Totally shattered!

Not only from the 11 hours of travelling last night/this morning to get back home from Rhodes, but from the weekend before and of course, the laundry aftermath!

Week before holiday, G developed a random itchy blotchiness. We suspected perhaps the cat had started a flea colony, and reacted accordingly. Last Saturday was spent putting insecticide on carpeting and soft furnishings, and washing pretty much everything else. G managed to get insecticide on pretty much every duvet set we own, and let me tell you, drying out king size duvets and bedsheets when IT WILL NOT STOP RAINING is not exactly my idea of a fun weekend. Also he dumped all of his socks and undies in the wash. And he sprayed both my knitting baskets with insecticide, so I have had to ditch one piece of knitting and wash some others - it's put me right off working on the Debbie Bliss cardigan, because I want to wash it, but can't when it's still on the needles (the back has since been finished with no ill effect to my hands). Insecticide is a knitter's nightmare, let me tell you. G wanted me to wash the lizard ridge bedspread (wool, not machine-washable, and too bulky for the machine anyway) and to throw out my gorgeous sari silk shawl (dry clean only). And of course, I have knitting and yarn everywhere.

Also managed to break the support on my side of the headboard (we moved all the furniture in the bedroom whilst insecticiding) so it's currently awaiting repair.

The poor cat was given so much insecticide via collars, drops and then a spray, I'm surprised he's still walking around - he started flinching whenever we came too near him, so being bundled off to the cattery (G called it "putting him in storage", lol!) was possibly the final straw in a nightmare week for him.

So, with all that, and general stress brought on by disrupted sleep (ruddy bank holidays! Feh!) knitting ground to a complete halt. Seriously. I was actually TOO stressed to want to knit. Which shows you how stressed I was.

Took some cotton and sock yarn to Rhodes, started a hand-knit sock but the toe looked awful so ripped it out. The cotton was for practicing "chain free crochet" which is really, really, cool! Ended up using the sock yarn to work the first 8 rounds of a crochet shawl pattern that Wendy G is doing. A round was missed from the pattern, so hers is coming out ruffled or bowl-shaped - a shawl for a hunchback, or possibly the world's largest and floppiest hat. The picture is terrible, too - photographers love to drape things over chairs, with no thought as to whether the picture is clear enough to work from! I much prefer diagrams for crochet patterns - especially for complex doilies - far easier to read than a bunch of abbreviations.

Holiday was great - good food, constant sun, temps around 32-35 degress every day. Alas, I also have some sunburn (despite best efforts) and 4-5 mozzie bites. I have tried everything - even being sprayed with stuff, and sleeping in a closed room with air-con, and still they bite me. The last resort would be a mozzie net I suppose, but that's a bit awkward, and anyway they are not malarial. I don't care about the bites, it's the itchiness and weeping I don't like!

But G still has the blotches (we figured if it was the cat, this week would prove it). The cat was never the cause, and we put him through hell for nothing. G has hives, or urticaria, and we have no idea what has triggered it, although he did have a sudden reaction to Head and Shoulders at the start of all this, so maybe that is what kicked it off. He has been itching himself to ribbons lately - which is a bit frightening when he's driving a left-hand drive car and there's a steep drop on my side of the road. Luckily anti-histamine seems to help, once I could convince him to take it. Ruddy engineers, always trying to experiment with things, including themselves. Doctor says it could be almost anything and has written a prescription for more anti-histamines. I just hope G hasn't become allergic to the cat, because that would be heart-breaking.

Anyway, enough rambling.

Today I have been wandering around, dealing with laundry and dropping off to sleep without warning. I am hoping to feel human enough tomorrow to (a) unpack properly and (b) actually do some knitting. On a machine! Today I just feel as if I've been run over. It was nice to get a decent shower and extract sand from some amusing places, we have put the central heating on today and even the fire, briefly, because we were both so cold!

Tom is back home and appears none the worse for his week in "storage", although he is trying to convince us that he is starving and was not fed properly all week. Ha!

I picked up a gorgeous lace tablecloth in Lindos - it's crocheted and was about £30, which is far too cheap for something so delicate. Pictures etc when I can stay awake long enough.

I shall be at the NEC on Saturday at the Knitting and Stitching show if anyone wants to say hello! I will be on the MK Guild stand.