quietly

One year turned into another very quietly here. I am still convalescing after my latest evil wintry lurgy, and have been told to stay off the foot as much as possible. The foot does seem to be getting better, but overall I really do feel rather grim – my neurologist warned me that dealing with and recovering from infections would feel much, much worse post-stroke, and this certainly seems to be the case. Yesterday, I looked over my blog posts from a year ago, and it made me rather sad. The turn of 2010 — a night of happy sub-zero camping in Cumbria – seemed very far away indeed. As for the coming year, I have few hopes, save the rather modest one of continuing to recover. The mobility I can work at, but it would be fantastic if my brain could sort out the damned fatigue, and the auditory processing disorder which currently make so many things associated with ‘normal’ life impossible.

These photos show the wrong side of my current knitting project, and another textile coincidence. At the top of the post you can see a Welsh woollen blanket, which my Ma gave to me while I was in hospital (it was bloody chilly on the Western’s neurological wards, I can tell you). Like many gifts people gave to me at that time, this blanket was a genuinely comforting thing to have with me in an impersonal institutional space: I loved its simple woven pattern, and most of all, I loved its soft, faded colours. Since I got out of hospital, the blanket has been folded away, and I don’t think about it much. At least I thought I didn’t. For a few weeks, I’ve been working on a new project in several soft, pale shades of J&S jumper weight. I took a pause while knitting it the other day, examined the wrong side, and immediately thought of the blanket.

The resemblance is perhaps less striking from the right side (which I’m not revealing yet) and I can honestly say that the blanket played no part at all in my conscious thinking about this design. Perhaps my subconscious is stuffed with textiles, or perhaps this faded, pastel palette is simply one that I rather like. In any case, I’ve had to take a pause in knitting it, as I’ve stupidly run out of one of the key shades. However, I hope I can soon pick up the required extra skein from the vendor in person. That’s right: Tom, and Bruce, and me, and my gammy foot, and a whole lot of knitting, are heading North for a few days. I am hoping to feel well enough to really enjoy it.