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.