Winter Blues

So I was going to participate in NaBloPoMo this month but 9 days have already slipped by without a post and it seems far too late to start it now.

Largest problem is that it’s SO GLOOMY right now. By the time I get home at 6.30pm it’s already dark. Today (Wednesday) was my day off and I spent most of it in bed due to my M.E playing me up today. I woke from a nap at 5pm ready to get some stuff done and looked out of the window to find it pitch black with the street lights on already. Very depressing.

In fact my big long list of things to do today hasn’t had *anything* crossed off it at all. I’m about to go bottle up my Apple and Cinnamon Vodka and try and get a bit more hooky time in, but that won’t cross off a large portion of the list!

See what I mean by the light? This is part of a very disappointing- get it out of the way for Ravelry (I *HATE* those empty no picture uploaded spaces) Photoshoot of Rhys’ Red socks. The yarn is Superba Mexico in shade 007. If you remember I was knitting both pairs at a time, I finished the second set (the second sock from each pair) and then in the clean up before my parents came the fella LOST one of the blue ones. We found it the other day, but have not had a photo-shoot yet. See gloomy conditions when we both get home from work.

I’m a little disappointed in the cinnamon Vodka if I’m honest. I left the cinnamon sticks in a little too long and by using cooking apples they didn’t dissolve into mush the same way the fruits in my other spirits have. I’m going to try running them through my juicer. Mum and dad brought their old, never used one down for me. I suppose so I can do what they did, use it once and then never use it again lol. Mum and dad also bought me this AWESOME thing while they were down. It’s a fruit strainer that hooks onto a bowl. I had one that sat over a bowl but you had to bend the legs a lot to get it to fit around the singular mixing bowl I had or stand the legs in the strained alcohol mix. Not nice! I’m going to have 2 different types of bottles this year- one with the straight Apple Cinnamon Vodka and then one which is the juice from the apples. We’ll see which comes out better.

As well as bottling 1/2 the A+C tonight I made labels. My sense of design and artistic talent is lacking, but these’ll do for now.

Knitty and Hooky wise I have a *lot* of projects on the go at the moment. A pair of Jaywalkers in a self striping yarn, which means Stripy chevrons! I’m totally in love with these but still have another 2-3 inches to go before I can even consider the heel. Pulling out my hand made socks it seems to be a testament to how impatient I am to turn heels or to cast off from a toe up sock! Maybe one of my 2012 new year knit resolutions should be to have patience and make them long enough! I’m always moaning when my socks fall down round my ankles because they’re too short for my boots- my de-facto choice of shoes being currently my work boots.

I’m also working on 2 Granny square blankets at the moment. One in sock yarn scraps on a 3.0 mm hook and one in  scrap DK on my hook size of choice, a 4.5mm. I have 2 squares of the sock one which has only a few rounds per square. For the DK weight one I’m doing 24 rounds per square. I have 2.25 squares completed so far out of 9. Problem being I’m running out of scraps! But as DK is the weight I tend to lean towards the most- other than sock yarn for socks naturally I propose that I will have enough scraps to finish it by the end of 2012.

The final project I have on the go is round dishcloths for my mother. Just plain crocheted dishcloths. 7 rounds, increasing very much like you would a hat, in UK trebles (US double). I may try one in UK double (US Single) because I still SUCK at counting my double stitches and this would improve that.

Just so this post isn’t sparse on pictures have a rubbishy one of the Severn Bore (Visibility was so poor it was unbelievable. Even my Dad, who’s red arm you can see struggled with his DSLR) an amazing thing to see though!

And a photo of one of my favourite places in the Forrest. Puzzle Wood. Having this one larger because it’s one of my favourite photographs I’ve taken this year. Not that I’ve taken many, which again should be something I aim to improve in 2012. I might do a self imposed Photo a Day Challenge. It’ll help me work on my use of texture and composition a lot!

Hopefully next time I’ll be posting with actual photographs of knitting content! Not just second hand ones scraped off the memory card!

Bye for now!

Hannah