Extreme Knitting Redhead: At Last!

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

At Last!

I've finally finished the second glove. Hallelujah! I have learnt so much doing these and the second one fits me much better than the first as I had the confidence to ignore the pattern instructions and amend them to fit my chunky little hands.

There are a couple of things I would change - the way the fingers are finished (I don't like the lumpiness of the 8 stitches drawn together and will look for another method for future use) and the severity of the thumb shaping. If you look at the right hand thumb you will see what it looked like when I followed the instructions and it looks quite pointed. On the left hand I changed the shaping and I think it looks much better. So much so that I am going to rip the right hand thumb and do it like the left. No sooner said than done I had chopped off the offending thumb ready for re-shaping. It's finished now but I won't bore you with another photo!

My tension also has changed between the 2 gloves. On the first one it was much looser whilst I got used to the 2 handed FairIsle technique. I haven't blocked them yet so they still look a bit lumpy but overall I am very pleased.

Barney was getting bored by all the typing.........

Whilst Tinker waited patiently. Bless!

1 comment:

TutleyMutley said...: I STILL haven't finished my second glove! Well done you - and I love the shaping of your thumb - MUCH more like the actual shape of my thumb too. Would you put your version on your blog? Or is that too cheeky.
BTW - I DID manage to run the New Forest Half Marathon - but slowly! I did it in 2hrs38min, so I'm well chuffed. I think I'll stick to 10K for a while and build up my stamina a bit before doing another. My short legged friend 'Gurnie' did it in 3hrs3mins and is muttering about marathons. NO I say, no!; September 28, 2007 at 10:22:00 AM PDT

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Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum's story and I hope you'll dig deep and sponsor me using the link below to help find a way of beating this destructive disease.