Chillin'

I'm still chilling out on the couch and living on pain pills & Flexeril.  I've been like this for almost two weeks now & it's starting to get very old.  Believe it or not, I am sick to death of knitting.  The weight of my laptop on my lap bothers my leg, for that matter, the nerves are so sensitized that a sheet laying over my leg bothers me.  But what ever.  The laptop's weight is irritating, plus our wireless internet service only seems to reach me for 20 second intervals, mostly in the very early morning or late at night.  The point is, I'm not doing much with the computer and I can't focus my eyes enough to read.  That leaves knitting.

I've been doing some serious knitting!  All garter stitch because I can't concentrate or see well enough to follow a chart/pattern.  I didn't have a specific length in mind when I cast the shawl on.  I just cast on stitches until I couldn't stand it anymore, took a nap, then cast on a whole bunch more.  I have no idea how many stitches I have on the needles and I have absolutely no intention of counting them.  I did measure the fabric yesterday and came up with a little over 100 inches.  I'm not sure how accurate that is.  It doesn't look like it will be that long when laid out flat, but.....  maybe.  I did measure twice and both times, I measured out 50 inches twice and still had a few inches more to measure.  What ever.  Let's say it's 100 inches long and so far, the fabric is about 10 inches wide.  That is a LOT of stitches considering I'm using a US #2 needle and fingering weight yarn.  I'm using a huge mixture of stashed & partial skeins.  Basically, if it was fingering weight and I didn't have enough of it to make a pair of socks, it went into the box.  There are also a few colorways that I did have enough for socks but knew for some reason or another, that I would never use the yarn for socks.  Anyway, I started with a large box full of yarns that don't match or even blend with each other.  I reach into the box, grab a skein, knit a row or two, then cut that yarn, put it in the "done" box, and grab a new yarn out of the first box.  When the first box is empty, I switch them.  It's absolutely amazing how two skeins of yarn that look so horrendously awful next to each other, can blend together so nicely when added in with all the other yarns.

So, now I'm left praying that my body will make a sudden recovery and I can get up off this couch and never knit on this garter stitch shawl ever again while I also pray that I can finish the shawl before I heal because I know once I'm off the Flexeril, I will never want to look at it ever again.  The question is, when will I be able to walk again?  I'm starting to wonder.  I was supposed to call yesterday to schedule an xray for today, but yesterday morning, I was feeling much better.  No where near healed, but better. I could walk to the bathroom and back to the couch without crying or stopping to rest.   I could hobble into the kitchen and get my own drink.  Doesn't sound like much, but believe me - it's a huge improvement.  So of course, I got cocky.  I insisted on unloading the dishwasher last night.  I even tried to put a few dirty dishes into the empty washer.  Big mistake apparently.  A few minutes later, I was back to day one, moaning & groaning and unable to get comfortable.  Today, I've tried to behave and have taken it extremely easy.  Today, I've only gotten up to go to the bathroom.  Haven't even gotten my own drink.  And I think I'm starting to get bed sores.

So, exactly how long does a torn quad muscle take to heal?  Do I have a chance of finishing the shawl or not?  Frankly, I'm sort of scared to find out.