all done (nearly)

well I was just about to post about how the Xmas knitting is now all done (I even blocked those scarves) but I've just remembered that O's dalek still needs finishing. Ah well, at least I have everything else done, and in time to wrap and distribute to peeps in England before we set off to spend Christmas in Ireland

look at the beautiful blue cuttlefish

go here and look. S'lovely.

Once the Christmas knitting is out of the way I'm knitting some of Hansigurumi's cephalopoda. Or maybe I'll make some socks (these maybe, or these or these or these or these ...... so many socks, so little knitting time)

Meanwhile, I can't get past Level 48 on the free rice word game, let alone reach Grumblemag's 49. Boo hoo.

an xmas-makes update

• ammonite for T done
• hat for sis boyf done
• socks for mum done
• golf club covers for dad (not actually sure about this one, dad is incredibly fussy and not sure if he'd use them) idea abandoned, bought him a book instead
• socks for E (on the needles, 1 finished 1 to go)
  
• dalek for O (all the crochet is finished, I just have to do some modifications to incorporate a dalek sound maker before stuffing it)
• hat for R (on the needles, to be knit in seekrit when on train trips etc) I finished this but then fecked it up trying to attach iron-on reflective tape, will try and rescue another time, but for Xmas am now making:
  
• socks for R (on the needles, 1 finished 1 to go)
• felted tea cozies for various peeps (2 made and awaiting felting, more to make if time) abandoned in favour of
  
• cashmerino scarves for various friends all made but need blocking, if I can find time and space
  
• hat for C (to match her scarf)
  
• socks and hat for sis (done, actually I redid the hat as I wasn't happy with the chunky yarn, and redid it in cashmerino. Yes I am in love with cashmerino, a very high maintenance passion)
  

The Great Anniversary Impasse has not yet been resolved.

what is 'normal', anyways?

I am working my way through my Xmas makes list:

• ammonite for T done
• hat for sis boyf done
• socks for mum done
• golf club covers for dad (not actually sure about this one, dad is incredibly fussy and not sure if he'd use them)
• socks for E
• dalek for O (all the crochet is finished, I just have to do some modifications to incorporate a dalek sound maker before stuffing it)
• hat for R (on the needles, to be knit in seekrit when on train trips etc)
• felted tea cozies for various peeps (2 made and awaiting felting, more to make if time)
• hat for C
• socks (done) and hat for sis
  

On Saturday I finished sis's hat in black chunky yarn, then moved onto making the same hat for C but in a light olivey-green aran weight cashmere merino. After a few rounds I felt something wasn't right and stopped work on it. Picked up the work again last night and realised the yarn just didn't want to be a hat, it wanted to be a cute scarf instead.

Perhaps not everyone communes with their yarn but like I say, what's this 'normal' people talk about?

oh bum

I have made little more progress with the big book since last time I blogged, and the fsking assignment has to be in tomorrow. Must grit teeth. Must finish book. Must do assignment. Must not watch tv. Must not knit. Must not open stash. Must not think about sock wars.


-----BEGIN KNITTER'S GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 1.1

KEL++ Exp++ SPM+>+ Steel++ Bam+++ Pl- Addi? Syn- Nov-- Cot++ Wool+++ Lux++ Hemp? Bam+ Stash++ Scale+(+) Fin-- Ent? FI+ Int- Tex++ Lace+ Felt++ Flat Circ DPN+ Swatch- KIP++ Blog+ EZ? FO++ WIP+ GaugeF+ S? DK+ W+ B- ALT Cr+++ Sp?

------END KNITTER'S GEEK CODE BLOCK------

breathing space

I have two out of 3 of my assignments out of the way, and only a feck off big book to read before I get the third done. I dutifully trekked off to the library this morning to get on with it. But when I got there it turned out I'd left at home the vital dvd that I needed to work through at the same time. I took this as a sign I should go home, dump my stuff, go to the park and knit socks instead.

strange passions

Socks (sorry sockophobes) - I am developing a dangerous addiction to knitting socks, and an even more dangerous (and expensive) one to buying sock yarn. But it all so lovely and colourful and just a few quid for enough to knit a pair, and socks are such a handy portable knitting project ideal for train journeys, never mind that my stash looks like I am planning to keep the British Army in socks this winter (assuming they like multi-coloured ones) and pandas are going hungry as I buy up all their bamboo in the form of needles. OK so I might have to send O up chimneys to pay my Violet Green bill but that's a small sacrifice compared to the joy of hoarding all those lovely brightly coloured balls of wool, and fondly imagining I will transform them all into lovely socks in time for Christmas.

Thermodynamics - gotta love a discipline that having set up 3 rules, decided there was another more important one so called it the zeroth law. Bless. I am really struggling with one of my courses, so much so that I have actually been happy to see some thermodynamic equations. So much of the course feels like an assemblage of facts describing trends (it's the worst bits of inorganic chemistry magnified), it's nice to have some equations to get ones teeth into. You know where you are with an equation. All together now, heat can't move from a cooler to a hotter.

small miracles

In the interests of 'looking on the bright side' and trying not to drown under all the stuff in my life that remains undone, some small successes in my life:

1. I scored 82% on my last assignment, despite doing it in a mad rush and guessing some of the answers, so I might even pass at least one of this year's courses with a grade 2 pass.
   
2. On ringing the tutor on my other course in despair, I discovered everyone else feels the same way - it really is hard, not (just) me being idle.
   
3. Because 4 needles aren't enough, I have managed to juggle 5 (4 dpns and a cable needle) to start on some cabled footies for bedsocks for Gran.
4. since I took up knitting I have lost half a stone. You can't eat and knit at the same time.

wooly objects of desire

This is Sublime Angora Merino. It is 80% extra fine merino and 20% angora and it is the softest most gorgeous thing in the whole world. I met it in the wool shop when I realised the yarn I orignally bought for my bolero was too bulky. So I returned it to the shop and asked if they had any angora (as suggested by C). The lovely yarn shop ladies took me over to the Sublime and as soon as I touched it I had to have it. I didn't actually have to give them too much of your actual money for it, because I got a refund on the other stuff and also a bolero doesn't take too much yarn anyway. But as I crochet with it, I love it more and more. It is the colour of clotted cream and it feels like working with cream, it's so smooth and rich and decadent. I really really want to knit a jumper or top or cardigan with the clover colour; there are a couple of items in Big Girl Knits that would be perfect. But there is a lot of me which means it takes a lot of wool to cover me. The cost of the wool would be way, way more than I'd pay for a jumper. But then I'd get hours and hours of pleasure from making it, not even counting the joy of wearing it. I need this wool.

reality gap

what I should have been doing:

working hard on my coursework and getting my assignments done

what I have actually been doing:

learning to crochet, crocheting coin belt, knitting fossils and socks. Although knitting ammonites and belemnites pretty much counts as doing geology, I think.

Oh and playing with my O's new hamster

a Russian Winter White Sapphire imaginatively named Snowy

Manic Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday ...

Sometimes I wonder if there is a tinge of mania mixed in with my madness; I don't know, is it possible to be a little bit bipolar? I do go through patches full of manic energy, lots of rushing about and always needing to be doing, like now I have taken up knitting again and I have to be knitting all the time, can't sit still can't just do nothing, need to knit and read and watch tv and surf t'internt all at the same time. And I am extremely techy and irritable, so much so that I look at the calendar and am surprised to find it's not 'that time'.

Oh well at least knitting is productive, I have finished O's tank top and he wants another one in red and orange; also I am going to knit something for R and a cardigan for myself but first I am going to teach myself to knit socks while goggling at tonight's tv-fest.

here's one I made earlier

Crafting is the new black, apparantly, all the kewl kids are doing it. I have finally got around to making something with some of the sea glass I pick up on beaches, I mosaiced around a mirror with it. Getting the grout on is far easier than cleaning it off afterwards.

I also want to learn to crochet. I can't quite believe I just said that, but I do, because the cardi I want to knit will need to be edged in crochet if it's going to look how I want. I'm two-thirds of the way up the back of O's tanktop already. Maybe knitting will keep me from eating, who knows?

None of which is getting my course work studied. My bad.

briefly

• Lost a bit last week and got back to my pre-London weight
• I need to give more priority to getting my exercise it, apart from the belly dancing it's slipping already
  
• Have decided to move my GTD weekly review day to Monday, I think it will work better for me
• I am at last doing my 29th thing - at the moment I have a sleeveless jumper (for O, black with white star on front) and a scarf (for me, thick wool in peaty colours) on the go