Project Spectrum 2.0 and some progress

Ok, so the first thing is that my knitting is moving on surprisingly rapidly since I got better. My hourglass sweater is now divided for the yoke, which means I just have the sleeves and neck to do, although, sadly, rows and rows of stocking stitch in a grey yarn is not the best photo fodder. I worked on my Sockret Pal socks yesterday and, rather impressively for me, managed to do the whole leg before going out – I almost got SSS but for some reason, even though it can take a lot of effort to cast on for the second sock, it goes so much quicker than knitting the first that I wonder just why I procrastinated/struggled to get it going. No pics of that though right now 😉 My pal thinks she found me, and I’m not going to give her any hints just now…
And here we have a finished object 😀 Vanilla top down socks in Sweet Georgia Speed Demon Honey Fig. I [heart] these socks. Simple and basic, but the yarn does all the talking. And so warm and cosy too 😀
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What else? I went for a walk on Saturday while the weather was still mild. That was a mistake for my health – a walk that normally is pleasant and quite gentle was suddenly exhausting, and I was shattered by the time I got home, but I got some good PS2.0 related photos of grey sky and silvery trees against the old autumnal leaves:
cloudsbrewing
grey sky in Netherton
castle hill
silver trees
The route I take is around through the village, down past the farm shop and on to the woods that drop down the hill and open up less than 100m from my front door. By the time I reached the farm shop, the clouds were beginning to open up, and when I left the farm, there was very solid drizzling, but leaving me with some spectacular views. I may have been tired and rough when I got back, but I was very glad to have gone out.
And here we also have some new additions to the local farm shop.
llamaoralpaca.jpg
Sadly I have no idea whether these are alpaca or llama but they are very very sweet 😀 If anyone knows, please tell me so I can go and ask about stealing some animal fibre from them…
Finally, some yarn eye candy.
PS2.0 related projects
wips
Recent purchases…
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poshyarnluciaandeva4ply.jpg
poshyarnevagrove.jpg
We have Socks That Rock in Rolling Stone and Rhodonite, and some Piece of Beauty Eva 4 ply and laceweight, plus some Lucia sock yarn too.
Finally, here is a pic of me at the wedding, in my shawl. I look rough, and indeed, almost 30 in it. The latter is obviously because I am, indeed almost 30. The former is because we were up till very late the night before meeting up and catching up after way too long apart.
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Thanks :)

Thanks for all your get well wishes 🙂 Things are kind of improving – I don’t have the evil sinus pain anymore, or the back pain during the night, and last night I felt much better after some chips from the local Chinese, a handful of salted peanuts and a small (for me) glass of red wine. BUT, I am still hacking away as badly as ever – perhaps that is why I don’t ache anymore, and I’m getting exercise better than any sit ups and by the end of this I will have abs like a gladiator. Well, perhaps not 🙂 I have got some gift knitting done though which is something, and just doing that makes me feel better to be able to knock a little bit off my percentage of secret stuff – hoorah! And I learnt that I can maintain a complicated stitch pattern while coughing.
Other things I have learnt this week from watching too much tv:
1) The Egg credit card ad is on far too many times during the day during the most bizarre programming times (kids’ shows where the kids are old enough to watch on their own but not old enough to buy things on credit?).
2) Toothbrush and toothpaste adverts are the worst ads ever.
3) Apart from the ones for Halifax bank.
4) If you go past a fruit stand on the street, it will sell nothing but perfectly formed green apples, and a really attractive man will say nothing when you steal one cos you have a nice smell.
I also learnt that if we are careful, we can watch the tawny owls hunting across the road 😀
I’ll stop rambling now, and do some more gifty stuff before my brain leaks out of my ears from watching too much crap on telly and I can’t do anything that requires concentration anymore.

Miserable

Well, this post was supposed to be a lovely one, full of pics of completed knits, PS2.0 stuff, wedding news (I cried several times, and it was all lovely), new stash etc etc. no such luck. I am sick as a dog. And have been spending money to make myself feel better. Monday I went for a revamp at the hairdressers (I have a fringe now and a new couple of colours – dark plum with flashes of strawberry red), but was coughing a little all day after feeling like I might be coming down with something over the weekend and dosing up on First Defence. I was there for 3 hours, went food shopping and came home to wait for a fire repair man, so I was busy all day anyway. Tuesday I was sick as a dog. Couldn’t eat, couldn’t move, hacking away like an old geezer and feeling sick. Yesterday I had sinus pain so bad I couldn’t open my eyes fully, they were so swollen, still hacking away, and the sickness was replaced by nose blowing. And I wanted to watch Brief Encounter and fell asleep after 30 mins and missed everything up to the last 10 mins :S. Today I’m a little better thanks to some cold/flu/sinus tablets from Boots (and thank heavens for strawberry flavoured soothers too), but because of how bad the coughing has been, I’ve pulled all the muscles in my back and abs, so I ache even more, and slept badly because everytime I moved I pulled something. And this was supposed to be a week of leave, relaxing, knitting, reading etc 🙁 All I’ve managed is 7 rows on Hourglass and a huge amount of tv coupled with dozing off.
So essentially this is an apology for anything interesting, seeing as I promised photos and goodies aplenty. Today is a sure sign that I’m improving as I’ve put some washing on and have *gasp* tidied a little in the kitchen. Don’t get me wrong – I’m too ill to actually clean things naturally ;D but I’m moving around, and this is the longest I’ve kept the laptop on since last week. Long enough to shop certainly… Ohhhhhh the goodies I have for you! Amazon purchases, some stuff from the US, and some of the most delicious yarn I’ve ever felt. In the meantime, DB is upstairs in bed after getting back to work for one day and stocking us up on meds, so cross your fingers and hope that he isn’t knocked down too badly by it. And please also keep your fingers crossed that I manage to work on some gift knitting and some test knitting before the end of today – I really need to get something done with it and was hoping to finish some stuff to take to work with me etc.
Ok, time for some breakfast, a cup of tea, and a hunt for a good brainless occupation.

Hoorah!

The world is coming to an end. Why? Because Bernard Matthews turkeys are full of the flu, winter frosts have struck again, climate change is going to kill us all, and I’ve finished Sarcelle on time.
It’s blocked and everything! 😀
More later 😉 Naturally there will be no good pics of it right now, but you know. I’m just glad to get the monkey off my back and work on the rest of the big pile of crap in the corner of the lounge! Yay!