{It's tradition now to start a "selfish" project on Christmas day after all the Christmas knits are complete. 2013= socks}
Christmas time is always a paradox around here- fast paced and crazy just as often as it is slow and quiet. We finished most all of the out-and-about celebrating before the actual holiday, and this year I even had everything wrapped and ready to go before Christmas Eve. Blessings on the online shops who kept me a little more sane this year and helped me in being prepared well before Christmas day. Brian was the only one to go hat-less at Christmas, but I'll remedy that soon.
We took last week off of school, of course, but we are back to business today. We missed some of our hours earlier in the month for doctor and dentist, so we're using this week to catch up a bit. I've already got a bit of a curriculum bug going for next year, so some of my free time lately is going to looking at curriculum possibilities for 2014-2015. It's not even 2014 yet, and there goes my brain, thinking ahead to next year.
I'm hoping to get back to a more regular posting schedule here, but truthfully there has been very little to share. I'm not able to knit much lately due to issues with my left arm and shoulder so there's been nothing to post. After some less than satisfactory test results with my primary doctor I've been referred on to two specialists- January is essentially going to be spent in waiting rooms it seems. I'd love to say it will just be more knitting time, but I will have to wait and see if my body will cooperate on any given day. I was able to do a few inches on a sock over the past few days, but I never know if I'll wake up the next day unable to grip. Even typing is a chore as I mostly type 1 handed these days.
I'm needing to save my left hand mobility for work (since a violinist/pianist is pretty useless without her left hand), so I'm investigating some different knitting styles to see if I can make a change that will help for the long run. I currently knit english style- switching to continental is out of the question as it would rely even more on the left hand. Portuguese knitting looks promising, but there is still a lot of left handed involvement. If anyone wants to suggest a style you know of where the left hand is essentially stationary please let me know. I'm willing to try anything no matter how obscure!
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hope you get the answers for your hand, wrist, arm shoulder. Keep us in the loop!
ReplyDeletehow is your posture? slouching? upright? I find if I sit up and have a cushion behind I get less shooting pains down my arms (yup). Also I am an aggressive knitter when it comes to dpns and socks. I've switched to 5 inch wooden dpns and that has cured my aggressiveness. I get a lot of pain no matter what with dpns so I limit my time knitting with them. 1-2 hours tops.
I take breaks, stretch every hour.
wool is the best to knit with. Cotton, or plant fibers hurt my hands and I avoid them. I have been diagnosed with RA and have danced around issues. After they rule out tendon problems, carpal tunnel, I'd take it easy. Good luck! I hope you will be cured!!
Karen, I so appreciate your words! I don't want to go into too much detail until we know exactly what is wrong, but there are issues along my whole left side (including my leg), so we know there is a larger issue at play- hence seeing the 2 specialists over the next few weeks. As far as knitting, I'm trying to rest my hands every 2-3 rows and I've been working on knitting lever style, which really keeps my left hand stationary. I didn't realize I was knitting so close to lever style already when I knit with DPNs, but it's been a moderately easy transition to make. Thank you for your other suggestions!
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