Category: Festive BloPoMo

Oh, hi, Happy New Year!

And…. oops! I completely gave in to the Dreaded Lurgy, and failed to keep up with my BloPoMo challenge. D’oh! I did make 22 entries (23 including this one) though, so that’s ¾ of it achieved at least. Yep, let’s look on the positive side of things! Also on the positive, I’m pretty much over said Dreaded Lurgy and can now speak (and breathe) again. Well, I think that’s a good thing ;-)

I didn’t do much for New Year – mainly I was huddling indoors keeping warm! But that’s fine, I didn’t have any big plans that I had to cancel through feeling grotty, so I was quite happy with watching the Hootenanny and drinking hot chocolate.

I haven’t done much knitting since Christmas, either. I’ve done a bit on the second sock for the fifth Pentathlon pair, but I didn’t get them finished (obviously) by the 31st December deadline so I’ve slacked off on those again. And I’ve cast on for E’s second mitten now that I’m no longer coughing all the time. But that’s pretty much it! I have had some post-knitting-gratification, however: I’ve found out that both the hat that I made for little H, and the fingerless mitts I made for my brother are getting lots of use and are very much appreciated and liked. Wheee :-D

Anyway. Since this is now the Twelfth Day of Christmas, even though I didn’t manage to finish the challenge, I now declare my BloPoMo officially over! I am going to make a new blogging resolution, though: to blog, um, more often. I think I should probably be more specific about that, but I shall have a think about what’s reasonable and likely for me to maintain. I could say three times a week, or I could pick specific days of the week with the option to swap if I had something specific to say. Not sure which would work best. Hmm. What to do, what to do?

How many voices, now?

Huh, yeah… you remember how I was babbling about different voices. Or ranges / registers in your voice, I suppose. Well, my chest voice is now still about as much use as it was the other day, but my head voice has taken itself off as well. D’oh! I probably sound rather silly. However, I feel quite a lot better, so yaaaaay! I haven’t gone back to knitting anything because I don’t want to cough over it and make it all germified… although I spose if I do my Pentathlon sock it won’t matter since that’s only for me anyway and the needles should be perfectly washable.

Anyway, here’s what I did get done for Christmas:

Photo of M's Christmas fingerless mitts
Some fingerless mittens as a surprise for my brother, since their flat is really cold! He also thinks they’ll be good for when he’s on his bike. [RavLink]

And some rather less finished….
Photo of E's Christmas mittens in progress
… mittens for my sister-in-law-to-be (I have got to find a snappier way of phrasing that, but “brother’s financee” is almost as long to type!). I did actually finish this one, but I forgot to take a photo. D’oh. Anyway, I gave her that one as an “IOU”, and as soon as I’ve stopped being all yuck, I’ll get the other one done. At least I now do know that I had the sizing right! [RavLink]

I think they both liked them – I wasn’t quite sure what my brother would think about a (*gasp*) hand-made present, but he actually seemed pretty pleased :-)

On the second day of Christmas…

… my brother brought to me:
– Some non-drowsy Sudafed
– And a packet of Panadol Extraaaaa.

Ahh, sweet relief! I’d just run out of painkillers, and I was very glad I didn’t have to drag myself down to the chemist to get some more! Thanks, M :-)

Thanks to those, I’m feeling somewhat more with it this evening, although I am having a bit of a catch-22 with having a tight chest: I need to take my inhalers, but every time I try, I have a coughing fit. Bah.

So anyway, I haven’t really done anything productive again today: I don’t want to germ-ify any of my knitting, and I don’t really feel like reading or watching telly. What I have done, though, is used my new MP3 player. It’s both adorable (so ickle!) and clever, and it has a speaker in the back so I don’t have to wear headphones (which I also don’t feel like doing). So it’s been podcasts for me, and in a moment I think I’ll go and listen to an audio book. Although I’m a bit worried I’ll doze off or zone out while I’m listening. I’ll try not to, though.

Chriiiiiiistmas time…

… mistletoe and wine. Or in my case, mince pies and lemsip! Yes, I was feeling a bit grot, but I had a lovely day nevertheless. I spent it, as is traditional, at Mum’s. We ate loads of nummy food, opened all our pressies, and watched Dr Who and Wallace & Gromit. Yay :-) I hope you all had one that was as good (or even better and germ-free!).

Anyway, I’ll try and remember to write more tomorrow, but now I’m off to bed. *ded*

On different voices

Did you know that people have two (at least) voices? “Chest” voice and “head” voice*. I guess most people only use one most of the time, or don’t notice when they switch from one to the other. Mainly, it’s your chest voice that you use for speech. When you sing, you’re much more likely to leap from one to the other, particularly when there’s a large difference from one pitch to the next. A lot of singing training is to do with getting those different sounds to be consistent with one another. Not to have an obvious bridge moment where you suddenly go into high-squeaky mode or back down into your lower register. If you’ve ever played a wind instrument you’ll know what I mean: it’s much the same thing. It’s got to be smooth and without any odd swoops or jags or squeaks.

Anyway! The point is, right now I have very little chest voice. Speaking is all over the place. There are definitely swoops and jags and squeaks. Unless I deliberately pitch my voice into my head register. Singing, needless to say (particularly since I’m a soprano), is perfectly do-able. Not great-sounding for some things, but do-able. I went to Christingle service at my Mum’s church, and she was most surprised. I’m not going to talk in my head register, though, because it makes me sound about five! I’ll get by – I feel pretty much ok, I just sound croaky.

Huh, that was a sudden swerve into music geeking, wasn’t it? Um. Have a Christingle:

Photo of the Christingle I got today
HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!

* This isn’t breath support: that’s another thing. Which comes from the diaphragm and… oh never mind ;-) I’ll shut up!

Seasonal socialising

Whew – today I’ve been round to A’s for pre-Christmas… um… muffins! And company and chat and stuuuuff. It was fun :-) I even have photos of little H wearing the hat I made him back in the summer – hee! I’ll download those off the camera and post them here at some point.

Now though, I’m off back to the sofa and that last-minute knitting! Aaaaaaah!!!

Passing post

Can’t spend long at the computer, because I need to be sitting with my feet elevated. D’oh. Still, I’m to stop taking the new meds, so hopefully I’ll be back to normal (ahem) soon. I am quite pleased with myself that I’m managing to keep this BloPoMo thing going, though. Even if it’s with boring posts like this…

Oh well, back to reclining on the sofa and knitting it is. Oh, it’s a hard life!

The amazing expanding feet :-/

It’s looking like I’m experiencing a side-effect from the new medication I started a couple of weeks ago: oedema. My feet and legs have swollen up, and I think my arms have a bit as well. My skin feels too tight. Oh yay fun. This happened to me a few years ago, quite severely. It was in the summer, so I thought it was because of the heat or something and I ended up having to go to hospital for a few days for tests-and-boredom. I’d rather like to avoid that this time, so I shall give the doctor / CMHT a call in the morning. This time of year, I don’t really want to get to the point where I can’t fit any of my shoes on!

In other news, I’ve been knitting away – and in fact I’m going to go back to that now, with my feet up on the sofa (should help the oversized feet problem a bit!) and podcasts in my mp3 player. Aaaah :-)

However, before I go back to that, I just wanted to mention that I’ve now downloaded and watched Strictly (ILU iPlayer) …. and woohoo! What an awesome finale! I’m sorry it’s over for another year now though, cos it’s so sparkly and feelgood! Still, there’s the Christmas special to watch. Yay!

Under the wire

Ooops, only just got this entry done. And I can’t even think of much to say. Um. It’s been a pretty average day, really. A normal one, even. I did housework*, the postman delivered the last parcel I need for Christmas (phew!), I knitted, I even wrapped one present, and I went over to Mum’s this evening. I’ve actually had the computer off for most of the day – most unusual!

I haven’t watched any telly either: we had a yummy Chinese takeaway at Mum’s, then played board games. So I’m going to set the Beeb iPlayer to download the Strictly Come Dancing final shows and Casualty for me overnight, and watch those tomorrow. I very nearly got “spoiled” for the Strictly final, I think, by foolishly looking at my LJ friends page: someone was talking about it, but I only got as far as seeing that she’d mentioned Strictly and hurriedly scrolled back up! *g* Of course, now it’s really tempting to go back and read to find out who won. Or look at any number of news sites. Or Twitter. Oh internets, sometimes you tell me too much! It’s all too overwhelming!! ;-) I’m off to bed!

* although there’s still some to do tomorrow because my brother picked me up earlier than I’d anticipated

Let’s see how I’m doing…

I’m still not ready for Christmas, quite, but I am slowly crossing things off the list:

  • Write and send out cards of both types.
  • Knit like there’s no tomorrow (I’m not doing many knitted presents this year, but there are a couple I want to get done).
  • Put up tree and decorate. (In progress!)
  • Wrap presents.
  • Write christmas card list (e-cards and tangible ones)
  • Buy cards and stamps (tomorrow).
  • Work out budget for presents (tomorrow when Mum comes over).
  • Go present shopping – both online (asap) and IRL (w/ Mum tomorrow, prob also later this week). (Presents all DONE DONE DONE! HA!!)

I went to the HRC Christmas Party today… or the end bit of it, at least. I got waylaid by my neighbour, and although I did need to speak to him myself, I didn’t mean to end up talking for so long! Still, I got there in time to nab three chocolate fingers, listen to the band’s second set, and then go up and have a sing with them for the last few songs. Which was fun! I didn’t have time to think about it and freak out, which I think helped. And in a weird way, since I’d had a bit of a wobble when I first got there because it was a large, strange place filled with people (oh noes!), being crammed on stage felt like a much more familiar and safe environment! I know, I’m just odd.

Casting off and on again

I’ve been working away on Christmas presents again today, and I got to the casting off part. Only I managed to do it too tightly the first time. D’oh! So I dug out some online tutorials to help me decide which technique was going to be easiest to use instead. Ta-daa:

Knit Wiki: Binding Off Techniques (text instructions)

Techniques with Teresa: Binding Off at Knitty – various techniques for flexible bind offs, including the sewn bind off. (Instructions with photos)
Techniques with Teresa: Binding Off, Pt 2 at Knitty – decorative bind offs. (Instructions with photos)

Tubular Bind-Off in K1 P1 rib (Instructions with photos)

k1p1 invisible bind-off tutorial – a lovely flexible bind off that I’ve used for toe-up socks when I’ve done them. Has similarities to the Tubular bind off. (Instructions with photos)

In the end I went with the sewn bind-off, and it came out perfectly. Plus, it’s dead easy – always a bonus.

Now to go and cast on the next thing…

Knit Jamming at Aardvark

Got back from Knit Jam a short while ago. Hi Jo! Hi Lesley! Hi Leila! Hi everyone else! And there are lots and lots of everyone elses now that we’re meeting at Aardvark. I suspect the scrummy cake has something to do with it! I really hope it carries on with this many people in the new year :-)

Anywho, I got a good chunk of knitting done, but there’s still more to go, so I’m off to slave over some pointy needles for a little while more before I go to bed. Not for long though: I’m tiiiired!

Toothy drama

I’m not having very good tooth-luck at the moment. It’s just the one tooth, really, but I broke a chunk off of it (I had an encounter with a rogue popcorn kernel) a couple of weeks ago. Then yesterday, I finally had the dentist appointment to get it patched up – they sort of stuck filling amalgam to the side of it. Which still didn’t cover up the sharp edge completely, but I have another appointment to go again next Monday that I think is to add another layer or something. The trouble is, despite having followed the instructions not to eat for 3-4 hours after the appointment yesterday, and not even having had anything crunchy or hard to chew… the filling fell out again this evening. D’oh!!!! I s’pose I’d better call the dentist tomorrow and see if I’m still to go in on Monday or what.

Other than that, today I have mostly been knitting and listening to podcasts. Which is good, as I have lots of both to get through! Oh, and I also went to the Carers & Families coffee morning at the Hastings Resource Centre with Mum. I’m having a Christmas dinner there tomorrow too. Nom nom nom!! :-)

Ten Days to Go

You know, I haven’t counted down to Christmas like this since I was little. It’s only because I’m doing this blog thing and it’s making me more aware of the days passing! Anyway, I have re-organised and updated my list a little:

  • Write and send out cards of both types.
  • Knit like there’s no tomorrow (I’m not doing many knitted presents this year, but there are a couple I want to get done).
  • Put up tree and decorate.
  • Wrap presents.
  • Write christmas card list (e-cards and tangible ones)
  • Buy cards and stamps (tomorrow).
  • Work out budget for presents (tomorrow when Mum comes over).
  • Go present shopping – both online (asap) and IRL (w/ Mum tomorrow, prob also later this week). (Presents all DONE DONE DONE! HA!!)

I also bought my own Christmas present from Mum today. I was already out because I had to go to the dentist, so I thought why not and jumped on a bus down to town instead of waiting for the one to go home. And the first bus that came was even the one for the Old Town, which was where I was heading. Clearly, it was meant to be, because I now have not one, but two pairs of boots. One pair bought for the awesome factor, one pair more for practical reasons. Both comfy, though, which was the main thing. I had meant to get something more… well, not girly, but less unisex, but I really like both of these. It’ll be tough to turn them over to Mum for her to wrap! *clings to them*