Sunday 12 April 2009

The squares are finished - now the work begins



76 squares, plus 2 half squares and 10 godets have been made. Now the work begins. The assembly. Thankfully this time I have crocheted over the tails as I went along so at least I don't have all of those to sew in however I am going to suggest that Lisa carries with her a needle and thread when she wears this jacket as my sewing up skills leave a lot to be desired. No matter how hard I try there will always be bits poking out somewhere.

I think it will be tomorrow or Tuesday before the whole jacket is assembled. I then have to crochet all the way around it for the borders, crochet a shell edging and make some crochet buttons to fasten the jacket together.

I went with Julie and her two dogs for a walk with Buster today. Thank God for Julie. I don't know what I would have done without her. She threw sticks for Buster and wore him out for me. My knee was so painful yesterday I didn't think that I would make the walk today. I dug into my stash of strong painkillers left over from my spinal pain and took those and have managed to hobble through the day.

Last night I felt like I had red hot pokers stabbing into my knee. At one stage I was on the point of ringing for an ambulance as the pain was that bad. I am sure that this is not right and I am going to ring the hospital on Tuesday and leave a message for my specialist. I am not a wimp and had suffered crippling pain in my back for many years before my spinal op but this pain in my knee is relentless. It does not stop when I sit down or put my feet up. I am getting hardly any sleep as the moment I lay down the pain starts in earnest. I have tried pillows under it, warm bean bags and still it wakes me up quite a few times during the night. I try not to cry out too loudly as next door might wonder what is going on in my bedroom, but it takes my breath away sometimes and I have to let out a scream. I expected the pain to have diminished by now but instead it is escalating. It is far worse now than it was the first week after my op. I can't understand why it is so painful. It's not like I had a new knee joint fitted.

I managed to sit in the garden for a while whilst I was sewing some of the squares together. Normally I would crochet them together but as the last row of these squares is all in trebles it made a lumpy edge so I decided to stitch them together to be neater. Buster thought my sitting in the garden was a signal for a game of ball. I just wish that he would bring the ball to me and not leave it a foot away from me. Luckily I had taken my walking stick into the garden with me so it acted as a ball hook and hockey stick for retrieving and then whacking the ball. It's hard to get much sewing up done when the game is never ending.

Much as I enjoy Buster's company I will be glad when my son comes to take him home tomorrow.

3 comments:

Zu said...

You definitely need to see the dr again Jan. Your knee really shouldn't be getting worse.

June said...

Sorry to hear that you are suffering so much pain in your knee. You really need to see the doctor about it, as it must be making life so hard for you. You have made such good progress with your squares and I am looking forward to seeing the finished jacket. I hope there will be lots of pictures.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe you've done 70 odd granny squares, and other bits and pieces, and you are saying NOW the work begins!!!
Wish you could crochet a new knee ;) Lx