Enchilada Sunrise

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

2008-08-09T08:50:37Z

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 :-)

Carnival time!

2008-08-07T23:33:48Z

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

2008-07-16T23:56:19Z

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.

Testing Blog It crossposting...

2008-06-18T17:30:52Z

So, after much faffing around, lets see if this really works. Can I post to both my blog and LJ (and Twitter, and the FB feed or status, not sure which yet)? And if so, hi LJ! I'm back!! Well, I'll try to be at any rate. Obviously right now I'm over here on Facebook, and if you want to add me on that you need to know my real name.

Anyhow, I'm off to do some coding for a site that doesn't explode my head before I go knitting this evening. So, not my personal site then. Which I really have to sort out, but zomg, trying to integrate the blog and the photo album and the links and all their various templating methods.... why did I think that setting the site up like that was ever a good plan? (Because I didn't do it all at once, then?) Yet I'm reluctant to abandon MT & Coppermine & Linkster and the hand-coded pages for a single CMS that I'd have to import all that data into because eep, what if I lose something on the way? Oh, it's all too much like hard work for me. I give up!

Fixed it!

2008-06-15T00:23:08Z

Mostly ;-) But the point is, bloggy service is restored, and the comments should be working again as well. I'm not sure where the Typekey authentication part has gone to, but I'm going to look into that tomorrow. This whole site really needs stripping back to the bare code, so I shall get on to that tomorrow, I expect.

Now, I'm off to bed!

Argh

2008-06-13T19:01:14Z

OK, alright. I broke it. But now I'm tired and it's Friday night, so normal blog service will resume (I hope) over the weekend. Right now I'm off to chill out with either a book and some music, or a film and some knitting. %%$£%$$^$ new MT templates. *grumble grumble grump!*

Shiny newness

2008-06-13T14:09:22Z

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!

Alive, alive-oh

2008-06-02T06:24:13Z

D'oh, I zoned out for a while there. I wish that would stop happening. My next psych appt isn't until July, either. It was s'posed to be April or early May, but it got put back. :-/ Still, I can phone them if need be, so it's not that bad.

Anyway, I haven't been completely unproductive (read: asleep) over the last few weeks. I've been reading (I keep meaning to write reviews... I really will do that. Eventually), and knitting, which I shall talk about a bit more in a moment, and doing a bit of work on a fannish website project with Sann. And over the last couple of days I've been gradually putting some knitting / crochet books and some more yarn up for sale on eBay. I might even get the non-knitting things I have to clear out up there, if I can get around to taking photos and working out postage. I need a better pair of scales!

Actually, talking of scales, I may or may not have lost weight recently, but I have been eating more healthily. And without having to think about it too hard, either - it's becoming more of a habit, which is really good. As well as that, I'm going to start doing more exercise again. I had meant to before, but I as part of the whole zoning out thing I was mainly stuck indoors. However, this morning I'm planning to either go for a walk in the park if I can get hold of Ally in time, or go to aquafit and then either the gym or just stay in the pool for a swim. I've got to get back into a routine where I've got something to get going for in the morning, and having something that I need to leave the house for is better. Otherwise I'm likely to faff around at the computer in my pyjamas until lunchtime! Quite possibly doing something productive, but still - I need that routine of being really "up and about", and being actually dressed is part of that.

Back to the knitting, anyhow. Let's see... looking back at those goals I set myself at the beginning of May, I'm afraid I still haven't finished Mum's present (I'm going to go and do some work on that in just a mo!). But as I said, I did finish the baby bootees, and I've also finished my second pair of socks - the Berlin Muster pattern - for the Sock Knitter's Pentathlon. I hit my personal targets as well: I wanted to finish in the first 100, and to improve my sock knitting time. Which I did: I finished as number 68, on 23rd May, so it took me exactly 3 weeks to knit them, doing an average of an hour or two a day. :-) Since then, as well as Mum's pressie I've been working on my Fireworks socks, and I've now finished the first one after a bit of a hiccup with the garter stitch toe the first go around (it ended up about twice as long as it should have been!). The second one of those is cast on and I'll now be slowly making my way down the leg whenever I want to work on a project that requires very little concentration for the most part. I don't have any pictures of that just yet, anyway, but I do have some of the finished objects. Want to see?....

]]>

Two pairs of baby booties:

Pattern(s): Pink: Saartje's Booties; Spicy: Saartje's Booties the Bockstark Way (knit in the round).
Yarns: Pink: Yarn Yard Bonny 'Fruit Salad'; Spicy: Posh Yarn Emily 'Mistress' and 'Pippin'.
Needles: 2.75mm

And a pretty pair of socks [info]:

What d'you think? Did the pattern show up well after all? Neither the colour or the pattern are what I'd normally think of as being "me". Too delicate / pretty - I just don't usually do pastels at all. But I like them! Surely I'm not moving to the light side? Noooooooooo!!!! Bring back the black! ;-)

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

2008-05-11T22:53:18Z

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.

Rebel rebel

2008-05-06T01:59:25Z

My second pair of socks for the Pentathlon is underway. For this one, I think the main challenge is in the preparation (there was confusion over which translated version of the pattern and which chart was most accurate), and since it's a 16 row lace pattern where the stitch count increases and decreases a couple of times, you have to keep your mind on what you're doing. I'm not finding it too much of a problem though. Not mindless telly knitting, but fine for watching something where I don't want to have my eyes glued to the screen the whole time and so can keep count.

However, I have rebelled a little ;-) The pattern recommends using solid or semi-solid colours, and I... have not. I was going to: I said in my last post that I was intending to use a solid red. But the lace pattern is a leafy sort of thing, and I just didn't want to make it in red. It would probably look lovely in the Yarn Yard September Club yarn:

.... but much as I think that yarn is beautiful, if I make yet another pair of green socks right now I might lose the will to live. ;-) So that one was out.

Then I thought, well, it's a really pretty pattern. (In fact, if ever a pattern said "knit me in pastel pink!" to me, it's this pattern, but that's never going to happen. Sorry pink, but I'll never wear you. Ever.) It's lace, but I'm not sure that a multi yarn would obscure the pattern completely. And the Yarn Yard Feb 08 'Art Deco' club yarn is really really pretty: light blue, chocolate powder brown, cream, pale yellow, a hint of soft green. Really springlike. And I could use the minty blue-green contrast skein for the cuff, toes, and maybe the heels. So, that's what I've cast on with. And I was right, this yarn is really pretty. However, so far I'm not entirely sure if it's knitting up as a pretty lacy sock, or a small woolly pizza. Below is a photo of the cuff and first lace repeat. Any thoughts, anybody:

Anyway, here are the project stats as they stand at the moment:
Pattern: Berlin Muster by Kristin Benecken [Ravlink]
Yarn: The Yarn Yard Bonny (previously Sock) in Art Deco (Feburary 08 Sock Club yarn)
Needles: 2.5mm DPNs
Ravelry Project Page: Pentathlon Pair #2

If I do decide to change the yarn, I'll definitely stay with Yarn Yard Bonny as it's just perfect for the project, and I think I'd either go for the solid bright blue from the November club yarn or persuade myself that three pairs of green socks in five months would be fine, and use the above August one. I'm hoping that the Art Deco will work out alright, though. Not least because I've set myself the goal of coming in within the first 100 this time...

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

2008-05-05T21:54:52Z

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.

Progress from last week.

2008-05-01T21:40:13Z

Last week, I bribed myself by setting a list of goals to achieve before I could have my "carrot" of casting on a lovely new pair of socks. Sooooooo, how did I do?

- Finish unpicking the cast off of the second Jacobean sock and re-do it with a tubular bind-off (first sock already successfully done, yay);
-- Done! And oh, I love them. They're scrummy and squishy and now fit perfectly. LOVE!

- Finish one repeat of the WFS edging;
-- I now have several repeats done, which is sort of good. But not ideal, since I passed my deadline for finishing the thing. D'oh! I'm still plugging away and enjoying it, though.

- Do the finishing for the two pairs of baby bootees (which honestly isn't going to take long! I've just been procrastinating), which means: seam up the flat knit pair, make knitted buttons for both and attach them, make the button loops, sew in any ends;
-- DONE. Why do I make such drama in my own mind over things that really aren't that terrible (such as sewing up one tiny bootee)? Dear self: stop it!! I'll make another post soon with some pictures.

- Stop mentally flailing over which yarn I should use for the next Pentathlon project because really, I can't choose properly until I see what the pattern is (although I'm sure I will be posting a short list of my possible choices here like I did last time);
-- I've pretty much managed this. In fact, I'm not even going to post a short list. I think I'm going to use some YY sock in bright red "Shelter", since the guidelines say that a solid or semi-solid is best, and light - medium and/or bright colours are suggested. Plus, I already have that one wound into a yarn cake ;-) I'll make my final decision when the pattern comes online late tonight.

And my prize? Wheeee, I've cast on for the lovely Bracket Fungus socks. My version are the Bracket Fungoths, because I'm using YY Hot Pink Goth yarn as the multi colour and I never can resist a good (bad) pun. As I promised myself, I've only done the cuff so far because the WFS has to take priority for now, but here's how it's looking so far:

Yay!

Bargaining with myself

2008-04-18T11:07:15Z

Even though I have...
- Mum's birthday present to finish;
- Nine other things in progress in one way or another;
- The next round of the Pentathlon starting in two weeks (and I need to choose a yarn... hmm...);
- And, ugh, housework and shopping to do
I'm still really wanting to cast on a new pair of socks. Specifically, Jane's Bracket Fungus socks [Ravlink]. I have everything ready to go for them, and I have done for ages. Yarn balled up, pattern printed out and tucked into a plastic sleeve, and all popped in a project bag with the needles and a row counter. But I have all the other things to do first, and now they're starting to feel like chores because I want to jump to the new and exciting thing.

So, here is my bargain with myself. The carrot I'm dangling in front of my unmotivated nose! If I can...
- Finish unpicking the cast off of the second Jacobean sock and re-do it with a tubular bind-off (first sock already successfully done, yay);
- Finish one repeat of the WFS edging;
- Do the finishing for the two pairs of baby bootees (which honestly isn't going to take long! I've just been procrastinating), which means: seam up the flat knit pair, make knitted buttons for both and attach them, make the button loops, sew in any ends;
- Stop mentally flailing over which yarn I should use for the next Pentathlon project because really, I can't choose properly until I see what the pattern is (although I'm sure I will be posting a short list of my possible choices here like I did last time);
Then I am allowed to cast on for the Bracket Fungus socks and knit up to the first bit of the leg, before I should go back to Mum's birthday present.

Although, I should probably go shopping at some point as well. Heh. I've sold some of my yarn and a Rowan mag, so I'm going to be taking those down to the post office. And didn't I also need some of that... what's it called.... oh yes! Food. I'd better write a list.

Catching up

2008-04-16T22:49:47Z

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?

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

2008-03-15T03:42:44Z

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!