Project 365 #8, Days 52-67: 1st - 16th March

Stiiiiiiiill catching up: here are days 52 to 67 of my Project 365 photos - the first half of March. I'm going to post them in chunks of half a month at a time until I get caught up, now. 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. Or for the most up-to-date version, try my Flickr set.

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

Day 52 - 1st Mar 08

The "Mother's Day Mitts" fingerless gloves I made for Mum (for, uh, Mother's Day), just waiting to have the ends woven in. The centre-panel cable shows up better in person (and in the larger version of the photo, if you click) than it does here.

Day 53 - 2nd Mar 08

Mum presiding over the enormous Chinese takeaway that we had for Mothering Sunday. Mmmmmmmmmm!!!!!

Day 54 - 3rd Mar 08

Hoorah, it's shopping delivery day! I shall not starve in the next month. Always good news, that ;-)

Day 55 - 4th Mar 08

The Conquest Hospital - I had to go up to get a blood test done. I have such a rock and roll lifestyle!

Day 56 - 5th Mar 08

OMG YUM. It's like a whole bar of Wispa. Gaaaaaah! Chocolate heaven.

Day 57 - 6th Mar 08

My hat, scarf, coat and sunglasses slung over the back of the sofa - I'd just come back from charging up the gas and electricity keys. Once again, check out mah rock 'n roll life! ;-)

Day 58 - 7th Mar 08

My Jacobean sock in progress (pair #1 for the Sock Knitters' Pentathlon). This was my first toe-up sock, and it was going very well. Plus, I was using Posh Yarn Emily, which is utterly gorgeous.

Day 59 - 8th Mar 08

There's a hole in my heel turn, my heel turn, my heel turn; there's a hole in my heel turn, my heel turn, a hole! Damnit!! ;-) It was my first stocking stitch short row heel, and things didn't go well. But I persevered (that is, I ripped and re-knit a couple of times!) and got there in the end.

Day 60 - 9th Mar 08

My bed, which I had just got out of. Hence the crumpled-ness and the dent still in the pillow!

Day 61 - 10th Mar 08

The smoke alarm in my kitchen, dripping water from the leak that's been causing a lot of annoyance to me and my neighbours upstairs. It's happening because their bathroom isn't properly sealed and apparently it's a stupidly big job to get it fixed. However, since it was dripping down through parts of my flat that have electric wiring (including that smoke alarm which hooks up to the main fire alarm for the building), I think that sped it all on. At any rate, I haven't had any probs for a while.

Day 62 - 11th Mar 08

The house at the end of my block - were those ever windows, I wonder? If so, why fill them in? If not, why put blocked in non-windows there in the first place? Aaaaaah!

Day 63 - 12th Mar 08

I live here! I love this huge front door with the big pointy lintel and scrolly bits. The paintwork is a bit grubby again now, but it was redone a year and a half ago, or thereabouts. Oh, and that window right above the point? That's my kitchen. Yay!

Day 64 - 13th Mar 08

Had to go and buy some more food to top me up until the next 'big' online shop. So I thought I'd plop it down on the front steps outside and take a photo of it there, rather than indoors like before. Ta-da!

Day 65 - 14th Mar 08

The Xandermog graciously receives his portion of adulation from Mum. I'm not sure whose expression is funniest ;-)

Day 66 - 15th Mar 08

C came down to visit for the weekend, so of course we had to go out for a slap up meal at Cosmo, which does a Chinese buffet menu. Yuuuuuuuuuum. We ate til we were ready to go pop!

Day 67 - 16th Mar 08

One of Xander's favourite sleeping places is under my computer desk. Of course, this means I sometimes accidentally kick or tread on him.... oops! Still, it's safer than when he sleeps right behind my computer chair. Daft mog :-)

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.

Project 365 #6, Days 35-44: 13th - 22nd Feb

Since I'm still playing catch up, here's yet another picdump: days 35 to 44 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 35 - 13th Feb 08

The Fetching-esque scarf that I made for Mum to go with her Fetching mittens. This was a really quick knit. Must get the pattern written up properly soon!

Day 36 - 14th Feb 08

The Xandermog demands an explanation for this woolly invasion!

...but decides that pretending to ignore it is the best policy (while sneakily laying on the stitch holder to make sure it doesn't go anywhere without his say-so).

Day 37 - 15th Feb 08

Xander likes his little mouse (a present from my SP11 pal, Janey). But eww, I really need to hoover out his cat bed!

Day 38 - 16th Feb 08

Yay, new telly!! New to me, anyway: my old one went kaput last year, and I've had a 14" portable on loan from my brother ever since. Now my Mum's bought herself a shiny new flatscreen, so I've inherited her old one. Awesome! Now, name that show.

Day 39 - 17th Feb 08

Oh nooooooooooooooooooooooes! The blue screen of death strikes again :-( I'm going to have to reformat soon, I think. Meanwhile, also visible in this picture: handcream, glasses cleaner (on its side), the very top of a Dalek, sundry notes to myself, and a little woolly sheep.

Day 40 - 18th Feb 08

Everything that I'm going to need to knit Mum a present for Mother's Day. The pattern is Kyla, the yarn is from the Yarn Yard sock club, and I called them the Mother's Day Mitts.

Day 41 - 19th Feb 08

I actually put the yarn down on the floor to take a photo of it so I could put it up on my Ravelry stash, but of course I'm not allowed to do that without supervision ;-) I love the way he's giving it that "what's that doing in the way of my tail?" look, when it was there before he came and plonked himself down...

Day 42 - 20th Feb 08

My desk, covered with things for posting stuff (books that had been mooched, I think it was) out, plus other various stuff. My mood chart for example - that's the coloured sheet at the back. And my rings are on the top shelf... I always arrange them in that triangle formation when I take them off. Wonder what that says about me?

Day 43 - 21st Feb 08

One finished Damson glove, woohoo!

Day 44 - 22nd Feb 08

It's a teeny tiny beetle. I don't know what it is, but it was in my bathroom, and this is it on the inside of an envelope. The fact that I've zoomed right in doesn't give any real sense of scale, but it was smaller than my little fingernail, and I have pretty small hands.

Project 365 #5, Days 25-34: 3rd - 12th Feb

More catching up! Here are days 25 to 34 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 25 - 3rd Feb 08

My brother and his lovely girlfriend got engaged in the autumn last year, but since my bro is currently a poor student and they wanted to find the perfect one, they took a bit of time over getting the ring. But here it is at last! Pink sapphire - preeeeetty!

As I stalk the embarrassed happy couple, trying to get a good shot. Mwahaha.

Day 26 - 4th Feb 08

I was having a hurty-head day.

Day 27 - 5th Feb 08

Sausages! The ones that were left to go in the fridge after I'd had the other two for my dinner. Mmmm nom nom nom. Actually, these are fake sausages - quorn and apple bangers. I really like them.

Day 28 - 6th Feb 08

This was a shopping delivery day, so the fridge was stuffed full of foooood. Can you tell that I like stir fries?

Day 29 - 7th Feb 08

The inside of my large bag, ready to be taken out. There's the stuff for the volunteer training course I was going to, a notebook, my purse, my umbrella (the orange thing with the sheep on *g*) and a hairband. Also in there but out of sight would be my inhaler and a pen or two... probably some other bits and bobs as well.

Day 30 - 8th Feb 08

The knitting is finally finished on the Chevron Scarf of DOOOOOM ;-) And so here it is laid out on the floor, ready to have the ends sewn in and the blocking done.

Day 31 - 9th Feb 08

Meanwhile, I was in the process of sewing up the shoulders of the Bigga jacket so I could then start picking up for the collar (and get it off the table which I needed for the scarf blocking!).

Day 32 - 10th Feb 08

Since it was so long and I'm short on space, I blocked the scarf in three sections. Worked out pretty well :-)

Day 33 - 11th Feb 08

Aaaand having finished the scarf and being on the sewing up part of the jacket, I needed something else to be my knitting current wip. The Damson Gloves were it: this is the first glove, knit up to me being about to start on the little finger.

Day 34 - 12th Feb 08

Ta-daaaaa! One completely finished Chevron Scarf. It might have ended up feeling like it was never going to end when it was on the needles, but I do really love how it's turned out. Yay! Let's just hope my sister-in-law-to-be (there has to be a shorter way of saying that) likes it.

Finally, just for fun, here's my effort at a rolled-up scarf photo. Erm. I think it went a bit wonky, but you get the idea!

Project 365 #4, Days 17-24: 26th Jan - 2nd Feb

I'm still catching up, so I've put a few more days in at once this time. So here are days 17 to 24 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 17 - 26th Jan 08

A Saturday afternoon on Battle High Street. I took this when I was on my way down to the bus stop after Knit and Natter. I rather like the sense of captured movement from the chap in mid-step on the crossing to the cyclist disappearing into the distance on the left. But mostly I like the framing, from the stop sign centred in the Abbey gates and outwards from there.

Day 18 - 27th Jan 08

The really rather pretty sunset, as taken from my bedroom window.

The leg and heel turn of the second Hedara sock (note the progress from having started the leg just a few days before!). I was on a roll!

Day 19 - 28th Jan 08

The vet's surgery. I was mostly doing indoor stuff on this day, so my little trip out to the (very nice) vet to pick up the cat's repeat prescription was about as exciting as it got! I've actually managed to make the road look quite flat in this picture. Don't be fooled: it's on a hill. Most of this town is hilly.

Day 20 - 29th Jan 08

And today's trip out was to.... C. House, also known as The Together Centre. This is the drop in type centre just down the road from me that provides all sorts of support and services, from internet access to meals to advice to plain old social contact, for those of us with mental health issues. It's a lovely friendly place. They've been a big help to me and I can't praise them enough.

Day 21 - 30th Jan 08

The second Hedara sock has got to the end of the patterned part of the foot and is ready to start the toe decreases. Woohoo!

Day 22 - 31st Jan 08

The last day of January was a fantastic windy, rainy one. So of course, I went down to the seafront to take a few snaps. I couldn't choose a shot, so what you've got as a result is a kind of 360° view. First of all, to my left and out to sea, with the lower prom at the bottom, and a wave splashing up the breaker. That dot is a seagull. Honest!

Now to my right and out to sea, and along the prom. In the distant right is the Marina building. I like the way the lines of the railings travel. I intended to get the top of the post in shot like that, but the rest was pure chance!

This one is to my right and behind me as I was standing before; back along the prom and road. There's a giant puddle right where that white car is.

And finally back to my left again, with the pier in the far distance.

Day 23 - 1st Feb 08

So what do you know? The very next day, we had beautiful blue skies and sun. This is taken from one of my living room windows. If you look closely, you'll see there seem to be lots of smudges on the picture. That's because I took the photo through the glass, and living near the sea, you get salty rainwater marks all over the windows...

Day 24 - 2nd Feb 08

It's a router convention! This was taken during the time that my broadband service was down, and I tried every broadband-capable modem and router that I could dig out, beg, borrow or steal (ok, not the last one) to try and figure out if it was a problem with my hardware or set-up. It wasn't, but I got the cables at the back of my computer ever so organised!

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.

Project 365 #2, Day 7-11: 16th - 20th Jan

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 7 - 16th Jan 08

It's Torchwood day, hoorah! So I changed my desktop wallpaper and icons in celebration. Not the best pic ever... I'm not really sure what the best way to take a photo of a monitor screen is, and it probably didn't help that I took this in the evening either. I'm really loving season 2 so far, by the way (3 eps in at time of posting). And it looks like James Marsters' character will be back, too. Iiiiiiinteresting....

Day 8 - 17th Jan 08

Xandermog, finding being upright by his food is just Too Much Trouble. Lazy beast! And look at that gut. Can you tell why he's on a diet? *long suffering sigh* (To be fair, I think it was his supper time, and I took Too Long to get to the kitchen, so he was having a bit of a lie down waiting for me. Or perhaps he was soooo starving hungry (hah!) he could no longer stand. He does make me laugh.)

Day 9 - 18th Jan 08

My "Fireworks" sock in progress. I'm knitting this with the Yarn Yard club yarn from November, and I'm using the contrast skein for the cuffs, heels and toes. So, I decided I'd try out a different heel technique while I'm at it. I'd got Lucy Neatby's Cool Socks, Warm Feet book last year, and although I hadn't started out using a pattern from that to knit the sock, I was able to jump in at the heel part of the Timberline Toes. So as you'll see, my needles are halfway through the garter stitch short row heel in this picture. I've finished the heel now - I enjoyed working it, and it feels like it'll be wonderfully cushion-y to wear as well - and I'm working on the foot.

Day 10 - 19th Jan 08

Another photo of Xander being his large and daft self. He was laying there for ages with his tongue stuck out like this. He's so dopey and cute. I also really do like how this close-up shot of his head came out. Obviously I'm biased, but I think it's a lovely picture of his big handsome face. N'awwww.

I couldn't resist including this one as well. Even though it's technically not what I was wanting or intending with the light reflection in his eyes, I just love the colour the reflection came out. It shows up better in the full sized photo where you can see the real iridescent quality of it.

Day 11 - 20th Jan 08

This morning, I went into the bathroom and discovered I had yet another little beetle-y visitor in there (there must be some hibernating in the wall or something, and waking up because of the heating because I've found about 10 with various markings and colours in the last few weeks), going round and round in circles on one of the window knobs. So I grabbed my camera and took some snaps. With some difficulty, because the cat litter tray is in the way and that part of the window is just above my line of sight. I like this one, though. You can see its little face. And wee little legs and stuff (I'm so scientific). Bless.

This one came out quite well too, and gives a better view of its shell. You can also see the wings poking out from where it had just been fluttering them about (maybe it was getting narked with me taking pictures and the flash going off at it). These photos also remind me that I really need to clean the top of that window. What with it being above my line of sight, I hadn't realised how grubby it was. Ooops!

Project 365 #1 - Day 1-6: 10th - 15th Jan

I mentioned in my last post that I was thinking about doing Project 365. A couple of days later I decided that if I was going to do it, then I'd better just start before I started thinking about it too much. So I did.

Which means that I will, all going well, be posting a photograph for every day from 10th January 2008 to 9th January 2009. I'm planning to make a post every five days or so. In actual fact, I might post more than one photo for some days - this is to stop myself getting mired in indecision! I've set up a specific folder in the photo album for the set of photos to go in, as well. I won't be putting them on Flickr or adding them to any group sets there, though I have joined the Ravelry group for 365-ers, and I'm intending to join the webring.

Anyway, that's enough rambling on the theory. On to the photos (click 'em for the full size versions):

Day 1 - 10th Jan 08

This is me trying to take a decent modelled photo of the socks my lovely SP11 pal, Janey, made me. Tucking my jeans up? Oh dear, won't be trying that again! Don't worry Janey, I think I managed to get a better view in the end! Also, look (you might need to click through to the full size pic): among the mess in the background are my faithful DMs, the box for my shiny new webcam (xmas pressie), and the bookshelf that I have my back to when I'm at the computer. Can you see the wee dye-cast TARDIS on the top? *unashamed fangirl*

Day 2 - 11th Jan

Xandermog, faaaaaast asleep on the sofa. Awww :-) See, I said this would all be yarn / knitting and cat pics, didn't I?

Day 3 - 12th Jan

This is actually fairly indicative of my day. See, I was all ready to go out: I had all my stuff in my bag to go to Knit & Natter, and here are my shoes ready and waiting to be put on. Only, they stayed right there. I came over kind of woozy and didn't go anywhere at all. Bah.
This pic also gives you an idea of the layout of some of my living room: it's a pretty large room, so I have it kind of split up into areas. I took the pic from the doorway, so you can see through to the computer, and also the back of the sofa which makes a division into the 'telly / music' bit.

Day 4 - 13th Jan

Ah yes, the reason for the previous day's wooziness. The oncoming storm. "Hi I can't sleep and everything is HYSTERICALLY FUNNY!!!!" mania. I would say I was five, except even at five years old I was generally a serious child with my nose in a book. On the plus side here, I wrote it down on this mood diary sheet and later recorded it on the chart thingy I have, and I was able to be online and talk to some friends, which grounded me somewhat until I came over tired enough that I conked out. (Taken w/ the webcam)

Day 5 - 14th Jan

I was still riding the mania, but I had had some sleep during the day and I'd come down enough that I could be productive... although I wasn't able to actually make a decision about what to do! Luckily, my friend suggested that if I wasn't going to be able to sleep that night, I should use the time and sort out my paperwork. So I did! This is me about half done. About 2/3 of the paper ended up in the recycling (orange bag) - hoorah!

OH NOES PAPERCUT!!!! See, sorting through all that paper has its dangers. I sliced myself right on the web of the thumb, and it kept pulling as I was still sorting stuff out, so I needed to bung a plaster over it... and of course, the only one I could find was this unnecessarily large thing. Typical.

Day 6 - 15th Jan

Once I'd sorted the paperwork, it all got neatly filed away. Isn't that nice? Although, this photo also tells you what a packrat I am. There's still all my stuff from uni in there, for heaven's sake. And in fact, that Tigger folder was my school folder when I was doing GCSEs. Oh dear...

Of course, I can't do anything without the mog coming to check up on me. Dreadful nosy beast! (And, why yes, that is the box for a Laser Screwdriver down there on the right. The bro gave me one for Christmas to go with the Sonic Screwdriver he got me a couple of years back. Hee! (See above re. *unashamed fangirl*) Mmmm, John Simm.)

Really, he's a very good cat, but his one main vice is shredding my furniture. And walls. Quite often while pretending he's not really doing it at all (hence him not looking at the door or me in this pic). *sigh* And while he hasn't shredded the inside of this cupboard door, he's now decided that the outside of it is his new favourite scratching post.... :-/

And that's that for now. Next five days coming soon...