CPH, Earnshaw and illness

Meagre CPH progress - I'm getting there. I was felled by a cold, during which time I had a migraine. Then I got better from the cold. And had another migraine, then another one *sigh* Most of the time I can be OK with it - I have a strictly controlled diet and daily medication. This means that, although it doesn't rid me of migraines completely, when they do hit me I can usually drag myself through the day with numerous 4head [menthol stick] applications and trips to the bathroom to sit on the toilet with my eyes closed.

I remain mostly positive with thoughts such as; it's not terminal, it's generally predictable in it's length and severity of pain, it would be worse without medication and diet control, at least I'm not taking mountains of sick leave like I once did. And sometimes the magic lolly trick actually works! [holding chunks of ice lolly as far back in your throat as possible to open restricted blood vessels.]

But sometimes [like this week] I fall into; it's not fair!! I'm sick of this! I've had it for years and I get at least 2 a month. I'm so angry that I have to be on constant medication and diet control and I still getting these bloody migraines. I want a [insert expletive here] pizza!!

Of course stressing myself out just makes them worse ... but sometimes I just need to have a tantrum.

So as I was feeling quite low in the past week I started on Earnshaw from the "Simply Noro" pattern book by Jane Ellison. I'm using the 1p a gram yarn from the SECC venture a couple of weeks ago. I knat [and washed and blocked] 2 tension squares - one with 5mm needles, and one with 6mm.

The tension I knit with has a life force of it's own...

The 6mm tension square worked out at 14 sts and the 5mm was 18 sts. Which was lovely and easy, since I need 16 sts. Obviously then I need the needle in the middle which is 5.5mm.

Where it all fell to pants was with the rows. The pattern specifies 21 rows. With 6mm needles I got 23 rows. Less stitches than needed, but more rows. *sigh*

It's all good because the pattern is all 'knit until piece measures x inches' so it doesn't really matter that the row tension is off that much. But I can see that that this confidence is going to bite me in the arse and I'm going to end up with a bloody skirt! So I'm monitoring closely.

This blog seems quite angry - but I'm really not!


I got my first meme from India ; what flavour of knitter are you?

This has truely stumped me! I think I'm going for 'Cherries Jubilee'. A 'Cherry ice cream with cherry halves and a hint of rum flavor'. Cherry because - well all my websites have 'cherry' in them somewhere! It's not your run-of-the-mill fruit, which I feel goes quite well with my yarn choices. I don't go for the cheap and cheerful that's for sure!

At the same time it's quite a 'quiet' flavour with not many frills, which definately matches the kind of pattern I go for. I don't tend to go for frilly bits, or crocheted additions. I'm more of a colour knitter I think.

And the rum, because ... well sometimes I go for a crazy bright yarn that shocks even me!