Stephanie Briggs - Handmade Knitting My Way Through Chronic Pain

Knitting by hand, owned by three cats and a manbeast

New Project: A Brag Book (Not Knitting)

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I’m working on a brag book! I’d forgotten how much I liked doing paper-craft projects. I used to fold origami, for instance – got heavily into the Thousand Paper Cranes type of folding. (What’s really cool is that packs of origami paper are deliberately sold in quantities of 1,000!) I bought a (giant!) A3 scrapbook, […]

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The Smugness and Frivolity of Food Geopolitics

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I was reading a blog that indirectly mentioned a guy named Michael Pollan. A 2006 New York Times book review describes him as a “liberal foodie intellectual.” It occurs to me that the people who complain about food (i.e. those who follow the 100-Mile project sort of thing as a fad, or fellows like this guy) are the […]

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ICP Monitoring: What Happened, the Results, and What We are Doing Next

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I got home from the hospital on 22 February. This blog post is intended to explain what happened, the results (and what they mean), and what we are going to do next in dealing with my severe chronic headaches. I have to assume that my readers do not know all the ins and outs of […]

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Shit My Neurosurgeons Have Said: “Choke Yourself!” (NSFW)

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I’ll be going into hospital this Friday to have Intracranial Pressure monitoring done. It’s scaring me, so I went on Facebook looking for hugs. Or giggles. In a Facebook group for low ICP and CSF Leaks, someone started a humour thread: “The things consultants said that made you laugh/speechless?” I’ve got a few of those! […]

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I’m Making a Dammit List – Right Now, Dammit!

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I came across this on Havi Brooks’ Fluent Self website: The Dammit List Today, I’ve had to deal with an annoying miscommunication in my personal life. I don;t think I’m completely right or wrong, nor do I think the other person in this equation is completely right or wrong. Objectively, it needs to be said […]

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Commander Data to the Bridge, Please!

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A public service announcement: Beware, peeps: my severe pain, lack of good sleep, and meds (sodium valproate, naratriptan, Gravol, etc) can make me very blunt at times. I’ve been kicked out of closed groups on FB and message boards even when I’ve explained the medicine, neurosurgery and neurology behind it many, many times. Like I […]

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When the Needle Cable Breaks, the Knitting Will Fall (but not to worry!)

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A minor disaster that I now interpret as a hiccup in the Seaspray Shawl has occurred. But do not despair, my humble readers! My needle cables broke a few days ago (the plastic part slid out of the metal connecter of one end of it), and I’m waiting for a free replacement from the amazing Shiela Dixon […]

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Saudi Arabia Bans Celebration of Valentine’s Day

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Saudi Arabia has banned celebration of Valentine’s Day. But I’m not going to scream “Intolerance!” I like exploring the less-favored side of a debate. It’s sensible of them if their beliefs are that think pre-marital (i.e. sexual) relationships are bad; V-day is a silly commercialization scam. Chocolate, wrapped in red or pink packaging, is overpriced […]

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