Lou-quacious Yarns
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!
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!
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
I’m still not ready for Christmas, quite, but I am slowly crossing things off the list:
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.
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…
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!
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!! :-)
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:
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*
I need my fingers for knitting! Can’t even show you a photo of what, since it’s a Christmas present. I shouldn’t have spent so much time fiddling around starting to get WordPress to work exactly how I want yesterday. (In case you’re wondering, the installation is lurking in a password-protected directory on the server until it’s ready to be moved across to the site root and go live.) Anyhow, back to the knitting I go….
I’ve made some definite inroads into my list – see:
And since I plan to write my cards tonight, that’ll be another thing crossed off. Yay!
I spose I should add another couple of items onto the bottom though if I’m going to be thorough. Presents have to be wrapped, after all. And, um…. is there anything else? Well, if there is, I shall just have to hope it comes to me! My sieve-brain, let me show you it!
In more everyday type news, I also went to the psychiatrist today…
If I hadn’t decided to do this BloPoMo personal challenge, I wouldn’t be blogging right now. I’d probably be sleeeeeeeeeeeping. But if I gave in and let myself have a break ‘just for today’, then I most likely wouldn’t post again tomorrow either, and so on. So I’m cracking the mental whip! I can take 15 minutes to write something… even if it’s not very coherent. *g*
I’ve actually been pretty tired all day today… but I did manage to remember not to dawdle on the internets, and I got a reasonable amount of Christmas knitting done. Which I can’t talk about, you know, just in case. But I spose I can say that two of the things are relatively small and hopefully quick knits (or they won’t get done in time!) that I’ve actually only swatched for so far, and the third is a much larger and more fiddly project that I’ve been working on for some time… but again also might not be finished in time. Ah well. As far as that one’s concerned, if it takes a bit longer, then it takes longer. I’m getting there at least.
Plan for tomorrow: write cards, post cards, have lunch at C House, knit, knit, knit!
I’ve been Christmas shopping today, and now I’m utterly wiped out. Zzzzzzzz!
However, I did manage to make some progress on my christmas prep, as listed out yesterday:
And as it happens, I actually managed to get pretty much everything present-wise today. There’s just the online shopping to do, and maybe a couple of other bits, and then I’m done. Well, I have to shop for the present that Mum is getting me (awesome boots), but I might have to go further afield. Still, I haven’t looked in that shop in the old town yet. I’m more likely to find something I like there, at least… but I might leave it until sale time. We shall see.
In the mean time, I think the next most important things are writing and posting the cards (and presents!) that need to go, and getting on with the knitting! So since I need some level of concentration for that, I’ll be off to bed now. With a reminder to myself not to loiter on the internets all day tomorrow, cos I have other things to do. Maybe I should stick a post-it note on my monitor with a reminder?…
Hah, only the second day of my resolution, and I nearly forgot to post. Well done, me. And now of course I can’t think of anything to post about, even though I had lots of ideas for things to write about yesterday. Typical!
Maybe I’ll talk about crimble prep… of which I have done absolute none so far, other than writing that list of the people I’m going to get presents for. Therefore, I have Things To Do:
I think that’s about it… or everything urgent, anyway. Obviously there will need to be present wrapping in there as well. Eventually. Probably on Christmas Eve….
At least this year, I do have a budget to spend on presents. Or a more comfortable one than last year – since Mum has been acting as a sort of overseer to make sure I don’t have any more mania-fueled spending sprees, my finances aren’t so strained. Hooray! In fact, what my budget for Christmas will be is something she’ll help me work out, and knowing that I have agreed amounts for spending really helps me keep to those limits. Yes, I could decide on my own how much to spend, but I’d be bound to go way over the top. If there’s someone else I have to account for that to, it keeps me from going too crazy. There you go, that’s your thrilling life-with-bipolar fact of the day. I can theoretically work out budgets and accounts and whatever with no problem, but practically speaking it all goes out the window as soon as I see something SHINY! And oh yes, that so counts pretty pretty sock yarn. Or any other kind of yarn. Or DVDs, or books, or…. ;-) So since I’m twice as bad with that when buying for others rather than myself, a Christmas budget agreed with Mum is definitely needed to keep me within reasonable limits.
And do you know, because of that I’m rather looking forward to doing the Christmas shopping. :-) It feels so much safer this way… kind of like rock climbing while knowing that you have a harness on and someone belaying you at the bottom. It used to be much more like falling off a very high cliff (possibly while drunk) – complete with the horrible dropping sensation in my stomach! Not that I’ve ever fallen off a cliff, but you know what I mean.
Anyway, I’m not sure why I got onto that, but maybe I’ll write some more about manic spending and so on another time. It’s one of the more common things that happens with bipolar. But now I’m tired and this post is long enough, so I think I’ll be off to bed. Thar be shopping to be done tomorrow, after all!
Since I haven’t posted in a million years (or four months, which is the same thing in internet-time), I thought I’d mention that I am still here! Alive and kicking, and all that. Mostly accidentally kicking the cat, actually, but if he will sit under the computer desk, what does he expect? Aaaaanyway….
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. :-)
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!