Shawl Knitting and blocking

I admit, I find the pinning out and blocking of lace shawls oddly soothing. Its guaranteed to make me feel better after a bad day - like today. I also had one last week, and when I needed it, it worked its magic then.

Last week's session, for some reason, went unblogged. It's a pretty shawl-come-baby snuggy, in 100% merino (Mirasol Hacho). The yarn was hurting my fingers, so what had been destined to be a shawl for me for those cold winter evenings turned into a sweet little triangle wrap for bubs to snuggle in on those nights instead.


Tonight's shawl was a new experience. I was trying a pretty new yarn (King Cole Riot) which has similar colourway designs to the well-known Noro. The Riot, however, is 70% acrylic - ideal for what I needed for the shawl: washable and bright colours for the Princess' dressing up box. It was my first time steam blocking acrylic and I think it went pretty well considering.


As desired, I feel much better now. Just what I needed, given that I'm dreading tomorrow - I'm accompanying my phobic other half to the hospital for a dental check-up, in preparation for arranging to have some teeth pulled under a general. This should be fun...

Stuck on my bum!

Fear not, I didn't impale myself on a stray DPN (yet!).

The current pregnancy was going swimmingly up until 3 weeks ago when I was, out of nowhere, knocked for six by SPD. I suffered mildly with this when carrying my second son, but it resolved itself around 28 weeks thankfully. Princess and youngest son's pregnancies were both free from the dreaded pelvis problems, but this time it seems I'm paying for it. My left hip is shot - slight movement causes the joint to lock painfully, the pelvic joint at the front is constant throbbing pain, and the sacroiliac joints at my lower back are, frankly, useless. Standing or walking causes them to audibly pop (it has been heard 15ft away!), and often I lose sensation in one or both legs afterwards. Not to mention, the shuffling gait I have adopted in order to avoid pain in all three of these areas is now causing both severe muscle tiredness is both thighs and calves after about 200yds, AND my back to spasm painfully across my midsection. ARGH!!!

For comic relief - imagine if you will, a 7 month pregnant woman. Got it? Okay... Now picture a tubigrip support bandage - you know the kind you get for a mildly sprained wrist or ankle. Got that too? Now... Imagine said pregnant woman squished into said tubigrip bandage (okay a body sized one, technically) from thigh to boobs. Yup - sexy eh? That's me at the moment, awaiting a physio appointment to hopefully get some crutches.

Anyway, as a result, the man has confined me to my recliner for most of the day. He has taken over the thrice-daily school runs (a 5 minute each way walk, which was taking me a total of 40 every time). In theory, I have more time than ever to craft. The downside is that the pain and the painkillers both dull my desire to pick up yarn - either I'm too stressed, my head is too fuzzy to concentrate or the pain is causing hot flushes that would put a menopausal woman to shame.

I'm managing to get little bits here and there done however. The shawl is currently one and a half repeats short of completion. The more I look at it however, the more I see wings, so I'm considering using the pattern's eyelets to thread a ribbons up the centre and adding some wristbands to make it so.

I also completed a cute little stashbuster this afternoon - a pretty crochet daisy chain to add to the dressing up box. So quick that I'm considering using the pattern as a room decoration when we finally get a bigger place and DD gets her own room. She has a cute little pink poled bed, and I'm thinking it would look even more girly with garlands of these wrapped around the bars. I know she'd love it!

KAL Shawl

Now that we've settled into a routine again, life is pretty quiet. I have my Aunt's wedding reception tonight which will be the first (and last) night out for me in a while. I should have been out last night for my baby sister's 21st birthday, but my pelvis has been killing me lately (late-onset SPD?) so I had to pick one night out or the other, there was no way I'd be able to stand two in a row :(

On the crafty side of things, I've been beavering away for the past 3 days on my christmas knitting project - well, part of it anyway. For DD's christmas, I'm going to fill a dressing up box for her, and I'm intending to knit or crochet a good portion of it.

The first project is this pretty: a shawl in rainbow colours. I started in on the 1st, as my Rav group's KAL project, and it's flying along - a great pattern that once you figure out (THAT gave me a headache, I can tell you now vintage patterns can be a PITA) you can pick up and knit without the pattern. As a result, I'm 3 days into the month's KAL and already about a third of the way through!