life with a chronic disease and a really big yarn stash
Rocking the Week #4
It is March in Colorado, which means we are in the midst of endless weather adventure. This last week we experienced a march of weather fronts that came through the state with wind, wind, and more wind. It was sunny but still miserable for cats and people.
It was so windy the cats were afraid to go outside. I finally made Morgan a little fort by hanging a blanket over the patio table and chairs: he stayed in his fort most of the day Tuesday! Here he is under the table sitting on a chair under the blanket.
I was pretty miserable myself. Usually my joints are OK, but this week all of my tendons took to hurting. Gee, there are a lot of tendons in a human body! Not only did my hands and wrists hurt, but so did my knees, hips, feet… well, pretty much if it moves, it hurt. I finally had to resort to pain killers and spent a lot of time in bed this week.
Hello books! I polished off the last two books in this series of murder action/thriller books. These are fast reads and aren’t literary masterpieces (the authors did not spend great blocks of time agonizing over the correct descriptive phrases to use…), but they were just the ticket for me. All right, they were actually kind of silly and predictable, sort of like a racy (and totally unrealistic) detective show on television, but exactly the type of mindless escapism that I needed with sore knees and aching hands.MacKenzie spent the whole time laying on my legs while I was reading. He’s kind of like a purring, foot-kneading heating pad. What a good cat he is!!Thursday I crawled out to the grocery store and found this wonderful little rose bush there while I was loading the cart with the essentials of life: chocolate, soup and guacamole dip. Hey, my knees hurt!!Cheered up by the roses I took on a little job: look at this disaster of a pantry. There was no room to put away my new bag of corn chips for the guacamole! Clearly a crisis.Look what I accomplished in a half hour! OK, there were three bags of trash to take out. I really don’t think that I should eat food that is over 10 years old, do you?Friday it snowed 6 inches and oddly enough my hands felt better. Time to be productive: I made myself some cute soup bowl pot holders to use in the microwave. These are the most useful little items ever. My hands don’t grip well in the best of times, and this week they were really unhappy. These holders allow me to handle the hot bowls of soup with zero risk of accidents! The pattern was online and really easy to sew. I made two holders in about 90 minutes using fabric and batting from my stash. The pattern is from Seams Happy and can be located here.Last night I returned to knitting and made some progress on my “Waiting for Rain” shawl Look at that short row lace! It is much easier than it looks.and look at how nice my new stitch markers look on the lace!Now it is Saturday, the snow is almost melted away, and the sky is blue and sunny. Look closely at the left end of the tree branch. No, not the white patch of snow, the other end of the branches. Can you almost see the beak? That my friend is the FIRST ROBIN OF SPRING! He was on the ground when I first saw him, but for some crazy reason he flew as I stalked crept up to try to get the picture. Still, I can absolutely verify that he is a robin.
That’s right, it is now spring. We are in for weeks of chaotic weather, but the plants will be coming back to life, the birds will be arriving soon, and I can’t help but be happy. Today my hands feel fine, I’m going to heat up some soup for dinner using my new bowl holders, and then I have a beautiful shawl to knit.
It turns out that this was a pretty good week after all.
I weave, knit and read in Aurora, Colorado where my garden lives. I have 2 sons, a knitting daughter-in-law, a grandson and two exceptionally spoiled kittens. In 2014 I was diagnosed with a serious rare autoimmune disease called systemic sclerosis along with Sjogren's Disease and fibromyalgia.
View all posts by Midnight Knitter
3 thoughts on “Rocking the Week #4”
Your cats are adorable, bless MacKensie for looking after you! I hope everything is ok. I need to take a leaf out of your book and sort out the kitchen cupboards. It’s the perfect time for a spot of spring cleaning after all! Your soup bowl holders are a great idea. And that shawl looks like it’s going to be a beauty!
MacKenzie is a good boy. This week he was a huge help while I sorted receipts in preparation for my tax return appointment next week. (Kitty grin!) He’s a lot of help while knitting (Big kitty grin: he basically shuts operations down!)
Thanks for all your lovely comments. Today it is sunny and I am knitting on the shawl. It is really going to look great I think.
Yarn, Books & Roses 
Your cats are adorable, bless MacKensie for looking after you! I hope everything is ok. I need to take a leaf out of your book and sort out the kitchen cupboards. It’s the perfect time for a spot of spring cleaning after all! Your soup bowl holders are a great idea. And that shawl looks like it’s going to be a beauty!
MacKenzie is a good boy. This week he was a huge help while I sorted receipts in preparation for my tax return appointment next week. (Kitty grin!) He’s a lot of help while knitting (Big kitty grin: he basically shuts operations down!)
Thanks for all your lovely comments. Today it is sunny and I am knitting on the shawl. It is really going to look great I think.
I have a kitty ‘helper’ when knitting too. He sits on my pattern when he’s not getting enough attention! Have a good weekend knitting on your shawl 🙂