the saga continues.

i'm not sure what i'm more amazed by. that i bruise so easily from soft-tissue massages, or that i paid £30 for my chiropractor to do this:

Stupid Bee

Well, I obviously overdid it. Doh. Sigh. Argh. etc.

I currently have pain in my outer right elbow. Yup, that's right: the golfer's elbow has mutated into tennis elbow. And fuck, it hurts. And needs just the slightest thing to set it off.

My left elbow which I jarred while swimming appears to be OK. I do have slight stinging on the underside of my left wrist close to the wrist.

I did quite a bit of knitting at the weekend. I thought I was taking it slow enough, but I was obviously wrong. And now I'm struggling to use the computer as well.

One Step Forwards... Falling Backwards

*sigh*

So, yesterday I went swimming, which was fun - hoorah! Unfortunately, while trying to gracefully enter the swimming pool, I managed a completely cack-handed semi-drop down the ladder while still holding on, and ending up really jarring my left elbow - basically had it taking most of my bodyweight while having it locked in an awkward position. I am HOPING that it is just sore and a little bruised, rather than that there is any ligament damage. ARGH! Why does this always happen to me?

As soon as I got home yesterday I packed away all my knitting again, to avoid any temptation. I'm taking arnica and rhus. tox tablets, applying arnica balm and I iced it a little before bed. I'm trying not to type too much. My next chiro appointment is in two weeks - but if it still hurts by the end of the weekend I'll get one sooner. I'm not doing my exercises, as most of those involve using my elbows but obviously don't want to lose the improvement I've been seeing. Again, I'll reassess how my elbow is at the end of the weekend.

Doh.

Petrol Merino 2-ply

I thought before they got even more squished and covered in lint and fluff from rolling around my living room for months I'd just take photos of my second lot of merino handspun. I spun these back in March, and it was my first go at plying. I was dubious at the time, but it worked really well. I used the Andean plying method, and although as the night drew on (trying out new things at 11:30pm while trying to watch Prison Break is not a good recipe for concentration) and things got more tangled, I managed it! So, without further ado...



Breed: Merino
Fibre prep.: Commercial Top
Weight: 150g
Yardage: 1 ball is 76 yards; 1 ball is 67 yards
Colour: Petrol - a really deep emerald green
Method: Wheel spun on Haldane Lewis
Spun: 'S' spun, 'Z' plied
Plyed: 2-ply, Andean method

I aim to make a pair of cabled gauntlets with these balls - I just hope I have enough yarn! At least as I have two balls I can start on the smaller one and know that if it doesn't make 99% of one gauntlet I need to redesign! Although thinner overall than the ultramarine singles (even accounting for the plying), there are thin bits and thick bits, and the yarn probably averages at chunky - these are going to be warm!

Slowly but surely

Well, over the course of a couple of weeks I made the second mitten and finished it - hoorah! I'll do photos soon, have quite a few things to photograph and show off!

Today I made a start on finishing the opera gloves - I've nearly finished one (just the thumb to go). I'm knitting it with a much firmer hand (I think that is the right term). The fabric is very dense and tight but still works, and with some floofy ribbon should look lovely. The designer, Ysolda, also has a pattern for sale which I love: Matilda Jane. I was so desperate for her to release it as a pattern, but when it came out I was in the depths of RSI hell, not knowing how possible it would be for me to knit properly again. I guess I'm still there really. And it's knit in DK yarn. But it's sooooooooooooo lovely... I guess I'll look into buying it once I sell more stuff on ebay, even if I just keep it to look at and wish.

Although I can knit, spin and type a little now, I need to make so sure that I don't overdo it. And I NEED to keep up with my exercises.

Making stuff

OK, so I really don't have much willpower. Pretty much after I wrote my last post I had a go at knitting. It was partly due to the fact that I had a physiotherapy appointment and wanted to have done some hand-motions beforehand. So I've been working on Friday's mittens, just a round at a time. Now I only have about less than 10 rounds left, but I'm not sure when I'll have it finished by. It's cool to make progress though, no matter how slowly.

My physio confirms that I have golfer's elbow. I have new exercises to do, and I'm quietly confident I can beat this :)

This weekend I've been doing some dressmaking. I've made a pair of shorts for yoga (to wear over my leggings - I'll be much less self-conscious, and can hopefully then stop wearing huge baggy t-shirts down to my knees!) and most of a dress. The dress only really needs to be hemmed, but I feel it's too big - even though I've taken it in twice - and become annoyed with it. It's too hot to keep trying it on that I'll just wait for a cooler day to make a decision about it. Yes, I did make it to the right size on the packet, I just think the pattern is a bit off.

A bit like the shorts. I made those from a cut down pattern for a pair of teenager's pyjama trousers. The pattern comes in sizes 9-10 years, 11-12 and 13-14. When I first used it for some jammies (at the age of about 19) I made the 13-14, thinking I might just squeeze into them. Well, I can pretty much fit my entire body into one leg, with space! So for the shorts I used the 9-10 size, and *still* had to take it in. The pattern is so screwed: I had to remove 4 INCHES from between the waistline and the crotch! If I held the crotch against my crotch then the waistline on the pattern reached my boobs. I know I'm short but I'm not *that* short.

Anyway, despite the fact that I had just made a par of shorts that according to Simplicity would probably fit a 6 year old, I decided to make the Simplicity dress in a size 14, even though I've never been about 8-10, maybe 12. My measurements fit their size 14 measurements almost exactly, but I guess they have wacky tape measures. And it wasn't a case of ease, it was a case of looking like I was wearing a huge sack.

Anyway, on a less hot day I might give it another try!