Stitchlinks

Life has taken over somewhat over the last month or so. The build up to Christmas was going smoothly and we were looking forward to an exciting 2012. Our focus changed on the Sunday before Christmas though, when mum was rushed into hospital for emergency surgery. So the 'festive period' was spent on the M4 motorway and doing battle with an NHS that seems to go into hibernation at bank holidays closing its eyes to the fact that people still get ill at Christmas. 

Now the battle is on to get her out of hospital. Her local community hospital is closed to admissions because of staff shortages and there is little to no social care available because demand is outstripping supply. There are nine patients in the regional hospital waiting to be transferred. We're hoping now that mum will be discharge straight home on Thursday with our help so fingers crossed.

I haven't been able to think beyond this immediate problem so I haven't been able to get excited about our trip to Australia in April/May where I'm doing a Master Class in Pain in Adelaide followed by a three week break seeing a bit of the country and meeting with Australian Stitchlinks members.

In between hospital visits I've been preparing a presentation for the Cardiff University Pain Community on Thursday - this will be a voice over Powerpoint presentation. The following week I'm speaking at the Transverse Myelitis annual general meeting so I'm getting that sorted before hitting the M4 once again at the end of this week to stay with mum for her first few days at home. Perhaps then we can all start looking forward again to the rest of 2012!

xxx 

The new Stitchlinks website went live this afternoon. I've been working hard to get it up and running by 21st November and we've made it! It contains lots of information and articles on using therapeutic knitting and improving wellbeing.

Leading clinicians and academics are now endorsing therapeutic knitting for the management of long-term pain and conditions such as stress and depression. As a result 2012 is already looking very busy.

Over the coming months more and more articles will be added to the Stitchlinks website and you can keep up-to-date with what's happening in our research and network of therapeutic knitting groups via our forum and free newsletter.

xxx

 Many of you will have helped us out by filling in our knitting survey last year. We received over 3,500 responses in 2 weeks so it was amazing! With 50 questions in the survey it has meant we have a lot of wonderful data to sift through and a big thank you goes to Prof Claire Griffel for helping us out with this. 

Last Thursday we presented some preliminary results at the UK's annual conference for Occupational Therapists. Dr Jill Riley (my co-author) from Cardiff University presented the talk and we had a wonderful response. The next step is to submit a paper to a journal for publication, after which we will be free to disseminate the results so far to everyone else. Our plan is to write a lay version which we can email to forums and magazines to spread the word. Journal copyright rules prevent us from elaborating further on the data for now which is a bit frustrating.

I've done a few presentations recently to health professionals including hospital doctors and GPs and it is coming across loud and strong that the time is right for this type of new approach, so we're moving into a very exciting time for the research and Stitchlinks. So the hunt for funding to enable us to do a large scale project to look at a wide range of issues will go on.......

xxx

The Uk charity Pain Concern is running a series of online radio programmes on Ableradio.com. Just before Christmas the producer visited our Stitchlinks knitting group at the Pain Clinic of the Royal United Hospital in Bath. That programme is being aired tomorrow Tuesday 15th February at 11am and 8pm (UK time). They told us they got so much good stuff from their visit that they've devoted almost a full programme to us which is brilliant. As a result the group is also going to feature in Pain Concern's magazine.

The programme will also be available on podcast so you will be able to listen to it on your own computer wherever you live in the world! The podcast will be available shortly after the programmes go out tomorrow.

This is the link www.ableradio.com/podcasts/airing-pain

Hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think!

Betsan
x

 If you live in the UK you'll be able to watch tonight's Horizon programme on the Secrets of Pain. It's on at 9pm on BBC 2 and may be available on iplayer after this. It promises to be a very interesting programme and features the computer game Snow World. I was really interested in this work four years ago. It was developed by Dr Hunter Hoffman and is used to help with pain management for young patients with burns particularly when dressings are being changed. The game features a 3D world of icy, snowy adventure which captures the brain's attention away from the burning pain of having a burns dressing changed - a very clever idea. At the time it was calculated to have the same effect as a dose of morphine so it will be interesting to see what has developed over the last four years.

Also on Tuesday February 1st, you can listen to Pain Concern's, Airing Pain, Radio programme entitled "Pain Services in Bath'. It includes a recording of our knitting group at the Pain Clinic of the Royal United Hospital in Bath. It's being broadcast at 11am and 8pm on www.ableradio.com and will be available later on a podcast which will enable you to listen to it wherever you live in the world.

I'm excited and a little scared about it at the same time as I have no idea what parts of our interview were kept and what lies on the editorial floor! Fingers crossed the correct message comes across!

Betsan
x

Do you fancy getting into the Guinness Book of Records?

Hall of Cornwall are trying to do just that and need the help of knitters around the world. They are attempting to knit the world's longest scarf. It's a suitable team project for beginners and expert knitters and you can find out more here.

Good luck!

xxx

Cardiff University's study into knitting and memory is due to start on 2nd June and we need to find 90 volunteers who would be willing to give 90 minutes of their time to help out. If you're interested please email Betsan at Stitchlinks for a list of dates and time slots.

Stitchlinks and Cardiff University have also been working on a knitting survey and we're pleased to announce that it has just got ethical clearance from the university. We'll spend the next couple of weeks testing and piloting it so it will be ready to go online on 21st June. We need as many knitters as we can muster to fill it in. Details will be posted on the Stitchlinks website and forum nearer the time.

After four years of laying the foundation for this research this is really good news!


xxx

My visit to the British Pain Society's Annual Scientific Meeting in Manchester last week was a HUGE success. After four years of laying the foundations, it seems like we can finally start building upwards! I met lots of healthcare professionals who are really keen to incorporate knitting and knitting groups into their pain management tool boxes. Many commented that they thought we were on to something really important so we're moving into a really exciting stage.

The drive home last night was long and after several late nights I was fighting to stay concentrated and awake but fortunately the adrenaline coursing in my blood kept me awake despite the stop/go traffic jams around Birmingham.

Enjoying the sunshine today and just winding down slowly.

xxx

Isn't it funny how life turns around - just when you think you've exhausted all possibilities something else pops its head up.....

Brain storming session went well today. The word knitting in our proposal poses us a big problem however, we may have ways around it AND we have another potential add on to our study which will enhance it's 'serious science' image! So some of the stress has lifted a little.

Easter has also given us a reprieve so our deadline has moved from 1st April to 16th so today the Gods are working with us.

Have plans to blitz the house for Easter tomorrow, then Sunday I'll begin planning the stand we have at the British Pain Society's Annual Scientific Meeting.

We still have an uphill climb and masses to do but it does feel a lot more doable today.

xxx

I've been aware it's been a looooong time since I last posted. Christmas has long passed and we're nearly into Easter. No excuses - I've just been snowed under.

The weather is finally warming up here in Bath after an unusually cold, but nevertheless enjoyable winter. I love cold, crisp, clear mornings with clear blue skies.

We have a full house for Easter with all four children home and my mother staying. I'm having to be inventive with my cooking at the moment because the heating element on my oven died a couple of weeks ago and as we're planning a new kitchen in the summer I don't want to pay for a new part just right now. Not quite sure how I'm going to cook for 7 people over the Easter week though.

Plans for our research are moving forward in one area and encountering frustrating barriers in an other. The Cardiff research into knitting and memory will start in June and we also have an online knitting questionnaire devised by psychologists at the university which is planned to go online in May.

Our knitting and pain proposal has hit a barrier in that we have difficulty getting potential funders over the word knitting in the title. Can't do much about moving it as it's what we're studying. I have a brainstorming meeting tomorrow to try to resolve it, but could do without such narrow mindedness this close to our real submission deadline.

Oh well I suppose these things are sent to make us stronger - I'm sure someone once said that!

Speak soon

xxx

What rain and wind we've had here in Bath. Luckily though we seem to have escaped the worst weather.

We did see a little sunshine today, but I've been at my computer all day preparing documents and answering emails. I'm also nursing a heavy cold which I somehow have to improve by tomorrow evening as our hospital knitting group have a stand at a local Victorian evening and there isn't anyone else who can drive all our 'stuff' over to set it up and man the stand! So fingers crossed.

Steve is in Dubai at the moment - he arrived this morning and has already enjoyed a walk on the beach. At this moment in time, when it's dark and chilly and damp, I'm a little envious, but I have to remind myself that it was my choice not to got too!!! He's with his sister and brothers so will have a wonderful time. AND of course I have this cold which wouldn't be comfortable in the desert heat!

Things are progressing at a good pace with more knitting groups setting up and another article with Take a Break in the possible pipeline. With Christmas approaching fast I have more than enough to keep me busy.

The Bath Christmas lights are switched on tonight and this marks the beginning of our Christmas market, which I'm looking forward to visiting next week early in the morning before the hoards of bused in people arrive!

Hope you're safe and well in this atrocious weather.

Have a good evening

xxx

 I've been having a go at a large research document today and I feel as if I've made significant inroads - hope the other researchers feel this too!

The weather has turned dramatically colder and even with the heating on I've felt cold. Need to finish off my fingerless mittens tonight - I might even be tempted to type in them if the weather gets colder!

I'm off to The Bear Knitting Group this evening. You'll be glad to know we do wear clothes, but we have a great, newly refurbished local pub called The Bear. It seems to be bucking the trend of empty pubs and is full most nights. We're lucky as they reserve a comfortable sofa area for our knitting group which is great. We even feature in their weekly 'Bear Essentials' list.

Tomorrow is set aside for writing an article for the Stitchlinks website and the Take a Break article featuring me and Stitchlinks members goes on sale in UK newsagents. I have to admit I'm slightly nervous!

I'd arranged to take the boys down to my mum's for Friday and Saturday as there was a Led Zeppelin tribute band scheduled to play in the local theatre. However, heard today that it has been canceled because the drummer has swine flu. We'll still make the trip down as mum has been really looking forward to seeing us all and we've been looking forward to having a couple of days in W Wales. As it clashes with our Saturday morning online coffee mornite, I'll have to hunt out an internet cafe on Friday afternoon in preparation as mobile internet access is very patchy in that area.

Have a good evening
xxx

 Suffering a major dose of STRESS today - went to bed feeling stressed, woke up in the night feeling stressed with a headache which I haven't managed to shake all day.

The reason - lots of exciting things going on and I've have no idea how they will pan out. So it's uncertainty and the feeling of being out of control which is causing the trouble.

The solution - set out some means of regaining control which I've hopefully done today. Solution 2 - lots of knitting before going to bed tonight. So that's what I'm off to do now.

Have a good evening

xxx
 

 It's been another splendiferous day here in Bath. It started out a bit grey and drizzly - in fact it was DARK at seven this morning - but by 11 we had warm sunshine again.

My office is at the back of the house which is south facing- the sun comes streaming in and it's impossible to stay stressed for too long! I had a very stressful day yesterday. My own fault completely! I have recently made the switch from PC to mac and I love it BUT things are a little different and sometimes I use the wrong shortcuts or go to the wrong side of the window to close down. Yesterday I got engrossed in writing more of our research proposal, spent hours working out the methodology and setting it out properly and yes you've guessed it, I inadvertently clicked on close. Now this shouldn't have been disastrous as my mac thinks of everything and backs up every 30 minutes onto a permanently connected hard drive. However it can't back things up if they haven't been saved in the first place. D'oh! I'd got so involved in the flow of the writing that I had forgotten to save EVERYTHING I did! And how many times in my life have I said 'Well that's a lesson learnt - I'll never do THAT again?' So it was a late night last night.

The sunshine today has helped to ease the pressure - it always makes me feel happier. Talking about feeling happier - I'm writing a short 25 point article on how to be happier so I'd love to hear your views. What makes you happy? If you're feeling down, what cheers you up? It needs to be something that you don't regret afterwards though - so not like eating the whole bar of chocolate or packet of hobnobs! 

Any ideas?

xxx

 It's been a busy week with two trips to London, one to Lewisham College's Mental Health Open day and the other with Gerard to Ally Pally. Plus we were 'followed' by a photographer from Take a break magazine for the whole day on Wednesday which was a little strange, but quite good fun!

Quite a few exciting prospects bubbling under the horizon for early next year, so life could soon get very much busier. I just need a team of people to help me out now! 

xxx

 I'm writing some information packs to support those setting up knitting groups around the world and would like to hear from anyone not living in the UK about any legal requirements needed. For example, here in the UK we need a police check (CRB) if we want to set up a group in a school or hospital - anywhere dealing with vulnerable people. 

Does your country have any similar legal requirements? What about insurance?

I'd like our information to be valid around the world so if you can help please email me via the contact page of the Stitchlinks website, www.stitchlinks.com 

Thank you

have a good evening
xxx

 Well iknitlinks launched successfully and more information will be added on an ongoing basis. The core pack has all the information you'll need to start up a social knitting group.

Lots of exciting things are beginning to happen around Stitchlinks, none of which I can talk about yet. Thoughts and ideas are whizzing around in my head and I'm suffering from a distinct lack of sleep as I mull the options over in my head at night! The uncertainty is difficult to deal with - will these interesting options actually happen, which ones will happen, which will fall by the wayside. AND what do I do if they all become reality - I won't have enough time to do them all! 

Off to London on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Lewisham college on Wednesday and Ally Pally on Thursday. Anyone else going to Ally Pally on Thursday. Let me know if you are.

xxx

Life has been consumed with the launch of iknitlinks this coming weekend which is very exciting. The last few weeks have been highly stressful as we try to tinker with the website so it looks good in every browser! How frustrating that websites change their look in all the different browsers even between the different levels of Internet Explorer. Get it perfect looking in one browser and it changes in another. AAARRRGHHH! So we've had four computers on the go, a Mac to check Safari, and three PCs to check Firefox, and various versions of Internet Explorer! It's meant long hard hours but I think it's all been worthwhile and I hope you'll agree when the iknitlinks site launches on Friday!!

I was rather glad to see that even sites like Twitter have major problems with this. Twitter on a Mac, and PC looks different and on an old version of IE was unreadable!

Any way off to Northampton early tomorrow morning to a conference on Applied Art in Health where I'm giving a talk on Thursday. Then it's straight down to London to set up our stand for the I Knit Weekend at the Royal Horticultural Halls. Looking forward to that and to meeting quite a few of you who are making the journey from various parts of the UK. For those coming on Friday there is a party with live music after the show so hope to see you there too.

xxx

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, let's hope so anyway.

Well, we've been on our hols - just a week so that doesn't entirely explain my absence. It was wonderful and Adelboden in the Swiss Alps has to be one of my favourite places in the World. So beautiful and with so many happy memories! It even snowed on our last day which was just wonderful!

Of course coming back from holiday means having a shed load of catching up, plus a lot of email reading and writing.  I found it really hard to get my head back in gear after such a relaxing week off. It's taken me till now to get fully functioning again!

So it's back to funding bids, preparation for iknitlinks launch with avengeance. Deadlines seem to be lining up through August and September so I'm trying not to think of them collectively. I'm trying to tackle them one by one as priority deems!

Having had a wet July in Bath I was kinda looking forward to the predicted HOT August but I see now this has been revised to 'greater than average rainfall' so I'm not best pleased with that!

Anyway got to go to cook my boys some supper. Have a nice evening!

xxx

Well you can see from my lack of blogging that life has been a little busy! I've been working on Stitchlinks, iknit links and research bids. We have a funding deadline on Friday and a  research deadline coming up on August 7th and there's still lots to do. Meanwhile Steve and I are going away for a week's holiday on Sunday to Switzerland. It's the first holiday we've had for a while and the first without children for over 20 years! I'm really looking forward to it and hoping the fresh air of the alps will invigorate my brain so I can hit the ground running as soon as I get back. The plan is to use the week in the alps to get super fit (hmmm, may need more than a week to do that!). So let's hope the weather is kind so we can get lots of uphill walking done! Might need a Suchard hot chocolate or two to give me energy though!

xxx