Carnival time!

It's carnival week again, and I'm excited. Whee! I know it's daft, but it does make me feel like I'm little again and it's the summer holidays. *g* Not only that, but the Olympics starts technically-today (I'm going to bed any minute, really), which for me mainly means the Ravelympics. Which is like its own Olympic Games, only for knitting! No, really. I'm going to be having lots of fun with it anyway, and it might make me actually sit and watch some of the actual Games on telly if I have something to occupy myself with knitting-wise at the same time.

Since multiple affiliations are allowed, I've signed up to be in Team TARDIS (duh), Team Dog, Chicken and Aardvark (AKA the Brighton & Hove (and surrounding E Sx) Safari Knitters), and Team Posh Knitters. The 'Events' I'm doing are WIP Wrestling (because my WIPs need wrestling into submission very very badly!) plus the Handspun Heptathlon for Team DCA (yes, I've started spindle spinning, but no, I don't have to do seven sub-events, it's just a catchy title) and the Amigurumi-n-Toys Toss for Team TARDIS during which I'm going to actually try to crochet an Adipose. Well, it's sposed to be a bit of a challenge, you see, so I thought trying two small projects in crafts that I'm a novice at would give me that and also give me a break from wrestling the WIPs so that doesn't get to feel like a chore. There's method in my madness! This time ;-)

Getting back to the carnival, there's been various events going on all week and I've been down to a couple. I got well and truly drenched last Sunday, going down to the gig in the Old Town - elen_ancalima was visiting, so I was showing her the typical British summer seaside weekend ;-) Which of course includes sudden torrential rain! Anyway, I'm hoping to go down to a knitting exhibition thingy tomorrow afternoon, and of course to the main Carnival parade itself on Saturday.

Anyway, I think I'll wrap this up now and get to bed. Zzzz. With a bit of luck, it should crosspost to LJ. However, I have now decided to change how this site works, so alterations to the look (as well as 'my end' of things) will be coming.... er.... some time this year? I have planning to do first! Night all.

Lesson Learned

Note to self: do not turn a sock heel late at night while watching telly and not counting properly. It will only end lopsidedly! Ah well, back I go!

This is, by the way, the third pair of socks for the Sock Knitters' Pentathlon - the Rattlesnakes. I'm loving the twisty twiney cables, I really am. I'll do a proper update soon and post a photo.

Part of the reason I've been so quiet recently, by the way, is that I'm not sure I'm getting on well with this version of Movable Type. Still, if I don't use it I can't get used to it enough to be sure. But the design templating system...hmm... I need to find out more about it. Because right now I'm getting more and more tempted to change the whole site to run off of Wordpress (not just the blog). I think I can do that with MT as well, but I already know how WP works, so. I spose it all bears more looking into, and 1am isn't the time to do it! I'm off to sleep on it again.

Shiny newness

There's something new around here. What could it be? *g* Nothing all that exciting actually, except a little bit to me in a geeky way: I finally got around to upgrading to Movable Type 4.1. Which is nice. You can't tell much difference from here, except that the Blogroll didn't upgrade and so now all my links are a horrible blobby mess. There are a couple of ways I could sort that out, but the quickest might be to go back to using Blogrolling for now.

The actual reason I finally did the upgrade is that I've been spending a lot of time playing around on Facebook (and I really do mean playing: I've installed a load of irritating page-heavy apps so I can play silly games. Sorry, Facebook flist!) recently. One of the things I installed was the 'Blog It' app, which should let me crosspost to various places including here and my LJ, as well as update my Facebook and Twitter statuses. I know, spammity-spam-spam, make me stop. Anyhow, even though it's a Six Apart developed app, it doesn't want to work for this MT blog... and still doesn't even after the upgrade and me trying a billionty different things. Ah well. So much for that. For now. :-)

If you want to friend me on Facebook, by the way, I should be searchable. I'm using my usual email for this site over there as well, and if you can't find me with that, drop me a line or a comment here and I'll send you some more details.

What else was I going to say? Oh yes: it's WWKIP Day tomorrow, and I'm going to the event in Brighton. Hopefully Ms Charlotte is coming down too. Knitting-wise, I've reassessed what's a current project and what's hibernated, and I've cast on for the February Lady Sweater (actually a cardigan). It's the first time I've tried top-down all-in-one-piece construction, and I'm very excited. No, that's not sarcasm - I really am! There will be no seams! I might actually finish it relatively quickly instead of finishing the knitting part and then stuffing the parts in a bag to languish for years! Poor poor Chunky Jacket and Menace Jumper. I will finish you one day!

Catching up

Whoops, I've been absent for a bit, haven't I? I've been down with an attack of the April's, you see.

I don't know why exactly (although I've got a theory: it could be bunnies*) it happens every year, but starting in April, I always go through a depressive period. The joys of spring tend to be less than joyous. Not every day, for every thing, because there are lots of things that objectively I love about this time of the year. But mentally, it's not one of my best times. Some years it's lasted for months, getting worse and worse until I've been in a right state. Others, it's been better, and it's only really since I've been diagnosed with the bipolar that I've been keeping proper track anyway. But since then it's depended on my medication, my own and others' awareness of my mental state, and how soon it's picked up on and started to be dealt with.

*or seriously, something to do with stuff that happened when I was around 18 which I won't bore you with now, but was at this time of year. And btw, name that fannish reference!

This time, I only had about a week (or maybe 10 days... it blurs) of not being able to move out of bed / eat / etc. After that, there was a thankfully quite short period of getting myself back into a more normal routine again, and now I'm feeling a lot better. Hoorah! Interestingly (to me anyway *g*) getting back to normal once I'd been able to recognise and start coping with the depression as depression just took about three or four days. Before I got really low, I'd been struggling with a wonky sleep routine and lack of motivation for a good couple of weeks, and I was frustrated and annoyed with myself for not being able to sort it out. Now, I can "forgive" myself for all that because now I realise it was the start of the low mood swing. I'm not quite sure if I could have done anything at that time to head the low off... perhaps that's something to talk to someone (doctor? CPN? counsellor?) about.

However, like I said above, there are things I do love about this time of year, so it certainly hasn't all been doom and gloom. I haven't got out and about as much as I'd like of course, but I did get to enjoy the snow at my Mum's house, the sun in my flat (I have huge windows and my bedroom is a sun-trap), and the sea-air down on the seafront once or twice as well. And of course, being inside so much, I have got some knitting done, and a lot of reading. I did sleep most of the time when I was down (and I do mean most of the time: generally 16-20 hours a day!) but when I was awake, I was at least able to do those things.

What did I knit? Well, I'll talk about that more in another post, but I finished my Pentathlon socks (yay!), I'm making two pairs of baby bootees for Ally's little 'un (who is due next week - the 23rd), and I'm working on Mum's birthday present (also 23rd). Things are going much faster now I'm feeling more myself again, of course. Which is nice :-)

I'm behind on Project 365 of course - there are only so many photos I could take of the inside of my flat anyway *g*. What are you sposed to do when you miss some days, I wonder? Just skip them, or fudge it and fill the gaps with spare shots from other days? Is there a school of thought on that?

A yarny blind date

I've signed up for the Sock Knitter's Pentathlon (for which there are Ravelry and Yahoo groups) because, well, I liked the look of it. The group summary goes:
In honor of the upcoming Summer Olympics in Beijing, a sock knitter's pentathlon is being organized. This group will test your sock knitting skills. During the course of the year, competitors will knit 5 pairs of socks in 5 different styles.

That means a pair of socks in each two month period starting from 1st March. Having two months to complete a pair of socks feels do-able for me, where other groups that are doing a pair of socks a month, for example, send me into a panic just thinking about it. Two months gives me some breathing space! There is, of course (since this is an 'Olympic' event *g*) a competitive element to the Pentathlon - there are points awarded according to how you place in the finished socks stakes. But if you don't complete a sock in the allotted time, even though you're then eliminated from the competition element of the group, you can still knit along for the rest of the patterns for the fun of it. Perfect!

However! As I said, the kal / competition begins on 1st March - just over a day away. That's when the first pattern will be released... all we know so far is that the yarn we will need should knit to 8 sts per inch on 2.5mm (or thereabouts) needles, and that solid or semi-solid yarns will work best. Being on a yarn diet, I'm obviously not buying anything new and I hardly need to with the amount of sock yarn in my stash. But I can't decide what to use! Heeeeelp! I feel like, because I don't know what the pattern looks like yet, I can't choose the yarn / colour that will look best. Maybe I should just wait until the pattern comes out, but then I'll have to think about which yarn to pick and then rewind it, all of which will be cutting into my knitting time... and I know I wasn't particularly going to do the competition element of this, but I'd kind of like to see how I can do at it anyway.

I have narrowed my choices down a bit, though, so maybe I could get some opinions? Have a look at the poll below...

I haven't actually only picked (semi-)solid yarns, but I think the others are 'blend-y' enough that they wouldn't overpower a pattern. I'll probably have to wait to see what it is to make a final decision on that though. Anyway! Most of these are Yarn Yard Sock, with which I get a gauge of 8.5 sts / inch on 2.5mm (which gives the better fabric imo) or 8 sts / inch on 2.75mm. The only one which isn't is 'Ripen', and that's Posh Yarn Emily with which I get a gauge of 7.5 sts / inch on 2.75mm. So those are near enough to work - I'm just stuck on the colour! Help me choose?

Which yarn shall I use for the first Pentathlon event? Aubergine Byron Bay Duck Egg Blue (on right) Passionata Ripen Shelter Tour de France 41 Woodland

Posted by Lou at 11:22 PM in Knitting :: Photo album :: Yarn & stuff
Tags: kal, ravelry, sock pentathlon, socks, yarn
Comments (0)

Project 365 #3, Days 12-16: 21st - 25th Jan

Still playing catch-up with posting these, here are the next five days 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 12 - 21st Jan 08

There's an albino squirrel that lives somewhere around the back of my house. I was coming indoors when I saw it in the garden from the stairs window. Unfortunately, these aren't good pics - I zoomed right in, which means the digital zoom as well, and that's really affected the quality. Still, it's a lesson learned! I like the way this one is framed with the fence and the shed in the background.

Action shot! The caught-in-motion nature of this picture appealed to me - (s)he's zooming up the piece of wood that my downstairs neighbour has bracing the fence, and it was a pretty quick zoom as well. It was chance that I caught this one!

Another action shot, this one even more so... I think it gives a bit of an idea how quickly (s)he was zooming along. I swear the squirrel was in the middle of the shot when I went to press the button!

Day 13 - 22nd Jan 08

This is the table that lives beside my sofa, and has my evening entertainment essentials on it. At the time this picture was taken, that meant the remotes for the telly and digibox, my knitting notions case (the sheep pencil-case: used to be my school one actually), scissors for snipping yarn (mended with gaffer tape when the handle cracked), my mp3 player and AAA batteries, the first Harry Potter book (in German), a pencil, my knitting notebook (currently open to the stitch pattern I've written out for my Damson Gloves), current knitting project (said gloves) and pattern book, and a row counter, cable needle and stitch markers. Oh, and on the floor you can see the bag that my current sock in progress is in, as well. See, everything I might need while parked on the sofa of an evening. Although to be fair, there usually is a drink on there as well. :-)

Day 14 - 23rd Jan 08

I popped into C. House today, and since I was the only one in the sitting room, I took a snap of two of the guitars. And huh, I don't know quite what happened there, but there seems to be a ghost guitar in the picture as well..... *spooky music*
Then I went back to practising the chords that P had taught me. G⁷, C, ad nauseam... (until I reverted to my usual one-fingered picking out of various tunes *g*)

Day 15 - 24th Jan 08

This is the vase that sits on my dining table. It used to have a bunch of fake sunflowers in, but they're now, um, sprouting from the top of my didgeridoo. But anyway. Instead, it now houses these sparkly things which I originally bought as Christmas decorations, but decided to use all year round instead. I like shiny things!

Day 16 - 25th Jan 08

Finally, here's my second Hedara sock as it was on this day. I decided to start my "WIP of the week" plan, and picked the Hedara as the thing to concentrate on, starting on this day. I'd already had the ribbing done, so off I went with the leg section. I really love this pattern.

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!

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 :-)

Reconnected.

Oh thank .... well, whoever that guy was in 2nd line support who finally figured out what the problem with my internets was. Which was that when BT had done some work at my local exchange on the day I lost my connection (Sat 26th), they had either deleted or not re-added (depending on what they'd been doing) my ISP's domain to the list of ones that are allowed to connect. I spose no-one else uses that particular domain for their log-in round here - either that or it's specific to each broadband enabled line. Actually, that would make more sense. Anyway, they've now put it back on the system and voila, I can connect. It's liek magic, only with teknolegdgy *nods* I told them it was an authentication problem the first day it went wrong, but it took 10 days to get someone to figure out exactly where the trouble was. To be fair, the fact that BT were doing work on my exchange threw them off the scent so I had to wait for all sorts of tests and then a BT engineer to come out because everyone thought it was a line problem that just looked like an authentication thing... oh well. All better now!

So anyhow, I should probably get on with uploading the many many photos I have to put up, both for Project 365 and for my knitting progress. Which there has been lots of! I finished the Hedara socks and I've taken my Bigga jacket out of hibernation and begun the sewing up of that. Plus I'm still plugging away on the Chevron scarf of DOOM. Scarf in fingering weight = Never Again, as I think I've said before. But anyway, that's all for another post really. I'm off to bed.

Where was I?

Both figuratively / mentally and literally.... um.... yes. My train of everything is well and truly lost! Let's try and get back on track, shall we? This is probably going to be a massively long post, I warn you now! There's also going to be a fair bit about mental health stuff, so feel free to skim :-)

So, starting from when I vanished back in December... well, for the three weeks leading up to Christmas I was pretty much knitting constantly. So much so that I cramped up my shoulder and ended up with an ouch-y left index finger joint! But eek, I had to get the Christmas knitting done!!! Well, as I already mentioned, I didn't quite succeed, but I did get Mum's Fetchings done, and I had a scarf finished that I gave her as well. Also within that time, I went to visit C for the weekend, and having been manic not too long beforehand, I think I 'overworked' myself, because once I got home again, I when I wasn't knitting, I was sleeping. Zzzz!

Then, this site was down from 17th - 26th-ish December because of a server crash. It took the hosting company a while to be able to recreate the accounts and then restore the files. The flat files were about 6 weeks old but the databases were all up to date, so I've been able to easily restore the things that were still missing (photos, mainly). So that's all good. Of course, during that time I had a million posts I wanted to make, and now I don't remember what they were about ;-)

After Christmas, I crashed like a .... crashed out thing for a good ten days. Everyone tends to, I think, but annoyingly I can't do anything by halves, so I hit a depressive slump with it: didn't get up or eat or anything really. I slept, or I read - I got through about 15 books, actually. But mostly I slept. Luckily, I'd arranged with Clara, Ally & co. for them to come over for New Year's. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have done anything for that... and if I'd been up to phoning them to cancel, I probably would have. But as it happened, Clara rang me and just asked me what time they should turn up. I don't think she knew I was down, but that really is the best way to deal with me when I'm like that. Don't leave me room to get out of things! So I pulled myself together, tidied up, and sorted out some nibbles and the like. We had a good time - just a chilled out evening, chatting and playing with little M. :-) After that, I was still down for a few more days, but I started to pull up again at the weekend after C helped me with a plan to get me firing on all cylinders again. Hooray!

Since then, I've posted my resolutions, which I'm doing OK with in general, and I've started Project 365. Mentally, I've cycled into a more manic phase, but overall I've been mostly within 'normal' parameters. I've also done something that I'd been sort of putting off for some time - I've gone and registered with the drop-in centre down the road. I think I was resisting it because part of me felt that only people with a "real disability" needed to go to somewhere like that. Or perhaps with a more severe disability than I like to perceive myself having, I don't know. Ah, denial! I thought I was over you, but no! Anyway, it's a really nice place, and I can go there as often as I want or need, to use whatever facilities I want to. Mainly, I think it'll be useful for me to have somewhere to pop in when I know that I'm starting to slide one way or another and need to just be around other people to ground myself, and also it's good to know that the support and advice services are there if I need them. And I have to admit that it's a huge plus that it's literally a minute's walk (or less) from my front door. They do food too, very reasonably, so if I can't cook, I can eat there. And I got to chat with three other people with bipolar while I was there, and it's just kind of nice to have that face to face contact with others in the same boat. So yes. I'm going to keep that up.

Hmm, I think that kind of covers it. I've been working away on my WIPs, but I'll talk more about that in a different post (with progress pics, whee). Oh, and I seem to have my sleeping pattern back to normal, so it's back to the gym and everything this week as well. I missed Knit & Natter the Saturday before last, but my friend M is coming over tomorrow, and I'm planning to go this coming weekend. Now all I have to do is stick to the plan, but also not overdo it!

It was. Only. A dream!

Sitting on the bus this afternoon, I suddenly remembered a dream I'd had last night. In which my skeins of sock yarn were just so irresistibly yummy that I just had to chew on them*. Nom nom nom! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarn!!! This is the point where I should probably be saying "I think I've finally cracked". Only, whoops, too late! ;-)

* They weren't bad tasting, either. Not that I ate them. That would be a waste! Just stuffed them in my mouth and gently chomped down a couple of times. Erm. Hi there subconscious. Something you want to tell me?

ANYWAY! Hi, Happy New Year. Here I am! I've been pretty zonked since Christmas, and I was rushed off my feet before that (plus my webserver was down for over a week, grr), but I'll elaborate on what I actually got up to in the other post that I'm writing. This is going to be a looking forwards post. Well, and a 'currently' one as well, I guess.

So, let's have some resolutions for 2008. I have general ones, and knitting-related ones as well:

General resolutions:

1. Get back into a regular day-to-day routine and maintain my sleep hygiene regime
2. Remember to take my meds (I've been doing well with this for some time, but it never hurts to reinforce it!)
3. Related to #1, go to the gym / gym classes regularly and often.
4. Eat proper!
5. Get back to work, but take it slowly and don't overdo it!
6. Keep a cap on my spending and improve my money situation overall.
7. Have a thorough clear-out of the flat and charity-shop or eBay anything I don't want or need.
8. Be a more reliable and prompt correspondent! I'm pants at replying to emails and comments, and I really want to get on top of that. Feel free to help me out by prodding me if I should be mailing you and haven't. I'm not ignoring you, I'm just a bit rubbish!

Several of which can really be summed up as "Look after myself", but since detailed lists help me plan, that's what we've got. :-)

Knitting Resolutions:

1. Two words: Yarn Diet. This is strongly related to #6 above, since I can't now afford to buy any more yarn - woe! But I'm not exactly yarnless, so I'm not going to repine. I haven't decided on my exact goal for this yet, but I want to join the Stashalong thingy. Piglottie has said she's not going to buy any yarn in 2008 at all. I'd like to say the same, but maybe I'll start with a 6 month commitment and then revise / renew it from there! I feel that I should leave myself some wiggle-room just in case, and there's still sockclub. So. I'll post more about it when I've figured out how I want to work it.
2. Knit from my stash. You know, since I'm not going to be buying anything new. But even if I was, I have a ginormous stash that needs some serious busting, and what's more, it's yarn I really want to knit with! I have plans!
3. Those two UFOs that have been needing sewing up for the last couple of years? FINISH THEM! Damnit. At least one, if not both, by the end of February.
4. Never have more than 8 WIPs on the needles. Preferably less, to leave room for 'OMG must start that right now' syndrome.
5. In the short term, finish all my current WIPs by the end of March (Hedaras, Damson Gloves, Ruby Scarf, Clapotis, Fireworks socks, Chevron Scarf, WFS, Spring Sprung scarf, and SAHWWJ Cardi) with a possible waiver on the cardi because I'm happy enough for that to be a relatively long-term no-rush project.
6. Do some more stash clearing / yarn selling. Which sort of counts as stash busting, but not exactly. Also advertise those knitting books and magazines.
7. Get out the knitting machine and make up some stuff to sell. Like HP scarves and so on. I've got the yarn, after all. Stashbusting! Yay!
8. Spend more time on my Ravelry groups, and keep up with my blogroll links. And comment more! Oh, on the podcasts I listen to, as well. Par-ti-ci-pate. *nod*

I've also been thinking about joining Project 365. Or maybe I'll do the weekly variant that some people on Ravelry are doing. I'll probably end up with a stack of photos of the cat. And yarn. No change there, then!

Okeydokey, this post is long enough. I'll yatter about my current WIPs (with photos) more tomorrow or some time soon. Time for bed! :-)

Phew!!

Right now, I'm feeling the urge to run all the way to Dublin and physically cling to my webserver. Oh yes. You might have noticed that my site disappeared for a while there. As did most of my email. The old server crashed and died, and it took quite a while to determine that it was dead forever, and then transfer everything to a new server. It probably doesn't help that I have multiple domains on here. And once the data was restored, I had some work to do at my end, recreating database usernames, cron jobs, email accounts, resetting file permissions. But at last, here we are: I think I have everything back except for some of the photos in the album. And those, I can re-upload, no problem. Yay!

So, er, Christmas was good! I had a lovely one, although I was a bit zonked out today. My knitted presents went down well, although I didn't manage to finish Emily's Chevron Scarf - I showed it to her so far. I probably would have got it done, but I've been having ouchy-finger-joint issues. Bah. However, Mum liked the Fetchings I made her, and the scarf - a sparkly gold one - that I gave her as well. Pictures soon!

I'm planning to go to the gym with the bro tomorrow (assuming he's remembered I said I'd go too!) and get my new year's resolutions underway early. *g* I haven't been over there for a while, although I do belong, and I need to get back into the swing of it.

Zooooom

1. I've had THE most awesome final / "reveal" package from my SP11 pal, Janey. THANK YOU JANEY! :-D I shall write more and post pics later. And email Janey to gush a lot. Yes.
2. Due to Circumstances Beyond My Control, I haven't been able to send out my own final SP11 parcel to Katie yet. Argh. Actually, it looks like I won't be able to get hold of one thing I was looking for anyway, so I guess I'll have to give up and get it sent asap. Although asap might have to be next week, the way things are looking. I reiterate: argh! Sorry, Katie :-/
3. It's a year today that I was in that car accident (my car was hit). Therefore, a year since I last drove, since after that (a) my poor car was squished, and (b) I was put on meds that mean I'm medically disqualified from having a licence. Which in turn means I've got a free bus pass, so it's not all bad.
4. I was kind of under the weather again last week. Mainly, I'm annoyed. I have things to do! Therefore, I'm now running around like a... crazy running around thing. Pick your metaphor. Off to the shops soon. Hey, fresh air! That'll be novel.
5. Site revamp still not done. Well, it is. I just haven't applied it to the actual site and uploaded it yet. Yeah, not done.
6. What with the not-well thing, I haven't got as much knitting done as I'd like, either. I do at least have one FO, but everything else that's Christmas knitting? Um, not yet. Must knit faster.
7. I have sorted out pretty much everything (I think!) that I'm going to destash, however. Looong post all about that coming v soon.
8. Xandermog is poking me in the leg with his sharp pointy toes. Owwwww.
9. Aaaaaaaaaand the child upstairs seems to be banging something echo-y and metal on the floor. Oh, someone please make it stop!
10. I might just be having a bit of a manic Monday (haha, oh dear). Shall have to watch myself, and try to do some relaxing stuff once I've got the must-do things out of the way. Note to self: breathe.

Falling off the yarn wagon

Ummmm..... it was my birthday and I'll buy yarn if I want to?

So, I know I said I wasn't going to buy any more yarn, and lord knows, I don't exactly need any. Seriously, I'm all yarned out. You know that - you've seen my stash. I have lots. But those sock yarns are just so scrummy, and apparently don't count towards your stash anyway. Of course they still dent your bank balance a bit, but whoops, too late now! But it was my birthday last month, so I treated myself to some yarn that I had been stalking for a while. And then I decided that that'll be it until... well, until I've knitted a lot of it up!

That wasn't me falling off the yarn wagon, though - at that point, I wasn't even on it despite my oh so good intentions. I was the person half-heartedly jogging along behind the wagon, occasionally making a vague jump up but not quite getting on board. But last month when I began clearing out my stash, I made my yarn diet 'resolution'. I was then really good and resisted all yarn except for the YY glove kit that I already mentioned... which I justified because [a] it's for something I need (gloves) [b] it counts as my sock yarn allowance, and [c] the money for it came from the yarn I'd sold on eBay.

Howwwwwever, I tripped and bought yarn and stuff after Knit & Natter last Saturday. The fatal flaw with K&N is that I'd have to leave early to catch my bus back home... and I don't want to do that. So that leaves me with almost an hour to kill when it finishes. Of course I'm going to go to the yarn shop (the group meets in the pub opposite). Actually I still haven't broken my yarn diet rules¹, but I feel kind of bad nevertheless. I got some Debbie Bliss Rialto DK, which is for a Christmas gift and was a planned purchase, and some sock yarn - Regia's Kaffe Fassett Design Line in Mirage Fire, which I think is new. I refrained from buying more than one lot of sock yarn, though, so at least that's something! *g* I did succumb to the lure of a couple of Addi Turbo bamboo circular needles, though. I'm using one pair already, and they are lovely and smooth with a non-tangley cord and all. But the join between the bamboo and the bit that connects it to the cord isn't smooth. There's a definite jump that the stitches catch on all the time. :-/ Still, maybe I can do something about it. I really hope so, because they're lovely in every other respect, and I don't want to spoil the very nice yarn that's being knit on them. Anyone have any advice about that?

So yeah, I haven't technically fallen off the wagon, but I felt the need to confess my purchases anyway. That's probably the best way of keeping on top of what I do buy within my allowance and making sure I don't slip. Keep it all public so I'll be too embarrassed to fail! Think it'll work?

¹ To re-cap:

1. No more yarn for larger projects until I've used the yarn I already have in my stash which is mentally assigned to things in my queue.
2. Budget the amount of sock yarn / single skeins that I can buy: this will be sock club yarn plus an allowance of £15 a month max. This should probably also cover needles and notions as well, come to think of it. And books.
3. Yarn for gifts and commissions doesn't count, but I am going to try to knit from my stash for those as well where possible.

Autumnal Spring Cleaning

I've been having a really good clear-out over the last few weeks, and I'm starting to feel less mentally cluttered as well already. I've even eBayed more of my yarn. I know! Can I really be breaking my hoarding mentality? Well, no, not if you look at my bookshelves (MY books *clings*) and, uh, the remainder of my yarn stash. Not to mention the contents of my wardrobe and drawers... and a couple of suitcases... However, I am going to eBay some more stuff. Not yarn this time (although I might be able to persuade myself to part with a couple more skeins), but things like my spare Palm cradle (never used) and serial cable (not used since approx 3 computer upgrades ago)... oh, and I'm sure there are some other things. I have also sorted out more clothes and knick-knacks etc to go off to the charity shop. I think I still have more to do there, though!

Unfortunately, I've been a bit stalled on the whole thing because I'm still ill. Bleuch. I left the flat yesterday for the first time in about 2 weeks (alright, maybe my mental health hasn't been ideal: being stuck indoors ill was threatening to push me into a 'down', but I think I've caught it in time) because I had to go to the Post Office, and stopped in to speak to the pharmacist on the way. She reckons I have bronchitis or a chest infection, and what with being asthmatic already, I've been told to go to the doctor tout de suite. I know, I know, I should have gone a week ago. I am Procrastination Woman. In this case, that's particularly stupid of me since it means I've been propped at a weird angle in bed for several days since I can neither sit/stand up or lay down normally and breathe comfortably. V annoying. Oh well. I have an appointment this afternoon. I'll be fixed soon. On the plus side, this whole thing seems to have sorted out my insomnia / wonky body-clock thing that I had going on: I'm now tired / sleeping during the actual night again, instead of being awake all night and tired or asleep all day. Hoorah!

In knitting news, I have got some work done on my WIPs. I really must remember to make a couple of posts about my current WIPs and recently completed FOs to spring-clean that off my mental to-do list. Mainly I've been working on "Mmm, Refreshers", which is a Christmas gift. Can't say anything else about it in case the recipient trundles over here. You never know with my friends and family *peers around suspiciously*. I've also done a bit of "WFS" (likewise, Christmas), and some of my Fireworks socks... which are for me me me, so there. Obviously I finished my Tête à Fetching (wore it when I went out yesterday), and I'm really chuffed with the response - some people have said they like it and want to make it, it's in a few queues (and one in-progress!) on Ravelry, and I even got a really lovely comment from Cheryl Niamath who designed the Fetching gloves. :-) I'll get the scarf pattern written up soon-ish as well, but I want to make a wider version of it for Mum first. Once I've finished something else, that is.

I actually think my WIP tolerance has been reached. If I cast on one more project, my head would explode. I can cope, just about, with the number I have going at once right now (8 plus 3 in hibernation) because I have a definite Christmas deadline for, um, three of them. Although I have at least two more things I wanted to cast on for gift knitting as well. Oh dear. But I'm not going to think about that now! The thing is, those gift knits are the ones which are taking priority, and the rest are pushed to the back-burner. Some more than others - I'm still working on my various pairs of socks (for me) every now and again, to give myself a break. It seems to be working. But anyway, like I said, I'll make a proper all-about-my-WIPs post a bit later.

I didn't find my gloves, by the way. So far I've been wearing my Fetchings or my Hurry Up Spring fingerless ones, but I've wound a skein of Yarn Yard Merino sock into a ball to make some new ones - I think I'm going to make cabled ones with that. And I did crumble and get ones of the glove kits, so I'm going to make a pair with that too.

Yay, gloves! I'm not allowing myself to cast on for them until I've finished a couple of my current WIPs, though. Preferably the Christmas gift ones, since those have a deadline!

Hmm, was there anything else I was going to say? I can't think... oh! I remember. I found a (the) Holiday Gift KAL-CAL. Just what I wanted! I have duly signed myself up. Um. Oh yes, and I've been working on my next (final? I'm not sure if I'll be sending one more package or if I'll split it into two - Katie, do you have any preferences?) SP11 package. Mwahaha. Etc. ;-)

Right, that's enough being upright for me for the time being. I'm going back to bed for a bit to listen to the radio / podcasts while knitting, then I shall get up again, have foooood, and get myself off to the doctor's. TTFN!

Tête à Fetching

I finished my Tête à Fetching - woohoo! Here's the project info:

Pattern: Tête à Fetching by Me (inspired by Cheryl Niamath's Fetching gloves, from the Summer 06 Knitty).
Yarn: Posh Yarn Sophia 6-ply (100% cashmere) in Mute - approx. 1 skein.
Needles: 16cm 4mm circular; Set of 5 4mm DPNs.
Size: Medium (22" head)

It looks a smidge larger on Angelique-the-Head than it really is, due to her being slightly scaled down. However, it's easier to take photos of hats on her than on myself, so there we are. Point is, it fits me perfectly, and I love it!

What's more, I've even written the pattern up and uploaded it just in case anyone else fancies knitting it themselves. I knitted it in DK weight, but like the Fetching gloves, you can use an aran weight to get a thicker, warmer fabric.

PDF download - left click then save:
Tête à Fetching ( downloads)

I'll link it on Ravelry as well, because I can. And hey, if anybody else does have a go at this, let me know - I'd love to see what other people might do with it. I might be making another one for my Mum for Christmas, this time in Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk aran. She wants a pair of Fetching (Fetchings?), you see. I should have enough yarn to make either a matching hat or scarf (post on that coming soon!) to go with them, I just have to ask her which she'd prefer. I don't think I have enough for both, unfortunately. Luckily, since she asked me for the gloves, I can check back with her about a hat / scarf. This is not her Sekrit Xmas pressie!

Anyway, do let me know what you think of the hat - any problems, issues, vast donations of wealth.... ;-) This is the first pattern I've put up, so constructive criticism can only help any future efforts! Encouraging "I like it" comments are also, of course, extremely welcome! Thanks :-)

Lost Gloves

It looks like I've lost my favourite pair of gloves :-( I mean, they're only shop-bought, almost certainly acrylic yarn ones. But they fit, they were black with cables on the back, and they were warm and comfy. They weren't scratchy or squeaky. They were my perfect gloves. Wah!

Of course, I have other gloves. Handknitted fingerless ones, which are lovely... but not quite the same as, well, gloves with fingers. And not go-with-everything black, either. Pleather (ie. plastic leather-looking!) ones: not warm or particularly flexible either. Cycling ones: v practical... if I had a bike right now, which I don't. Velvet ones, lace ones: all very pretty, but not much use for keeping fingers toasty.

No, I want my woolly gloves back. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that I lost them out somewhere, earlier this year. Last I remember, they were in my coat pocket... and the next time I went to put them on, they were gone. I probably took them off and put them down, got distracted, and that was that. :-/ I'm going to have one last really good hunt through the bags that I don't use much, just in case. And then I guess I'd better buckle down and knit myself some new ones.

The next question is, what kind of gloves shall I make? Proper cosy wool ones, certainly. But shall I try to replicate my old ones as closely as I can remember, or shall I have plain ones? Black / one-colour, or variegated? Hmmm. Pattern suggestions, anyone?

(I am of course, rilly rilly tempted by Natalie's Glove Kits & Club, but I must not buy any more yarn yet. However, I spose I could have more than one new pair of gloves, couldn't I? *cough* After all, I have all that lovely sock yarn that I don't have to use on socks...)

Composing Knits

I've discovered something kind of interesting. To me, anyway. You see, I'd decided I wanted a hat to go with my Fetching wristwarmers. This meant applying the stitch pattern and cables used on Fetching to a hat. Well, with a couple of small variations - aren't there always? What I've discovered is, I approach knitting designing in the exact same two ways I have of approaching music composition.

Usually when I make a hat (or scarf or bag or whatever), I almost completely improvise. Often, I don't even swatch, I just rely on the fact that I know that I'll get this approximate gauge with those needles and that weight yarn, and base my number of cast on stitches on that. I'll keep to approximate guidelines - just like staying within a key (or its relatives) - but otherwise I'll wing it from there... sometimes even in terms of stitch pattern, although not always. If it works out well, I might go back and record what I've done on paper later on.

This time, I used what is actually my other method of writing music: I take a motif that I've worked out on an instrument beforehand, then decide on a key, key sig, and orchestration, and write everything else straight down onto paper out of my head. I'm pretty sure I know how it's going to sound, but there's sometimes the odd surprise *g*. Along very much the same lines, I started the design for my "Tête à Fetching" hat by taking the motif of the Fetching wristwarmers cables / ribbing which I have already knitted and therefore am familiar with the look of it. I swatched, I calculated, and I wrote out the provisional pattern on paper, including variations which didn't occur in the original motif. Now, I'm knitting it:

I'll let you know how it goes, and with luck put the finished pattern up when I'm done!

Mid Sock Syndrome?

You know, it's funny. I don't tend to be struck down with Second Sock Syndrome. I don't always cast on a second sock the instant I've finished the first if I've got other projects on the go that I want to work on before I go back to the sock knitting. But by and large, my second socks seem to knit up faster than the first ones... probably because I already have the pattern fixed in my head. What I do get, though, is 'Mid Sock Syndrome'. Is it just me? I start a new sock (so far I've only knit top-down, so I can only talk about that) and the ribbing, if there is any, might feel relatively slow, but once I get onto the main part of the leg: zoom! Before I know it, I'm at the heel flap. At that point, time grinds to a halt or something. What's really weird here is, the various parts of heel flap, heel turn and even gusset decreases don't seem to take all that long. But somehow, all together, they take an age. And then there's the foot. For some reason this didn't happen for the Monkey socks - the foot of those flew by - but in general, the foot takes for EVAH. Which makes no sense, because my feet are small and therefore the foot part of a sock is much shorter than the leg.

Perhaps it's that I've gone past the point of being interested in the pattern because it's new, and also past the gratification of having learned it, so it starts knitting up faster. Is it sock fatigue? I seem to constantly be checking the foot length to make sure I haven't gone too far, and seeming to still have miles before the toe decreases start. Don't get me wrong, I still love the sock knitting. But I suppose by the time I get to that part, I just want the flipping thing to be finished! I guess I'll just have to be grateful that starting that second sock makes it all new and exciting again.... :-)

Long Day

It's been a looooooooooong day... and why I'm not in bed already, I'm not really sure. I'm running on caffeine fumes, or something. It was my uncle's funeral, so we've been to Norfolk and home again (5:30am start, most of the day spent in the car.... ow my back). On the plus side, because I'm not allowed to drive at the moment, I got some knitting done. Um, yay? So yup, I have another couple of inches done of my Whitby sock. There would have been more, but I was pretty tired by the time we were on our way home, so I slept for a couple of hours. I feel a bit guilty about that, cos Mum and M were having to stay awake and do the driving. But then, I didn't sleep well last night because my brain was in 'oh no, what if I don't wake up in time' mode.

The funeral was fine, and it was good to see all my cousins, even if the circumstances weren't exactly great. I even met up with a cousin I haven't seen since we were both 2, and a couple of others that I might not have met at all. I have a lot of cousins. The ones who are all my age are actually my first-cousins-once-removed (the children of my first cousins) due to the generational wonk my family has going on. *g* One of these is my cousin B, who is great, and who I'm hoping to keep in touch with more regularly - we've been saying we will, but crucially this time we remembered to exchange email addrs! Hopefully I'll get the chance to go and stay with her at some point so we can have a proper catch-up.

Back to the knitting, I've been doing lots of other things as well. I finished my first Hedara sock:

And the kitty-face baby hat that I've done for a friend's expected new baby:

Aaaaaand finally I've finished off the HP Slytherin scarf I've been making for Sann for, oh, years (it was the weaving in of the ends that I stalled on). Hoorah!

Yaaaaay, finished objects! I feel like I'm on a bit of a roll now: I'm determined to finish one of the jumpers that've been lurking for years as well (see sidebar). I had resolved that I wasn't going to cast anything new on until I'd finished at least one project, and now I've finished two and a half... but... finishing one of those flippin' jumpers will feel like a real achievement. So that's my next plan, along with continuing with the other things I have on the needles, of course! I really must remember to post on here with pics of the other things I've done recently as well. But not tonight. Now, it's bedtime. Zzzzzzzzzz.........

To Frog or Not To Frog?

... That is the question. The other question is, hey where did the last week disappear to? Bzuh?? I know I was quite busy, but I didn't realise it had been that many days since I posted last. Whoops! My Secret Pal package did arrive on Monday as expected, and yay, it's awesome! But I'll babble about that more in a separate post, because I haven't uploaded the photos yet.

What I am going to babble about now is my frogging dilemma. See, I'm about 10-15% into my Forest Canopy Shawl, and it's very pretty and all. But I'm not quite sure that Eva is the best yarn to use for it. It's gorgeous and shiny, but it hasn't got as much elasticity as an all-wool yarn, which means that the sl1 k2tog psso decreases look a little baggy. I've hibernated it anyway until I'm done with my Christmas knits, so I was thinking that maybe I should rip it. Because it also occurred to me that Eva would make the most beautiful Clapotis...

I know, I know: everyone and their dog / cat has already made a Clapotis, and I'm the last person in the world to jump on this particular bandwagon. You know, I wasn't even particularly enamoured of the pattern until I started thinking how well Eva would suit it. And suddenly, it clicked for me. Well, I'm late to everything else, why not this too? It really would show off the yarn soooo well. As for the Forest Canopy? Well, I have a skein of PY Emily in some lovely shades of green that strikes me as rather... forest-y. Is that too predictable? I think it'll look good, though, and I like green. So there ;-) Plus, I'm pretty sure that it'll knit up better Emily. My other choice would be YY Merino, or possibly Sock, but I don't have a colour in either of those that I want to use for the shawl, unless I used the YY August club yarn. But I have that earmarked for a particular sock pattern, so I don't think I will.

I have another frogging dilemma as well, although this one is less of a real dilemma. A couple of years ago, I started knitting a zip jacket that was actually a man's pattern by Debbie Bliss featured in Simply Knitting mag. Well, I say I started knitting it. I went out and bought the yarn (a substitute, but pretty well identical: Sirdar Denim Sport Aran instead of Debbie Bliss Denim Aran), and cast on. Aaaaaand that's as far as I ever got! I spose I was distracted by other things (this was right before Dad's accident) and somehow I never picked it up again. And then, in the most recent issue of Knitty, I saw Mr Greenjeans. Ooooooo, I thought. I like that! My first idea was that I could maybe use some Jaeger Matchmaker Merino Aran that I have lurking in my stash for it - it's a lovely dark green colour, and I've been wanting to find something to use it for for ages. But when I double-checked, I don't have enough of it. D'oh!! (One of these days, I might pick up some complementary yarn and make a Tubey with it. That would be nice.) So I kind of figured I'd have to give up on the idea of that cardigan for a while, until it suddenly struck me that I have that Denim Sport Aran sitting around not being knitted. Was I really ever going to knit the zip jacket? Probably not. So I think I'm going to use that yarn for the Mr Greenjeans instead. The only thing that's vaguely bothering me is that I'm not 100% sure the yarn is actually very me. Will I wear a blue denim-effect cardi? Oh, I spose I will. I could think of it as work clothing! At-the-computer attire. After all, it won't show the cat hair as badly as all my black clothes do. *g*

I spose that's decision made, then. Zip jacket thing: Frog, and re-purpose the yarn as a Mr Greenjeans. Forest Canopy: Probably frog, re-purpose the yarn as a Clapotis, then re-start with the green PY Emily. Hoorah! (This isn't helping my startitis any, you know....)

OMG ded (sic)

Woah, I'm exhausted. Feeling a little bit spacey here, I can tell you. The four-year-old who lives upstairs from me is allergic to sleeping all night long, and I keep getting woken up by loud thumps. The crying I could sleep through - it's the intermittent bangs on the ceiling that do it. Nothing I can do about it, though, except be glad I'm not one of her parents! And possibly invest in some earplugs next time I'm at the chemist...

That's not the only reason I'm knackered, though. I've been up to my eyeballs in php, and learning all about Wordpress. Which have been fun, but once I start getting into the code and stuff, I forget to stop for, oh, food and breaks, etc etc. What, it's absorbing! I'm not going to be changing this site to WP - it took me long enough fiddling about getting MT how I like it, and if I went and changed to another blogging system I'd only spend a million years prodding the back end (my Mum thinks that sounds bad, but I have no other way to describe it) and not making any posts. Again! So this site is staying as it is. However, WP is a useful thing to know how to use, and it all meshes in nicely with the PHP I've been learning. Hoorah!

So my brain is a little frazzled from several days intense work at that. Good thing I've had my knitting to wind me down! I've started the two larger items of my Christmas knitting (and the other two I have planned aren't definite anyway) but I spose I can't talk about them here just in case. D'oh. I've also been working on the other projects that I started recently... that I still haven't mentioned on here, but deserve their own post when I'm less tired! I really need to make posts for my finished items too. Although actually, I can't post one thing because it's for SP11. Oh well, eventually!

Talking of SP11, that's the other reason I'm tiiiiired. Sort of. I went into town and shopped! Partly for SP things, and partly for other stuff that I'd been needing. I also bumped into C, which was nice cos I hadn't seen her for ages. And, um. Um.

Losing... ability... to... words... together... string....

$var="sleepyLou"
if(eyes!=open && brain==ded) {
function init(goToBed)
} else {
function init(CAFFEINE)
}

Yup. Think that covers it. *thud*