another change

I have suddenly decided this morningm that I needeed to re-design my blog...again. I know it's looked a bit shoddy lately, mainly because I haven't bothered to update it much, so I'm having a bit of a tidy up.

Please bare with me.

The diagnosis is in

As some of you know, I have been going through the process of getting diagnosed for a sleep disorder over the last 6 months. It took me 2 years to get to the point where the doctors were no longer fobbing me off with "your depressed" (I don't see how smily sunny optimistic me could ever be thought of as depressed, unless you count the fact that I was miserable because I was tired!) Today was the big day I got all of my test results back and an official diagnosis!

Well after waiting an hour over my appointment time at the hospital this morning, I finally saw the consultant who then tried to tell me I had delayed sleep phase syndrome, because the Actiwatch results showed I wasn't sleeping until 2am?!?

I pointed out that I am always in bed by 11, and that i am always asleep within minutes, we were all quite puzzled until hubby pointed out that they weren't my results...ahh the joys of the NHS!

Anyway, when we finally got that sorted, all of my results confirmed that I have Idiopathic Hypersomnia. The doc has said that the best thing is for me to stay on the Modafinil, and self dose with anything from 100-400mg throughout the day, at what ever intervals I find most helpful.

Essentially, I am always tired, and they have got me on a tablet, that allows most people to stay up for 48 hours, and still feel alert. It just about get's me through the day!

He even said that If I wanted to take extra to go out for the evening that was ok, and that if I wanted to take it through pregnancy (not that I am or even planning, but 24 and just married, I guess he figured it would happen eventually) then most doctors were ok with that too, even though it's not licensed for use in pregnancy.

I really thought I'd be relieved, but TBH I feel like crying. It's like someone just came up to me and said "it's a life sentence, you will go through the rest of your life feeling like you've only had 4 hours sleep!"

I suppose it's just that now it's official, all the other possibilities, slim as they were, are gone. I'm trying to look on the bright side, after all if this is my cross to bear, it's quite a small one in the grand scheme of things.

Just had to get that off my chest. Thanks for listening.

xx

Busy Busy

I did think that I had quite an un-productive week, until I sat down to blog, and realised that I've done quite well.

I've finished one palooza sock;
It's actually a lot brighter then this, but I couldn't get the colour to come out right on the camera, It's a sort of grass green.

I've nearly finished a second palooza sock;This is the Cable down the back.

Ive started a baby blanket for a friend who's expecting in September;

I've died some Roving;

And I've finished spinning 100g of rainbow roving (about 50g done this week), and started on hubby's new jumper... I really thought I'd had an un-knitty week!

Hubby & I have also joined a re-enactment group this week, we went along on Wednesday and really enjoyed it, Hubby is going to learn to fight, and it has given me another excuse to look into spinning techniques that were used at the time. I don't want to go into too much detail until we've been a couple more times.

Not much time for blogging though...Harry potter is waiting.

Oh before I go though, the yarn eating moster has struck again, the 100g I finished this week, was going to be 200g, but it seems that 100g has disappeared! The plot thickens!

Sigh

Ok, you know the Sock pal socks, the ones that were in a depressingly early stage in my last post, well i decided last night that I needed to make some headway, so with a fair amount of gusto, I set to work on the Teal ones. Only when I looked I noticed that the short row heel was full of holes. OK I Thought, I can live with that. Then I thought I better check I had enough yarn, and guess what, I'm about 2oz short!

Now when I spun this yarn I know I had enough, so I have come to the only possible conclusion. My DH Has a secret yarn eating fetish. I have taken him to task about this, and he denies it in no uncertain terms but it is the ONLY explanation.

Un-deterred I thought I would go to work on sock pal 2's socks, but now I realise that the yarn completely obscures the pattern. So with less then 3 weeks to go, I am back to the drawing board, and 4 socks to go.

2 questions, 1. Why do I always leave things to the last minute, and why in my infinite wisdom sis I decide that 2 sock pals would be better then one?!

I'm Back

Be Warned, this post is long, and with a lot of photos' so you might want to grab a cuppa before you start :)

Well I'm back, feeling rather burnt and sorry for myself (seriously, one day of sun & I could barely drive home. What I wouldn't give to not be so pale!) Well as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I have loads to catch up on, but things have been so hectic that I can't remember anything before my birthday, so I'll start from there (I've put things under titles, so you feel free to skip bits :)

Birthday
Well it rained, and rained, then stopped, and rained some more. The weather didn't hold out long enough for us to actually BBQ so hubby came through, and stood in the kitchen cooking, while the rest of us sat in the living room drinking. Unfortunately the chap with the camera hasn't sent any photos through yet, but I did manage to finish this cardigan in time to wear on the day. My present to myself.




Woolfest
I had a fantastic time at woolfest. Sarah & I drove up to the campsite on Thursday evening. We arrived late, and had to put the tent up in the dark, now my tent is quite big, and a little temperamental, also it transpired that some of the poles were cracked, so this wasn't the easiest job in the world. I promptly fell asleep (sometimes having a sleep disorder has it's up sides) while Sarah didn't sleep a wink all night. We got to wool fest just 40 minutes after it opened on Friday, and it was already jammed. Sarah has posted some great pics on her blog of just how overwhelming the whole thing was. Any way to the nitty gritty, I was really well behaved, and didn't spend too much, my biggest purchase was this beautiful bosworth spindle, Which I haven't put down since.



I also bought 2 whole fleeces, a brown and a white Shetland.

And some gorgeous Alpaca, it's so soft, i can't wait to start playing with it.
I also picked up some pencil roving, which is probing a little difficult to spin at the moment, but I haven't tried it on the wheel yet, so we'll have to see with that one. and a Turkish spindle, just because I wanted one!

I also got to meet the wonderful woolly wormhead, her mum, and blog less aunt, and Susoolu, and to see the lovely wye sue, and her spinning wheel. Unfortunately there were others I missed, like missmalice, but I look forward to seeing more people next year.


Holiday
Hubby & I had a wonderful week in Devon, and even managed to catch some lovely sunshine, although as already mentioned I am now burnt to a crisp. I had some great knitting and spinning time, and after meeting the great woolly worm head, i just had to knit a hat, so here it is. You may notice that I've had my hair chopped off since the birthday photo too. Anyway this was actually ripped and reknit the next day, as it was a bit too small, but the resulting look was pretty much the same, and I wanted to keep this pic for posterity.

I did lots of spinning too, and managed to spin in the park, and on the beach, hubby developed a liking for photographing me when I was spinning, so there are some of that mixed in with all of these lovely holiday snaps.


Sockapalooza
Finally progress is being made on the sockaplooza socks. These are the socks I am doing for sock pal 1 theyareteal handspun merino and it's doubtful that they will still be boot-socks, but I'm really pleased with them, they're in stocking stitch, and will have a simple band of cable just below the cuff. I've nearly finished sock one on this pair.
This is the start of sock pal 2's socks. I love this yarn, but it has a very small variation repeat, just too short to be a stripe. I'm not sure about this pattern yet, and think I may opt for a simple diagonal rib in the end, to show off the yarn a little more. (sorry it's a really bad picture.

Other WIP's
Here are the few other things I've been working on lately

Camo socks - For Hubby, I spun the 2 greens, and over dyed with a brown/red. This is sock 2 and they're just a plain 2x2 rib


Red Roving - I dyed 4oz of this just before we went on holiday, It's come out with some lovely pinks, reds & oranges. These are the 2 oz I've already spun, and I'm going to ply it with a thicker fluffy off white I think.


And lastly there is this lace shawl. It's a bit difficult to tell, but it's a really simple, pattern, and I'll post it once I get round to writing it up, and once I have a finished blocked shawl to show. Right that's enough for me, I have fibre to be playing with.

Holiday

Just a quick note vm say i'm still here. I'm on holiday. So i'm trying vm post by email? Me and dh are having a lovely time. The weather is holding and i'll tell you all about it when i get home. X