Knitting – Page 5 – Enchilada Sunrise

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!

Alive, alive-oh

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?….

Continue reading “Alive, alive-oh”

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):

Continue reading “Project 365 #7, Days 45-51: 23rd – 29th Feb”

Rebel rebel

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

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):

Continue reading “Project 365 #6, Days 35-44: 13th – 22nd Feb”

Progress from last week.

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

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

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

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):

Continue reading “Project 365 #5, Days 25-34: 3rd – 12th Feb”

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):

Continue reading “Project 365 #4, Days 17-24: 26th Jan – 2nd Feb”

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…

Continue reading “A yarny blind date”

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):

Continue reading “Project 365 #3, Days 12-16: 21st – 25th Jan”

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!

Not that I let that put me off opening everything right then, of course. I did think very briefly about saving it all for Christmas, but… nah. So what was inside all that shiny wrapping paper? The best SP package ever, that’s what!

Continue reading “SP11 Package #3 – at last!”