Setting the twist

(excuse the rubbish photo), and also marvelling over how the Xandermog can go from FULL ON PESTER mode to fast asleep, you-can’t-wake-me in under five minutes flat.  Still when the result is this little face:

N'awwww!

how can you complain?

Xander, of course, doesn’t sit on my lap.  He’s too big.  He’s tried it a few times, but as soon as he relaxes he kind of overflows my legs and slides off shortly thereafter.  He can sit on me if I’m sitting with my legs up on the sofa, because then he can stretch out from my lap to my knees.  Monster beast.

Mmmm, creme fraiche remains!

At least I was finished with it!  Should have remembered to take it out the the kitchen when I did the washing up!!

—————-
Listening to: Candie Payne – i wish i could have loved you more
via FoxyTunes

In preparation for doing spinning, the current view directly to my right looks like this:

Spinning wheel - in easy reach!

And the view directly behind me looks like this:

Because I obviously need supervision!

Finally, finally finished and pinned out to block on my bed.

Saying his bedtime prayers?  I have no idea why he sleeps like this sometimes, but it’s cute!

The set-up rows and first couple of pattern repeats for the Forest Canopy shawl I’m making for E as a Wedding shawl.

The only completed Salida sock I managed for the first SKP09 pair.  Oh well!  I wasn’t going to get the next one done, so I gave up and decided to see how I could do with the second pair when it was announced on 1st April.

Mum cut my hair for me, and made this interesting piece of “art” on my kitchen floor with the chunks she chopped off.

Sadly, no sheep on the actual tissues, but isn’t the box cute?  Sheeeep!

That great big daft Xandermog, once again sleeping with his tongue poking out.  And look at those enormous great feet.  He stomps on me with those, you know.

…and some tree tops.

Taken late-afternoon in Mum’s garden.

Part of my computer desk.  That’s baby H’s dummy – must remember to call Ally and give it back!  I should probably give my desk a spring-clean, but I know where everything is on it at the moment even if it looks messy!

I really should finish this glove so that I have a pair to wear for the winter.  I was going to do them for this winter just gone, but… oops!

UKStevieB on plurk (hi Steve!) asked for photographic proof of my haircut, so I thought it’d be interesting to measure the amount I’d had chopped off in the first ‘cut’ (before it the tidying and trimming part).  It was rather more than the 5 or 6 inches I’d thought!

Banoffee Pie is my absolute favourite desert in the world, ever.  But shop-bought Banoffee Pie isn’t always quite right: sometimes it has banana mousse (what?!) or something daft like that.  But this one was just right! Actual bananas, toffee and cream.  Yum!

Another lovely day: spring has definitely sprung.  I really like this view of Mum’s garden too.  Possibly because of the bench – I’ve always loved that bench!

I think what I need to try and do is get back into the swing of regular posting. Even though it’s been years since I’ve actually been doing that. But I want to try it, so I’m going to do a sort of NaBloPoMo of my own… only starting today and running until 6th January. Which is the Twelfth Day of Christmas, and even though it’s a coincidence that it works out like that, it feels kind of appropriate. So even though I’m not doing a calendar month of posting, I will be posting for a month up to the end of the Christmas season proper. :-) A festive BloPoMo!

So, that’s my end-of-year resolution! Now, I have to go and write my list of people I’m buying presents for and sending cards to. Do you think I’m running a little late? Well, let’s hope not! Which reminds me…

If you’d like a Christmas / holiday / whateveryouwannacallit e-card, drop me a comment including your email address (which won’t be published on the site) and one will be winging its way to you soon! If you’re in the UK and my budget allows, I might email you for your snail mail address so I can send a ‘real’ card out… let me know if you’d be up for one of those too. :-)

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 :-)

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.

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!