On a roll with sock knitting

The socks have been flying off my needles in the last few days. There is something very motivating about knitting with self striping yarn or commercial patterned sock yarn, as there is always the temptation to knit 'just one more stripe' or pattern block. The striped pair are what I called my New Year socks. I knitted one stripe a day throughout January and then added an afterthought heel to them. The yarn is from The Dotty Wool Co and came as two 50g balls so you can knit identical socks. I love the combination of colours and my feet are very happy wearing them! The second pair have been knit using an Opal yarn, one of my favourite commercial sock yarns. They look a little bit like they are impersonating Norah Batty in the photo but I assure you that they do fit very well!

I had hoped that I'd be able to churn out another pair of socks this week while I am having my first cycle of IVIg at the hospital each day. I'm hooked up to a drip for several hours and depending on where the cannula goes, I can sometimes knit. Unfortunately my veins weren't playing nicely and it took 5 attempts to get the cannula in and I was given strict instructions not to move my arm! They are already making noises about putting a port in which would relieve all the stress of trying to find a vein, and I will definitely go ahead with it if it's offered. The cannula has been left in overnight in the hope that it will still work today, but as it's in the crook of my elbow and I've been bending and straightening my arm, I'm not feeling that optimistic. I'll find out soon enough when I head to the Rheumatology Day Unit.

Here are two of the bottles of my 'liquid gold'. I am having 35g of immunoglobulins each day. It costs thousands of pounds for each treatment which is why doctors have to justify its use to a panel to get approval. Basically you have to have failed at pretty much every other treatment option before you get the chance to try it. So I am crossing my fingers and my toes that this treatment is going to work for me. If you have ever given blood, thank you; immunoglobulin uses blood donations from thousands of people and the antibodies are extracted for infusion.

I received this beautiful bouquet of flowers and some chocolates last week as a thank you for my fundraising for Myositis UK. They are my absolute favourite type of flowers and they have been bringing me a great deal of pleasure looking at them. Hope you have some little things giving you pleasure this week too. xxx