Project 365 #7, Days 45-51: 23rd - 29th Feb

Still catching up! Here's the rest of February: days 45 to 51 of my Project 365 photos. If you want to see all the photos so far, click on the Project 365 category link, or check out the Project 365 folder in the photo album.

On to the pics (click them for the full sized versions):

Day 45 - 23rd Feb 08

The King's Head pub, where the Battle Knit & Natter group meet up every other Saturday.

Day 46 - 24th Feb 08

Horses, don'tcha know? This horsebox 'lives' just down the road from me. There's a ... sort of large shed set back from the road. I don't think any horses live there, though.

One Mother's Day Mitt, in progress. You can't see the cable on the back terribly well in the picture, but it shows up much better in person. I was knitting these from sock weight yarn, because Mum has ouchy tendons in her wrists, and the fingerless gloves I made her for Christmas have been helping that, especially if she wears them overnight... only they're made from aran weight angora, so she needed some lighter weight ones for the spring.

Day 47 - 25th Feb 08

This is one of those sci-fi classics that I had bizarrely never read. I've known the name of it for ages, and the vague synopsis, and I'd always meant to read it, but I never did until I happened across it on the inventory of someone I was getting another book from on BookMooch. So I grabbed it as well, and have now read it. And loved it. And must get the rest of the series Right Now!

Day 48 - 26th Feb 08

The spire of one of the churches that's down the road from me. In fact, it's one that I can see from my flat window. So here it is from right below it, on a lovely sunny (but crisp!) day.

Day 49 - 27th Feb 08

Urk... there is leakings from my ceiling again. This is a really irritating recurring problem: irritating for me and for my neighbours upstairs, because they can either (a) never use their shower, or (b) re-seal round the bath every few weeks. It wasn't done properly in the first place, and it's going to be a major job to sort out, apparently. Gah.

Worst thing is, the leaks either come through the fire alarm system, or down this wall and over the lightswitch. Couldn't be somewhere that there's no electrics, could it? Nooooo.

Day 50 - 28th Feb 08

This is Xander's new favourite hidey-hole: under the coffee table that's by the sofa. Trouble is, he only ever goes half under it...

See what I mean? Daft mog :-)

Day 51 - 29th Feb 08

And this is when I was in the middle of winding up possible yarns for the Sock Knitter's Pentathlon which was starting on 1st March. Posh Yarn Emily in Ripen is the green one on the left (that's the one I used in the end) and on the chairs / ball winder is The Yarn Yard Bonny in Shelter.

SP11 Package #3 - at last!

Due to mania, server crash and my sieve-like memory, I hadn't posted my final SP11 package squee-ing. So here it is now. I did mention on 3rd December that I'd received it, but that was as far as I got. (In that post I also mentioned that I'd been delayed in sending my final package out to my spoilee. Well, it's still here - my money situation has meant I haven't been able to find the postage yet. But it belatedly occurred to me that some virtual gifts were possible, and I'm putting a bit of cash by each week to send the non-virtual things! Also, I said that I had a new design for this site. As you can see, that's not in place yet either. Hopefully soon, though!)

Anyway! Even though the package arrived at the beginning of December, it was all Christmas themed and wrapped. Hee!

Not that I let that put me off opening everything right then, of course. I did think very briefly about saving it all for Christmas, but... nah. So what was inside all that shiny wrapping paper? The best SP package ever, that's what!

So, from back-to-front and left-to-right, what we have is:
- Some utterly delicious all-butter shortbread (YUM), two little boxes of Lindt ... truffly things that were also utterly yummy (one milk chocolate, one chocolate orange, nomnomnom!), chocolate money (hee!!) and a Christmas card!

- The letter Janey sent me with the parcel, A DROP SPINDLE AND FIBRE OMG!!!!!!!!!! (I may have bounced up and down and squealed with joy when I opened this - thank you SO MUCH, Janey! Seriously, this was the absolute top thing on my craft-y wishlist, and I'm so so chuffed with it :-D ) with instructions for getting started spinning, two skeins of Colinette Banyan in Fruit Coulis (which is one of my top three Colinette colourways) which Janey sent me because I'd been wanting yarn for summery socks - this is going to be ideal. Then there's two balls of SWTC Karaoke (50% soy silk, 50% wool) in Bluezzzz, which has tints of purple in the blue. It's gorgeous stuff, and since Janey suggested I make one of my hats with it, I've been pondering on designing something cool. I have some ideas :-) Finally in this 'row' is the one book I'd been really really dying to own - Interweave Knits' Favorite Socks. Oh, it's fabulous! The next pair of socks I cast on has to be from this book - I want to knit them all! Wheeeee :-)

- And at the bottom of the photo are the brilliant socks that Janey knit just for meeeee (yes, there may have been more squealing and bouncing, I'm not ashamed to admit it!) which I'll babble about more below, two adorable Christmassy pencils which are still in my desk tidy now in defiance of it no longer being Christmas, and last but not least, a fantastic booklet on Magic Loop technique - this is something that I'd mentioned (in my SP11 questionnaire, I think) that I wanted to learn, and I'd totally recommend this little book (by Bev Galeskas, pub. Fiber Trends). The instructions are really clear, and it includes patterns for wristlets, and for both top down and toe up socks. I haven't yet tried socks using this technique, but where I was totally intimidated by the very idea before, now I'm really looking forward to it! (I just don't have any 2.5mm or smaller circs, so it'll have to be for socks that I'm using 2.75mm needles up!)

So in conclusion.... THANK YOU JANEY!!! You've been the best secret pal I could possibly have imagined, and I hope we keep on staying in touch. In fact, I hope that since we live not so far away from each other, we'll be able to meet up some time. That would be lovely :-)

And here's a close-up of the fab handknit socks that Janey made me. They're Basic Cabled Socks by Brainylady [Ravlink], and knit in Opal Uni in my absolute favourite colour. And they fit perfectly. Whee :-) This was the first pair of handknit socks I've tried with short-row heels (I spent a ridiculous amount of time peering at the construction and ooo-ing and aah-ing over the stitch pattern etc etc before I even tried them on. I'm such a geek) and they inspired me to try short rows for my Fireworks socks that I'm knitting at the mo.

To round up, doing SP11 was a brilliant experience. I met two lovely pals and I hope I'll be keeping in touch with them both, I got some wonderful gifts (more than I ever would have expected, in fact!) and had a great time sending stuff to my downstream pal, Katie... although of course I do feel bad that I haven't been able to send the final things I have for her over yet. Stupid money, grrrrr! But on the other hand, that means she'll be getting a surprise package at some point. Mwahahaha!

Will I be doing SP12? No, I don't think so - not because I didn't have a good time, but because of the current money stuff. A future SP exchange, certainly. Perhaps the UK Swap one on Ravelry. We shall see :-)

Song of Ice and Fire

This is a series by George R R Martin that I've been meaning to read for ages and ages. I'm pretty certain that somewhere (although I can't find it at the moment) I have Book 3, Vol. 2. I certainly have a strong memory of the cover. I can't find any record of having sold it on Amazon, or mooched it away, so I must still have it. It might be in a box at Mum's house. But I'll have to see if I can retrieve it, because I just got the first two books (A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings) in a two-for-one volume from Fictionwise. I had some money sitting in my Micropay account there, you see. Mmmm, instant book gratification! I love it.

Oh, and talking of instant books which are downloadable, there are a couple of authors now making their work available online. I haven't read any of it myself yet, but I have downloaded the first two books of The Dances of Gods from Mayer Alan Brenner's site, and I think I'm going to enjoy them. I found him via Graeme's Fantasy Book Review. The other author is Lewis Shiner, and he's making his short stories and articles available on his site.

And back to the Song of Ice and Fire series, I did the 'House Sorting' meme...

Your Score: House Targaryen

81% Dominant, 63% Extroverted, 54% Trustworthy

Ancient. Noble. Passionate to the point of insanity. Transcending lesser beings, you are of House Targaryen.

You are a dominant personality—in fact, you are the most dominant of all eight house types. You will not suffer yourself to be ignored. You will not suffer yourself to be ruled. The phrase "I will not suffer myself to _____!" was practically made for you. You are wilful, arrogant, and exceedingly dangerous to screw with. With a temper like yours, anyone stupid enough to saunter into your line of fire won’t soon forget their mistake.

You are also extroverted, which means that everyone in the world knows exactly what your intentions are. Unlike your cohorts (who hide behind smiles and courtesies and court politics), you think of it as your birthright to come riding in on an enormous dragon, breathing fire and fucking your siblings. Hey, what you lack in subtlety, you make up in style!

Finally, you are trustworthy. Your absurd amounts of power and borderline psychosis are not used unjustly. Unlike many, your general aims are just and true. You we bred for rule, and the fact that you cannot rest until you are doing so is not your fault. If you make up your mind, it becomes reality. Never one for empty threats or vainglorious lies, you can only speak the truth. And the truth is "fire and blood."

Representative characters include: Daenerys Stormborn, Rhaegar Targaryen, and Viserys Targaryen

Similar Houses: Baratheon, Lannister,and Tully

Opposite House: Frey

When playing the game of thrones, you play it to the death.

Ummm. Well, I guess I'll read the books and then decide if this is a good result or not!

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.

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!

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...)