It must be spring-ish time

How do I know this? I get organisational-twitchy come springtime. Oh, and I'm moving house soon. Really soon.

There are days I can't believe I used to be the disorganised type. These days, it's all lists and plans. Of course, I do have rather a lot more on than I used to. ;-)

However, of late I have been feeling a little overwhelmed with everything I've got on. So.. I am working on a new plan.

Some research has lead me to the D.I.Y. planner system which appeals. In conjunction, more than likely with the Zen to Done rules over at zenhabits.net.

What I am really coveting now, is a filofax. Preferably in the Personal or Pocket size. Around the size of a wallet upto about two wallets side by side. Anyone who has such a thing, and doesn't want it, let me know and we can do a swap or something. I don't need a genuine filofax, but I do want one with ring binders, not just the type with push-in notebooks.

If all else fails, I work on the Hipster PDA version. Very cool, free downloads and all :)

What am I seeking? A way of getting all the minutiae of my daily stuff to do and to remember and so on, out of my head up to the time I needed it. My brain feels crowded .. We'll see how I go, hey?

I was tagged!

Heather, from Crafitlit podcast and Mama O Knits has tagged me. I think she knows I secretly love these things. They're the natural continuation of those lists we used to do at school where you had to write your answer to a standard list of questions.. you know the 'who's the cutest boy?'/'who has the best hair'/ 'what's your favourite band' kind of thing...

Da Rulz: Once tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list 8 random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to 8 other people, visit their sites, and leave a comment letting them know they’ve been tagged.

I'll see what i can do about the last bit, the number of bloggers I know personally is kinda thin and I think they'll be sick of me by now :) We'll see I guess...

My Eight Things:

1. I have 'She walks in beauty like the night' engraved on my ipod. It's the first line (and title) of my all-time favourite poem, written by Lord Byron. It always affects me, every single time I read it and I can recite most of it from memory.

2. My best friend should have been born British. He has the whole impression of being British, without actually being British. (accent, appearance, manners, fondness for obscure British history and he's a good Anglican boy to boot). His fondness for Australian Rules football is really the only thing marring the impression.

3. I am able to now say, with reasonable confidence "I used to suffer from depression". I was only properly diagnosed a couple of years ago, and as a result, got my stuff sorted out finally. I spent pretty much ages 14 to 29 suffering from one of the forms of depression. Not fun so much. It's weird not having it hanging in the background anymore. For ages it felt like I wasn't wearing my watch. That kind of ..' did I forget something?' feeling.

4. I wonder if point number three in any way explains why I love vampire fiction. I will watch any movie, read any novel and... yes, I play in a vampire-themed game. Read the name of the blog, folks ;)

5. I am not, by nature a detail oriented person. However, working for the government has meant I now behave in many things as if I am. Which is occasionally helpful, like when proving to your builder that your specification was right, their person transcribed the order incorrectly.

6. If I could live in period novel for a holiday, I would. Room with a View's Italy or Pride & Prejudice's Pemberly would both be smashing.

7. I found out that the nearest religious orientation to my own religious belief is 'liberal Quaker'. I found this out by using the Belief-O-Matic over at Beliefnet. I have known for a long time I believed, but never was able to put my finger on any label for it. This hasn't actually meant anything for me, but I found it terribly interesting.

8. I paid my way through uni working weekends at a game store for five years. We sold computer games, role-playing games, miniature war games, models, you name it. As a result, more than 10 years later I still have strange weird men smiling and saying hi to me in the street (ex-customers).

Onto the tagging! Now I need to check my list... I tag the Crafyaction's Bibnbub and Michelle, Lupinbunny, knitconvict, pen & purl. That's enough, right?

Progress on Tangled Yoke and Conflower Scarf and .. a house!

I know, I am one of those "where are they now?" bloggers. Gone, not posting, makes you reconsider your subscription.

Well, I have been busy, and have photos to prove it. I had a quiet weekend (enforced due to my catching of daughter's cold) and work has been so busy last week leading to such exhaustion on my arrival home that we tended towards takeaway and no activity on my part to speak of, let alone photographing and blogging. Sorry folks.

But I promised photographic proof. Here we go....

Tangled Yoke cardigan.

I have been making real progress on this. I have finished the body up to the underarms. Um... I also managed to make it approximately 1.5 inches longer. Apparently while my stitch gauge is pretty much right, the row gauge is off. Oh well. I'll be paying more attention to the lengths given for the sleeve. Sleeve progress shown below...












Then, I have the Cornflower Scarf.

This is going along fine. It requires such little effort to work on, perfect for watching a movie (one I'm familiar with) to. I'd imagine a couple of serious movie sessions and this would be done. My sporadic attempts so far have lead it to be about half done I'd say. Unblocked it's about a meter long. I think I need to block it out, so it probably needs to be a bit longer than 2 m pre-blocking.

And there is the Print O the Wave stole.
This has been getting a bit of a run lately, as it has been unfairly abandoned. I've now finished seven and a half repeats of the 34 that make up the main body. Then there's the huge edging, but I won't count that, or it seems like to much ;)

Two things have helped my progress. I took the advice I read somewhere online and got a baking sheet and a oversized magnet to mark the row I was working on. This has helped a lot. As has a final miracle. I seem to FINALLY be able to read the lace and tell if I am making a mistake at the time I am making it. Those of you who have knit lace will understand just what a critical step this is.

Finally, there is my house. Okay, I haven't built it myself, but much of my spare time of later has been taken up with hunting down bits and pieces for the house. Deciding on a new bed, looking at pavers, etc etc. We had our practical completion meeting (where we gave them their list of things to fix) and now await those things been done. Fingers crossed that list won't take them long. Our flooring is booked to go in two weeks time, and we are tentatively booked to move a week following that.

Want proof? Remember the Kitchen v. ETTE discussion a while back? Here's a sample of the Kitchen.. okay awaiting a mixer tap, but very very close.

Isn't it beautiful??

Knitting, knitting...

I have two of the three baby-gifts done. One was successfully gifted at a recent Stitch n Bitch, as blogged by Lupinbunny. (I was strip one of seven for a baby blanket..)

Another is off the needles, sewn up and just needs buttons purchased and sewn on. Is that giving too much away? hmmmm..

I have also been doing some more on my cardigan.. as shown thusly...

Which I am still really enjoying, and the knitted fabric is very flat and even. Pretty.

And completed another repeat and a half on Print o the Wave stole. Which makes it 5.5 of 34, not counting the edging. I keep being surprised at how amazingly slow knitting this is. I think all the baby stuff and stockingette I have been doing has spoiled me.

And finished the first of four balls of yarn that make up the Daisy stitch scarf... which is the black to the white of the Print o the Wave stole for the spectrum of lace knitting. The needles are big, its ridiculously quick in comparison. And is a 4 stitch repeat, with no memorisation really required.

My project list looks big. Those of you watching Ravelry will be seeing my progress.. slowly. I have so many things in the 'to knit' list.. but still have several big items on the needles. Keep trying to stop myself from casting on another. Glutton for punishment, me.