Autumn Tales

Phew what a busy time its been! Not much knitting done yet again for a variety of reasons, more on that later. My life seems to be like my knitting, up and down and not much progress happening.

Firstly the computer crash is a whole lot better and I'm almost back to how I was. Not helped when I discovered all my iTunes songs had vanished. I got them all back but like everything, it took some time.......

My savings account issue has been sorted. My credit card not and makes me fume. An official complaint has been made and yet again, I'm told to wait for a reply. Oh I can't wait till I get to close the account.

Despite the postal strike this gorgeous Hyacinth Handspun Yarn from Etsy seller Pigeon Roof Studios finally arrived. The seller forgot about me so kindly sent some extra yarn, the colour is Dovecote. Believe me, this stuff is well worth waiting for. I saw the handspun made into socks somewhere in blogland and immediately HAD TO HAVE SOME. You will of course understand this. But the seller doesn't dye the handspun to order and I kept missing out on buying it due to time difference. Finally I snagged myself some and can't wait to knit them. They will make gorgeous bed socks indeed ;)

I very nearly never made it to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally last Thurs as I was very poorly indeed and had been in bed for 3 days without the energy to even make myself a drink. Things were not looking good and I couldn't cancel either the train tickets or the show tickets. But I did make it and though very tiring had a great day and very glad I went. I'm afraid all I bought are 2 balls of Tait & Style and 2 magazines, the new Let's Knit and Yarn Forward and a KP needle gauge. I really like the look of Let's Knit and find its more trendy and contemporary compared to Simply Knitting and so far has no boring reader letters, horoscopes or other rubbish womens mag stuff. Let's hope it continues ;)

Yarn Forward was ok, better than the last issue which I didn't buy and has a much better layout. I wouldn't bother subscribing but will look at each issue when it comes out to see if I want it or not. With Ravelry and the amount of patterns available on the internet I think I'd rather have one of the UK mags full of lots of lovely adverts for even more yarn........

Thought I didn't buy much it was great to chat to other knitters and have my Fletcher coat oohed and aahed over. It was funny to see knitting whispering.....is that Noro to themselves as we were leaving. Obviously it was too hot to wear at the show but at Socktopus they spied it in my bag and I had to get it out. It really is fabulous and so great to have other knitters appreciate it too ;) It was also wonderful for all the travelling I did and kept me nice and snug. And what kept my fingers from burning and the cup of tea nice and hot on the way home? My latest FO of course, the Coffee Mitt from 101 One Skein Wonders in Malabrigo. A super quick knit and very handy if your partial to buying hot drinks.

My best friend Joanne though bought me several lovely yarn purchases for Christmas which was why I didn't really need to buy much myself. It's not about how much you buy anyway, its just nice to see whats new and whats about and did I mention the chatting! And the downside to taking stash photos for Ravelry is the realization of just how big you're stash is and that there's no need to buy stuff just because its there........no matter how tempting the Marshmallow at the Colinette stand was! So for Christmas there's more Tait & Style that I've never come across before and who have amazing colours, some Natural Dye Studios Mirage who haven't exhibited at AP before and had a great stall. Lastly some Evolution from Socktopus which is all prettily wrapped so you can't see the lush colours. But believe me, it was oh so soft!

And also as I'd only just gotten some fabulous Harmony Options from my wonderful US pal that actually arrived the morning I went to the show. I expect that gave me the boost I needed to manage to get to the show. They're absolute gorgeous and I love them. Funny how it was only a while back that I mentioned about Options needles hitting the UK at Get Knitted and how not interested as I was as they were metal...... and then KnitPicks bring out the Harmony Options! Get Knitted will be getting them towards the end of the year but of course I couldn't wait that long. I have Snugs to be made and needed a nice harmony circular. Plus the blanket I'm doing is on Denise circs and I don't like using plastic needles for long either and I'd really like to finish it this century.........

Back to my illness. It started with itchy eyes on Saturday and then my asthma was bad Sat night. By Sunday I was listless so we didn't go out the door. I wasn't sure if it was an allergy or virus so we had a think about what could have caused an allergy and came up with 2 ideas. The needle felting I'd been doing that week - quite possible if the fibres started to irritate - though I'd been doing it for several days. The other possibility was a new dressing gown I'd started to wear on Friday. Never happened before but the only other new thing I'd done.

So I put both away but on Monday spent all day in bed in the most miserable mood. I ached so much and couldn't stand for more than a minute without needing to sit down. It was awful. Tuesday, more of the same though I felt a little brighter mentally, though not physically. More miserable on Weds though my asthma started to settle down thankfully. I'd already upped my meds and antihistamines in case it was an allergy but as they didn't appear to work thought it was a virus.

Then I washed the new dressing gown on Friday and put it on in the evening. Immediately I started to get a headache and my chest started to hurt........yup, it was the darned dressing gown! Some internet searching found 'chemical sensitivity' a well known problem and often related to food intolerances and allergies which of course I already have. I've had to avoid all chemicals in perfumes, cleaning products & toiletries for several years and only use organic or natural products already. At work they know not to wear perfume when I'm in but reacting to clothing too was a bit too much.......I got really down after as I couldn't believe how ill it made me. I avoid so much already and its like what else now? Just ridiculous.

So back to the docs I went after only managing a few hours at work this week before I got worse again as I was just reacting to absolutely everything. To say I was unhappy is a gross misunderstatement! But my doctor is absolutely superb and offered me more steroids if I wanted (I'd rather not if I can manage though) and has also referred me to the Bristol Homeopathic Hospital. Conventional medicine can't do anything to help so it's time for alternative treatments. I've absolutely had enough of feeling ill, especially as it takes so long to get back to normal. Allergy UK have also been great and gave me a lot of helpful advice and also suggested a personal air purifier which I can take to work with me. If it helps, it will be well worth it! The dressing gown was polyester, which apparently often contains formaldehyde which explains the reaction. So no easy care, polyester clothing for me. Which I don't actually wear apart from fleeces. So bye bye dressing gown. It'll be back to cotton thanks very much from now on!

So, apologies for the long post and the lack of knitting. Hopefully everything will settle down again soon and I can get some much needed therapeutic knitting done. At the moment I'm on a stop, start, frog mission and can't settle. Maybe I need to start a STR sock, all those hypnotising colours might just do the trick..........