If I said that, health-wise, I was feeling worse than usual, and the paperwork/benefits stuff was still a massive steaming pile of ongoing poo, but in terms of contentement with life, I was feeling really quite good... would you know what I meant?
So, I'm not too well, which is part of why I haven't been blogging. But it's been a gorgeous weekend. I've spent most of it in the living room with the patio door open, knitting and listening to the tweeting birdies and so on. Very relaxing.
Georgette the Courgette is doing well. If you clicky this linky you will see that she has been happily installed in a grow-bag of composty goodness, with two little strawberry plants (as yet un-named) to keep her company.
And on Sunday evening, Steve and I got in the car to meet Jiva and Munkt0n at some motorway services on their way back from Alton Towers. Which was nice... sitting outside on a bench with Steve, having a cuppa, and then friends turned up and we spent the evening chatting and relaxing. Jiva gave me some spare yarny from her stash which was unexpected and nice. It really is very tempting to spend a couple of hours on Ravelry trying to find some patterns for it, but I have promised myself that I will not fill up the house with half-finished items, so I will have to finish either the jumper or the socks first.
And finally, a quick mention for Tom Scott aka Mad Cap'n Tom, who has won his student union presidency as a pirate, upsetting any number of people in the process. Mwahahahaha.
Showing posts with label ravelry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ravelry. Show all posts
Monday, June 09, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Things are picking up again
A couple of nights ago I realised that I have now been knitting for a whole year.
While this is something I'm actually quite happy about, it did put the cherry on the top when I did some measurements on the jumper I am working on last night and realised: I Have Made A Mistake.
To make matters worse, the Mistake was some five or six inches back. I can pinpoint the mistake - I made it on the 8th of March, because it was the day before Simon and Tony ran a half-marathon dressed as a camel. So that's almost two weeks' knitting. The Mistake I made was that I mis-measured the length from the cast-on to the armhole decrease. It's meant to be 14 inches. The back piece, already completed, has a perfect 14 inches. The front piece, for some reason, has a perfect 13 inches. I suspect that I looked at the tape measure with my brainfog on and misread the number or got the alignment wrong. It's not a huge difference but it's enough to show.
With a heavy heart and a lot of swearing, I started to frog. This was made complicated because with the Colinette Cadenza yarn I'm using, you're supposed to use two balls at once to avoid pooling. You do a knit and a purl row of Ball A, then a knit and a purl row of Ball B, then a knit and a purl row of Ball A again. Result: huge tangle of wiggly wool.
Steve was bright enough to realise that this was NOT the moment to go "hang on, I'll get my camera" but to offer support and assistance.
Once I'd ripped back far enough, I started to painstakingly pick up 120 stitches from the remaining knitting. I'd picked up about 115 of them before realising that because of the yarn-changeovers, the 5 at the end had unravelled themselves two rows back.
Further cursing as attempted to remember how to put in a safety line. I got some bright orange acrylic and started to stitch it in, four or five rows back. I got Steve to count my stitches while I did some stretching. Then it was back on the floor for more frogging, and a big sigh of relief when the line held.
While I began to thread the stitches on the orange line onto my circular needle, Steve wound his first centre-pull ball of yarn. It was great, except that as soon as I started to knit, we discovered respective cockups: I had threaded all 120 stitches onto my needle in the right order, but twisted the wrong way round, and Steve had wound the ball of yarn so tightly it wouldn't actually pull from the centre.
Still, by this point, we had a great sense of having got past the worst of it. I started to knit again, carefully turning each stitch around before knitting it, and Steve unwound his yarn and began to wind again, a little looser this time. He was so satisfied, that he checked his colour balancing before getting camera-happy at it, with the result that this picture is not only a nice picture of his second attempt, it's also pretty much exactly true colour.
I feel a bit funny about having wasted an evening - I should have been working on my form, he should have been studying - but there was something very nice about working together to get it sorted out. Plus, I now have a boyfriend who can wind centre-pulls, and that is a serious asset.
As far as the form goes, well, I just need to write about my night-time care needs, the precis of which is "I'm pretty much sorted if I'm safe and sound in bed, however, if I need to get out of bed, I need the same help as I would in the day, with additional consideration for me being even more badly co-ordinated because I'm sleepy because, you know, it's the middle of the damn night." I'm continuing with my approach of typing all the information into a document and then, on the form, just writing in which page of the document they should refer to. There are currently about 37 pages, covering about 30 major questions.
Oh, it's also worth saying, I saw the new GP, Dr H, about a week ago. I told her I was applying for DLA and about what happened last time. She told me there were in fact notes in my records about what happened last time, so I guess Dr W must have typed up a bit extra the last time I saw her before sending my notes here. Dr H confirmed a few bits and bobs from the screen ("yes, we've got stuff here about how you have trouble walking, can't walk without pain, about faints and dizzy spells, all that sort of thing") and then, the confirmation I really needed to hear:
"Yes, for the bit that asks about your GP, just put my name and the address of this surgery, they'll send us a form, and we will back you up. We will support your claim.".
Phew.
While this is something I'm actually quite happy about, it did put the cherry on the top when I did some measurements on the jumper I am working on last night and realised: I Have Made A Mistake.
To make matters worse, the Mistake was some five or six inches back. I can pinpoint the mistake - I made it on the 8th of March, because it was the day before Simon and Tony ran a half-marathon dressed as a camel. So that's almost two weeks' knitting. The Mistake I made was that I mis-measured the length from the cast-on to the armhole decrease. It's meant to be 14 inches. The back piece, already completed, has a perfect 14 inches. The front piece, for some reason, has a perfect 13 inches. I suspect that I looked at the tape measure with my brainfog on and misread the number or got the alignment wrong. It's not a huge difference but it's enough to show.
With a heavy heart and a lot of swearing, I started to frog. This was made complicated because with the Colinette Cadenza yarn I'm using, you're supposed to use two balls at once to avoid pooling. You do a knit and a purl row of Ball A, then a knit and a purl row of Ball B, then a knit and a purl row of Ball A again. Result: huge tangle of wiggly wool.
Steve was bright enough to realise that this was NOT the moment to go "hang on, I'll get my camera" but to offer support and assistance.
Once I'd ripped back far enough, I started to painstakingly pick up 120 stitches from the remaining knitting. I'd picked up about 115 of them before realising that because of the yarn-changeovers, the 5 at the end had unravelled themselves two rows back.
Further cursing as attempted to remember how to put in a safety line. I got some bright orange acrylic and started to stitch it in, four or five rows back. I got Steve to count my stitches while I did some stretching. Then it was back on the floor for more frogging, and a big sigh of relief when the line held.
While I began to thread the stitches on the orange line onto my circular needle, Steve wound his first centre-pull ball of yarn. It was great, except that as soon as I started to knit, we discovered respective cockups: I had threaded all 120 stitches onto my needle in the right order, but twisted the wrong way round, and Steve had wound the ball of yarn so tightly it wouldn't actually pull from the centre.
Still, by this point, we had a great sense of having got past the worst of it. I started to knit again, carefully turning each stitch around before knitting it, and Steve unwound his yarn and began to wind again, a little looser this time. He was so satisfied, that he checked his colour balancing before getting camera-happy at it, with the result that this picture is not only a nice picture of his second attempt, it's also pretty much exactly true colour.
I feel a bit funny about having wasted an evening - I should have been working on my form, he should have been studying - but there was something very nice about working together to get it sorted out. Plus, I now have a boyfriend who can wind centre-pulls, and that is a serious asset.
As far as the form goes, well, I just need to write about my night-time care needs, the precis of which is "I'm pretty much sorted if I'm safe and sound in bed, however, if I need to get out of bed, I need the same help as I would in the day, with additional consideration for me being even more badly co-ordinated because I'm sleepy because, you know, it's the middle of the damn night." I'm continuing with my approach of typing all the information into a document and then, on the form, just writing in which page of the document they should refer to. There are currently about 37 pages, covering about 30 major questions.
Oh, it's also worth saying, I saw the new GP, Dr H, about a week ago. I told her I was applying for DLA and about what happened last time. She told me there were in fact notes in my records about what happened last time, so I guess Dr W must have typed up a bit extra the last time I saw her before sending my notes here. Dr H confirmed a few bits and bobs from the screen ("yes, we've got stuff here about how you have trouble walking, can't walk without pain, about faints and dizzy spells, all that sort of thing") and then, the confirmation I really needed to hear:
"Yes, for the bit that asks about your GP, just put my name and the address of this surgery, they'll send us a form, and we will back you up. We will support your claim.".
Phew.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Boo, Erk, Yay
A mixed day yesterday. Still recovering from having overdone it during the week, but then, I'm at home with the wonderful Evilstevie, Maker Of Cups Of Tea Extraordinaire, so it could be very much worse.
Feeling like this, and knowing that feeling like this is a regular thing, and being in a fairly large house (certainly lots larger than the flat), and knowing that Steve will not always be on study-break, I have finally decided, for definite, that I am buying a Roomba. I found a proper online store in the UK that sells them (as opposed to someone bringing one back from the US), compared various prices and specifications, and chose which one to buy.
Put it in the basket, signed up to the site, chose my options for delivery and gift-wrapping and carbon-offsetting and god knows what else, finally got to the 'now give us your credit card details' bit... and noticed that something had changed. The previous pages had been secure. Yellow address bar, https, little padlock sign, all tickety-boo. The credit card page, however. It still said https, but it wasn't yellow any more, the padlock had a line across it and further investigation offered the warning "some of the information on this page may be readable by others", and I just know that the day I take that chance is the day some bugger steals my credit card details and runs up thousands of pounds' worth of debt that I, having taken the chance, am fully liable for. Paranoid? Perhaps.
Tried to ring them but their customer service line is closed at weekends, so I emailed them instead. Boo.
On, then, to "erk". A friend of ours who lives nearby wants to have a fireworks party on Monday. So yesterday, I had a cuppa with his girlfriend while he and Steve went out to buy some fireworks.
Remember kids, you can't say "firework" without "erk!"
They came back with over £100 worth of fireworks. I asked them, did they bring any sparklers? I like sparklers. The answer was no... they went to an industrial-fireworks place for the stuff and the only sparklers available were in packs of over a thousand. Which would, I admit, be overkill for a party of maybe a dozen people, but makes me even more anxious about the nature of the fireworks they have purchased.
Some of you know Steve. Look upon the following sentence and tremble: In terms of this firework party, Steve is being the voice of moderation. He's even made sure they have purchased a remote detonation system. This is not like Steve. Steve is usually the one shouting for more flammable materials.
And finally, the yay - I got my Ravelry invite! YAY! I've already hooked up to several people I know and I'm sure more will follow. If you want to find me on there, I'm on as batsgirl. Still working on bringing it up to date - so far I've only listed two 'projects', the first scarf I did and that knitting on screwdrivers thing. It does seem a very sensible way of organising things, although I'm still finding my way around it.
Oh, and I've written my letter to WDC, I just need to remember to print it. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions :)
Feeling like this, and knowing that feeling like this is a regular thing, and being in a fairly large house (certainly lots larger than the flat), and knowing that Steve will not always be on study-break, I have finally decided, for definite, that I am buying a Roomba. I found a proper online store in the UK that sells them (as opposed to someone bringing one back from the US), compared various prices and specifications, and chose which one to buy.
Put it in the basket, signed up to the site, chose my options for delivery and gift-wrapping and carbon-offsetting and god knows what else, finally got to the 'now give us your credit card details' bit... and noticed that something had changed. The previous pages had been secure. Yellow address bar, https, little padlock sign, all tickety-boo. The credit card page, however. It still said https, but it wasn't yellow any more, the padlock had a line across it and further investigation offered the warning "some of the information on this page may be readable by others", and I just know that the day I take that chance is the day some bugger steals my credit card details and runs up thousands of pounds' worth of debt that I, having taken the chance, am fully liable for. Paranoid? Perhaps.
Tried to ring them but their customer service line is closed at weekends, so I emailed them instead. Boo.
On, then, to "erk". A friend of ours who lives nearby wants to have a fireworks party on Monday. So yesterday, I had a cuppa with his girlfriend while he and Steve went out to buy some fireworks.
Remember kids, you can't say "firework" without "erk!"
They came back with over £100 worth of fireworks. I asked them, did they bring any sparklers? I like sparklers. The answer was no... they went to an industrial-fireworks place for the stuff and the only sparklers available were in packs of over a thousand. Which would, I admit, be overkill for a party of maybe a dozen people, but makes me even more anxious about the nature of the fireworks they have purchased.
Some of you know Steve. Look upon the following sentence and tremble: In terms of this firework party, Steve is being the voice of moderation. He's even made sure they have purchased a remote detonation system. This is not like Steve. Steve is usually the one shouting for more flammable materials.
And finally, the yay - I got my Ravelry invite! YAY! I've already hooked up to several people I know and I'm sure more will follow. If you want to find me on there, I'm on as batsgirl. Still working on bringing it up to date - so far I've only listed two 'projects', the first scarf I did and that knitting on screwdrivers thing. It does seem a very sensible way of organising things, although I'm still finding my way around it.
Oh, and I've written my letter to WDC, I just need to remember to print it. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions :)
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