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.

Testing Blog It crossposting...

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!

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

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

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!

Continue reading "SP11 Package #3 - at last!"

Project 365 #2, Day 7-11: 16th - 20th Jan

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 #2, Day 7-11: 16th - 20th Jan"

Reconnected.

Oh thank .... well, whoever that guy was in 2nd line support who finally figured out what the problem with my internets was. Which was that when BT had done some work at my local exchange on the day I lost my connection (Sat 26th), they had either deleted or not re-added (depending on what they'd been doing) my ISP's domain to the list of ones that are allowed to connect. I spose no-one else uses that particular domain for their log-in round here - either that or it's specific to each broadband enabled line. Actually, that would make more sense. Anyway, they've now put it back on the system and voila, I can connect. It's liek magic, only with teknolegdgy *nods* I told them it was an authentication problem the first day it went wrong, but it took 10 days to get someone to figure out exactly where the trouble was. To be fair, the fact that BT were doing work on my exchange threw them off the scent so I had to wait for all sorts of tests and then a BT engineer to come out because everyone thought it was a line problem that just looked like an authentication thing... oh well. All better now!

So anyhow, I should probably get on with uploading the many many photos I have to put up, both for Project 365 and for my knitting progress. Which there has been lots of! I finished the Hedara socks and I've taken my Bigga jacket out of hibernation and begun the sewing up of that. Plus I'm still plugging away on the Chevron scarf of DOOM. Scarf in fingering weight = Never Again, as I think I've said before. But anyway, that's all for another post really. I'm off to bed.

Internetless

I'm internetless! Well, obviously not this instant: right now I'm using a computer in C. House to make this post. But at home my broadband died on Saturday afternoon and hasn't come back yet. Argh! It's driving me potty. It doesn't appear to be anything at my end that's the problem, and my ISP has checked everything at their end as well. So it looks like it's a problem on the phone line disrupting my ability to connect. :-( I don't know how long it'll be until I get back online from home again. What's almost worse about this is that I only had my broadband upgraded (for the same price I was paying already, mwahah) to glorious speeds only last week. And now, kersplat! No internets at ALL. I don't think it's related to the upgrade - it was working fine for several days, and I technically have a perfectly good connection still. I just can't connect to my actual ISP. Apparently it's a line fault, so BT have got to check it out. Let's hope it doesn't take too long.

On the plus side, I've got loads of knitting done - I'm pretty much done on the gusset of my Hedara sock, having started from the ribbing just a few days ago. I can't believe how fast it's gone! And while I've been knitting, I've been catching up on season 1 of Alias, which I haven't watched for ages and ages. But today I'm having withdrawal, so it's back to the internets I come. However, there are other people waiting to use these machines, and even though I'm a speedy typer, I have other stuff to do. So I'd better get going. Let's hope I'll be back soon!

Where was I?

Both figuratively / mentally and literally.... um.... yes. My train of everything is well and truly lost! Let's try and get back on track, shall we? This is probably going to be a massively long post, I warn you now! There's also going to be a fair bit about mental health stuff, so feel free to skim :-)

So, starting from when I vanished back in December... well, for the three weeks leading up to Christmas I was pretty much knitting constantly. So much so that I cramped up my shoulder and ended up with an ouch-y left index finger joint! But eek, I had to get the Christmas knitting done!!! Well, as I already mentioned, I didn't quite succeed, but I did get Mum's Fetchings done, and I had a scarf finished that I gave her as well. Also within that time, I went to visit C for the weekend, and having been manic not too long beforehand, I think I 'overworked' myself, because once I got home again, I when I wasn't knitting, I was sleeping. Zzzz!

Then, this site was down from 17th - 26th-ish December because of a server crash. It took the hosting company a while to be able to recreate the accounts and then restore the files. The flat files were about 6 weeks old but the databases were all up to date, so I've been able to easily restore the things that were still missing (photos, mainly). So that's all good. Of course, during that time I had a million posts I wanted to make, and now I don't remember what they were about ;-)

After Christmas, I crashed like a .... crashed out thing for a good ten days. Everyone tends to, I think, but annoyingly I can't do anything by halves, so I hit a depressive slump with it: didn't get up or eat or anything really. I slept, or I read - I got through about 15 books, actually. But mostly I slept. Luckily, I'd arranged with Clara, Ally & co. for them to come over for New Year's. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have done anything for that... and if I'd been up to phoning them to cancel, I probably would have. But as it happened, Clara rang me and just asked me what time they should turn up. I don't think she knew I was down, but that really is the best way to deal with me when I'm like that. Don't leave me room to get out of things! So I pulled myself together, tidied up, and sorted out some nibbles and the like. We had a good time - just a chilled out evening, chatting and playing with little M. :-) After that, I was still down for a few more days, but I started to pull up again at the weekend after C helped me with a plan to get me firing on all cylinders again. Hooray!

Since then, I've posted my resolutions, which I'm doing OK with in general, and I've started Project 365. Mentally, I've cycled into a more manic phase, but overall I've been mostly within 'normal' parameters. I've also done something that I'd been sort of putting off for some time - I've gone and registered with the drop-in centre down the road. I think I was resisting it because part of me felt that only people with a "real disability" needed to go to somewhere like that. Or perhaps with a more severe disability than I like to perceive myself having, I don't know. Ah, denial! I thought I was over you, but no! Anyway, it's a really nice place, and I can go there as often as I want or need, to use whatever facilities I want to. Mainly, I think it'll be useful for me to have somewhere to pop in when I know that I'm starting to slide one way or another and need to just be around other people to ground myself, and also it's good to know that the support and advice services are there if I need them. And I have to admit that it's a huge plus that it's literally a minute's walk (or less) from my front door. They do food too, very reasonably, so if I can't cook, I can eat there. And I got to chat with three other people with bipolar while I was there, and it's just kind of nice to have that face to face contact with others in the same boat. So yes. I'm going to keep that up.

Hmm, I think that kind of covers it. I've been working away on my WIPs, but I'll talk more about that in a different post (with progress pics, whee). Oh, and I seem to have my sleeping pattern back to normal, so it's back to the gym and everything this week as well. I missed Knit & Natter the Saturday before last, but my friend M is coming over tomorrow, and I'm planning to go this coming weekend. Now all I have to do is stick to the plan, but also not overdo it!

I Am Seven!

Oh hey, I nearly forgot! It's my Blogoversary today - seven years, can you believe it? Not that I've been 'active' the whole time, but when I haven't been here I've generally been on my Livejournal, so I have actually been blogging away ever since January 2001.

So anyhow, thanks to Ornery's Wife and Marsha who both stopped by with blogoversary wishes. I appreciate it!

I would wonder if this is when I should expect the seven year itch to set in, but I've been a terrible, unfaithful blogger this whole time: going from Blogger to Greymatter and now to Movable Type, platform-wise. And let's not even talk about my ongoing flirtation with Wordpress, and my mad affair with Livejournal. Tut tut tut! But while LJ might be my virtual social and fandom hang-out (it's the whole friends-list thing, you see), I reckon I'll always come back to this blog, because ....it's home. *cue cheesy music* ;-) And, you know, on my own server and personal domain name and all that stuff.

For some reason, even though I started my LJ less than a year after this, it feels like I've had this blog a lot longer. Perhaps because even after I'd started the LJ, I still mainly used this until my manager at work told me off for mentioning people at work in it. Perhaps because I've had the domain itself since about '99. Whatever it is, I'm glad I still kept this blog up even when I wasn't using it, so that it was here for me to return to now that I have my knitting to ramble on about. Yep. Seven years. That's a good number.

Project 365 #1 - Day 1-6: 10th - 15th Jan

I mentioned in my last post that I was thinking about doing Project 365. A couple of days later I decided that if I was going to do it, then I'd better just start before I started thinking about it too much. So I did.

Which means that I will, all going well, be posting a photograph for every day from 10th January 2008 to 9th January 2009. I'm planning to make a post every five days or so. In actual fact, I might post more than one photo for some days - this is to stop myself getting mired in indecision! I've set up a specific folder in the photo album for the set of photos to go in, as well. I won't be putting them on Flickr or adding them to any group sets there, though I have joined the Ravelry group for 365-ers, and I'm intending to join the webring.

Anyway, that's enough rambling on the theory. On to the photos (click 'em for the full size versions):

Continue reading "Project 365 #1 - Day 1-6: 10th - 15th Jan"

It was. Only. A dream!

Sitting on the bus this afternoon, I suddenly remembered a dream I'd had last night. In which my skeins of sock yarn were just so irresistibly yummy that I just had to chew on them*. Nom nom nom! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarn!!! This is the point where I should probably be saying "I think I've finally cracked". Only, whoops, too late! ;-)

* They weren't bad tasting, either. Not that I ate them. That would be a waste! Just stuffed them in my mouth and gently chomped down a couple of times. Erm. Hi there subconscious. Something you want to tell me?

ANYWAY! Hi, Happy New Year. Here I am! I've been pretty zonked since Christmas, and I was rushed off my feet before that (plus my webserver was down for over a week, grr), but I'll elaborate on what I actually got up to in the other post that I'm writing. This is going to be a looking forwards post. Well, and a 'currently' one as well, I guess.

So, let's have some resolutions for 2008. I have general ones, and knitting-related ones as well:

General resolutions:

1. Get back into a regular day-to-day routine and maintain my sleep hygiene regime
2. Remember to take my meds (I've been doing well with this for some time, but it never hurts to reinforce it!)
3. Related to #1, go to the gym / gym classes regularly and often.
4. Eat proper!
5. Get back to work, but take it slowly and don't overdo it!
6. Keep a cap on my spending and improve my money situation overall.
7. Have a thorough clear-out of the flat and charity-shop or eBay anything I don't want or need.
8. Be a more reliable and prompt correspondent! I'm pants at replying to emails and comments, and I really want to get on top of that. Feel free to help me out by prodding me if I should be mailing you and haven't. I'm not ignoring you, I'm just a bit rubbish!

Several of which can really be summed up as "Look after myself", but since detailed lists help me plan, that's what we've got. :-)

Knitting Resolutions:

1. Two words: Yarn Diet. This is strongly related to #6 above, since I can't now afford to buy any more yarn - woe! But I'm not exactly yarnless, so I'm not going to repine. I haven't decided on my exact goal for this yet, but I want to join the Stashalong thingy. Piglottie has said she's not going to buy any yarn in 2008 at all. I'd like to say the same, but maybe I'll start with a 6 month commitment and then revise / renew it from there! I feel that I should leave myself some wiggle-room just in case, and there's still sockclub. So. I'll post more about it when I've figured out how I want to work it.
2. Knit from my stash. You know, since I'm not going to be buying anything new. But even if I was, I have a ginormous stash that needs some serious busting, and what's more, it's yarn I really want to knit with! I have plans!
3. Those two UFOs that have been needing sewing up for the last couple of years? FINISH THEM! Damnit. At least one, if not both, by the end of February.
4. Never have more than 8 WIPs on the needles. Preferably less, to leave room for 'OMG must start that right now' syndrome.
5. In the short term, finish all my current WIPs by the end of March (Hedaras, Damson Gloves, Ruby Scarf, Clapotis, Fireworks socks, Chevron Scarf, WFS, Spring Sprung scarf, and SAHWWJ Cardi) with a possible waiver on the cardi because I'm happy enough for that to be a relatively long-term no-rush project.
6. Do some more stash clearing / yarn selling. Which sort of counts as stash busting, but not exactly. Also advertise those knitting books and magazines.
7. Get out the knitting machine and make up some stuff to sell. Like HP scarves and so on. I've got the yarn, after all. Stashbusting! Yay!
8. Spend more time on my Ravelry groups, and keep up with my blogroll links. And comment more! Oh, on the podcasts I listen to, as well. Par-ti-ci-pate. *nod*

I've also been thinking about joining Project 365. Or maybe I'll do the weekly variant that some people on Ravelry are doing. I'll probably end up with a stack of photos of the cat. And yarn. No change there, then!

Okeydokey, this post is long enough. I'll yatter about my current WIPs (with photos) more tomorrow or some time soon. Time for bed! :-)

Phew!!

Right now, I'm feeling the urge to run all the way to Dublin and physically cling to my webserver. Oh yes. You might have noticed that my site disappeared for a while there. As did most of my email. The old server crashed and died, and it took quite a while to determine that it was dead forever, and then transfer everything to a new server. It probably doesn't help that I have multiple domains on here. And once the data was restored, I had some work to do at my end, recreating database usernames, cron jobs, email accounts, resetting file permissions. But at last, here we are: I think I have everything back except for some of the photos in the album. And those, I can re-upload, no problem. Yay!

So, er, Christmas was good! I had a lovely one, although I was a bit zonked out today. My knitted presents went down well, although I didn't manage to finish Emily's Chevron Scarf - I showed it to her so far. I probably would have got it done, but I've been having ouchy-finger-joint issues. Bah. However, Mum liked the Fetchings I made her, and the scarf - a sparkly gold one - that I gave her as well. Pictures soon!

I'm planning to go to the gym with the bro tomorrow (assuming he's remembered I said I'd go too!) and get my new year's resolutions underway early. *g* I haven't been over there for a while, although I do belong, and I need to get back into the swing of it.