Not a good start to my day!

I suffer from Carpal Tunnel syndrome and had my right hand operated on in December 2006 and recently the left hand has been showing symptoms. I don't know if it was the all day/evening knitting of Caroline's shortie cardigan or my wranglings with Doris Chan last night (who will not beat me but that is a story for another day). Either way I was rudely awakened about 5am with the most excruciating pain in my left hand. All the fingers were white and dead looking and as I tried to get the circulation going in it again I almost passed out from the pain. It has woken me a couple of times this last couple of weeks but never this severe. For a while I thought I was not only going to pass out from the pain (and I am no wimp pain wise believe me) but that I was never going to regain the use of my hand and wrist again. I has taken over an hour to regain sensation and even now it is still cold and very pins and needly. Scary biscuits or what? It has made me wary of over using it today. Perhaps I should slow down a little on the crochet/knit front. I have still got a lot of pain in my shoulders and neck area so it's possible that I was sleeping with a nerve trapped.

The cardigan for Caroline is from the Fitted Knits book. I made her one before but it turned out so small that I gave it to the girl next door. I made a different pattern this time and knitted it in one colour as I thought the colours in the book a little vivid. When I got to the band I could not pick up as many stitches as they decreed but pushed on regardless. When finished it was awful (bottom photo)so I had to rippppp and re-do it my way. I wonder if there will ever be a pattern that I will knit from A - Z without modification? Caroline was pleased with the finished result and modelled it for me but insisted that I keep her face off the photos as she has been ill in bed all week with suspected Scarlet fever. The wool was a bargain unknown from Lidl but I think it has worked up quite well. Caroline especially loved all the darting for the bust. it has shaping down the back and on the sleeves also. The photos look dark but if you click on them the detail can still be seen. A pattern for the tiny though. Not one that I would make for myself with my matronly figure.

I honestly thought I had cracked it with Doris last night. I was poodling along thinking at last I have got the hang of it and then I got to the next few rows and it all went pear shaped again. I just cannot grasp what she means sometimes. I am going to press on regardless and just keep in mind the number of shell patterns I have to finish up with and the number of rows and I shall be doing a Frank Sinatra once again (doing it my way!)