You might have noticed that there are a lot of error messages at the top of this blog. This is because Dreamhost decided to disable PHP4 on all their existing accounts. This site is written in PHP4.

Until I can talk the Husband into writing a conversion program to get all of the info from FLog into some other blogging software, I won't be posting much. We'll see how long this takes. I am also disabling comments for now, because I keep getting spammers.

See you later!

Oh, do I have Things to show you. I finished lots of Things last week.

Unfortunately, I am also in the process of upgrading my operating system on my one-and-only computer, so I don't want to do too much regarding adding files (like pictures) a the moment, lest they not get backed up with everything else and then accidentally lost.

So, once the dust settles on the Shiny New OS, I will post pictures of at least two things, and maybe a post about what I don't usually post about. We'll see.

Not to scare anyone, but you all do realize that it's only about six weeks until Christmas, right?


I'm getting started early this year, since I'm sending a small pile of things back home in the first week of December. Most of it will not be hand-made, but a couple of pieces will and one that will be purchased might be hard to track down.

So, yeah. When I'm not working or writing, that's what I'm up to, which is part of why I'm kind of quiet right now.

I am somewhat recovered.

It helps that I have found a job that I have a reasonable chance of getting (we'll see how that goes), and that NaNo is about to start (signed up this morning). Typing is oddly easy on my hands, for all that most people with CTS got it from typing, and this means I can be fairly well occupied for the next two months without further damage.

Still, though. I want to get the Mary Shelley costume done by Halloween. If that's the only thing I'm doing, it probably won't be that bad...

You would think that I would not have had a problem getting pattern pieces cut out for one garment over the course of three days. Really.

However, and this is going to turn into a bit of a rant here, I did not make that deadline.

Why? Several reasons, mostly concerned with a general health crash.

I am really, really tired of not being able to get things done because my body decides it does not want to function properly anymore. In the last ten days, the only intensive hand things I have done have been to knit for about two hours on Friday night, and cut out three pattern pieces out of the lining fabric on Sunday. That is it. But my hand still keeps not working. It aches, or the muscles decide to not cooperate in the middle of something (usually when I'm holding something that needs to not be dropped), or the tendons or something pop across the bones in my hand, which really hurts. The big issue this morning was trying to plug in my hair dryer. Last night, it was drying the lid to our stockpot. So, I have not cut the pieces out. I did spend about an hour in the bath tub, and I finished reading two mystery/thriller books. But nothing, you know, productive.

I am tired of this.

Also, the reason I can write this at 9:10 in the morning is that I had to call into work today. Warning: TMI Ahead I spent most of the morning in the bathroom dry-heaving, and the only thing I have been able to keep down thus far has been three crackers and a glass of orange juice. Saturday I was sick, too, and we ended up having to leave my husband's Taekwondo belt testing immediately after he finished so I could not vomit all over the classroom. TMI is done now.

I have been feeling well for the last couple of weeks, and the only thing I can really point to is stress. I'm worried about money. I'm worried that I spent the last two years of my life getting nothing done, and that it doesn't look like this is going to change any time soon. I am tired of spinning my wheels and not getting anywhere. The childhood fantasies of haring off into the middle of nowhere and living like a hermit (yes, I read a lot of books along the lines of My Side of the Mountain and Hatchet while I was growing up) sounds more appealing every day.

Don't worry. I'll get over this. It will take a while, but once things are more on an even keel, and I have steady employment and my hand stops aching, I will feel much better and get back to your regularly-scheduled, sporadic updates about crafty things.

Also, today is the first day to sign up for National Novel Writing Month. If only they would get the new site up.

Well.

This is what happens when I get to into whatever I am doing.

I had started on a lovely pair of Vinnland, got most of the way through one cuff, realized that my hands were cranky from the sewing and knitting, and had to put them away again.

Since I cannot give up on the sewing at the moment (wedding is less than one week away!), I have to put the knitting away instead. After the wedding, I have a Mary Shelley costume to get together, so I can't knit then, either. And yes, I am wearing my braces at work.

The socks will just have to wait, I suppose, but the really unfortunate part in all of this is that the day my hands started to bother me was the day I finally broke down and bought the yarn for Mr. Greanjeans.


Fair you well in the stash, Cascade. I will see you again.

Also, dress update: All the leaves are sewn to the skirt, and the petticoat layer is attached. Now I am waiting for Bride to get here so I can do the rest of the fitting and get the corset put together. Tomorrow, we conquer the Ren Faire.

Yeah. I know I dropped off the face of the earth again.

I started a new job (Yay, job!) and have been busy trying to adjust to working out of the house again. The result was that I have not done much knitting, and have done even less talking about it. We're also moving into a bigger, better apartment this weekend, so I have even less time than normal.

When I return, I need to talk about

• the finished Swallowtail shawl (I may wait until after it is blocked)
  
• the Simple Yet Effective Shawl being knit up in my Firefly handspun and a heathered-black Cascade 220
  
• the Pomotomus socks, in Jojoland Melody
  
• Progress on the Sock Blanket of Doom, which is up to a bit less than 50 squares so far
  

I also need to start working on the patterns for my Mary Shelley costume, since I have not even touched that in about two months and Halloween is getting closer every day.

So, I will be back later. I promise.

Note: I did not promise when "later" would be.

So, it's 2009 now. I have put up a 2009 projects page, and we'll see how regularly it gets updated.

The three things that are carry-over projects that I actually worked on any at all in 2008 are knitting projects. The Tudor Monstrosity, though ongoing, has not really seen any work in quite some time, and I am officially putting it on hold. I have nowhere to wear it, since my SCA activities are essentially at zero right now.

Right, knitting. Well, of course, we have the lozengy blanket.

Cat included for scale. Cat is about 12 lbs.

Significant progress has been made since the last time I posted a picture. It is just shy of halfway done at this point. The shiny thing on one of the black squares is the giant safety pin I am using to mark when I started the latest skein of black, so I can see how many squares I get from a single skein. Then I can go ahead and buy the rest of the yarn I need for the blanket. I have also instituted a few rules for this project, to make sure that it gets done in 2009.

1. I must knit at least 7 squares per week, since I have 319 left. That will give me some extra time at the end of the year for weaving in the last few ends and finishing up the crochet border.

2. Extra squares *do not* roll over to the next week's quota of squares, unless I know of something that is going to keep me from knitting on it the next week.

Yesterday I knit 8 squares, so I am caught up for the first week of 2009.

Project number two is the psychotic sock yarn blanket, which has shown no significant growth since the last post. I have added maybe five squares since that picture, in no new colors.

The third project is my Baudelaire socks!


I am probably about 2/3 of the way done with them. The first one is done to four inches up the cuff, and then I cast on the second sock since the Mountain Colors yarn is a bit light on the yardage at 350 yards per 400 grams. On the second sock, I am just about to start the heel gusset. I only really want six-inch cuffs on these anyway, so I don't think I'll run out.

I am still desperately in love with these socks. I spent most of my holidays with my family, first showing off the yarn, and how it isn't *just* purple, and then I spent at least one evening showing everyone who would sit still long enough that look! They have cables now!

The chart on this one is pretty quick to learn, especially if you can read your knitting well. I might change the ribbing at the top to a twisted rib rather than a plain rib, but we'll see.

For later in 2009, I have plans for a Swallowtail Shawl out of my Noro Kureyon Sock yarn, and a second Ravenclaw Harry Potter scarf. I think I might also knit the Simple Yet Effective Shawl out of my Firefly handspun and some black Cascade 220, since the handspun on its own is not really enough for a full shawl. That is all I have plans for immediately, and it is also the only things for which I have at least part of the yarn.

Trivia: According to Ravelry, I have about 1,900 yards of yarn in full skeins in my stash right now. My leftovers probably double that number, or near enough.

Upon looking for a picture of the firefly to show you, it occurs to me than I never posted one in the first place, as far as I can tell.


That is about the best I've got. The spinning on that is all done now, and I ended up with just over 200 yards of it, approximately worsted-weight. I'll try to take a better photo tomorrow while the sun is up.

Wow. I think that this post is quite long enough. Happy New Year (again)!

Happy New Year! Another year is gone. Most of what has gone on this year has been knitting, despite my hands falling apart in July. The 2008 Project Inventory is mostly up-to-date, if anyone wants to see what has been done this year.

The last of this year's projects are the finished(!) Ravenclaw Harry Potter Prisoner of Azkaban scarf, which was my husband's Christmas present:


I knit a washcloth for my mother, to go with the bath set that was the rest of her Christmas present but did not get a picture before I left it with her in Texas.

The last item was a knitted doll, mostly made from this pattern, but scaled down by half, except for the legs, which prove that I should not do math at 11:00 at night, since they are too big. I would post a picture, but she has no clothing yet and that might be a bit indecent.

Also, according to some more 11:00 pm math, I have figured out that I knit around 4,000 yards of yarn in 2008 that ended up in finished projects. Just so you know. For trivia's sake.

I have learned that I need to take better care of myself next year. I have learned that nicer yarns really are worth the expense, for the most part (I know, duh, but I have not ever had much of a yarn budget to work with). I also learned that I can have too much yarn if I am not careful. I learned that I like not having eight million projects going at one time. I also learned that what is an amusing and useful hobby is not always the best choice for a job.

I finally have started to write again, after a several-year-long hiatus. My novel from this year's NaNoWriMo is not good, but it is finished, and there is definitely something to be said for that. I am making attempts to keep up with writing now that I have started again, as well.

Tomorrow I will be posting about what I have planned for 2009, and posting an update on the projects that have spilled over into another year.

Today, I have two insane projects to share with you all. First, the knitting!

I might have kind-of started a sock-yarn blanket. See, Shelly Kang's looked like so much fun and would be such a great way to use up sock ends (never mind that I could just knit odd striped socks with them), that I couldn't help myself. Of course, being in the BlankieMania Ravelry group didn't help.

This is what I have so far.


I have now run out of different colors of sock yarn to knit with. Well, okay, I have one more color, but I don't want to have one disconnected square sitting around. Now, of course, I know what I must do. Knit more socks!

The second crazy thing that is going on is that I am deep in the throes of planning for NaNoWriMo, in which I try to write a novel in 30 days. I've almost got the setting worked out, and mostly have a main character. Things have changed drastically from what I had originally intended (which included, among other things, a legal punishment for being stupid: being turned into a box of rocks and then being used to build a sentient wall around the city), and I think I have a legitimate shot at having a decent story when I am done.

So, I probably won't be around much next month, and I probably will not be knitting or sewing much either, so it isn't like you will be missing anything much.

Oh, and I've turned comments back on. No solution better than the one already in place was forthcoming, and so I will just have to keep pace with the spammers.

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