Withdrawal Symptoms

Hello, hello! It has been a while, hasn't it? Quite a lot has happenend in Little Crochet world in the past two weeks. As you may know from my last post, I have developed repetitive strain injury to my wrist, which I not so cleverly ignored for a good two or three weeks, so desperate was I to make progress on the Poncho and on the Blanket. It got to a point where the pain could not be ignored anymore and as a result...

I was ordered not to touch a crochet hook for at least 4 weeks. FOUR WEEKS!!! It hasn't even been one week yet, and I am already going crazy. I even relapsed a few days ago, trying with my left hand and then with my injured hand, only to have the pain return with a vengeance the next day of course. I didn't do much, mind you, I just needed a colour fix, which I indulged by crocheting a few rows in some of my beloved variegated yarn. 

Oh, that was bliss! Sadly I must now abstain from it for a month lest the injury goes chronic, and I intend to stick to the new regime, however taxing it may feel for now. I cannot risk never being able to do crochet again.

In other news, I had a cold followed by a nasty chest infection, which pretty much knocked me out for two weeks. But the worst - if slightly comical - thing is that I pulled a tendon in my neck during a coughing fit, resulting in massive migraines that left me unable to sit straight, look down or focus on any task. Drugs prescribed by the doctor did nothing to alleviate the pain and even had me taken to the hospital due to an adverse reaction. So it's been a week of dragging myself from bed to sofa and from sofa to bed, with a hot water bottle constantly balanced on my head. I am now thankfully getting better, which is why I am now able to write this post :)

So what have I done in the meantime to occupy myself? Well, I tried crocheting a little, but as I mentioned above, this brought back the wrist AND the neck pains, so I quickly stopped. I tried finger crocheting...

...but that also didn't help with the neck. I sewed a cushion cover...

...and different types of lining for a recently finished crochet bag. 

I read through crochet blogs and my latest issue of Simply Crochet magazine... 

...but I have to say it made me crave my craft even more. :-/

Netflix also became a great friend of mine, and I watched Stephen Fry's Planet World, an excellent series of documentaries about language, and a true delight for the linguist I am. I also have been reading more, which I hadn't done for ages. I used to be an avid reader, and that sort of subsided for various reasons too long to explain here. So I have been reading this in particular...

...and I have to say this was the first book I have truly enjoyed reading in a long time. I have just realised how ironic the title is given my current condition! :D 

I have also been taking pictures of the flowers blossoming just outside my main window, a simple pleasure which never fails to bring a smile to my face and crucially doens't involve much wrist or neck pain!

That's it, really. Oh, and I have gone and splashed out on a set of Clover Amour crochet hooks, which I am forlornly contemplating in a twisted kind of self-torture. 

Aren't they pretty? Ooo, I can't wait to try them! Maybe just a couple of rows with my left hand? No, no, no, I must be good. O_o