2012...

Happy new year folks, lets make 2012 a good one!

Cop Out

I want to post again today, but I don't have much to share.
The chickens are all well (we think) and we're still waiting for our first egg.
I've frogged the Nerd Wars tank top, and I'll be reknitting that (probably in round 2 of Nerd Wars!) and I've also frogged the cowl I started and I've cast on a new one with the same yarn.

I have made a wordle of the last month of posts on my blog, here it is.


(clicky linky to see bigger)

2010 - Three months in...

We are one quarter of the way through 2010. How time flies! We’re also 13 months away from my wedding (and 25 months from my sister’s wedding!) which is very exciting.

Highlights of the past three months?


1. The highlight of January was getting engaged. In fact, that’s probably going to be the highlight of 2010 – and so close to the beginning of the year, how do we top that? (should I even try?),
2. Highlight for February would be publishing my first ever paid for pattern – Dangerous Socks For Boys - Click Here to Buy Now
3. Highlight for March is a tough one. I did enjoy our visit to the farm near FH’s parent’s, where they were lambing. Cute lambs! ,
4. Low point for the first quarter was definitely the car going bang (well, not exactly bang, but…) although the hire car was lovely!

Testing testing 123...

So, I have not yet tried blogging from my iPhone. This is it. So far, blogger is not hard to use on the small screen.
It seems that I can drop out of my mobile browser easily to use the address book too, which is nice.
I don't know about pics though, that might be a wish too far.
I can't find anything to let me blog a photo through iPhone. Oh well.
TTFN

Bad Blogger

Ah, I had a massive post full of stuff to talk about, but it seems a bit old mostly. So, here are some nice pictures for you. To summarise:
I participated in the Igor swap on Ravelry and got really spoiled. P&E's wedding was fun. The shawl looked good. I have new glasses. Progress has been made on the sweater(s) and socks. I cast on some new socks on March 1st. I'm at the heel - they're just plain socks. I can do it from memory now I think. We got a new telly, since the old one blew up. OH got a haircut.
That's it really.

Loads to Blog about

I do indeed have loads to blog about, from my latest Discworld swap to weddings to progress on Corsica.
But, not tonight. It's late and I'm officially on holiday.
Which probably means no blogging until next week, when I'll be back at work and grouchy.
Oh well.

[edit]
February is still for finishing, so I've not cast on anything new despite all the scrummy new yarn. I hope to finish the socks before Feb is out.

589

Other than the baby jacket, which I have photographed but not uploaded, there is not much knitting news.
In fact, there’s not much news at all. I am very close to meeting my target of doubling my squat weight, as I said in this post my previous best was 25kg. I am currently on 45kg. I think that’s pretty good!
I’m doing less well on the “lose girth” objective, as I’ve not lost any girth, and in fact may have increased of late. This makes me sad. I guess I need to change something else; eat less or go to the gym more, for example. Ho hum.

I’ve not knit much on the sweater (goal 4) since I last mentioned it because last night I knit on a travelling scarf! I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out, it looks funky. So, that one will be going in the post around the 23rd I think. (I’m a bit ahead of schedule!)
And, I took Mum’s cardi to knit-night, which was a good idea! I got quite a bit done, and it was simple enough to knit and talk at the same time. That’s good news for the cardi!

Also, I did collect my specs, I didn’t organise a photo of me in them yet. I’ll talk nicely to OH sometime.

PS. This is my 589th post, so in 11 posts time I will have made 600 posts on this blog. Since I have no idea how far my readership spans (there may only be one of you out there – hello Sis – or several, or many) I probably will not have a contest, as much fun as that might be. If you have an idea how I could commemorate the milestone (or if you think I should wait for 1000, or a blogoversary) then stick in a comment.

Post with no name

Do you tweet? I do now. I’ve joined twitter. It’s mostly pointless nonsense, like facebook but without the other stuff, just the status updates. I gather I can post some of my updates to Rav too, but I don’t know how, I’ll have to find the post about that. If you do tweet, comment (or email me) with your twitter name!

My needles for Corsica arrived. I must confess, I have knit a swatch. Normally I don’t swatch, but I do have good reason to this time:

1. the yarn is a different weight than the pattern calls for
2. the yarn is Noro – other Noro yarns have bloomed quite a lot when washed
3. the pattern starts with a sideways cable band, so I can’t use that as a swatch

I’ve only done a shade over 4 inches wide by 2 deep. I’m getting gauge but it looks a little loose. Sadly, I don’t have any 5.5mm 80cm circs (I had to buy the 6mm 80cm ones!) so if I’m not happy with the swatch after I wash it then I might have to consider my options. I could swatch on some other 5.5mm needles…

Anyway, I was reading my usual blog list, and spotted Britknitter’s Gratitude List and thought it was a really nice idea. A way of making you feel good about yourself by thinking about the things you have to be grateful about. So here’s mine.

1. My Boyfriend. He understands my yarn habit, he encourages me in life when I need it and has the most reassuring hug
2. My Family. Yes, they occasionally drive me nuts, but they are there no matter what. If I feel crappy, or happy, they’ll pick up the phone and laugh with me; even when I feel crappy because they cheer me up!
3. My Friends. Especially the ones who even after a long break of not seeing them are just the same even if they’re different.
4. My knitting group. I know some of you read here, and you have no idea how much I appreciate you guys!
5. Knitting. I love having a productive hobby!
6. Knitbloggers. I have an array of knitblogs that I read. They take the edge off an otherwise rubbish day.
7. Green People Lip Care, because I have a habit of picking my lips when I’m stressed and bleeding lips are not attractive.
8. My bath. I couldn’t do without a decent bath. My bath has its flaws, but it allows me to have a long soak in deep bubbly water with candles (on coasters, safety first) (add a G&T or a large wine and I’m properly indulged!)
9. My job. It sucks, but at least I have one.
10. You, the reader. For surfing on in here and bothering to read my ramblings!

Too Funny

I have to share this Yarn Harlot post with you all.

I'll have some completed sock pics for you soon.

And oh yes, I'll be looking to get in on the sock-foisting (next post)... Now, where might I find someone eligible...?

Knit Blog Stats

I’m still working on the sweater for Leon. I don’t know if I’ll take it to tonight’s knit-night or not though. Yes, I’m off to a knit-night which happens around here once a month. If I enjoy it I will try to keep going all things being equal.
If I don’t take the sweater, it’s socks, fluffy bunnies or sudoku blanket squares. Any of those should be fine. We’re having some trout for dinner. It’s already prepared and such, so all we have to do is cook it. we’ll have some random veg with it too I guess.
I posted my sister’s mittens today. They should be there soon. I hope she likes them. I completed the second one in an afternoon (after the re-doing of that first cable) which I thought was pretty good going.
I haven’t done that last round on the dream catcher square yet. It’s sitting on the cabinet next to my bed, but I keep reading “Making Money” (Pratchett) instead! It’s pretty good. I’m still not sure whether I like the Moist character or not. The Golems are fab though. And the wizards are pretty entertaining in this one.

I installed Google Analytics on my blog (yes, here) about a month ago. Want to see some statistics? Well, tough, I’m putting them here anyway.

I have visitors to the site from all over the world. Here’s the breakdown:

Country	Percentage of visits
United Kingdom	65.28%
United States	23.77%
Canada	1.89%
Europe Including: Netherlands (1.51%) Sweden, Spain, France, Croatia, (0.75% each) Switzerland, Lithuania, Finland, Turkey, Czech Republic (0.38% each)	6.42%
Rest of World: Philippines, South Korea, Japan, (0.75%) Australia (0.38%)	2.64%

How cool is that? Of all of those users, there are three browsers and three operating systems in use. Notably, the statistics suggest that not all Windows users use Internet Explorer. There’s nobody viewing my blog with Netscape Navigator (am I surprised?).
Internet Explorer counts for 56% of my viewers – there are 39% of you using Firefox and the rest on Safari. (Firefox/Safari users – do things look screwy in your browsers?)
A massive 90.94% of viewers are running on Windows of some description (it doesn’t break it down further than that), 8.68% of you use Apple Macs (hello!) and the rest (less than 1%) use Linux (again, it doesn’t tell me what sort)
One of the viewers is using dial-up to connect to the internet.

The top ten search phrases to get here are:

1. grown shop (5 times)
2. someone's calling you (3 times)
3. tsuki (3 times)
4. 3x3 rib hat knit pattern (2 times)
5. pseudocode vending machine (2 times)
6. tsuki yarn (2 times)
7. "cobble dogs with" (1 time)
8. "sirdar ocean" blog (1 time)
9. "someone's calling you" ringtone (1 time)
10. $ do || not found yoda (1 time)

Okay, I’ll stop boring you with stats now. I might celebrate when I get to 500 visits though! Woo!

Startitus

Yes, I have startitus.
symptoms:

• Uncontrollable urges to start new things
• The inability to finish one new thing before starting another

So I began the Fluffy Bunny Slippers! They're reasonably easy, and it turns out that I'm a tight hooker.

Other than beginning that, and the Fetchings for my sister, we've been tidying. Yesterday we took several bags of clothes and shoes to the donation bank at the tip (probably 2 - 3 bin bags full) and then today we've filled two more. it's not that I change shape that much...
Well, no, it is. Since I lost weight I have changed shape. I'm still a size 12, but all over (for like the first time ever!) instead if being a 10 on top and 12 hips (which I used to be before I put the weight on in the first place) or the "I promise I can sqeeze into a 12 on top and these 14 jeans) [NB. these are UK sizes]

So, I've got rid of shirts that I will never wear (and should never have, they looked awful!), vests that are past their best, more old bras (who would have thought I owned so many teeeeny bras?) I even managed to get rid of some of OH's old t-shirts too!

Then I went on to try to organize my knitting patterns.
A lot of my knitting patterns come from magazines (and will continue to, I think, for a while) so I've been cutting them out and filing them. Or at least, I am the "Simply Knitting" ones, which are suitable for that. All the other magazines have the patterns spread out over loads of pages (pattern on p10 will say like "continued on p635 [exag])
Oh well. I'm enjoying it really - reviewing all my patterns!


Last but not least, I've been nominated by Carly of Knitting and Sewing and all forms of procrastination. . . for the

You Make My Day Award

Thank you very much Carly! (By the way, I'd recommend the Pratchett Discworld books, if you like to read funny books!)

The Rules are to "Give up to 10 people whose blog brings you happiness & inspiration and makes you feel happy about Blogland." Beware! You may get the Award several times! Let them know by posting a note on their blog so they can pass it on.
So here we are:

My Sister
Lint, who is a real world friend too
Britknitter, who helps rescue doggies, so makes their days as well as mine when I read about it!
Crafty Drama Queen, who was my SP11 spoiler and continues to be an interesting read
Fluffy Knitting, who was my spoilee for SP11 and has been entertaining since it began!
Knitting Mama, who is great to read, though I don't comment enough (and I know she's already had this award)
Brendadada, who I see more of on Ravelry
Yarn Harlot
Carly, back at you!

Okay, that's only nine. You nine should feel all the more special.

Photo thing

I saw this on Knitting...Procrastination and thought it looked fun, so here goes…

Photo Survey

1. Go to Google Images
2. Search for your answer
3. Pick one image from the first page
4. Post it!

1. Age next birthday
   
   
2. A place you’d like to travel
   
   
3. Favourite Object
   
   
4. Favourite food
   
   
5. Favourite Animal
   
   
6. Favourite Colour
   
   
7. Town you are from
   
   
8. Town you live in now
   
   
9. Name of past pet
   
   
10. Name of past love
    
    
11. Your first name
    
    
12. A bad habit
    
    
13. First Job
    
    
14. Grandmother’s name
    
    
15. College Major
    

It’s taken some time…

But I’ve finally gotten around to sorting out my Google reader.
This is good because if I find that one of the blogs I read has been updated with something funny or interesting I can share it.
And then, there’s a widget I can add from Google reader to blogger which lists the 5 recent things I found interesting or funny or whatever.
So, if you look over there
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >
You’ll see that I recently read a post from the Yarn Harlot that struck a chord.

Proper post, and randomness

Proper Post
Who am I kidding? Proper post! Hah! I’m too tired to do a proper post. Christmas was fab, by the way. I got some lovely things, ranging from books to clothes to smellies to crafty things to a sat-nav. I had a nice relaxing time away from everything.
Then, new year and my birthday were much as usual. Not out this year, at home with just The Black and my OH. Very nice Chicken for tea though. Either I’m getting old or something, but new year doesn’t hold much excitement. Hey – look, the world didn’t end and we’ve managed to add 1 to a big number (sorry Chip – I know that’s your sentiment that I’ve pinched)

I’m mostly a little grumpy at the moment. I’m at work, it’s 18:05 and I expect to be here for at least four more hours. Okay, so I didn’t come in until 15:00, but really – night shifts? Grr.
Ho hum.
And it’s cold in the office. Boo. I did bring a thermos with me, with some proper tea in it (not the horrid machine stuff, can’t be having that at this time of night)
Anyroad, enough proper blogging, I’m too shattered. Have some randomness:


Randomness
I saw the idea on Knitting Mama’s site and couldn’t resist.
The first line of the first post of each month in 2007:

Jan – I would have back dated this post to near-enough the time I was actually 25 (I doubt that the time is exact, you know) but it will not let me.
Feb – You'll all be glad to hear that I went driving again.
Mar – It seems that everyone in the country is complaining about broadband at the moment.
Apr – Knitting is my pastime
May – Last night was my first pilates class.
Jun – As promised, here are the pics of my new storage solution for my yarn stash
Jul – This weekend my parents were visiting to bring us a sofa-bed
Aug – That’s what I’ve been doing!
Sep – I couldn't resist, I went yarn shopping.
Oct – This post is dotted with pictures of flowers, read on and you’ll understand.
Nov – I can’t view my own blog at work today, it tells me that “The Websense category "Emerging Exploits" is filtered” which isn’t ideal.
Dec – Well, SP11 is all but over, I have one parcel to post tomorrow for my downstream.

And, for the fun of it, here’s the last line of the last post of the month for each month in 2007:

Jan – Who knows.
Feb – The odds of me passing my theory, getting a practical test and passing it within the next fortnight are a bit slim!
Mar – Having actual sock yarn should help a lot.
Apr – Who knows; or cares?
May – Have a great day people, the sun’s out and even I am in a good mood!
Jun – I’m looking forwards to being able to see other people’s work, get help on my knitting, find out about other yarn
Jul – Maybe next year!
Aug – Being back at work sucks too, but I have to earn the money to pay for our fun holidays somehow!
Sep – But I do at least get to work with this beautiful yarn.
Oct – It’s annoying to have people doing that nearby and I don’t want to be one of those annoying people!
Nov – I've loved everything you've sent, and I'm looking forwards to doing lots of "me knitting" once Christmas knitting is done!
Dec – Learnt what a "French seam" is

410 times

This is my 410th post.
I was looking at another blog, Knitting and Sewing and all forms of procrastination. . . where they are running a competition because it’s their 100th post. (Yarnies check it out, lovely yarn on offer – and I get no bonus points for saying so, I’m just nice!) which got me thinking…

My blog is over 3 years old. In fact, it’s 1210 days old today. There are a grand total of 410 posts (including this one) which makes an average of almost 1 post every three days.

I’m sure I could figure out some more stats. In fact, here we are:
In 2004 (146 days of it) I blogged 58 times. That’s one every 2.5 days
In 2005 I blogged only 47 times (wow) that’s a bit less than once a week. (Was it something to do with a slow internet connection and the computer being in the smallest box room in the world?)
In 2006 I blogged 143 times, back to once every 2.5 days roughly.
In 2007 (so far) I have blogged 158 times. There have been 334 days in 2007 so far, so that’s roughly once every two days.
In 2007 I blogged most often in March (19 posts) and least often in February (only 7 posts) assuming that I post more than 7 in December of course.
In 2006 the top posting months were July and September with 19 each. The least blogged month was February again with only 4.
In 2005 I posted most in January with 7 posts, and least in February, April and August with 2 each. (February is looking like it’s not a good month to read my blog!)
In 2004 I only have August to December – unsurprisingly my first month of blogging was the most active with 18 posts in and December was the losing month with just 8 posts (still more than the best February score!)

So, in summary, I post frequently (usually about knitting these days – there are 87 posts tagged with knitting and crafts, the next closest being 35 for health and fitness (also ranting about being fat) and then 32 for holidays! However, don’t expect a lot from me in February!

I do know why I post less in February though; we like to go on holiday then for Leon’s birthday.

And, I have a card from the postie telling me that I have a parcel. I like post!
I’m waiting for my SPs gifts, I’ve ordered online for them again. I’m quite excited about the things I’ve ordered too. I may have to purchase a box to ship this time instead of padded envelopes.

Oh no! I'm barred!

I can’t view my own blog at work today, it tells me that “The Websense category "Emerging Exploits" is filtered” which isn’t ideal.
I have no idea why! I think they might be blocking blogspot (though they haven’t told us that they will be, which they did with facebook) because I can still get to wordpress based blogs.
Oh well, I guess that I’ll have to make do with just posting and hope for the best that it looks okay! And I’ll have to do my blog reading at home rather than on my lunch breaks.
This is probably a good thing, as it will make me want to go away from my desk and do other stuff at lunch time, like read a book or knit. Much better than staying at my desk, which generally means that I’m at my desk for the full 7 hours, minus any loo-breaks.
Ho hum.

Still, Ravelry is still alive for now! Perhaps too many people are spending too long on blogspot blogs or something. I imagine there may be other ravellers at work, but I wouldn’t expect it to be as widespread as blogspot.
I am relieved too, because I thought maybe a naughty word had crept onto my blog that caused it to be barred.

So, I’ll have to catch up on everyone’s blogs when I come back from the wedding in Edinburgh this weekend.

What's that all about?

Today as it’s finally summer here in the UK, I decided to have my lunch in the park near work. I like to do this in the nice weather. Anyway, I sat down on a small wall near a bench where two young mums were sitting. Nothing wrong with that, they were sitting having a natter and a drink of pop. One of the mums was letting her kid get sunburn, but I couldn’t possibly comment, not being a mum myself (I thought you keep them out of the sun til they’re big enough to tell you they’re burning?)
Anyway, I was enjoying my sandwich while the mums changed their babies. I also have no issue with this, it’s a pain to have to find somewhere that you can get the push-chair into that has a parent and baby room, and nobody could be offended by a naked baby bottom.
So then, the two mums put the smelly nappies on the bench and walked off. I’m sorry – when did public benches become a place to dispose of nappies? When did they stop being the responsibility of the mum who had just changed the child? It’s not like there aren’t bins in the park! Sheesh!

And so, I have felt guilty all afternoon for not:

1. reprimanding the mothers
2. clearing away the nappies

In fairness, I didn’t see them leave, and they might have just forgot the nappies…
And I couldn’t bring myself to clear them away, I don’t want to deal with that until it’s my own baby’s smelly nappy I have to throw away!

On a completely unrelated note, I have begun a new knit project to take on holiday with me (maybe). I’m making the zig-zag-bag out of a back issue of Simply Knitting. I’ll keep you posted, but it looks cool so far (I’m using pink, purple, pale orange and pale green yarn for this one) and shouldn’t take long to knit – in fact I might manage to finish it before I go. I’m planning on crocheting a scarf on the plane, if I can just pick which scarf pattern and which yarn! I might go for a one-colour one as that will mean less yarn to carry on the plane. If it could be done in one ball that would be even better, but we’ll see. If it could be one that I can knit from one end that might be best… we will see, I suppose. I’ll also be taking the gypsy socks in my case, to cast on and get started while I’m there.

Lastly, you might have noticed that it’s my blog-o-versary in FOUR days time! In honour of my having been blogging for another whole year (I think that might make 2 years!) there is now a survey in the sidebar. The survey will close on the blog-o-versary and is just for fun. I would run a competition but I wouldn’t know what to make the prize. Maybe next year!

Sister Sister

My sister has started a blog.

It's not going to have anything knitting related in it, I suspect, but could be an interesting read.

Hopefully she'll remember the unwritten "Rules of Blogging" of never put anything online that you wouldn't say to someone's face!

Enjoy your blog little sis.

What am I going on about?

Having had a look at This post on Lint’s blog I wondered what the top 10 things I post about are.
As of 23rd May 2007, the things I have posted most about are:

1 knitting and crafts (32)
2 health and fitness (24)
3 driving (18)
4 Friends and Family (15)
5 Holiday (13)
6 Celebrations (11)
7 Ranting (10)
8= General (7)
8= Work (7)
10 Achievements and Resolutions (5)

I’m happier with that list than I thought I’d be. I blog most about what’s happening to me in my life. I think that work didn’t aught to be in this list, and I’ll try to talk less about work. I’m also not surprised that knitting and crafts is way up there, since I mention it in most posts. I may try this again on my blogoversary (see counter in the blogroll)

Blog Worries

I got an email from blogger today. This is what it said:

This email is a response to your request for information about your Blogger account. To regain access to your account, please click on the following link:
(I’ve removed the link, just in case)
Clicking on this link will take you to a web page that will let you choose a new password. Once you've submitted your new password, you'll be able to log in to your Blogger account.
If in the process of recovering your password you see the log into Blogger page, please see this Blogger Help article for information on how to fix your browsers cookie settings:
(I’ve removed the link, just in case)
You could also try logging in/recovering your password from a different web browser - we recommend Mozilla Firefox:
http://mozilla.org/products/firefox/
Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

This is all fine, except that I have not had any problems logging on to blogger, nor have I requested a new password. Looks a bit fishy, hmm?
Anyway, I didn’t click the link.