Rehearsing, repairing and revisiting

 I seem to be in dress rehearsal mode at the moment. Practicing dressing using a dressing stick and a grabber, practicing showering using the slide bench, practicing getting in and out of bed protecting the soon to be repaired hip, Helen Mark Two, practicing using the walker and checking how to navigate the bathroom with it, checking my cup will fit in the walker tray. 

There's also the exercises from my PT. Heel slides, toe taps, side moves, balancing one leg, bridges using resistance, leg extension, hip flexor stretches, sit to stand then overhead holding 5lb dumbbell, windshield wipers, knee side stretches with resistance band.  He and I are determined my strength will help recovery. 

This is all about managing anxiety, as astute blogistas will have noted. 

And I finally got to do a sock darn, before I started my new crochet.

I used my spectacle case as a darning tool, because the shape is right for the heel. A scrap of contrasting yarn, and I was set.

Two socks in waiting, but I thought I'd do one 

Here's the finished outside and 

 

the finished inside, soft and comfortable. It's partly crocheted, picking up live stitches, partly darned, weaving across the hole and the surrounding thin area.

Then I made the starting chain for the summer top I'm making from several leftover cotton threads in various summery colors. I'm starting with a pale green.

The whiskers you see are scraps of thread acting as stitchmarkers, since I don't have any locking markers. I inserted one every ten chains, to save a lot of counting as I chained the base of the piece. They can stay in place as a guide while the piece grows.

I'm doing a half-double stitch here, new to me and I think it's going to make a nice fabric, less transparent than double and less warm than single. A Goldilocks choice. At least that's the plan. It's a bit wobbly, learning as I go, but it will block out fine at the end. That's my story, anyway.

Happy day everyone, rainy and cold here, Helen complaining a bit. I finished the tofu sticks and tomorrow I embark on the veggie lasagna. 

Mme Ramotswe is my reading companion just now, too.