Extreme Knitting Redhead: Knit one, plod one

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Knit one, plod one

Yesterday saw me in a much more positive mood so I decided to do a hill session. The hill I chose was covered in mud and debris, the former from the heavy rains, the latter because the farmer had been hedge cutting with a flail cutter. I decided to find another hill to use as it was too difficult underfoot. I did a pleasant 2 mile warm up, did some stretches then started. The hill was about 400m and I ran up it and jogged back down 10 times then headed for home. I felt a bit puffed but it was a good feeling. As my legs were feeling OK I decided to up the pace a bit on the last mile. Phew, I was very relieved to have a good session after my last run. Total mileage was just under 6.

This morning, Anthony Bailey, the photographer from Knitting magazine, came to take some photos of me running whilst knitting. I couldn't resist asking if he was any relation to David Bailey! We had a nice chat beforehand and it turns out that his wife is herself a very keen knitter. From the sound of it she is a complete addict, knitting at every available opportunity and producing lots of items! We both agreed that this renewed interest in knitting is fantastic.

We went out onto the lane to take the photos and Anthony did some trial shots. Apparently I was moving so quickly that I was blurred (or maybe it was that he just needed to adjust the settings on his camera!!!). A tripod was erected and we tried a few more times. There were some nice shots and I managed not to drop any stitches. I'm experimenting with straight pins again as I found the chunky circular needles really difficult for some reason. It's quite hard to practice at the moment as it's been so windy. I don't know which issue the article will appear in but Anthony thought it would probably be the February issue. I'm very excited.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot that I did 10 miles on the treadmill today.

2 comments:

b-z said...: hello

Its hippo here

had NO idea about all this knitting

where and when can we see these pics?; December 16, 2006 at 3:06:00 AM PST
Susie Hewer said...: Hi Hippo, hopefully they will appear in the next editon of Knitting magazine which is due out in early January.; December 17, 2006 at 7:09:00 AM PST

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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.