WIP: more hexes

It's been a while since I did WIP Wednesday, so today I'll show you my beekeeper quilt progress.



There are now 14 Hexipuffs in the basket, or would be if I had a basket to put them in. It looks like nearly enough for a seat cushion, in case I abandon the blanket plan and settle for something a little smaller. I still love making the hexes, though, so I'm going to keep going! It's turning out rather garish - I may need to find some more neutrals to put in between the neon greens and pinks....

The next hexes I make will be striped, since I now have some scraps that aren't quite enough for an entire hex each.

Check out more WIPs at Tami's Amis

Holiday snap wrap-up

It seems that I've become an escapist. I had such a great time on holiday, blissfully ignoring real life responsibilities, and I hoped to hold on to my care-free happy mood long after I left the Italian sun behind. Fail. I'm finding my mind and body extremely reluctant to get back to real life - i.e. pounding the pavement distributing my CV (literally and electronically). Have I mentioned I hate jobhunting? I have? Every single day and it's getting repetive? Right, moving on. :P

Anyway. Here are some more photos, in an attempt to hold onto holiday feeling while simultaneously accomplishing real things.

We took a day-trip to Siena on a whim, and I'm so glad we went. Siena is much smaller and quieter than Florence - there are small, narrow streets and alleys in both places, but somehow in Siena we could duck into these and find silence, rather than the constant whine of scooters.

Browns in Siena

Where Florence was dramatic and full of contrast, Siena was more subtle.

Strategically placed to dominate the view

And not without awesome details.

The walls have faces

In Pisa, we once again paid loads of money (€15, gack) to climb up a tall tower, and once again I was surprised at the colourful marble inlayed around the outside. There has been so much restoration done on this thing that it's practically brand new. Still rather impressive, though!

Yeah, it leans.

Pisa is weird in that all the tourists seem to go straight to the leaning tower, and leave the rest of the town rather empty. We had fun poking around the back streets, too, seeing what the rest were missing.

I'm a sucker for cool doors

Picture time

You want to see more photos of my trip? I'm happy to oblige... I took an obscene amount, since everything was so beautiful.

Huge cathedrals like the Duomo in Florence fascinate me. Something that surprised me about the Duomo was how colourful it was on the outside. I'd seen pictures, but until I saw it up close it had never really registered in my brain how many different colours of marble pattern the outside. Also, the fact that it is packed into the city so tightly,means one can't back up far enough to take a good picture of it from the ground. Somehow this adds to its impressiveness.

Colourful Duomo

I liked it not only for the monumental architecture, but also for the details. This is my favourite from the outside:

The "Seriously? SERIOUSLY??" Angel, on the outside of the Duomo

Although the hugeness of these buildings impedes decent photography from ground level, there are plenty of high places to climb up for a wider view. We climbed up to the top of the cupola of the Duomo, as show in my previous post, which was fantastic (and cost €8 each, if anyone is counting), but to get a great view of the Duomo one has to climb something else.

On the other side of the Arno river, we climbed a hill to the Piazzale Michelangelo (which was free, haha), and got these views.

The Duomo in full view

I spent a lot of time trying to capture Florence from a distance and from above. It's fascinating up close, too, but somehow I couldn't get enough of these views.

View of the bridges of Florence from the Piazzale Michelangelo

Adventures

I've been away.

For one blissful week I traded this:

The last vestiges of Hurricane Katia hitting Scotland

for this:

View of Florence from the top of the Duomo

Ahhh. It was amazing. I happen to like cold weather / winter, but it was so lovely to experience some proper hot weather and sun while in Italy. (Summer never really happened in Edinburgh this year, if it ever does). I was obsessive about the sunscreen and didn't get sunburned, which is a miracle. I did get some new freckles, though.

Our main stop was Florence, but we also spent some time in Siena and Pisa. I've wanted to go to Florence for years - to be honest, I should have gone a few years ago when my brain was still in university mode and I was filled with random knowledge about the Renaissance, art, and famous Florentines. I found myself wandering around trying to decipher plaques about things I used to know about, wishing I remembered... Still, I started re-reading The Divine Comedy in preparation, and it got me back in the mood.

We spent most of our trip climbing up things, looking at the view, climbing down, eating gelato, paying exorbitant ticket prices... repeat. Despite the fact that the ticket prices always seemed to be more than I'd come up with in my research, everything was wonderful and enjoyable. Also, I'm not being ironic when I say that Florence has imposed a tax on tourists, which we didn't know about before we went. (Not that it should stop anyone from going!). Siena was significantly cheaper all round - probably because it isn't as big a tourist destination.

I didn't do very much knitting, nor did I check out the yarn stores... although I did accidently stumble upon yarn being sold in small shops that mostly sold underwear and tights, so that was interesting!

Anyway. I'm home now, and ready for real life again. Job-hunting starts again on Monday. Hurray! Er.

FO: Honeybees and Raspberries

I have a new cardigan at last.



Pattern: Honeybee Cardigan by Laura Chau

Yarn: Regia Color 4-ply



Notes:
This project was full of firsts for me, which is great since I've fallen into comfortable knitting and don't often try new crazy things.

First time doing lace worked on both sides

The lace pattern was tricky at first. Not only are there no resting purl rows, but there is also madness involving dropping multiple yarnovers... Laura Chau provides excellent instructions for the crazy parts - including photos. Although I never thought I would, I eventually memorized the lace pattern, and it was smooth knitting from there. Awesome.



First time doing seamless set-in sleeves

This was relatively painless, and I can see why everyone's doing these. I don't know how these ones compare to others as they are written, but I really like how they fit. The only thing that's kind of weird is how to reconcile the lace pattern with decreases. In the first half of the sleeve decreases part of the pattern, Laura Chau dictates exactly what to do step by step for every size, which probably took a lot of work. It was my impression that later on the instructions got less clear and occasionally misleading - I think I got lured into a false sense of unthinking security before. Whatever, it worked out.



First time doing i-cord bind-off

I-cord bind-off is brilliant. It finishes the neckband / collar so beautifully. I love it. Except it takes FOREVER. I spent almost an entire evening at knitting group binding off the thing! Anyway, it looks great, and I'd do it again with the foreknowledge that it won't be quick.



The cardigan turned out a little short. I have a long torso, so I always add length to my sweaters, and I'm almost positive I did for this one as well.... but it's possible I didn't. The body section spent a little time sitting in a pile at home while I worked on the sleeves, since they are more portable; maybe I forgot to add length and assumed I had finished the body completely since I had started the sleeves? I don't know. It sounds like something I would do. Anyway, it's a bit short, but having worn it around for a few days I don't really mind it. It'd be good with dresses, I think. Maybe I should get some dresses. Ha.

Also, the raspberry colour was a bit of a wildcard. I haven't worn magenta since I was 7, or maybe before that. I abandoned pink early on and never looked back, to be honest. I bought the yarn super cheap on sale and couldn't resist, despite the colour. (And it is pink, despite what your monitor/the photos may show. Not purple. Not red. Dark magenta pink.) And you know what? I kind of like it. My usual problem with pink is that my face is already super pink most of the time - I don't need to look any pinker! As you may be able to tell, all these photos were taken with self-timer, the camera resting on a pile of miscellaneous household objects to achieve height.... and I couldn't get any with my face in them, so you'll just have to take my word for it. I guess the raspberry colour is dark enough that it doesn't make me look extra pink.

So. Now that I have this lacey cardigan, I want a whole lot more light weight lacey sweaters. Most of my sweaters are DK or Aran weight, so I think having a few in fingering weight would be really useful for layering purposes. I know I'll wear this a lot. The trouble is, making a fingering weight sweater takes me ages - I started this one in April - but I think if I'm more focused I could cut down the time. (I also spent a little time avoiding this one, if I'm honest.)

mini-skeins of doom

I have loads of sock/fingering weight leftovers that will eventually become parts of my Beekeeper's Quilt. In some cases, I can get three or more hexipuffs out of a pile of scrap, but for now I've decided that I don't want to make more than two from each colour. What to do with the leftovers once I've made two hexipuffs? Since I can't pass up the opportunity to dye yarn, I've dyed some mini-skeins.



The top and bottom mini-skeins were originally a minty-green colour - yarn I used for my Selbu Modern. The top one I dyed with Wiltons Leaf Green and the bottom with Wiltons Black. Wiltons black is supposed to be a tricky food colouring to dye with, since application of acid (necessary for the dye to set) makes it split into its constituent colours, aka "breaking." I was actually quite excited to "break" black here... but as you can see I failed miserably. This is pretty solid black. Haha. Oh well.

My favourite is the bluish one in the middle. I would happily make a sweater out of this colour! It was originally neon green yarn from my Twisted socks. I overdyed it with Wiltons Royal Blue. The picture below is a bit closer to the actual colour.



The neon green glows through from the core, while the outer fibres took on blue and purple. One day maybe I'll try to replicate this effect on purpose. I'd love to have a whole skein of sock yarn of this. (Or even more, for the aforementioned sweater.)

In any case, I'm excited to inject some different wild colours into my hex quilt.

(Oh, and in that last picture, note a soon-to-be revealed FO blocking... :D)

run run ran

You'd be forgiven for suspecting that my conspicuous silence of the topic of running means I've given up.

Not so! Although a took some time off running during August while spending all day at the fringe festival, I haven't given up. In fact, I'm inclined to say I've succeeded. That may be premature - I won't do the final workout of the Couch to 5K until Wednesday, going by my current schedule, but I've made it to 30 minutes of non-stop running. If you can call my slow shuffling jog "running." Never mind. I'm pleased with myself for getting this far, even though I still have to force myself to go running.



I had a break through of sorts with my brain, which has helped my progress. My brain (or my shoulder devil, or whatever) likes to tell me I'm too tired to continue, that I've run far enough for one day, and various other discouraging things as I huff and puff along. The realisation that I ran for X minutes two days before, and can therefore do it again today has really helped me fend off the discouraging thoughts. It's just a tiny, simple fact, but somehow it was a breakthrough. Ah, I like outsmarting my brain.

Now that I can run for 30 minutes, I need to figure out how far I'm actually going in that time - I suspect it isn't as far as 5K given the aforementioned slow shuffle. From there, I'll have to start setting new goals. First step will be trying to achieve a 30-min 5K, if it turns out my 30 minute run isn't already 5K. I'm also thinking about adding some hill training to my workouts, since my current route is fairly flat. Onwards and upwards!

exciting yarny developments

I bought yarn for my wedding shawl and it arrived yesterday. In fact, I bought a wedding dress a few weeks ago, but more on the dress when it gets here in a few months. (Hint - it's not white/ivory). Choosing the dress precipitated the mad yarn fancying. As if I needed to spend more time ogling pretty yarns.



I chose undyed Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace. I've wanted to try Fyberspates yarn for a while now, and this seemed like a good opportunity. (Fyberspates has such gorgeous colours that I felt a bit silly ordering undyed yarn on this occasion, but there will be more yarn-buying opportunities.) Scrumptious is 45% silk and 55% merino - soft and lustrous, and slightly fancier than the average yarn, in my opinion. I have to say, it's not as soft as I expected it to be in the skein - I think when I heard 45% silk my brain shut off in expectation of something impossibly luxurious. Reality doesn't compare. Nonetheless, it's gorgeous yarn and I'm looking forward to knitting it up.



It goes nicely with my pearls, too. Bonus.

I haven't chosen a pattern yet. As you may recall, I have a lengthy list of possibilities picked out, but wanted to defer decision until after I got a dress. Now that I've picked a dress, I have to re-evaluate. I didn't realise this until afterwards, but it turns out that I was considering my original list of shawls in light of a coloured shawl. Not sure why, since I was never set on getting a white dress, but I had this picture in my mind of a white dress and coloured shawl. Now that I've chosen a non-white dress and decided to do a whiteish shawl, I'm having a hard time imagining those other shawls on me in white. (Even though others have knitted them in white and posted pictures.) I guess I have some sort of mental block about it. Also, I picked a lot of less traditional, more edgy looking shawls in the first round, and now I'm inexplicably drawn towards some more leafy/floral patterns such as the Raspberry Dream Stole or even Spring Leaves. I don't know. Anyway, I've opened up the shawl queue again. I'm hoping that having the yarn in hand will inspire me towards a decision soon so I can get to it!


One more pic of the pretty. :)

Heehee

Check it out.



I've got four! Hehe.



Four! Four little squishy, mishapen hexagons! (In my head I said that in the Count's voice, of course.)

Bandwagon

I had another job interview that ended in rejection a few days ago and I've been wallowing in self-pity since. It's not attractive, but hopefully admitting it publicly on the internet will give me a kick in the ass to start doing real things again. My wallowing has taken the form of extreme avoidance of everything productive.

Go for a run? Nah, I'll just sit on the couch and eat chocolate.
Do more more job applications? Nah, I'll just look through all the patterns for semi-circular lace shawls on Ravelry for the 50th time - just to see if there's anything new since I last looked.
Cook dinner? Mmmm instant noodles. I'll pretend they are healthy by adding some frozen peas.
Fill out some bullshit tax forms for the US government that somehow apply to me even though I've never lived or had any income in the US? Hmmm, I'd rather bake some cookies.

Work on my lace cardigan neck-shaping? Knit heels on my stripey toe-up socks? Ugh, no... I'll just jump on the bandwagon.



Yes, I've started knitting hexipuffs. Wheee!

Stubborn folly, aka WIP

Here's the latest on my Honeybee cardigan. I'm either really clever or really misguided, but I've joined the sleeves to the body without using a circular needle.



Obviously, this would be super easy on a long circular needle, but since I'm too stubborn/lazy/miserly to go buy one in the right size, I've lengthened the needle by using dpns and a smaller circular on the sleeves. There are so many extra stitches that just appear when joining sleeves like this, that it helps to have some give at the sleeves until the sleeve decreases are finished. The rest of the body doesn't mind being knit on straight needles (look at me, talking about my sweater like it is sentient. This sweater is so awesome it has developed a consciousness on its own).

It's a mess, and it's a bit cramped in places, but it seems to be working. That said, I don't really recommend this unless you're as boneheadedly stubborn as I am. :P

August

August in Edinburgh - the streets fill with madness! Especially the Royal Mile, which becomes Fringe Festival headquarters, but there are Fringe venues all over town. I've spent quite a bit of time in the last two weeks watching buskers, collecting flyers, and dodging performance artists. I think I've seen over 20 shows so far - some free, some ticketed; some brilliant, some terrible, and everything in between. The atmosphere is wild out there. It's good fun, but exhausting!

I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures of the madness, so I went down for a little while today. Here's a little taste. Imagine you're stuck in slow-moving crowds, while people in weird costumes keep trying to hand you leaflets.

(I even have some knitting progress to show, but more on that soon!)









Sounds like my kind of party...

Got stripes

It's wet and gray out: a good day for staying in with some super bright sock knitting. The good news is, the construction next door has been less noisy of late. Ah, peace.

Check it out - my self-striping yarn actually stripes! Success!



(Colours are wrong - it's not quite this orange in real life, and the blue is darker)

I originally intended the blue and yellow stripes to be equal width, but I didn't have two jars that were the same size. When I dyed it, I put blue dye in the smaller jar and yellow in the larger jar - as it turned out, I couldn't fit enough yarn into the blue jar. So the yellow stripes are wider. I'm okay with it.

I haven't followed a pattern so far - just CO 24 with Judy's Magic Cast-on, and increased every other row for a 60-stitch sock.

When I get to the heel, I'm going to try something different. There are a variety of heel options for toe-up other than the standard wrap&turn short-row heel, and I haven't decided which one to try. I'm considering the Fleegle heel and Priscilla Wild's No Wrap short-row heel, but will look at other options, too. Any suggestions? What's your go-to heel for toe-up socks?

(edited to add: this is the self-striping tutorial I used)

water under the bridge

After the unpleasantness during Week 5 of the Couch to 5k, I took a break for a few days, and started Week 5 all over again. I need those days off to get over my mental obstructions to the idea of running that being taunted by assholes created, and it helped. I also changed my running route - it's a little less convenient to get to, but it works so far... I used to use the 5 minute walk built into the training programme to get to a running place where there would be no traffic obstructions. Now, it takes more than a 5 minute walk, or I run to the park trying to time the walking segments to land when I reach stop lights.

The second time around, Week 5 felt good. I'm proud of myself for managing to do the third workout--20 minutes straight jogging with no walking rests--without cheating. I suspect that even when I manage to run for 30 minutes (hopefully in a few weeks), I won't be running 5k, however; I run really slowly. Sometimes I suspect I can walk faster than I run. Still, once I get to that point, I'll try to figure out exactly how far I run in 30 minutes, and work to 5k from there.

My new route involves more populated areas, and at this time of year, that means tourists. Many people bemoan tourist season, out of snobbery or dislike of crowds, or something else entirely. I don't hate tourists. If anything, I think the city can only do well if it attracts visitors. This is a great city, and it wouldn't be nice not to share it with others! When I moved here last August, I felt like a tourist most of the time, and I still don't necessarily feel like a local. But now when I get stopped in the street for directions by someone saying "Excuse me, are you from here?" I have to say yes. It keeps happening. I was astounded that last week during one workout I got stopped twice, and the next time I got stopped once. I must look extra friendly, even when I'm panting, sweaty, and red-faced. Haha.



Part of 6 Times by Antony Gormley on the Water of Leith


I always feel awkward when people ask me for directions, since I'm terrible at explaining how to get places. I have no sense of direction at all. When I'm trying to get somewhere I rely obsessively on a map (and still sometimes walk in the wrong direction), and do a lot of wandering around until I find what I'm looking for. Tourists be warned! I may accidently misdirect you.

FO: Twisted Socks

I finished my neon green socks!



Pattern: Twisted by Jodie Gordon Lucas

Yarn: Elann Sock it to me 4-Ply, hand-dyed with food colouring



Mods: Continued the twisted-slip-stitch-rib down the heel flap, instead of doing the woven/reinforced heel. The ankle portion is slightly shorter as well.

Notes:
I made the size M. These took me a long time because I started them completely wrong, and I got a bit bored of them partway down the ankle. Once I got to the foot part all hell broke loose! No boredom here, just mad crazy knitting! I did these two-at-a-time with magic loop, and that may not have been the best idea. I knew going in that the socks had reverse shaping, but man - in the moment I got totally confused a bunch of times. But I made it. Woo!



These socks are very clever, and I love the result. This is a "trust the instructions" kind of pattern - everything turns out in the end. I'm not a big fan of how the pattern was written, however: it's confusing to navigate, and some key information is put in weird places. It seems like even the explanatory notes have explanatory notes... This is okay in Terry Pratchett novels, but not so great in knitting patterns, in my opinion. YMMV. There were some things that I wanted clarification about that were completely ignored, while other (seemingly obvious) things were over-explained. Obviously, what's obvious to me isn't necessarily obvious to others, so fair enough. (Let me say obvious a few more times. Obvious obvious obvious.)

One of my problems is I've gotten a bit cocky when it comes to sock knitting, so I don't pay as much attention as I should. When non-standard sock constructions come along, I'm bound to do something dumb in my over-confidence. I know how to make socks - I don't need to read these wordy instructions thoroughly! (Except, you know, I do.) Consider me duly chastened.



Whatever. In the end, I love them. The toe-petals look just how I imagined, and I think they are so sweet. I may or may not ever make these again, though.

See more FOs at Tami's Amis!

Today's Mystery

Here's my Team Sweden yarn pre-winding.



Here's the yarn wound into two balls of equal size.



Where did the extra 1 g get to?
(note: the pre-wound skein does not have any extra string tying it up)

In reality, it's probably just my argos value scale fighting with its own imprecision - while I was taking the second photo, it couldn't decide between 99 g and 100 g. Quite possibly, the same thing happened during the first photo, but I wasn't paying attention. Still, funny mysteries of the universe!

The Unphotogenic Kitchen: Pasta / Noodles with Ginger-Garlic Peanut Sauce

It's still light out at dinner time, which I love. So, I took some pictures of my dinner.



Noodles with Ginger-Garlic Peanut Sauce, Chickpeas, and Peppers
Serves one.

Pasta or noodle equivalent of your choice (I used penne)
Half a can of chick peas, rinsed and drained
Bell peppers or other vegetable (I used half a red pepper, and a quarter yellow one.)

1 clove of garlic, minced
1 smallish chunk of ginger, minced*
1 heaping teaspoon of peanut butter
1 tablespoon sesame oil
splort of soy sauce
pinch of ground cayenne
pinch of ground cumin
boiling water

Cook your pasta/noodle equivalent. While it is cooking, combine garlic, ginger, sesame oil, peanut butter, soy sauce, and spices in a bowl. Mix until even, adding boiling water to get desired consistency.

Drain noodles. Add chickpeas and chopped peppers. Drizzle sauce over, and stir to coat everything.

Eat!



Bonus: this is vegan, assuming your pasta/noodles aren't made with eggs.

Next time, I'll add some lime juice to the sauce. My glass citrus-juicer thing shattered (as glass does when you drop heavy things on it), and I haven't replaced it, so my lemon and lime usage is way down these days.

*How does one accurately measure the amount of ginger? My ginger chunk was probably about 1.5 cm square. Er cubed?

People are Jerks; or, Running Update

I know I've been venting a lot of negativity around here lately, which isn't exactly super fun. I hope isn't driving people away! I promise there will be more sunshine and rainbows next week. (Or at least, more knitting.) But I had an experience yesterday that I feel I have to talk about somewhere, so excuse me while I get a little introspective/rantypants/outraged feminist once more.

Running-wise, Week 5 has been going really well. After the physical difficulty of Week 4, I was pleasantly surprised to find I enjoyed the first workout of Week 5. Maybe I've found a good pace, or last week was a hump I had to get over. Maybe Week 6 will be really difficult again. I don't know. I'm trying to hold onto how good I felt while doing the first two workouts of Week 5, because at the end of my run yesterday something happened that soured the whole running experience. I'm supposed to go running tomorrow, and I shouldn't let myself quit over one thing, but everything irrational in me is telling me not to go out tomorrow.

I usually run on a busy bike path. Whenever I've been out, there are people walking their dogs, riding bikes, pushing strollers, sitting on benches reading, and running. Although I wouldn't want to be alone there at night, during the day it's not very isolated and I've never felt uncomfortable or unsafe.

Yesterday, towards the end of my workout, I passed a group of teenaged boys. The two I passed were on foot, and one was on a bike up ahead. As I passed them I heard one of them say something inappropriate. I ignored it, not sure I'd heard correctly, not sure it was even directed at me, and kept going. Because I was walking at this point, I wasn't going much faster than they were, so they remained not far behind me.

It soon became clear that they were talking about me. They exchanged lewd remarks about my body, calling out to make sure I heard them. They started singing an out-of-tune parody of a pop song, with the lyrics changed to refer to my various body parts. They called back their friend on the bicycle, saying "Come here, I want to show you something," and as he cycled back towards them, "What do you think of the *insert lewd comment here* on that one?" All three of them took up the chorus again. The one on the bike came back and circled me, addressing me directly with his taunts.

I thought about starting to run again to get away from them more quickly, but I didn't want them to think I was feeling nervous or threatened - I worried they might give chase. So I did not respond, made up scathing retorts in my head that I would never say, and kept walking as they hurled abuse.

Eventually, I passed a couple with a dog going the opposite way, and I think the assholes fell back a bit. They started their harassment at a point when the four of us were alone, and nobody else was in earshot. Once more people appeared, they no longer called out to me. I'm not sure exactly when they stopped following me, since I didn't look behind me - I didn't want to acknowledge their presence. They had stopped by the time I left the bike path, and I made sure they didn't follow me home.

As sexual harassment goes, this was pretty mild, but it ruined my day and my workout, and I'm not feeling at all enthusiastic about going running tomorrow. When the cyclist was circling me and the two losers behind me were taunting, I felt the tiniest approximation of what it might feel like to be swarmed. There were only three of them, after all, but three idiot teenagers together will do more than one idiot teenager alone. I find myself completely unable to relate to people like that. What makes them think it's okay to ridicule other people?

I am not ashamed of my body, and I don't want to give anyone else the satisfaction of making me feel uncomfortable, but the whole situation left me a bit rattled.

I will probably run somewhere else if I go tomorrow. At the beginning of this exercise, I wanted to convince myself that running was an enjoyable and worthy activity. Just when I was starting to enjoy the exercise part, some losers came and made it suck. I hope I can make it good again.

Escape

I've become a bit of a homebody lately, and my unemployment has encouraged some bad habits. I find it all too easy to slip into a hermit-like existence, especially when life is being discouraging. My typical days consist of sleeping in longer than I should, reading, knitting, fooling around on the internet, housework stuff, job applications, drinking tea, and eating - not necessarily in that order. I go out in order to run, get groceries, distribute CVs, go to the library, and do volunteer work, but I don't seem to do much wandering around town these days. When I do wander, I usually discover things I haven't noticed before.

Awesome doors I've passed many times, but never really focused on until yesterday

This week there's some construction happening outside that involves drilling, machines, and pounding crap into the ground from 8:30 am until past 5:30 pm. I don't know what they are doing, but the constant almost-rhythmic thumping sets my teeth on edge and makes it difficult to concentrate. It's driving me mad. I feel like an Edgar Allan Poe character. At least it gets me out of bed early and makes me anxious to get the hell out of the flat and far away from the din.

It's good to get out more. I might as well... I have plenty of time to waste - better to wander around outside than spend it looking at photos of people I don't care about on facebook. I know hiding from the world won't get me anywhere, but sometimes it takes horribly noisy builders to drive me outside and remember that.

Things I like lately

In no particular order, here are some things I like lately...

A Playful Day knitting blog and podcast - I've never really gotten into podcasts, but I'm really enjoying this one! I need the periodic reminder that life can still be playful. (Plus, she has awesome giveaways.)

CMOT Dibbler Discworld Badges - I especially like the Ook librarian badge!

Sweet Potato fries - I've had these in pubs, but never tried making my own.

Briolette earrings - last year I'd never ever heard the term briolette, although I actually have some earrings that would probably count.

Guide to Edinburgh Vintage and Charity Shops by Oranges and Apples - This looks like a good resource. I've explored the charity shops in my area, but one of these days I'll go adventuring to the others she mentions.

This inexpensive yet bridal dress - I wonder if I could pull it off. More to the point, can one still have a lacey knitted shawl if the dress is lacey? Things to think about.

Steampunk jewelry - I don't wear much jewelry, but maybe I would if more of it involved steampunk owls? Heh.

Ditto for Antiqued octopus neclaces.

365 Jars project - Every day, Kirsty Hall lets loose a jar full of art into the world, and encourages people to go out and find them.

Zucchini noodles - looks like a fun spaghetti alternative.