Oooops!

Bloody hell, I did not realise that I had not blogged since September last year.

In my defense, I have been so busy with college and all sorts of other stuff.  Just before Christmas, a friend from college passed away suddenly. I was gutted to lose her and am even sadder for her 7 year old son and her partner.  I will always remember the fun we had, laughing and chatting.

Being skint and having next to no money for gifts, I decided that I was going to try and make all of my Christmas gifts by hand.  Firstly, I was going to knit them, then I realised I had 16 gifts to knit. No.  That wasn't going to happen.  I think I managed 7.  The rest, I made using ideas from Pinterest.  I got cheap mugs from the pound shop and then knitted cozies for them.  I got some pretzels and then dipped them in melted dark chocolate and bagged them into clear cellophane bags.

For my vegan friend, I made homemade Reece's Peanut Butter Cups.  Nom!  I also got some cheap mason jars and made homemade sugar scrub.  Sorted!

I did enjoy it, but I found it all got a bit stressful in the end.  Next time, I think I may try making things like lotion bars and lip balms.  It was my vegan friends birthday on Thursday and he requested homemade bath bombs, so I now have the kit to make them too. 

I also had college work, as well as trying to hunt for a new job and I felt myself getting incredibly stressed.  I had to drop the job hunting.  My fella is now looking for work as he is now not at college.  It's been 4 months and he's had 4 interviews, which is a start, but no joy yet.  It's been a bit of a struggle to survive on my own wages.  Driving from Nottingham to Leicester for work doesn't help, but I'm struggling to find work that will allow me to go to college.  I plan to do my Masters after this (although, given the current financial situation, I may have to defer it a year until the fella gets work), so will need to reduce my hours.  We will definitely need the fella working for that. 

So yes.  Stuff happening.   LOTS of stuff happening and not nearly enough knitting for myself.  However, I am knitting the Mr a pair of cabled slipper socks with leather soles and then I'm going to spend a month or so finishing the projects I have started (2 pairs of socks, 1 sweater and 1 shawl). 

I do have a couple of blankets on the go, but I'm taking my time with them.  There's no rush at all for them.  I have another granny square blanket, a 10 stitch blanket in random bits of handspun and a Beekeepers Quilt.  The Beekeepers Quilt is being done in scraps of sock yarn in random colours, as is the 10 stitch blanket.  They are the kind of blankets that I can pick up whenever I like.  I have two of then stored in the wardrobe in the bedroom when I'm not working on them.  The Beekeepers Quilt is made of hexipuffs, which I cast on using Judy's Magic Cast on, then graft together once knitted and stuffed (I am saving my scraps of yarn to stuff them with).  I am knitting them on 2.5mm needles, which is probably not a good idea.  I'm toying with the idea of making a 20x20 square with them, then knitting a back and adding a cushion pad and some buttons, just to test the sewing together.  I'm afraid that using the technique described in the pattern, that it'll fall apart.  Plus as I am using the 2.5mm needles, they are smaller and are taking ages to do.  So, we will see how I get on :)

I will be back with pictures soon.  I hope :)  Right now, I'm knackered and need a shower before I go to bed :)

Back!

I haven't posted in ages.  Sorry!  I do have a good reason though - My trusty laptop died and now I have bought another.  The old one had a dodgy battery anyway and the power socket / power cable stopped.  It was crackling when it was plugged in and it wouldn't start at all.  Thankfully, my college stuff was backed up onto dropbox, so I could just borrow the fella's laptop and then continue with my essay writing.

I got very stressed over that laptop.  I struggled to get it written and it felt very bad.  However, I did pass and I'm onto the second year of the course.  I am finding that it's hard, but it doesn't quite seem like me at the time when I'm doing it.  I'm always amazed by what I've achieved!  What is cool is that I'm recognising things in others and myself.  I'm getting there and feeling a bit more confident in myself.

I've just had a few days off work and I've been knitting for most of it.  In between baking bread, visiting vintage fairs (I will have to photograph my spoils!) and making crumpets anyway.  I'm very glad that I have a slow cooker.  I was able to chop some veg, fry off some sausages and then set the slow cooker and then get on with some knitting. 

I've been watching some of my Mark Thomas collection.  I have some of his stuff on a hard drive here - the Sex, Filth and Religion gig and the Mark Thomas Comedy Product.  I also have a couple of the Dispatches things he did, which was good.  I have his Serious Organised Criminal on DVD.  Met him once when I saw him tour his Walking the Wall gig when I was with my ex.  Brilliant stuff!  I did turn into a bit of a fangirl when I met him though because he's just brilliant.  He signed one of my books :)

Life is good.  Marillion have a new album out and me and the fella went to see them live last Friday in Sheffield.  It was a fantastic gig, but the venue was a bit cramped.  I think normally, they aren't so full, but this one had too many there.  I heard that normally Marillion gigs are sold to 80% capacity to allow us a bit more room, but I believe the venue was sold to capacity.

The gig was my favourite, apart from the venue issues.  It was also my 7th.  It was my fella's first h era Marillion gig and he enjoyed it too.  The new album is very proggy and feels like a bit of a return to their roots.  I love it - wonderful stuff.  I've been listening to it a lot at work and it's been nice to listen to something different at work. 

I will have to do a photo entry soon, with photos of some of the work I've been doing.  I'm off work again in a month.  Hopefully I'll be able to get some Christmas knitting done.  Yes, I'm Christmas knitting, after a few years of sanity.  I'm just going to knit as many socks as I can, or perhaps some of my Flossies as gifts.  I was thinking that they'd be nice in a 4ply yarn, with a slight adjustment for stitch counts etc, and then maybe some beads instead of the bobbles. Hmmm.  I am already picturing the yarn and the beads.  I think this could be promising.  We'll see :)

Ground control...

Doing this earworm tracking thing is interesting.  It seems that my earworms are nowhere near as random as I think they are.  It seems that songs from adverts and / or documentaries are getting into my head and staying there.

It's all good though, at least I'm not getting any really annoying stuff in my head.  June's earworm playlist is here if you fancy a listen.

I successfully managed to avoid yarn buying today.  I am doing what the Knitmores call stash cultivation, which means that you build a beautiful stash.  My current stash is lovely, but I must remind myself not to buy yarn because it's on sale or because it's cheap.  I have plenty of yarn at the moment that I'd like to work through.  2 sweaters worth, 2 blankets worth, several pairs of socks worth, and several shawls worth.  I would like to spin for a sweater though, but would just like to improve on my spinning first though.  Having said that, it's getting so much better than what it used to look like.

By the way, here is my Vortex shawl project page (so you can see the link to the pattern), with pictures as promised.  I love the way the colour variations in the handspun yarn swirls with the pattern.  It sort of looks like what I imagine a vortex to look like.

I am really happy with it, naturally! I really think that the yarn suits the pattern and vice versa.

The 10 stitch blanket is still ongoing and I'm happy with the way it's going.  I'm aiming for random colours and something that's a bit shabby but lovely.  Not that I think my work is shabby, but I want random.

Things...

Just a few things to tell you about this evening:-

- I am participating in the Ravelympics this year.  I am in Team AMBAA (Ankh Morpork Bad Ass Artificers).  I am participating in the WIPS wrestling, with 3 WIPS to complete and a sock pattern to publish during the Olympics.

- College is going well, I am enjoying it.  Lots of things going on, which is hard for me to talk about on a public blog.  I would like to, but it's not really appropriate.  As it is a counselling course, I have to open up to my fellow students and perhaps reveal stuff that I wouldn't ordinarily, as do they.  Because of this, I wouldn't want to share information about them on the internet.  My real name is on this blog and it would be quite easy to find where I go to University and therefore it may be easy to work out who is whom, if you already know some of the students.  I will perhaps, write an entry about how the course is changing me at a later date.  Once I've finished the first year :P

- I was doing job hunting, at the same time, but was getting ridiculously stressed, along with the driving to and from work.  I don't get in until 8:30 ish some nights, so find it hard to search, then apply for jobs and do college work at the same time.  I have decided that I will wait for college to be done and then spend my summer applying for jobs.

- June's earworm playlist is here.  I am aware that there is a song that is on May's playlist too, but the song has been lodged firmly in my brain since late May.  I am finding that there are certain songs that are like that.  This month's song that appears to be on repeat is Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen.

- I have cast on a ten stitch blanket.  It started off looking a bit crap and now looks a lot better  I'm not convinced by the middle bit though.  We shall see.  I'm doing it in handspun yarn.  Yay!

- I have startitis.  I want to cast on all the things, but I have college work to do, so can't really.  I am planning on spinning the yarn to do a top down raglan, after knitting a Vortex in handspun yarn.  Pictures soon, I promise!  Plus I have the yarn to knit a lovely cabled jumper, plus more yarn to knit another jumper or cardi, so we shall see.  I want to learn to knit more garments like sweaters and cardi's and overcome the fear of measuring myself and calculating how much yarn I need and where to put increases / decreases.

- I am wide awake and it is nearly half past midnight, but I have to be up at 6:30 in order to get to work for 8am, so I really should go to my gwely (that's Welsh for bed!), so on that note, Nos Da (Good Night!).

Today, I saw music in the sky...

I have finally figured out how to copy the URL to May's earworm playlist. It struck me after talking to someone the other day that not everyone knows what an earworm is.  An earworm is a song that randomly gets stuck in your head.  It's fun if you can infect someone with a tune.

It's here on Spotify if you fancied listening to it,  It's just a record of the songs that seem to go through my head.  I can't promise they'll always be traditionally earworm like (in other words, cheesy), but they are genuinely the songs that get stuck in my head.  

As an aside, did you know that one of the most common earworms isWitchita Lineman by Glenn Campbell? Heh.

Incidentally, one of my own earworms probably comes from hearing all about Rebecca Brooks getting herself arrested for perverting the course of justice / phone hacking.  The track is Paper Lies by Marillion.  Of course :)

Just thought I would come and share.  It's not complete yet, so come back and have a listen later on in the month if you fancy it.

Oh dear

I keep on meaning to write here, but I get distracted.  I am so busy these days. Work is utter, utter madness and it's doing it's best to totally send me a bit bonkers.  I have moved to Nottingham with the fella, but am still working in Nottingham as I didn't manage to get the transfer I wanted.  As work is thin on the ground, I couldn't just afford to jack in work, especially is the fella is a student nurse.  So, it's a case of commute to work and college while looking for work. 

I am keeping myself sane with a LOT of knitting and reading.  I've been rereading the Robin Hobb books that I have.  Only thing is, I left book 1 of The Liveship Traders at work on a Saturday and by the time I'd gone back in on a Wednesday after a bank holiday weekend, the book had gone and nobody claims to know where it is.  I reckon it's been binned 'cause I can't find it and the bit where I'd left it had been tidied.

Grrr.  I know it's my fault for leaving it there, but who would bin a book?  Madness.  I am taking a break from that while I figure out what happened to it and whether I'm going to get another copy, so am reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies instead.

I have visited a couple of yarn shops in Nottingham.  The first, I went to a few weeks ago.  It's less than a mile from my house and tiny.  The lady who owns it seems awesome though.  I may try and get to the knitting group she goes to once I've started work in Nottingham.  The second, I found by accident as we were visiting one of the larger Tesco Express stores - we needed to top the fella's phone up (he's on Tesco mobile and if I buy the top up at a Tesco store, I can use my staff discount - £9 will buy him £40 worth of credit!).  I spent a while chatting to the lady and it seems she's not long been open - 2 months or so.  She's slowly building up stock, but she has a lot of the luxury yarns there.  I ended up buying a skein of Fyberspates scrumptious laceweight in a dark blue / petrol colour.  It's gorgeous but expensive.  £15.95!, but then there are 1000 meters in the skein, so that's a really fabulous shawl.

I also have a mad idea to spin for a blanket.  A round blanket.  Using the exact same pattern that I'm using for my handspun shawl (Vortex, on Ravelry if you're interested).  I was thinking that I'll do 8 different colours and do a section in each colour.  We shall see though :)

I was also thinking that I seem to have this thing where I have at least 1 earworm a day and I thought it would be interesting to track them, so I am creating a playlist on Spotify that has all my earworms in for every month.  Obviously, this month will be a shorter one as I started late, but I have had at least 3 songs meander through my brain today so we'll see.  I note that I can share playlists via facebook and twitter, but I don't know if I can get a direct link for them so I can stick it here.  Would be interesting though!  I will share at the end of the month on Facebook and then see if I can get the direct link off there :)

In the meantime, I am off to make it up to the fella.  Apparently I was shouting at him in my sleep last night but I have no recollection of this.  Ooops.  In my defence, apparently I was telling him to stop snoring.  Seems legit to me though :)

Happy days

I have just finished the work for college.  I submitted the work last night and was glad that I got it in on time.  I am thoroughly enjoying the course.  It is taxing and draining but I am really happy that I'm doing it.  I am aware of myself changing - I am a lot calmer and  understand a lot more about myself.  I have another 4 modules to go, spread out over 2 years so I do wonder how much I'll change. 

I still feel like me though, just a more secure me, if that makes sense.  I am both excited and a little scared about the prospects of becoming a counsellor.

Me and the fella are flat hunting.  We are looking for places in the Long Eaton / Beeston / Stapleford area (Nottingham), so I am leaving Leicester.  He is a full time student nurse and as I am studying part time, it makes sense for me to move there.  We have seen one or two places.  We very nearly got one place but my fella was waiting for a letter from the NHS Bursary people to say how much he received, but the letting agents / landlord didn't want to wait.  There was something quite fishy about the whole situation - the person who I was dealing with said there was someone else interested in the property, but the other people in the office said there was no interest whatsoever.  When we viewed the property, it had been empty for 4 months, so not much interest in it at all!  The letting agents said they definitely had found someone else for the property when questioned.  Ho hum.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if we get a call back in a week or so to ask if we are still interested in the property.  So very tempted to say maybe, but for a reduced rent.

Oh!  When we did view the property, there was another guy there doing a viewing at the same time as us.  Most unprofessional!  It wouldn't have bothered me if we'd got there and someone was still viewing it, or someone was coming to view it after us - but to book 2 viewings at the same time on the same property?  Not good!

We have arranged a viewing on another house that we like today.  We shall see how that goes.  It looks to be a nice 2 bed house in Beeston, really close to all the amenities.  Right now, I'm a bit worried about the money situation.  I will have to do a lot of travelling initially as I will be travelling back and forward to Leicester until I can find work in Nottingham and with fuel prices as they are, that's not good.  I will probably be spending the time off college getting my CV into a few places - I am finding that flat hunting, college and work are all enough right now and I don't want any additional stress.  However, while I'm not at Uni, I can spend the next 2 weeks or so responding to job adverts.

That's another thing I'm learning.  Better time and stress management.  I am kinder on myself.  Once I've moved and settled in, I will definitely be able to job hunt more effectively, but given how I spent about a year sending CV's off to different places, I'm thinking that there are so many people applying for jobs that it's hard to get noticed.  I don't want to get too despondent though!

Heh, that was a bit of an essay.  I came here to talk about something else entirely.  I was watching Sunday Brunch, which is a clone of Something for the Weekend, with the presenter / chefs doing a bit of cooking and a bit of interviewing.  I was watching it with a cuppa as I waited for the fella to get out of bed and they had someone on there - a trendspotter - talking about knitting.  My ears pricked up!

When her segment came around, she showed these knitted trainers that someone had done.  Really!!  They looked better than I imagined they'd look to be quite honest.  They had proper rubber soles and everything.  She then went on to say how knitting is now cool and how it's not just for grannies.

I don't quite know how to feel about this.  After all, I hate the Shreddies adverts - "knitted by nana's" or being so damn stereotypical but I dislike how knitting is portrayed as cool because certain famous people knit.  As an aside, I couldn't tell you one famous person who knits.  Meh.  For me, I knit and spin because I love it.  I love the process (most of the time, when I'm not cocking up a simple feather and fan pattern and have to unravel a weekends worth of knitting!!) and I love the product.  I love being able to make something.  I love seeing things grow, stitch by stitch. I love seeing the fibre I spin turn into yarn and then into a garment.  I love letting the yarn speak and tell me what it needs to be.  I love the fact that I've not bought any socks in  5 years because I've always got a pair on the needles.  I love the surge of excitement that I feel casting on, then casting off and blocking.  I love meeting other knitters and talking about projects.  Even if the person is someone I don't really know, we have knitting to talk about.  I love the feeling of yarn in my hands and I love the wide range of colours you can get.

I can see how a surge of interest in knitting is going to benefit me as a knitter (new products, new patterns, new books, new magazines etc), but I don't know if I like being labelled as a granny (I'm 33!!!!), or someone who is just doing it to be cool or on trend (I loathe that phrase with a passion!).  I don't know if I like being labelled at all.  I'm just me, doing my thing.

Maybe it's to do with the feeling that I don't like having attention drawn to myself, which is odd, coming from someone who did some guerilla knitting and will gladly knit in public, but then I don't knit in public to get attention.  I just do it because I want to rather than to elicit a response.  We have some odd reactions from people sometimes, when they see us knitting; from outright laughing at us (WT everloving F??), to people asking if we are a group and can they join, people saying how lovely it is to see people knitting, to people asking for a knitted thong (this really did happen once), or people saying "You're knitting.  Why?".  It can be quite disconcerting to be in the middle of a row, concentrating on your stitch pattern, or in the middle of a conversation about Being Human / Dr Who etc to have someone butt into our conversation to say something like "I know you're knitting, but what are you doing?"  It can feel a little rude or intrusive sometimes, but I've never seen it done with any malice.  Most of the time, it does make people smile - perhaps they had a family member who used to knit things for them.

It goes with the territory, I suppose.  If you knit in public then you are bound to attract the attention of people who will either think that it was something that grannies did years ago, or that we are doing to be cool.  Perhaps the problem here is whether I am too concerned with how people see me. 

Food for thought!