Welcome

Well, this is my first entry for the Reclining Knitter, a blog about my knitting adventures.  During the day I'm busy working on my PhD in musicology, or writing articles for various disability related publications.    Given that I spend all day writing for a living, you might wonder why I choose to use my spare time writing a blog.  The simple answer is that I want an excuse to bang on about knitting.  It's become an obsession.  I spend my days thinking about yarn, planning projects and surreptitiously fondling passing fibres.  I'm hoping that writing this blog will help me get my obsession out of my system.

As you may have guessed from the title of this blog, I do most of my knitting lying down.  Okay, not exactly lying down, I am usually propped up on a heap of cushions.  I knit lying down because I have a disability called CFS/ME.  Actually, I do lots of things lying down.  Of course I sleep lying down, but I also watch TV lying down, eat and drink lying down, read and study lying down, I'm even writing this blog lying down.

Most of this lying down (apart from the sleeping bit) happens in our lounge room on the couch I call my nest.  My big, blue, squishy couch has had some pillows removed and lots more added to prop me up while giving me room to sprawl.  The area around my nest looks pretty cluttered.  Getting up and down isn't exactly my forte, so I like to have everything I need within arm's reach.  From here I can reach two knitting projects, a needlework project, a drink and a snack, various medications, knitting books, cook books, research books, all the remote controls, the cat's brush, rubbish bin and my laptop, all without having to sit up.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not bedridden or housebound, not at the moment anyway.  Like I mentioned earlier, I'm a postgraduate musicology student and I write regular articles for Ramp Up, Link, and DiVine.  I help out in my university's archive.  I also play percussion in two bands (don't picture me as a cool rocker though. I definitely make musicianship look daggy, but I am great with a tambourine).  I have a large extended family and a love life which is, shall we say, eccentric.  I'm quite capable of doing all the things you can do, as long as I do them in short bursts.  In between times I'm crashed out on my couch, armed only with my knitting and my laptop. 

It's this view from my nest, in the house we've nicknamed the fortress of solitude, that I'll be discussing here.  Enjoy!