NaBloPoMo 8: Very twisty turny

Delighted to report that swift action yesterday paid great results and I find myself reasonably mobile today. Hurrah! I’m convinced that swift pain relief is the answer with back muscle probs – get rid of sufficient pain such that some relaxation and a vertical posture is enabled and hey presto – recovery is in sight. It’s the constant tension generated by pain that actually prolongs the agony. The combo of 4 Distalgesic, a hot wheat bag, and an effective muscle relaxant worked wonders. I’m still tender but it’s great to be standing upright today.

And what a day it is! Beautiful. Still, warm, and with that light that is only experienced in Orkney. I very much wanted to go looking for seal babies today – it would have been a perfect day for observing in comfort. Sadly, the stove won out and DIY efforts have been progressing.

Mr L has been a-scraping and a-scrubbing in between cooking a “Karachi Curry” for our dinner. I boned out a shoulderof lamb while he was cleaning up the hearth from yesterday’s chimney liner installation. Then he assembled his curry before returning to seal the stonework with PVA. I knitted on my Very Terhi mitt (- more later) and turned the lamb bones into stock – I’ll make a Scotch Broth from it this week. We both then tackled the rearrangement of the stove – which was delivered for top flue fitting – we want to vent the flue from the rear. Of course the stove and the instruction booklet don’t match, so it took a while. In fact, we gave up. The dehumidifier running in the sitting room to dry out the stone in the fireplace is generating far too much heat for our comfort. Treacle loves it. He’s spent the whole day dessicating himself.

Next steps: finish swapping the flue vent and blanking plates around; reassemble the stove; undercoat the fireback; and paint the hearth.

First – eat curry.

Very Terhi mitts – I picked these up again last night while we were doing the crossword in bed. They are progressing far better now that I have sorted out a cable needle. I really could not be doing with all that fiddling and dithering. A cable needle makes the process far simpler, easier, and quicker. Why on earth would anybody want to effect this exercise without one? Deliberately? Madness, sheer cack-handed madness! (The kind of person who wears a hair shirt and self-flagellates, I’d guess.)

Despite the very complex-looking chart, I am actually finding these a straightfoward knit. I think that for any knitter with a little cable experience under their belt, the process is largely intuitive. By that I mean that so long as I am careful to switch the correct stitch over the top, deciding whether to knit or to purl doesn’t require peering at  the pattern. Just as well, I’d go completely cross-eyed trying to spot the dotted symbols and remember which symbol means what – even though I carefully highlighted my left and right crossing stitches in pink and green highlighter last night.

Twisty turny, turny twisty... all alone
Twisty turny, turny twisty... all alone

All is not well, though. I am not enjoying these mitts.

Not one bit.

Why? I think it must be because I dislike knitting such small objects with such fat yarn. If I ever make these again I shall make them in 4ply. This would be a good move I think – as I am pretty certain that the mitts are knitting up too large for me. I should probably frog them and knit them on a smaller needle – but that would increase the awkwardness of the knitting – which I am finding quite awkward enough already. It may be my own fault – I chose to use magic loop, perhaps that was a mistake.

I must go and stir the curry and sort out some naan.