4 years ago I suddenly stopped blogging after 10 years of sharing my knitting exploits. I really hope I still have some followers out there!

Long story, cut very short – I had a stroke – and that really messed up my knitting and ability to blog.

The good news is I’m 95% recovered now and ready to start blogging again 😀

About the Stroke

The stroke was a bleed on the brain (hemorrhagic stroke) rather than a blockage (ischemic stroke), probably caused by uncontrolled high blood pressure.

Wanna see my brain?

I didn’t have the usual stroke symptoms like droopy face or one side paralysis (thank God!) – I suddenly realized I couldn’t read or write – that makes blogging rather difficult! Also, I was struggling to find the right words when speaking and had a terrible headache. I thought it was migraine.

Following day, I called the NHS 111 helpline, got rushed to A&E and into hospital and a long recovery and having to relearn to read like 5 year old, sounding out their letters followed.

The Wrong Knitting to Take to Hospital

Just before the stoke, I’ve had been on a Brioche spree – first the lovely Glen Brioche Scarf .

Then Lynda, a fellow Guilty Knitter, discovered and made the Rose Gold Shawl by Andrea Mowry.

This beauty …

This beautiful creature is made from two colourways of yarn. Each colour runs through 5 different shades. Utterly mouthwatering 😛

I found some perfect yarn, RiverKnits BlueFaced Leicester, which came in helpfully selected gradient sets in delicious mini skeins. This is what chose, after about an hour of being indulged by the lovely and patient RiverKnits owner while I pulled everything off the display and was a massively indecisive and ditherery.

These mini skeins make equally cute mini yarn cakes when wound…

The majority of the shawl is straight forward Brioche “ribs” with some inspired increases and decreases at the ends of rows to give that lovely curve..

Things moved on swiftly…

Then, near the end, after several colour changes, it turns evil 😈

Next you knit a fabulous but rather daunting, complex pattern of increases and decreases…

I had reached the final colour combination and the end was in sight. Happy, Happy. 😍

…then I took it to the hospital with me and tried to work on it in the middle of having a stoke.

It looked like I’d let a semi-tame, drunk monkey have a go at it. 🐒🙊

Take Note: The person with a suspected brain injury is not the best judge of their own knitting ability.

This shawl became my measure of how recovered I was – it scared me for a long while.

How is the Rose Gold Shawl now?

I’m happy to report, after some ripping back and reknitting – I have finished the Rose Gold Shawl!

This was the last “stroke recovery milestone” I had set myself.

• Read a book – done!
• Return to work – done!
• Watch a film with subtilties and keep up with reading them – done! (My reading was horribly slow and I had to keep pausing the films – no good for the cinema!!)
• Get out running again – done!
• Upgrade my professional qualifications – done!
• Face the Rose Gold Shawl and slay my Brioche demons – done!

So here she is, completed Rose Gold Shawl…

There are dozens of stories and projects, both knitting and sewing to share with you from the last 4 years.

I’ll leave you a completed knit report and start on my next post – It feels good to be back 😀

Completed Knit Report
Name:	Ravelry: susancrowe’s Rose Gold
Pattern:	Rose Gold Shawl by Andrea Mowry.
Yarn:	River Knits Blue Faced Leicester 4 ply
Pattern Problems:	None with the pattern itself, but not recommended for someone having a massive stroke!
Pattern Modifications:	None
Washing and Wearing:	It’s lovely but I’m unsure if I’ll ever wear it – I’m not a shawl person – love making it though
Knit It Again???:	Nope – not for me but maybe as a gift
Difficulty:	9/10
Rating:	9/10
Other Postings Relating To This One:	None