First Things First

Thanks for all the encouragement and advice. I am still having problems with my hands and am beginning to suspect arthritis. Although a friend suggested it might be a withdrawal symptom from stopping steroids (I had been taking steroids, initially very high doses, for a year and a half. I had a something (infarction, odema, aneurism - something) on my optic nerve and started to lose my eyesight (very scary). My eyesight is better than ever now but I had to withdraw the steroids slowly or the condition recurred. I ought to express my gratitude to the French Health System at this point who dealt with the situation so promptly, I am positive that if I had still been living in the UK I would be blind now). Anyhow maybe this is some kind of body detox and it will work itself out eventually. Once the Funky Scarf is finished I will avoid crochet for awhile. In reply to the comments I am sure the way I hold my hook exacerbates the matter and I have watched other, faster, better crochetters hold theirs completely differently and tried to emulate, but I get so clumsy I drop everything. I would also like to knit Continental and have the same problem. I obviously need more patience and willpower. BTW (Jaichan in the comments) what is a pastry scraper? Why would you want to scrape pastry?

I did get the fingerless mitts off to my Warm Hands, Warm Hearts swap pal Amy. I knit them out of Colinette Tagliatelli, a 90% merino tape. The suggested needle size is 8mm but I used 5mm and loved the resulting texture, very firm and like dense velvet. I stupidly didn't take a photo so will have to hope Amy posts to her blog when they get there. I am making myself a really long pair though which I hope to finish when all my 'duty' knitting is done. I should finish the funky scarf this weekend but in the meanwhile have received mine already from Janine in Guernsey. It was in 3 narrow strips joined periodically with tiny flowers. Very clever and quite lovely, it has attracted many admiring comments. Also with the scarf were some knitting magazines and some Green and Blacks chocolate (divine) I had never tried the milk one before so I had to sample it straight away (thats quite normal behaviour surely?)