I don't think I would cope!

 

Well, my fibromyalgia flare has abated, and I have been doing a lot of knitting as watching TV bores me to tears.

We are in Autumn or Fall here in Australia and the mornings and evenings are cold, so there's nothing nicer than doing some handcrafts in the warmth each evening and throughout the day.

I have been a bit depressed lately and I think it's because I have been watching too much news on world events. So I decided to turn it off and bring my attention to something positive.

I often listen to the Bible on YouTube read by David Suchet. It tends to put my mind at rest and gives me pleasure.

Most mornings I do breakfast and medications and go on the computer to check emails, answer any comments in my blogs and check out groceries specials and organise our medications and get the scripts that are due, refilled.  Then I tidy my home.

I have a lot of joy in watching the birds that come into our back garden and one of my morning chores is to feed them after I have fed Xena our little white cat... separately of course lol

As I am often low on spoons, I need to pace myself in the afternoon and often take a nana nap in order to be able to cook dinner.

We don't leave the house much at all, and to be honest I prefer it that way. But with my motorised scooter coming soon, I may find I quite like shopping again....

Life is pretty simple- almost boring, but with all that's happening in parts of the world, I am glad for the boring life. I don't think I would cope very well running for my life away from bombs!

She was right!

You may remember that I had to give up knitting and crocheting as it hurt my hands too much. It was so disappointing!

I was visiting my twin sister one day and I found her crocheting a beautiful baby shawl. Now her hands are sore with her lupus and arthritis, and when I asked her how she managed and  told her I could not longer knit or crochet, she encouraged me to take it up again. 

She assured me that her hands had improved since she took up her handcrafts again, and I resolved to give it a try. My hands improved and I had better flexibility in my hands and wrists. I was rapt! I needed to do something creative and those last few months.

With fibromyalgia it is important to find something to take my mind off pain, and I find knitting or crocheting does that to some degree. I also believe it is healthy and very satisfying to be creative and I have knitted, crocheted or sewn many gifts for family and friends over a lifetime.

I also enjoy blogging and so I thought to create a new one, highlighting a lot of those creations, mainly to remind myself of happy hours making and giving each one.

Currently I am working on making baby shawls and jackets for my grandchildren to use for their own children when the time is right... an heirloom gift or legacy if you will.

With being 71 years of age, I obviously don't know how long I will be able to continue doing this, so I am working on them now, either giving them directly to those old enough to keep them themselves, or to their mothers to keep until the time is right.

I hope you enjoy looking at my creations...

Keep clicking and stitching,

Glenys                    

 https://nanasclicksandstitches.blogspot.com/

The last stitch

So I decided to do some knitting recently. As a knitter all my life, I have a considerable stash of yarn and knitting needles. 

Vying for my attention are a large assortment of crochet hooks, needles, cottons of a myriad of colours, embroidery cottons and buttons. 

Dragging my knitting bag out of storage, it was like a greeting of old friends. I have been knitting since the age of 6 when my grandmother taught me both to knit and crochet.

We have 15 grandchildren and 2 great-granddaughters and I made my customary jacket, booties and bonnet set in blackberry stitch for all of them- except the little great-granddaughter. Goodness knows, I tried to make her a mint green shawl that her mother had requested, but halfway through, it got too heavy and I had to abandon it.

I refused to be beaten and decided to do it in squares, but alas, my deformed arthritic fingers could not manage to crochet. We moved out of the RV and with plenty of time at home, I decided to give knitting a go again.

As I cast on for a little jacket, I suddenly was overcome with tearing pain and searing muscles, and my fibromyalgia screamed, "Enough! How dare you think you can enjoy yourself by being creative!?"  Tearfully, I put the wool and needles down, went to the kitchen and took some paracetamol.

I rummaged through my knitting bag, the memories overwheming me. Leftover wools from all the previous baby clothes I had ever made, a remnant of the shawl I commenced but couldn't finish and buttons- every colour and all the same little pearlised look. 

A haunting memory of the endless baby jackets over the last 54 years of expecting children then grandchildren assaulted my brain, leaving me with a certain sadness for happier years and then years gone by so quickly.

Fibromyalgia and chronic pain have taken away so much from me, and it was hard to put that bag away again. But I will keep it to remind me of happier times when my muscles didn't hurt just keeping my arms up to knit or my neck didn't feel like it was breaking as my arms moved in quick rhythm to the casting on. 

I know this probably isn't blogging material, but I think we Sacrificial Home Keepers need encouragement. So, enjoy what you can still do, because with fibromyalgia and other chronic illness, we never know when it will be the last button we sew, letter we will handwrite,  or like me, what will finally be the last stitch.