la beebies

mo' biggies - more piggies!

playing Pointless with the dishwasher

Dad playing with the toy car

what 'oo doin'? I'm knitting.

built the kitchen

party - sand in the kitchen - Rich building, and Adam climbing through, and Will building it around himself - the wee boy playing with the pontipines - cake that Adam decorated

playing with G's phone, using my finger as a stylus, then his nose

the playground
G having to buy cooking apples with tiny bites taken out
Adam spilling water all over himself, so next time I helped, and then he decided clearly that was my job
lifting him down from the platform though I couldn't quite reach

woof owands - Ruth, orange!

papa leep! - grandpa's asleep

ma-mo - water

reading words from "diga" - tiger

climbing up the bar stools

running away down the road

countdown on my laptop
falling off the toy motorbike

puddles! when I washed the path

tang-tang! knocking on the fence

"cheeky little" "monkey pants!"

you can have more strawberries once you finish your cake

cardigan

I finally finished my cardigan yesterday! Actually, I finished knitting it about two weeks ago, and sewing in all the ends and such, but then I tried to make a frog closure, and making those took a bit and then once they were attached I didn't like it, so I decided to buy hook-and-eyes but it took a while for me to get round to it.

Cardi got washed in the meanwhile, though.

And now it is done!

Not the best photo, and not the best top to be wearing under it, but I will try again another time, and also get a couple of detail shots, and then maybe it will go up on Ravelry.

ETA: Should totes have made a bet on the royal baby's name, I thought they might go for George.

Also I am back on the chess set and have done most of the knitting for the white pawns, production-line-stylie.

lurgy

I have a 21-month-old nephew. He lives a hundred-odd miles away, and seems like every time I visit, I come home sick. This time, it's worse than usual - I have lost my voice, which I don't remember ever happening to me before - but I forgive him, because he was pretty miserable with it while I was there.

Also because he is adorable.

I wear glasses, and when I took them off to clean them, he started saying, "oh dear, oh dear," until I put them back on again, and he said, "yeah!"

When he wanted through a door/baby gate (to get to mummy both times, iirc), he came over to where I was sitting, grabbed me round the thumb and towed me over to open it for him. He can close the baby gates, btw, occasionally even getting them to fasten; he will say, "bye-bye," and close the gate behind himself.

When we played the microwave game - setting it to ~20 seconds, counting down to the beep - he clapped and said, "yay!" after it beeped. Actually, he's getting better at the counting down; it used to be pretty random noises, now it's "deh, nigh, eh, dede, dih, fie, foe, ee, ooh, ah, bee-bee! bee-bee!"

He's amazingly confident on the climbing frame - some of the steps are practically waist-high on him, and he's up and down them, no problem. He goes wandering off quite happily: at the playground he was heading for the carpark, in Homebase he was off down the aisles. Also in Homebase, he climbed into one of the display boxes and sat in there, like he was on sale for £16.99.

He'll bring a book over for me to read, and climb up in my lap.

He calls me 'oof'. "Ni' ni', oof."

If you sing him, "uggy uggy oggy," he will sing back, "doo doo dee." (It's the song from Baby Jake - I have seen way too much Cbeebies lately.) And if you sing, "the horn on the bus goes," he replies, "bee-bee-bee, bee-bee-bee, bee-bee-bee," "the horn on the bus goes," "bee-bee-bee, aw day on."

When I said bye-bye at the train station, he started crying. I feel kind of pleased about that, and guilty about being pleased.

back

It took a couple weeks for me to get round to putting the shelves in place, and I still haven't entirely filled them up, but it's progressing, which is good.

The chess set is on pause as I have finished all the black pieces, except for a couple of finishing flourishes.

The improvised cardigan was stalled - I realised it was because I had an appointment to talk about getting a breast reduction, so, if that happened, there was no point struggling to make a fitted cardi for my ridiculous boobs, but appointment happened and operation will not, until I lose some weight and possibly get less crazy.

So cardi has the round-waist section done and I've started on the back piece, but I need to figure out how far up the armholes go, and then do the terrifying front shaping.

Also been doing a bit of experimenting for a scarf design based on the archway round the door of a local church. Don't know if it'll work, but ideas. And I was sitting knitting that during the breaks at the Eddie Izzard show at the SECC, which was pretty cool. Knitting there, I mean, the show was Super Awesome Fabulous. As is Eddie.

Glad I went to that, even though the day after I slept through my alarm and didn't go to my volunteer thing.

Um. Stuff. Yeah.

Geoguessr now lets you set a timer, which is really useful if you're, well, me.

time suck

http://geoguessr.com/?v=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

I can stop playing now, right?

I mean, I didn't quite beat my sister's score, but I've pretty well got the hang of it. And one of those was in Russia, which means three tabs of research - transliterate the Cyrillic, translate it, and then, if it's a place name, try and find it. And, and...

No, no more. If I play it again I will set a time limit or something, because that game did literally take hours. Now I need to go to sleep.

ETA: I slept, I woke, I played some more. I brag: http://geoguessr.com/?v=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

ETA: 9th June: 32390 points in only an hour and a half - http://geoguessr.com/?v=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%3D

oh dear

Well, I have knitted practically all the black chess pieces - just a few arms and hoods to go - and put together the bodies of the pawns and the king and queen and part of a rook. And tonight, in the process of putting together a knight, I have broken a needle and a tooth.

Not dramatically broken a tooth, just taken a little chip out of one of the front ones, from biting a needle and trying to pull it through. The needle broke off half the eye, rendering it useless.

Anyway, I have spent three days so far at my volunteering thing, mostly scanning and uploading photos, with a bit of box listing.

Saturday I saw my nephew, who is adorable, and came and sat next to me on the stairs, and also, while reading Superworm, grabbed me by the thumb to make me do more "bang! crash! thump!"s.

Sunday my friend was unexpectedly in hospital and I took up her meds, but fortunately they let her home later in the day.

I am going to embroider a few features, glue a few more bits and then go to sleep. So there.

sigh

Knitting update - I took both. I knitted another rook and the queen and mostly-assembled both - the rook first, and I wound up undoing it, replacing the card, redoing it, then undoing it again to add another nut and redoing it again, and I ain't doing it again even though it's not entirely steady. The queen worked better because it tapers. I just need to glue stuff for both of them, as I didn't have glue, but I do now.

I also started the cardigan. First with seed-stitch border, forgetting the cables would be narrower, then with seed-stitch and increases which didn't quite work, then provisional cast-on which on reflection was too narrow, then I got it right. I hope. It's only got a few more inches to go and then I need to start thinking about shaping and things. Probably I'll go back to the chess set for a bit.

Today I went to IKEA and got two flat-pack shelves (Albert, if you care) and I just put one set together in about an hour and a half, and my arm hurts a bit (really I should have got out the electric screwdriver, shouldn't I?)

What else? I got a couple of good photos of my nephew, more by luck than judgement; I did more chores in my sister's house over five days than I do in mine over a fortnight; I got less sleep than usual and have spent a good chunk of the last two days catching up with it.

Oh, and I have been keeping a food diary to see if I can figure out what's messing with my guts, and it's pretty depressing reading, but I'm not going to stop eating junk, so I might as well keep track in case there is something specific to cut out.

hmm

I am going away tomorrow for a long weekend and I don't know what knitting to take... I usually get a decent amount of knitting done on the train either way, but I'll be decently busy while I'm up there, as my nephew is not quite two.

The last few days, I have been knitting pieces from Alan Dart's Chess Set - so far I have three pawns, a rook, a knight, a bishop and a king, but they are not assembled because I don't have nuts to weight them yet (I bought them off ebay Monday night). So, I could just take the yarn to finish the black side, which would probably be enough, or I could take yarn for the white side as well, or... If the nuts arrive tomorrow I can take stuffing as well and sew up some of the bits, because sewing up is horrid and I'm not leaving it all until the end or it just won't get done. I'm already doing all the arms and most of the pawns in the round.

Or I could do something completely different. At the weekend I started trying to design a cardigan, and it started getting over-complicated, and with a bit of distance I think I was just trying to do too much - with a fitted waist and boob shaping, and a cable pattern, and then hip shaping, and what about the sleeves, and... I think I can do a cropped cardi with the shaping I was thinking about, but I don't know.

So do I take a creative project that might go horribly wrong, or a pattern which will have me scattering a dozen little pieces down the back of the sofa?

ETA: I keep thinking of packing as a huge thing, but it really isn't. Fifteen minutes and I'm done, except for the ongoing knitting swither. And when I'm going to my sister's, it really doesn't matter - I forgot black trousers and she had half-a-dozen pairs in the wardrobe, I forgot socks and I went into the shopping centre by the station and bought a pack of new ones, it's not the end of the world.

I think it's a learned thing from childhood, and the thing is, taking trips with kids is difficult, and packing for yourself and three weans is stressful. But packing for yourself, when you've travelled enough, and know what you're going to want and what you couldn't care less about... it's really not a problem.

success, sort of

I finished the shrug!

I wound up doing a variation of Kitchener stitch, and boy did I regret it halfway through.

I did not regret ignoring the ladies at knitting who said I needed to knit a couple more inches before I joined it together. I was pretty sure it would stretch, and also fit better over something without sleeves, and I was right, so there. Actually it may be a bit big - the bottom of the back sort of flaps out a bit, so maybe that wants elastic, which is to say probably it wants cut down a little but I can't be arsed doing that so elastic might work.

Apart from that...

No, that's all the craft I've been doing the past few days. And now I am at that stage just past success, where you go... "what now?"

I don't know. I have a baby jumper which is only half-done, but that is dead easy. I kind of want to do something interesting. But having made something up - two things, in fact - even difficult patterns are looking sort of boring. But there's nothing I particularly want to make that I can try making up. I've been poking at ravelry, but nothing is jumping out saying "knit me!" Or "crochet me!" Improving my crochet also sounds boring.

Bah.

blether

Saturday morning, I was late for my stained glass class and then spent the whole time drawing out my design. I missed the usual train because I was looking up something for the pattern and lost track of time, and the next one because I was sitting on the loo, not very happy. Anyway, teacher helped me out and I have a design all set, and I like it quite a bit. It has 103 pieces, which is a lot of cutting. I might well buy a cutter so I can do most of that at home and do the piecing together at class; if I don't, I certainly won't finish it this term.

On the train on the way to class, a woman leaned over and talked to me about my knitting. General compliments and then a bit of discussion on dpns versus circulars.

I have been knitting like a fiend - a fiend, I say! - and have less than twenty rows to go.

I have also knitted a few little bits for purposes of experimentation. I did and undid and did a two-colour Kitchener stitch improvisation, which looks ok colour-wise but has a half-stitch offset which is... not great. Then I did a Kitchener stitch variation - the second trick from this post - which looks fine, with a little bit of colour show-through. Um, I did the cast-off in one colour, so the stripes of the other colour have a little bit of that showing through at the join. Then I did a three-needle bind-off, which has the same colour problem, slightly more pronounced.

I think I will probably do the three-needle bind-off, as with the grey and black colourscheme it shouldn't show too badly, and it's the easiest of the three.

It's nearly done! I'm in the final stretch! Woo!

ETA: Having done another sample - a variation of techknitter's variation - I'm not sure what to do. Because this one looks quite good - possibly the best of the four - but it is more complicated than the three-needle. I think I will take the samples to knitting tomorrow night and ask for opinions.

bleh

I knitted quite a lot, with such terrible posture that my back hurts. Sixty rows to go!

I sketched out my idea for my stained glass window, and I think it will work, I'm just not sure how far I have to simplify the original design (which is a Mayan monster and incorporates glyphs and such). And it is quite curvy which is more difficult. But I like it. I will talk to teacher at class and see what she thinks.

I have a meeting tomorrow about doing a volunteer thing for a few months, and I shouldn't be nervous but I am. Ugh.

Yeah.

needles

This morning I went to the dentist. I had to have a filling done in what the dentist said was one of the most awkward places possible, the outer face of a wisdom tooth (and my back teeth are a bit crammed in - in fact, I think one of my sisters had her wisdom teeth out, or at least had the possibility mooted.) It wasn't too bad, I only gagged twice, and I can put up with the drilling etc. I think the dentist thinks I am afraid, because before my last set of appointments I had not been for a few years, but that was partly that I am terrible at making appointments etc and partly the lack of self-care often associated with depression.

I was talking to a friend of mine, who has chronic depression and who smokes. (The link between poor mental health and smoking was discussed in a fairly recent article on the bbc website, and I was entirely unsurprised.) She said: the normal arguments don't work, because you tell me I'll die ten or twenty years younger, and I say, great! I don't want to live!

So the lack of self-care on a day-to-day level is mostly apathy, but longer-term... well, it's hard to think long-term when you've contemplated suicide in the past and wouldn't be surprised to wind up in that place again. What do I care if my teeth fall out, I'm amazed I've made it this far, never mind thinking about the far side of the next ten years. Also I don't deserve any kind of goodness, but hey.

That wasn't what I was going to write about, really, but it's a thing that's true.

I also went to knitting this evening, a bit later than usual because I was running around trying to find a new ball of wool (which I haven't got to yet) and then I realised the bra I was wearing really doesn't fit any more, and I threw up my hands and whined for a bit.

I need to get new bras, but I am currently attempting - not with great dedication, I admit - to lose a bit of weight, and if I do then old bras might fit again, and it is expensive and annoying anyway, but then again I might be going to do a full-time volunteer thing in which case I should probably get a new one or two before then (because the shop is not very busy weekdays so I could go in and get fitted without having to cringe away from crowds.) But. I will think about it.

Sleeve Two is progressing nicely - should get to the split tomorrow, after which there's only... eighty-odd rows to go! with only a hundred-forty-some stitches in each!

Wow, laying it out like that is not encouraging. Still, Susan-from-knitting swears by doing ten rows a day, which would get this done by the end of next week, which sounds good to me. Well, the knitting would be done, I still have to figure out the grafting. Always something...

glass

Yesterday I slept. A lot. Like, I woke up late in the evening and wound up staying up through to morning for my stained glass class.

Stained glass is pretty fun. I had planned to have a design for my light-window but it didn't really happen; I did however get up the ladder and measure it, so I know exact dimensions.

This morning I felt like I had forgotten how to cut glass, because it really wasn't going well, but it got there in the end. I made a sun-catcher start to finish over the three-hour class (which is not bad considering it is only my fourth class) - from drawing out the design (copied off a birthday card), cutting and grinding the glass (and losing a piece and thinking it had gone down the drain and having to cut another one, only to find the original just before the end of class), sticking on copper foil and soldering. It's not perfect - I haven't quite got the hang of getting all the pieces to fit smoothly together, and I'm not patient enough to get it all symmetrical - but I like it.

Over the next few days I will figure out a pattern for the window. I mean, I could do something traditional, but I think I'll mess around a bit more. I'm not going to do dinosaurs. I have some Mayan designs I like, I'm just not sure how much I'd have to simplify them. Or I could go fannish, or celtic, or...

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

Kelvingrove

Owwww... I don't know why, but my back is hurting, and not in the normal places. Usually I get tense shoulders and an achy lower back, and lately I've had a specific pain thanks to lying on one side using the laptop, but today, it's like that specific one stretched out across my back, basically where the back strap of my bra rests, and I stretched and took some paracetamol earlier, and now I have a vodka-and-coke which I accidentally made a bit stronger than usual.

So, I was out this afternoon. My sister let me know about this event, a Photographic Survey of Kelvingrove Bandstand - I'm not entirely sure why, maybe just that it's in the area - and I thought, eh, why not? Half the people on the list didn't show up, so there were only five attendees. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, actually. They told us stuff about the history of the bandstand, and the plans for refurbishing it, and about the Royal Commission and what they actually do, and about why and how they take photos of buildings etc, with some pretty cool stuff about lighting. One in particular was a photo of a Pictish carved cross, as taken with a standard flash - which let you see the cross shape on the stone, and just a hint of carving in the centre - and one with eight flashes positioned at various heights each side - which showed that practically the whole surface was covered in carved patterns.

Then we wandered out to the Bandstand. And walked around and looked at it, and the photographer showed us a couple of things with his camera, and then we wandered around taking photos, and probably getting in each other's shots quite a lot.

I want to try and make a panorama of the amphitheatre, and pick a few shots to upload to the RCAHMS website - actually, one or both of these might make the cut if I mess about with an image editor.

I got the camera last year, but I've only just started taking it off auto and messing around with the settings. It's a little digital one, a lot newer than my old one... though actually, both of them were presents from my sister, the same one that told me about this event. Hmm.

And then I came home and collapsed, and tomorrow I plan on doing absolutely sod-all.

why are we waiting...

I am supposed to have someone come and install... something, to do with upgrading my broadband and getting a TV service which I won't actually use, but the whole package is cheaper than the broadband&phone I'm currently getting. So I got up and did some panicked tidying and hoovering and now I am waiting. Between one and six, they said.

I discovered the hoover was set on Delicate, which is why it wasn't sooking much. I feel a bit dumb for not noticing that before.

Last night I crocheted a seam in a rug, so I could hang it on a curtain pole. It is very decorative - I bought it in Mexico in 2005, and since then it has been mostly bundled up in a corner. I have been planning to put in on the wall since I moved in three-and-a-half years ago; I put the pole up some months ago; now it is finally up.

Usually I go to a knitting group on Tuesday evenings. I go to my pal's house on the way; sometimes she comes with me, and sometimes she doesn't, and sometimes I persuade her when she wasn't going to, but last night she persuaded me to stay at hers and watch telly. I knitted while there, though.

Ooh, just got a phone call, broadband man en route. I don't like people in my house, I hope it doesn't take long.

ETA: It did not take too long, and the fella said it was nice and simple, and he was friendly but not particularly chatty (which I appreciated) and. Yeah. Done. Phew. Now I can have cake.

Also, here is a picture of my rug. Also you can see a bit of the toy dragon on my bedpost. The colour doesn't look deep enough but maybe that is the light or my screen or something.

Monday

The plan was to use this for drawings, but I haven't been drawing, so how about I attempt to keep track of crafty things, at least?

Today I tried to make a cardboard shelf and failed miserably. Admittedly it was a bit over-ambitious, so maybe I will try again in a few days.

I sewed curtain ties to the curtains in my front room. These ties I crocheted... last year, I think, and I sewed the buttons on a couple of weeks ago, and they are finally up, which is not bad progress by my standards, since I had no compelling deadline. It will be nice to get some light - the curtains, you see, are long and heavy and trying to pull them back on the little plastic rail is more likely to make them come off the rail, so I have mostly been living with them closed. But now I can tie them, yay.

And I knitted a bit.

Oh, and I managed not to have a cold shower - had to re-pressure the boiler and then switch it off and on again.