Yarn along 4 – ouch means productiveness

Not much from me last week because on Friday I woke up with a stiff neck. Well, that is painful but nothing a good pain killer couldn’t set right, I thought. I survived Friday at work pretty well in retrospective but it got progressively worse from there on. By Saturday night I was in such agony that I was wondering if I shouldn’t go to the emergency room if only for some painkillers straight away. I wasn’t able to lie down and couldn’t sleep. Sunday morning brought a little bit of relaxation but then it got worse again. Sunday evening I was in the hospital. The doctor didn’t take much of a look, said it was a stiff neck, gave me pain killers and some muscle relaxan and said if I would take one of those pills, that would knock me out for at least four hours, time enough to sleep and relax those muscles at least that far that I could sleep the rest of the night too. At 4 a.m., three painkillers and both of those relexan pills later I was still sitting as I couldn’t lie down and was close to crying because I was super tired but couldn’t sleep because of the pain. Somehow I must have managed to fall asleep but 3 hours later it was more than obvious I couldn’t go to work and seriously needed to see a doctor. And here finally someone took me serious. The doctor too took it for a stiff neck but she said that the only thing that would get you out of pain was relaxing those rock hard muscles. It got progressively better from there. A mixture of pain killers and heat got me moving again. Today I’m still not completely ok but last night I actually even slept well. Yeah!

Why am I writing this in a Yarn along post you might ask. Well first of all because I wanted to complain a little and then because during my time of limited movements I spend a whole lot of time on the sofa knitting because knitting didn’t enhace the pain and if I kept my head motionless it was even nearly painfree. But I needed something fairly simple to keep me occupied so I started a pair of socks and finished it. I think I chose those bright colours to cheer me up. I had to cheat a bit and add some extra stripes because otherwise I would have managed to work two socks out of one skein. Can you see which parts don’t belong to the actual yarn colouring?Than I knit a few more rows on my lace shawl. I know it will be beautiful. But it is growing so slowly. I manage to knit four rows in a row but not more. I’ve done the lace repeat that you can repeat as long as your shawl has grown to the size you want it so be now nearly three times. And I need to repeat it at least three or four more times before the shawl has a decent size. This could take another few months…Other than that I used the train ride on Wednesday and Thursday to add to my sweater sleeeve but to be honest, this knit didn’t thrill me much this week. And I finished clue 1 of my mystery knit. On monday I was nearly glad for being on sickleave. I was able to sit on the sofa and knit through clue 2 of the mystery KAL. It is weird. The form the knit has taken so far is more mysterious than really beautiful and I don’t like the colour that much. It is a really really bright coral. Yet when I wrapped it around my neck for the first time after finishing clue 2 last night, it did look good and the colour suits me. What more can you ask for? I’m curious what will happen in clue 3.As for reading I’m just finishing Mörderische Tage by Andreas Franz which is a crime story. Nothing much to write home about but good enough to follow through and started  The Rosary Girls by Richard Montanari. This one is actually quite good if you like a bit psychopathic crime stories.

Yarn along – Week 33 – Less knitting more sewing

This week was more sewing than knitting yet I join Ginny’s Yarn along as I want to boast about my cute little skirts I made for Michael’s nieces…Wanting to have a belated birthday present for the girls (two birthdays in the last 7 days and then I can’t bring only two things when there are three girls…) when we see them tomorrow in Mallorca I decided to work with existing material and make simple skirts. They are old business shirts that Michael’s brother gave Michael and now that

Yarn along – Week 30 – all those projects

As promised last week I started to take up all those hibernating projects this week. First of all I started crocheting on my big blanket. I’m getting closer to do the edge now but it is so warm here that I can’t stand this big warm blanket in my lap for too long so it is still some way to go to finish this.Then I took some time to finally work some rows on my brother’s christmas jumper again. I’m already more than half way through Rudolph’s nose! Yet I’m still not in love with the colourwork which makes it hard for me to pick it up. But the back is already half way, I think. The problem I’m facing is that

Yarn Along – Week 29 – Design, design, knit, knit, block, block

I’ve been busy at the weekend finishing my Hunger Games Cowl and now it is blocking and blocking and blocking… With four strands of yarn it just needs an enormous amount of time to dry. I also already started to write the pattern down. As I realised I find describing what to do very difficult I made a chart. I think this works better. Also I already found three test knitters. If someone else wants to test knit, leave a comment or send me an email. And then I also finished the lace socklets, painted my nails several times (I’m preparing posts for a 31 Days Nail Challenge in August). Todays nails are for the Polka Dot Challenge with khaki pastell dots on turquoise nails. And I’m reading “Pride & Prejudice” on my iPad (which’s screen looks weirdly cloudy on my photo, no idea why).

For next week I want to show you all those hibernating projects I have and of course work on them again. Yes, I thought I might finally finish one of them before I start something new. What a pity that they are all long time projects that’ll need more than a week to finish… Joining of course Ginny’s Yarn along I would like to know: what have you been reading and knitting this week?

Yarn along – Week 28 – The Hunger Games Cowl and some lace socks

Joining Ginny for the Yarn Along, here is what I knitted and read this week: After stumbling about the question on how to possible knit the cowl Katniss wears on one of the posters for the new Hunger Games movie I thought I just might come up with a pattern.

Yarn along – Week 27 – A quick update

Joining Ginny’s Yarn along for a quick update on what I knit, read and in my case how my nails are painted, as I just posted another post on my trip to Berlin for the Fashion Week (check it out for a designer Give away!).

Nothing new much on my WIPs the Popsicle Dress, the Star Stitch Blanket and the Lace Shawl. But as I travelled to Berlin yesterday and needed a small take away project I started Bintje Socks. Mine will be dark blue and not long but rather short as the sock yarn is a one skein only from my stash. My nails are painted in essies’s tart deco (the must have light coral for the summer, it seems) and the ring fingers are dotted with small white dots. As for reading I think I will skip “Die Ketzerin”. The book is rubish, honestly. Drawn together historical nonsense spicked with unrealistic love scenes and no obvious story after 200 pages! I downloaded my first ebooks and am now reading a classic: Pride and Prejudice. I watched the movie, loved the Indian version of it “Bride and Prejudice”, a very very fun movie, but have never read the book so I’m reading it now.

What have you been reading and knitting this week?

Yarn along – Week 26 – Is it autumn already

After a summer last week this week we are back at 15-20°C and rain… How wonderful.. but it means I have more reason to stay inside and knit more. So I join Ginny’s Yarn Along as usual. I think I will not check the other ones entries today, something I usually love to do on Wednesday, but maybe tomorrow or on friday because honestly, if I see one more blog except from mine, I might explode. For a project at work I checked about 450 German blogs on product testing and beauty today.