Sick and Stockinette

What do you do when you are sick? What if you were sick more than you were well? That is me right now. For those of you that know me, you know that I have terrible problems with allergies, and as a result, my sinuses. I can usually count on one hand the number of days a month in which I do not feel like I have a terrible cold and cannot breathe. If I stayed home from work every day I was sick, I would have been fired years ago.


Some times of the year are better than others, and from Thanksgiving to Christmas was pretty good. But starting a few days before Christmas, my sinuses became infected. (Well, more than usual anyway.) By the time I returned home from my trip to visit family, I was in full-blown 'pull the covers over my head and cry' mode. I was actually sick enough that I went several days without knitting! (I know, it was a shock to my loved ones as well. That's when they started paying attention to how sick I was and not dismissing it as my usual sinus attacks.)

I tried to knit, really I did. I tried working on a sock pattern but found counting to 3 was too much of a challenge. (It was at this point I became extremely grateful that school was still out for the holidays and I was not in front of one of my math classes with this terrible counting affliction.) I tried to knit a simple stockinette sweater. In good times, I can knit this plain fabric while keeping my eyes glued to the TV, my brain turned off. While sick, however, I found that it works better than NyQuil at putting me to sleep. Unlike NyQuil, unfortunately, it does nothing for the sniffling, sneezing, aching, etc. 

I finally admitted defeat and buried myself in blankets and slept. But, I still felt like if I was not knitting I was turning my back on a beloved friend who had stuck by me during my darkest hour. Knitting had pulled me out of my slump. It had gotten me excited about finishing something instead of just starting it. It was my constant companion. 

Then, my WIPs spoke to me. "We will still be here when you are feeling better," they said. "Rest, take care of yourself. We promise not to unravel or become uninteresting." Ok, maybe I was overdoing it on the NyQuil a bit, but it still eased my guilt over putting aside my knitting to regain my health.

It is now a few weeks later. School is back in session. I am not yet 100%, but I have thankfully regained my ability to count, which really helps when teaching math. I can now knit stockinette fabric again while watching the new episodes of my fav TV shows. And hopefully, I will get over being sick and tired....of being sick and tired.

-Your (sicker than normal) Knitting Girlfriend

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