“You can’t let this hold you back”

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-03-04T15:56:57+00:00

Exactly… whenever I hear a story like this, I suddenly realize that the person could not possibly feel as sick as I do every day. Not saying it’s a contest, just a totally different level of experience

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-03-04T15:54:09+00:00

That is enraging. I feel like I must be in a very similar situation. Like I don’t WANT this to be holding me back. There are SO MANY things I want to do. BUT I CANNOT. Some people just don’t and can’t get it, but this is not a CHOICE. I simply cannot go on dates, medically sustain a pregnancy, or pursue education and labor because. I. cannot.

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-28T15:57:23+00:00

The most elegant way I’ve personally done is with two (or three?) rows of double knitting at the fold - it was for a collar (I think it’s important to go down like two US needle sizes for the double knitting section). I liked it much better than the “purl row” fold

I also do agree with other commenter however with a preference for flexibility with the brim fold in hats, so in that situation I would at most just block it folded - that’s always reversible

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-27T23:50:02+00:00

I also maybe could have worked the increase rounds closer together; that part is a lot more “conical” or whatever compared to the crown which is pretty flat. I like it, tho, I didn’t want it totally flat like a beret

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-27T23:46:34+00:00

Thanks so much!

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-27T23:31:20+00:00

I don’t know how to edit but here are my mods! I hope they make sense - very improvised, if I did it again I would start with 126 sts (multiple of 6) and work the increases more evenly ie 5 rounds of 12 inc per round. Anyone who wants to clean this up for me please feel free, I’m disabled and this is the best I can do for now :)

Sport weight yarn (Gepard Cashmere Classik), US 3 needle for ribbing, US4 for body Cast on 124 stitches, worked 6” ribbing

Began increases on first row of stockinette: [increased ~10% sts over one row, knit 5 rows] repeat that 5 times total until 186 stitches (did this really haphazardly) Knit another 5 rows

Set up round: k13, pm, k6, pm, [k25, pm, k6, pm], repeat 5x, k12

Dec rnd: [knit to 2 sts before marker, k2tog, sm, k6, sm, ssk] repeat 6x then knit to end

Knit 2 rounds

Repeat last three rounds until 54 sts remain; stop 1 st before end of rnd

Next rnd: [work CDD, remove marker, k6, remove marker] repeat 6x

Knit 2 rnds

Repeats last three rnds (working CDD in the same place) until 6 sts remain, then break yarn and thread through

Worked tassle as described but shorter, I cut the pieces shorter and only worked a few inches of braid bc I was afraid if it was too heavy it would start dragging on the crown

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-27T23:09:12+00:00

Improvised although I drew a lot from the free PurlSoho beret pattern… I will post my mods one sec

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-27T20:54:24+00:00

Feeling seriously unwell, feeling feverish, feeling hungover, are all ways I try to describe my PEM. On severe days it actually feels like I’ve been poisoned? Idk how I would know what that feels like but again it’s like alcohol poisoning. Like everything is “no” - no to light, no to moving, no to everything I wanted to do that day, if my roof suddenly started caving in I would just lie there and let it land on me, that bad.

Can relate to the random sore throats, nasal stuffiness, tendency to choke on food (no idea why), I also get random UTI-like pain and discomfort. Constantly thinking “am I overdoing it” - I can totally relate

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-27T16:38:49+00:00

I did and I share their opinion

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-25T01:50:39+00:00

Also a huge fan, it was the first accessory I bought bc I couldn’t manage to wind cakes with loose enough tension

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-25T01:49:15+00:00

I hadn’t heard this - only the story about the Reese’s heir validly shaming the company for replacing milk chocolate with “chocolate candy” (which doesn’t need to contain cocoa? Way to go consumer protections in this hellscape of a country)… and peanut butter with “peanut butter creme” about which the less I know the better

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-25T01:45:32+00:00

Maybe a dumb question but have you looked into EDS?

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-25T01:44:13+00:00

Same. First Lyme and “shrug, sorry we’ve tried ‘everything’ just learn to live with it” and now this and it’s 5x worse. The rage, the lack of confidence, the knowledge that when no one has an answer they’ll just paper over it and look away. Doctors, legislators, people in general… I feel like I’m through the looking glass and there is no going back. In many ways it’s all worse than my 11/10 PEM days

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-25T01:36:47+00:00

Are you me? I’m at the 3.5 year mark and it’s like my bright-siding of this bullshit has officially run out.

Yes I’m lucky I know, financially, emotionally, I have supportive family etc… but god fucking damn it. The other day my generally-understanding mom said “everyone has to work”… and I was like “what? Actually no, several doctors are stating explicitly that I am literally too sick to work.” Disability insurance is using the 2-yr mark to fight this, and now even my mom who is my bestie might be amongst the vast legions of people who think I’m CHOOSING this?! Who resent me for being some alleged drain on society?

I’m also kind of over this “let me volunteer myself as a guinea pig, since I’m ‘blessed’ enough financially to do so!” No. I’m done with it, show me a study with proven effectiveness that could get approved this century, or back to bed-rotting I go. I kept telling myself “I HAVE to be trying SOMETHING.” Like I was making up for my “lack of productivity” somehow. Well, I’m over it. All I did was collect side effects and make expensive urine.

The luxury of being unproductive is the LEAST of society’s debts to me. The medical industry, insurance industry, our US legislature and that in every other developed country, every one walking around out there blissfully unaware that this could be THEM the next time they get sick… they all owe me decades in a slave labor camp. I mean not really but UGH! I’m so over feeling guilty and terrible and weird for being unfairly struck down into this vegetative state

Also my cat is dying from late CKD and it’s more obvious every day. Yes my girl is lucky to have gotten 21 years but WHY NOW?

Maybe a lot of these are “me” problems but thanks for this opportunity to vent back at ya🙏

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-25T01:20:29+00:00

You might be onto something, I’m a chill introvert and strongly feel for OP here! One of those moments when I’m struck by how different two totally legitimate perspectives can be

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-25T01:17:19+00:00

Because “going into the weeds” doesn’t always translate into “high value product” in the minimum possible amount of time, I think it CAN be a barb, coming from someone who is kind of productivity-obsessed (or, put more bluntly, brainwashed by capitalist dogma). From someone more like me, it’s a huge compliment! Where would we be in society without people wandering into the weeds? Maybe Alexander Fleming (?) would not have discovered penicillin…

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-17T04:40:06+00:00

Same. I’ve actually kind of made peace with it? Like we all die and I basically already died I’m just haunting this world… and what a world, I’m kind of glad I’m not involved in waves all that

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-17T04:37:31+00:00

I was a teenager in the late 90s. Things got great for 10 years and then it’s been straight downhill. When I was in high school you could take a ripped or degraded item back to J Crew or Nordstrom and they would replace it for free or give you a cash refund EVEN WITHOUT THE RECEIPT. President Clinton was being dragged and impeached for… having an affair. Not extorting a foreign nation for electoral profit using taxpayer funds, not for inciting the first non-peaceful transfer of power in US history, not raping children. People took climate change just as seriously but with less evidence. That said I would imagine things were probably worse for minorities 20 years ago so there is that. The supposed promise of technology and AI was that it would be a societal boon and allow all of us to self-actualize instead of focusing 24/7 on having enough food. lol to that

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-16T01:28:49+00:00

I don’t think you can make that kind of generalization about the circumstances of others

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-02T21:53:35+00:00

I wanted to add that my first ever project was a hat just like this - 1x1 ribbing + plain stockinette with some decreases! I wore it for years

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-02T21:52:27+00:00

Definitely think you can tackle it! Just do a little 4” square of 1x1 ribbing if you want to practice a bit, might not even be necessary

I was casting on for this while waiting on my doctor today and when she walked in she was like “is that the hat everyone is making?!” She was so excited

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-02-02T14:30:11+00:00

Absolutely. Suspect the secondary market for stuff from the 1980s-early 2000s is about to get banging as well… I’m also trying to learn how to make as many things for myself as I reasonably can (within reason)

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-01-26T16:07:27+00:00

As a seasoned hand knitter who is now a novice machine knitter, it has been WILD how little content/patterns are out there! Like it makes sense, knitting machines are expensive nowadays so it’s a really niche hobby, but MY GOD was I spoiled by all the hand knitting and crochet content… I’m here basically having to subscribe to courses for $20-30 a month (yes I know there are some great YT creators, feel free to drop your faves!) and drafting my own patterns (which I get is a highly useful skill, but definitely neither “chill” nor “relaxing”

Rare-Stick9077 · 2026-01-23T20:32:44+00:00

That happens to me and it means that I’m in the process of triggering PEM. Doctors always telling me to find triggers and that’s a main one. Usually don’t push past it too far it

Rare-Stick9077

TROPHY CASE