Brain Fog and knitting

One of the worst symptoms of my collection of health problems, other than pain, is the brain fog.
It often makes it hard to carry on a conversation, I have massive gaps in my memory of times when I was in a flare, I get lost in my 4 room house (can't remember which door takes me where) and things like that. It's incredibly frustrating and sometimes a little frightening.

Yesterday we had appointments at the doctor's and a bunch of other things to do. I had a big day. There's the three hours driving and I did some walking around shops and had to try on some clothes. We ended up having to go and sit in McDonald's for a while while I took pain killers, ate some food and drink and rested. I was to exhausted and in pain to even attempt the drive home. It's not an easy road. I haven't been that bad in a long time.

Anyway I recovered enough to drive home and, after shutting off for a while and watching QI, I downloaded the first installment of Woollywormhead's Mystery Hat Knit-A-Long. I read the instructions, found the needles, Ruth showed me how to do a provisional cast on and off I went with knitting.
It wasn't until this evening, after knitting a few inches, that I checked the Ravelry board for it and realised that I'd been knitting it flat when it had said to knit it in the round. I had been slightly confused by some of the later instructions but I'd just decided to look at that further when I'd got up to it.

Thankfully I had only done a few inches rather than the whole 21. It's one of the more harmless confusions so it doesn't bother me too much and I guess it's something that's easy to do even if you're not ill. Wish I'd checked it this morning before carrying on with the knitting though.

I've now started again and hopefully things will go smoother from this point. I will be double and triple checking instructions anyway. Maybe I should get Ruth to check them for me too.

The pattern calls for 5ply, which I didn't have and 3.5mm needles, which I also didn't have as Ruth was using them but I knitted a swatch and found that my 4ply yarn (Bendigo Woolen Mill's 4ply Luxury 100% wool in the Brick colourway) and 3.25 needles were getting me gauge so I shall see how I go. Wish me luck.

Here are some general knitting photos. None of the actual project as it's a mystery.