And....

I'm done!

Thank you and GoodNIGHT.

(Extra speshul thanks to my sponsors and Lisa - *HUGS*)

Loopylou and the Multitude of HP Scarves!

You might notice, if you look in my photo album (especially if you're in the Finished Objects/2004 folder) that there seem to be a few Harry Potter style scarves knocking around. Well, yes. There are. There's one in my WIP pile right now, too. See, it's not exactly a hard pattern to figure out, even for a new knitter (it's just maths and a bit of applied logic, after all). So I did just that, in a couple of variations, and for both styles that have been in the films. And then, just for fun, I worked out a wristband and a bag and socks, and... you get the picture. Or, you don't get the pictures of those because I don't think I have them uploaded here yet. Erm.

Anyway, once I'd produced a scarf for myself, other people started going "Hey, if I gave you the money, could you...?" So I did. I also made some as presents, and a couple for a local costume shop where I was friendly with the owners. I'm not quite sure now how many I have made, and for whom. It's mainly been Gryffindor and Slytherin colours, though. I'm probably going to write up my version of this pattern and put it online, even though I know there are others out there already. But hey, one more won't hurt, and I'll most likely be putting the other bits and bobs (wristwarmers etc) out as well if I do go for it.

Anyway! Have some more pictures of my *fabulous* creations, darlings:

Wow.

I can't believe that there's only an hour to go, suddenly! Less in fact: 40 minutes! I have to make at least one more post with 'proper' content before I go. Eeeek....

Just going through my photo album

Trying to decide which utterly stunning knitted object I'll ramble at you about next ;-) Any preferences, anybody? Anything you can't figure out what the hell I was thinking when I went and made it?

Meanwhile, have a podcast rec: Stash and Burn is put out by Jenny and Nicole, and frankly, it's great. Funny, quirky, engaging, and fuuuuull of pepperyfibrey goodness, it's very small and neat... no, wait, that's a Finger of Fudge. But my point remains! Plus, it's all about busting your stash (or trying to), which is something that I really need to get onboard with. So, if you're not already doing so, you should go and sign up, and download those back-episodes too! Listen, laugh, and embrace your knitting fantasy life.

Purple Opal Magic Socks

Ahh, my first socks! Aren't they fab? I don't remember exactly why I decided to knit a pair of socks - whether it was just the next thing I wanted to try, or if I saw the yarn and fancied having a crack at it. I do know that my friend Char was with me, and she's a sock knitter. So she definitely had some hand in the proceedings! *g*

Anyway, we were in the Battle Wool Shop (an L-ishYS) and with help from Char and the lovely ladies who work there, I picked out this yarn and a set of 2.5mm DPNs, and was given Sue Morgan's Simple Sock Pattern pattern free with the purchase. I went for this because, well, there wasn't a lot of sock yarn available - what there was was either completely plain, or the Opal or Regia self-striping. Or at least, I think so - there might have been some more expensive yarn there at the time, but I wasn't looking for that - I wanted to go for something that would stand up to my novice sock-knitter efforts! Anyhow, I know they do have Lana Grossa and Trekking in the shop now as well as Opal and Regia, and I'm not 100% sure what else. If they have handpainted lines, it might live with the other expensive yarn on the other side of the shop, and I haven't looked over there recently - too much temptation!

But I digress. So there I was with my new sock making supplies.... but I can't remember now if I cast on straight away or not. The picture on your right was taken in November 04, at any rate.

I knitted that first sock in fits and starts. The leg took quite a long time, though I was enjoying watching the pattern manifest itself. Then I blitzed the heel and foot gusset overnight in late December (pic below). The foot, again, took quite a while, and once I'd completed that toe, I have a feeling that the whole project hibernated for some time before I cast on for its pair.

Again, the second one was done in bits and pieces, but then in winter 05/06 I picked it up again and worked steadily until I was done! Whee!

More pictures are under the link!

Another sponsor

Huge thanks to Ambermoggie! :-D

And that's from the fairly-amber Xandermoggie too:

A veritable meme

Oh dear, I'm sorry. I would say that you can see my posting quality plummet before your very eyes here, but it hasn't been all that til now anyway. ;-)

However. Found via Lisa:

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And make it as entertaining as possible.

On the phone to Ally now. Hi Ally!!

ps

Q - Are we nearly there yet?

A - Yes!

Whoops

Gah! Dozed of on the sofa. Right, let me try and make up a post...

Atishoo!

Bleurgh, allergies. brb

Is it just me...

... or are we all feeling rather like this now?

This half hour I will be mostly...

... digging out photos. And stuff. Why did I think this was a better plan, again?

[Listening to: Show 14 - The slow clothes mov - David Reidy - Sticks & String Podcast]

Decision!

Having made the single-pair-of-hands realisation, I've just had a bright idea. I shall still keep working on Fetching in bits as I feel like it, but for the main part I'm going to focus on my previous FOs, and talk about those. Pretty much everything is from before I was using this for a knitting blog, so it'd be kind of cool to give them posts of their own.

Up first, My First Socks! (Probably. Unless I go for my first actual knitted things.)

[Listening to: Show 14 - The slow clothes mov - David Reidy - Sticks & String Podcast]

It's that time.

I have brain freeze... I'm just too tired.

Going to knit some more Fetching. Or shall I actually start one of those squares? Hmmm....

[Listening to: Show 14 - The slow clothes mov - David Reidy - Sticks & String Podcast]

You know what?

I think I kind of underestimated how difficult it was going to be to knit and blog at the same time. Note to self for the future: I only have one pair of hands.

What was I thinking? *headdesk*

You know what else? I sent an email to the PoshKnitters list yesterday about my 'thoning... and it hasn't turned up in the group that I can see. Huh. I think I might try again. Hopefully everyone won't end up getting the same thing twice. Because I am shameless in my quest for sponsors! Even when there is only... er... Wow, just over 6 hours to go. I think I had better send the mail again. You never know, after all, and the list mod said it was fine with her.

(And in case it works this time and anyone comes by - hi PoshKnitters! :-) )

[Listening to: Show 14 - The slow clothes mov - David Reidy - Sticks & String Podcast]

Forest Canopy

I can't quite remember if I've mentioned this here yet, but I have cast on my Forest Canopy Shawl. This isn't the best photo - it wasn't good light and for some reason I couldn't get the focus. Maybe I should have zoomed in or something? Anyway! What you can see here is about half of the set-up section of the lace pattern. I've now completed the set-up section and I'm about to start the first body repeat.

Project stats:
Pattern: Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl by Susan Lawrence.
Yarn: Posh Yarn Eva 4-ply (55% silk, 45% cashmere) in Tuscany.
Needles: 4.5mm (bamboo straights for now, to change to a circular when it gets wider)

I'm actually kind of confused about this pattern. Not about the knitting of it as such - the pattern looks straightforward enough in terms of knitting the stitches. But it's the construction of the shawl that's stumping me. It's not making sense in my head. You see, the pattern describes it as a "top-down" shawl. To me, the top of a shawl is the widest part, the edge that goes across the shoulders. Am I mistaken? Because the shawl starts out with... um... I've forgotten how many, but only a few stitches for the cast on, and then you increase from there. That would indicate to me that I'm knitting from the bottom point upwards.

I would have just assumed I'd got confused with what top-down meant. But. When you've knitted the desired number of pattern repeats, it then tells you to knit the border along the bottom edge and follow the directions to get the scalloped cast-off, etc etc. It doesn't say anything about casting off the top edge and picking up along the bottom. Yet, if I'm starting with a pointy bit..... argh! Perhaps I'm missing something vital about the shape of the shawl because I haven't yet started knitting the main pattern. I know I'm not knitting from a corner, either, because I've got the centre stitch right where it should be for knitting directly up or down.

Can anyone give me any clues? Anyone? Help?

New sponsor!

Thank you so much, Anonymous Sponsor! Are you sure you don't want to at least say hi? I really appreciate your pledge, regardless :-)

THANK YOU!

Oh! Excitement! I won!!!

Duh, I know what I wanted to say! I AM A WINNA! And stuff like that. To my huge excitement, I won the prize draw that Kris ran on Bockstark Knits for a handmade sushi pattern project bag (kind of ironic, since fish makes me ill, but I'm quite happy to look at the stuff, after all! *g*) and a skein of German indie dyed sock yarn. Bweeeee!

I am a happy bunny. Tired. But happy!

Um, um..

What?

*faceplants*

My energy went away again. I've completely lost track of what I was doing. Heeeeeeeelp!

Who am I again?

(You know, I think part of the problem here was that I started at 2pm... so unlike the bloggers who started right after they woke up, I'd already been running around flathunting with my brother's g/f for several hours. Why didn't I think of that beforehand and have a lie in? D'oh!)

And relax

I feel a lot better now I'm eating. It's the wrong time of day completely to have a meal, so I haven't eaten all of it yet (I did go for the quorn sausages, new potatoes and baby sweetcorn - yuuuuuuuuum), but I'm feeling more energised. I think moving around cooking and so on helped a lot as well.

So anyway, now I'm still nibbling at that and listening to this podcast - it's definitely one I'd recommend if you don't already listen and are into knitting casts. The link is over on the right in my Blogroll under Podcasts (funny that).

Soggy Moggy

You know how I said earlier that I'd left the cat out in the rain, and was going to be in trouble? Well...

Cooking...

The sausages are under the grill, and the potatoes on the hob. Mmmmm, foooooooooooood.

Photos in a bit, honest!

Food!

I'm going to grill me some (quorn) sausages. And.... maybe do some potatoes and baby sweetcorn. That would be nummy.

I really want to sleep right now. Got to keep moving!!

Fetching so far

Fetching is progressing nicely, and it's an absolute pleasure to knit. I have found the cables a bit more fiddly that others that I've done in the past, for some reason, but it is a nice straightforward little pattern, and is coming out beautifully. And as you can see, the Posh Yarn Sophia 6-ply (in Mute) looks utterly scrummy.

FYI, the project stats are:
Pattern: Fetching by Cheryl Niamath, from Knitty (Summer 06).
Yarn: Posh Yarn Sophia 6-ply (100% cashmere) in Mute.
Needles: Set of 5 4mm DPNs.

I'm now, by the way, further up than shown in this pic - I'll take another one when I'm significantly more along with it.

But for right now... I think I'm going to stretch my legs around the flat a bit, and get something to eat. Which reminds me, I wanted to make a shout-out to my lovely encouraging monitor, Lisa - thank you for your support! And I wish I could go and get some fresh air, but it's 'orrible and rainy, and 3am, so I guess that'll have to wait til the morning. Food first, some stretches, then a shower. That'll do me for now.

Half way!

Hey, I just realised we've passed the half-way mark. Woohoo! Plus, Heather is totally famous! She's on the Big Ol' Roundup of cool blogs on the Blogathon site itself. Go Heather! :-D

Group blog duty!

I've just posted a "ficlet" to the Fandom Helps blog at Livejournal, so I think I'll have to make that my post for this half hour. If you're interested, it's Doctor Who, and spoilery for the end of this year's series. You can find it over here.

Oh crap!

I left the cat outside! It's chucking it down with rain. Ohhhh, I'm in trouble now.

Bipolar Disorder, and MDF: The Bipolar Organisation

I wanted to write a bit more about why I've chosen to blog for MDF today. I think many of the Blogathoners have gone for charities which have some kind of personal meaning to them, and I'm no different there. I'm one of those lucky however-many percent (10? 20?) of the population who have Bipolar Disorder, or Manic Depression.

Being Bipolar isn't cool. It isn't trendy. It doesn't make you interesting or different or emo. Or, you know, perhaps sometimes it does, but not in a good way in the long run. It's not teenage angst. It sure as hell doesn't make teenage angst any easier to deal with if you've got the one on top of the other. It is a serious and difficult condition, and it's not something that will ever be "cured". It's classified as a mental illness, and it is... but it's due to chemical imbalances in the brain, which in my opinion makes it physical as well.

As the term "bipolar" suggests, the illness causes extremes (poles) of mood. Depression can range from feeling 'down' and detached for no outside reason, to not being able to cope with interacting with other people, to not being physically able to get out of bed to even eat something, to really black depression and suicide. I'm lucky: I've only had one instance of feeling at the very bottom of that spectrum. But I have been pretty low, so let me try to explain it for you.

I can't imagine it's easy to understand why I just wouldn't get out of bed to get dressed and eat, why I might unplug my phone and hide under my duvet it the doorbell rings. Why don't I just do those things? They're not hard. Eating is kind of necessary. And yet, when I'm that low, I just can't grasp it. All my motivation to even move is gone, and trying to find it, trying to find a reason to do anything "normal" is like scrabbling on the sheer side of a glass mountain. Real life is on the other side of that glass, and I have no way of connecting to it. The smallest thing is overwhelming. I lose great gaps of time: in fact, this description is quite difficult for me because I don't entirely remember my periods of depression. I certainly have no concentration. I will often feel bleak despair for no outside reason. All in all... it sucks.

Mania is the other end of the spectrum. And in a lot of ways, it's the really tricksy one. You start out feeling great - bouncy, creative, full of life. This makes it really hard to catch and stop, because quite often, I find I don't want to stop feeling "good". But if it goes that little bit too far, then it tips over into feeling like I want to do a million things, but not being able to settle down to concentrate on any of them. This is when you can spend recklessly, and behave recklessly in general. It is not, for example, a good idea to drive when you're in this kind of state. Everything's faster than everything else, to paraphrase Meat Loaf! After this, the inability to concentrate escalates into constantly racing thoughts which can cause insomnia for days on end, all of which worsens the whole thing. I find that I often feel extremely frustrated and angry with myself when I'm in this kind of mood, and very agitated and anxious in general.

Just to make it all the more fun, it's also possible to have "mixed states" where symptoms of both mood extremes manifest at once. Trust me, those are great.

MDF is a charity that provides help and support for people with bipolar disorder, and for their family and carers. They promote research and awareness of the condition (did anyone see the documentary fronted by Stephen Fry last autumn?) and work against discrimination. Their mission statement says that they aim to "enable people affected by bipolar disorder / manic depression to take control of their lives".

That is exactly what I want and need to do. No, bipolar disorder doesn't have a "cure", but there are a range of medication and therapies available to help those of us who have it. Early diagnosis would be an enormous help so that those can be put into place as soon as possible. I wasn't diagnosed until I was 27, and I'd been having episodes for at least 10 years at that time. MDF's goals can only help with that, and to make care available to everyone who needs it.

I'm doing my best to manage my condition, with medication and support from my local mental health team, and by having worked on a plan for recognising symptoms of an episode before they become serious.

Which brings me to why I've also chosen to knit (hah) for this Blogathon. You see, knitting helps me both when I'm depressed and when I'm manic. If I'm down, it's not too difficult to do, and if need be I can do it without getting out of bed! I'm physically producing something, which gives me a sense of achievement, and it does also give me something to focus on and take my mind away from the mental bleakness of those episodes. When I'm manic, knitting is calming - there's only so fast I can make a stitch, and I think the repetition really helps as well. Again, I'm producing something, which is good when I can't concentrate on anything else enough to do anything that I perceive as useful.

So there we have it. Hooray MDF, and hoorah knitting! And if you've found this blurb interesting or thought-provoking in any way, perhaps you would sponsor me for a pound or two? If not, why don't you go and take a look at the MDF website. Chances are that even if you don't know someone with bipolar disorder, you have contact of some kind with somebody who suffers from depression, or a related illness. It's an interesting site, and well worth a read.

Still here

I've just ended up writing a reeeeeeeeeeeally long post about why I'm blogging for MDF.

Secret Pal 11

Ooo, whee! I've had the email confirming that I'm in the SP11 swap. *bounce* Excellent. I'm still waiting to hear about the other one I signed up for, the BritKnits Stash Swap, but last I heard that info should be going out fairly soon too. It's all very exciting! :-D

Aaaaaaand back to the 'thon.

Flagging

I'm being kind of rubbish here, aren't I? I'm flagging somewhat. Or, not exactly flagging, but feeling mentally flabby. Can't think of anything to say! I need to re-organise my brain a bit for the night shift.

So, where was I? Well, I've been knitting my Fetching wristwarmers - photo and more details of those coming in a bit. No-one has yet taken me up on any HP stuff, so I think I'm going to mention it on my LJ. After all, I'm not sure it it's because no-one reading this is interested, or if there is no-one much reading (I know: I could look at my stats! Duh.) or what. Doesn't matter if nobody does want them, I spose, but I kind of want to get over the $100 sponsorship mark. *g* I was just trying to think of some extra motivation to persuade people to shell out. Mwahahah, etc!

Anyway, I was going to make a post about my charity, so I think I'll do that next, and then start posting these pictures. I have to edit them a bit before I put them up, so that'll take a little while, but they'll be around soooon. Plus, I'm going to type up the drabble I wrote for Fandom Helps. *nod* Off I go then!

Ooops

I got carried away with the knitting and lost track of time! How's everyone else doing? Huh, 8 hours... that's a third of the way through! Go us :-)

Fetching!

Nearly up to the thumb now...

Actual knitting

While my photos are transferring to the 'puter, I'm going to take the opportunity to go and do some actual knitting. Let's see how much of a Fetching glove I can get done, shall we?

*goes to settle on the sofa for an hour*

Ow

I think someone wants my attention. Notice how he's not looking at me, though: that means it's not *really* him sticking me with his pins!

Still, it is time for him to go out. I'd better go and shepherd him downstairs...

I've got a new sponsor!

Hello to the lovely hellolovely! (I could go on for a long time there, but I won't ;-) ) And thank you so much - won't you drop me a comment to say hi and let me know how you found me? Also, tell me if I can link to you... I've got this niggling feeling I should know this already!

Come to that, I should probably thank my other wonderful sponsors, too. Heather, Noxie, Ramona, Mum (hi Mum!), Ally and Carla - you all rock!

Dinner Time!

Yes, I know I said I'd be more interesting when I got back from the shops, but that was before I was starving to death!!!! So I'm going to whip up some dinner (hmm, pasta?) and start uploading and editing photos while I'm eating.

However! What I will do is take requests for Harry Potter themed things. For example, house scarves (either style), leg / wrist / arm-warmers, socks, hats, bags, mp3-player / phone cosies, little knitted bookmarks.... anything you can think of, really. And here's the thing: I unfortunately can't afford to give away the materials, but I can give away my time. Therefore, I'm thinking that the price of these things can be split roughly 50/50 (depends on the item) between defraying the cost of the yarn, and donating to my charity. Does that sound reasonable? What I can produce will be limited because I'm intending to use yarn that I already had 'in stock' for making these things to sell. Prices will range from, say, £3.50 plus p&p for the smallest things, to £20-25 for a scarf. If you're interested, drop me a comment.

PS - I'm a complete idiot. I made a text post from my phone while I was out, but I did it in the wrong format so it didn't post to my LJ anyway. Duh.

And I'm home!

*falls down*

Stepping in for Lou!

Lou had to run out for a minute, but I am here to help her stay on schedule by linking to text message posts she makes to her LJ:

http://soulstar.livejournal.com/235243.html

Going Out!

Alright then, I'm actually going. I've worked it out: I'm going to keep posting over on my LJ: soulstar.livejournal.com. And just to make sure that I don't get automatically booted from the 'thon for not updating on this site, my friend H will post links to the LJ post(s) that I text in. Phew! I hope that's ok with the moderating people.

When I come back, I shall be able to get properly settled into this thing. It's a bit silly that I'm nearly 4 hours in and I don't feel like I've started properly! So, as well as the knitting and uploading photos, I'm going to:
- Take requests for Harry Potter themed knitted goods (yes, it will cost you, this is for charity you know!)
- Write out and put up a couple of patterns, again for HP stuff.
- Tell you some more about my charity and my reasons for choosing it.
- Get on Trillian and maybe Skype and see who I can find to natter to!
- Make a contribution or two to Fandom Helps.

Off I go then. See you shortly!

Have I shown you my FOs?

While I'm still trying to find a way round the not being able to upload any new photos problem, I thought I'd bore you to death with my old ones! Isn't that a plan? So go check out my photo album, specifically, the Finished Objects category. There's all sorts of exciting stuff in there, like, ooh, Harry Potter scarves, and .... more Harry Potter scarves. *g* And hats and bags and some other stuff. Go on, go have a laugh.

Have a random meme

Because I'm still battling with a way to go out and still be able to post. Maybe I should temporarily move posting to my LJ? I'm guessing bunging a Twitter widget on the top of the blog won't cut it.

Anyway.

be sorted @ nimbo.net

There's a surprise. Heh.

Oh, I give up.

Apparently I can't post here via Flickr from my phone after all. :-/

And wow, hasn't this been boring so far? I'm sorry about this! I shall keep on pondering a way to get to leave the house, and hopefully provide something more entertaining soon!

Hah!

Right, I can post from Flickr. Hoorah! So I can go out, take photos of stuff on teh fone, and post them remotely. Excellent!! And then I'll come back and knit when it's, well, less nice and sunny outside!

Come on, you all want to see nice photos of the seafront, don't you?

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Organisation

It's quite funny really. I've known for ages that I'm going to be doing this today, but now it's here, I'm horribly disorganised. I'd had every intention of clearing my desk, deciding exactly what I was going to use from my stash and getting it all out in a neat pile (or something), cooking food to eat well in advance, and so on. But no! I'm no more organised than I am on a normal day. Which is to say, not at all.

Oh well.

What shall I knit first?

Or should I call a taxi and go for those camera batteries?

Help?

Damnit!

I'm an idiot: I forgot to get new batteries for my camera, and it has indeed died just as I was about to upload my photos. I'm going to have to make a dash to the shops. I wonder if I can make it there and back in 30 minutes? It's times like these I regret not having my car any more!

Perhaps I'll have a quick poke into the MT settings and see if I can post by email from my mobile phone while I'm out, or something...

On what you'll find here today...

So, today is Blogathon Day, as I might have mentioned once or twice. I'm blogging for MDF: The Bipolar Organisation (more on that later), and if you'd like to sponsor me, you can do so by making a pledge at the Blogathon site.

If you are so kind as to pledge something, I'll link you over in the side bar there, and depending on how much you can spare, I might make you a little present to say thank you as well :-)

My theme, amazingly enough, is knitting related. I'm going to vary it a little bit so that I don't get bored, but what I'm planning on is:

• Squares for a blanket, in different yarns and stitch patterns to give me some variety, and to bust some of my stash!


• Children's mittens, for a Christmas shoebox project.


• Thank you gifts for my sponsors.


• Forest Canopy Shawl.


• Fetching wristwarmers.


• Monkey socks.


• Possibly reviews of knitting books and / or podcasts, as I'm going to be listening to podcasts to keep myself entertained as I knit!

I'll take pictures as I go so you can see how I'm doing as well as hearing about it. So, off I go to start the actual knitting! TTFN.

Blogathon...

1, 2, 3, Go!

Brain: unravelled.

Ravelry has completely eaten my brain. And my life. LJ went down the other day, and I totally didn't notice. I used to live on that site. Not any more!! Seriously, it's because I'm going through all the setting up part - once that's done, it won't be so time consuming. Not that I'm not having fun, because I am! *g* Plus, I'm getting organised at the same time, which is always good.

Anyway, it's Blogathon day tomorrow, so I'm off to bed to get plenty of sleep in! I shall try and stop by tomorrow morning to do a sort of preparatory post.

Also, I have to remember to go and pick up some new batteries for my camera. It'll kind of scupper my plan to take and post pics of my knitting throughout the 24 hours if the camera is dead, won't it?...

Speak of the devil...

Well, what do you know? A mere few hours after I posted my Ravelry queue status here, my invite popped into my mailbox! Just like magic!! Um, where magic = having worked my way to the top of the queue. But anyway! I'm now all signed up and over there poking around right now. I'm on there as soulstar, so come and say hi if you're signed up too :-)

Ravelry

I just found out, via the Posh Knitters group, that if you're waiting for your Ravelry invite you can now check your status in the queue on their site. So I did! And....

"Found you!

* You signed up on June 3, 2007
* You are #6286 on the list.
* 72 people are ahead of you in line.
* 12965 people are behind you in line.
* 32% of the list has been invited so far"

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee! Only 72 people in front of me! Soon! Soon I can go and play ;-)

(But for now, I'm off to continue reading That Potter Book. I'm trying to take it slowly and savour the thing...)

FOs: "BP", and Sirdar Snuggly baby jumper.

Hoorah, I've actually finished "BP" and the Sirdar Snuggly intarsia kitty-face baby jumper. And since they've now been wrapped and given as birthday presents to my friend C and her little boy respectively, I can reveal that BP is in fact a variation on the Coleen