Latest news is depressing but the sock begins to look good!

John phoned soon after 1pm to say he finally managed to speak to Dr S' (Mum's consultant) secretary. She told him Mum has been labelled (can't think of the official word just now - classified?) EMI (Elderly Mentally Infirm). So she can't go to the same nursing home as Dad, unless we can find a home that is dual registered - both Nursing and EMI.

God(dess) knows what will happen now, but it's probably going to be both a lot of physical and mental work, accompanied by much soul searching and angst.

At least I've made a start on washing Mum's clothes, now must order name tags (handy hint from a nice lady called Ann we met on the flat's car park just over a week ago) and start sewing them into her clothes.

Meanwhile the knitting continues.



My gauge/tension is badly off, it's supposed to be 26 stitches to 10 cm, and I am getting 24. So the sock is larger than it should be, but I'm not going to frog it now, unless I make a major mistake. Supremely possible!

International ME/CFS Day 2007

Not sure what this flower is - bulbs planted in a hurry between showers. Might it be a ranunculus?

Today is International ME/CFS Day. It's also Florence Nightingale's birthday - some people believe she may have had ME. She certainly had some sort of disabling, relapsing and remitting illness. She may have had chronic Brucellosis, as suggested by D A B Young, formerly principal scientist, Wellcome Foundation. Maybe that's another thing that could be checked for in ME/CFS patients.

Was very pleased to see that Dr Crippen included a post from Mary in this week's BritMeds about her recent consultation with her (locum) GP over her DLA renewal application. I have always been looked after both well and kindly by my GPs, but I have heard many stories similar to Mary's.

Dr Crippen also included a link to an article in the Scotsman about the spread of Ticks and Lyme Disease in Scotland. The lady in the article was misdiagnosed with ME, and I wonder how many other ME patients may be misdiagnosed when they really have Lyme.

This time last year we were staying with Sarah in her shared house in London. We demonstrated outside the Department of Health, and I presented documents from the MEACH Trust to 10 Downing Street. We did some gardening too.

This year we have had too much on our plate with Dad's hospitalisation and then discharge into a nursing home to have been able to travel that far - we haven't even made it to the caravan yet.



I like the way the raindrops have spattered the black pollen around the petals.

PS The knitting is going very slowly (and is also very mistakey!). About 1 or 2 rounds a day. But I think (hope!) it's longer than it was the last picture I took. I don't think John will mind the mistakes (he's not a knitter, so probably will think it's supposed to be the way it is), nice soft warm wooly socks, who cares about mistakes.

Postie brings a parcel!

Sunday I spent a lot of time reading knitting and craft blogs, and landed on Get Knitted. So I had to order some wool... I wanted to have something relatively simple to knit, the sock I'm currently working on has seed stitch panels. Because my concentration is so bad at the moment I keep making mistakes. While the sock will be perfectly functional with some misplaced stitches it seems a shame to put so much effort in and the final sock have loads of mistakes.

And then I thought that since I was ordering anyway, I'd get the Spring/Summer Vogue Knitting International. And of course I needed needles too - now I'm wishing I'd got 2 sets so I could knit the pair simultaneously. Ah well, next time I'm ordering! (good excuse!)

As you can see, the parcel also contained a sock pattern, Get Knitted biro and a lollipop too! Ordered Sunday, had an email Monday morning to say the parcel had been despatched, and arrived this morning. Great service.

Can't wait to get going, but will have to wait for John to hold the skein for me to wind... I should have ordered a swift while I was at it!

Found some just started socks!

I seem to have started this sock maybe in 2004... I've picked it up again, and done about 4 rounds today I think. Lots of mistakes, but John won't notice or care.



I knitted a pair of socks from the same issue of Vogue Knitting ages ago. Certainly more than 10 years ago. Initially I used them for Yoga Classes. Now I use them as bed socks very occasionally. They were my first foray into cable knitting.



Today I have been reading lots of knitting blogs, and succumbed to some yarn to knit more socks. But have decided to concentrate more on plain knit socks as I just want something really easy to work with. Something I can just pick up when waiting for whatever.

I'll still keep plugging away on the rust coloured socks, but right now I need some easy knitting.