The highlights of my virtual absence… kinda

Guess who’s sick again. That’s right. Me. >_< At least whatever it is that I have is going away now. Yesterday was not pretty, but today I felt okay enough to go to Meadowhall with Oliver. Bought some jeans. The exact same ones that I bought about two months ago but a size smaller. Hopefully, these ones will stay up even after they stretch.

Christmas was good. I made the Christmas Day food already on the 23rd. (Thing is what I call the dishes I made. The literal translation of the word into English would be box and that’s not what the food is, so thing is what I’m designating it as.) The swede thing turned out perfectly, the potato thing was okay but not quite right and the carrot thing, well, needed more carrots. Good practice for next year when Oliver and I go to Hawaii over to Ellu’s for Christmas and New Year’s. The Christmas Eve meal was easy to make since it was mainly just setting the fish dishes onto the table. No further preparation needed. The present side of Christmas? Very nice haul indeed. Jaz had this awesome calendar made for me; it’s all pictures of me. Very narcissistic, I know. But just all of the thought that went into it, like sneaking onto my MSN Msgr account to talk to people I know in Aber and ask them for pics of me and then getting them to keep quiet about it… :D Then from Anji, Oliver’s sister, got me yarn! It’s so nice to actually get stuff I’ve asked for. And, she got me this sport weight Peruvian sock yarn in the exact colorway I’d been eyeing at the store! So yes, I was very pleased with that gift. I also got the hairdryer and curler that I’d already requested for my birthday (my parents), a bag for my camcorder and camera (from Oliver’s parents), Oliver & I got matching shirts from Jade :D, lots of chocolate (always good) and a jigsaw puzzle that I won’t attempt until I’ve got the time and space for it. It’s only 1500 pieces, which was kind of a let down at first, but then I saw the picture and it’s like whoa. It’s in the style of one of those Where’s Waldo? picture books. Everything looks so much alike. And no Waldo to find either. Since I didn’t have the time to do it at home and no space up here in Sheffield, it’ll have to wait until Oliver and I find a place of our own before I attempt to complete it. What’s another five months or so before I get to do another jigsaw puzzle? :P

On the day that I left, Mocca followed me around everywhere and looked kinda mopey. I guess she knew I was going. Dogs are smart that way.

While I was at home, we all watched Disney’s “The Fox & The Hound”. Jade had never seen it before and when we got to the part where the lady leaves Tod in the forest, all four of us watching were teary. Then Jade started crying, which got my mom crying which in turn made me shed a few tears. Jaz was at the other end of the living room shielding her gaze from us saying: “I can’t see you, I can’t see you. I am not going to cry…”

New Year’s Eve wasn’t that interesting really. Oliver and I spent it in London with Anji&Steve and Dave (Steve’s older brother). Went to the Roses (a pub) and we missed the actual minute Big Ben struck midnight by a few minutes! It was… odd. The whole evening was kinda boring in the sense that I didn’t really know anyone there besides the people I went there with. I did get to meet the man who made the jewelry Oliver got me as a Christmas present last year. :) Some people are really funny when they’re drunk. Oliver and I were sitting side by side on the bench holding hands. Someone had just told a joke or something so we were both smiling. This drunk girl walks past us, randomly says Happy New Year to one person who’s in our group, takes a look at us and really giddly says: “You two look so happy! Are you getting married??” I just grinned back and held up my empty left hand and said: “Uh, no?” :D

I’ve been working on the multicolor/multiyarn Clessidras. They’re getting to be a pain actually. I discovered that I had made a mistake when translating a part of the pattern (I do it in sections as I need them) into a toe-up only until I had already done the heels on both socks. I thought: “Oh well. Not ripping back all the way to the toe.” So I flubbed it and now the cables are sort of where they’re supposed to be, except they’re twisting in opposite directions than in the original pattern. Another “Oh well” moment there when I realized that. I’ve done the ankle increases on one of the socks, but it was so annoying, that I’ve put them aside for a bit. Besides, I need more leftover yarn to complete them with. Which is why I’ll be making some Red herring (or in my case purple and oatmeal) socks so that I’ll have more to use in Clessidra. I also tried swatching for the Spring Shawl Surprice, but my needles are too blunt for the yarn and pattern. Also, since I knit continental but purl eastern, patterning on both sides is a bee-eye-tee-see-aitch. Trust me. Still, I’m not giving up. I’ll keep downloading the clues as they come out and hopefully I’ll get the motivation to try it again a bit later. In the mean time, I’ve got Jeanie to keep me entertained. It’s like Miss V put it: it’s the Clapotis on crack. And I love it. So what did I do so that I could make this wonderful wrap? I want yarn shopping of course. I didn’t plan on buying anything for myself when I went in to the store in Belgium. I had promised my mom that I’d translate the Hedera sock pattern into Finnish for her and she wanted some yarn and needles. So into the shop we went. Bear in mind that this particular store sells little trinket jewelry and lingerie and stuff at the front and on the back wall they’ve got yarn with a few shelves that hold needles and buttons and zippers and ribbons. Guess what I found. Regia sock yarn for 3.95€ per skein!! In Sheffield, that stuff costs at least £3.70 (4,95€ and $7,31 according to Google). What did I do? What any self-respecting sale and/or yarn shopper does: I bought eight skeins of a blue-white colorway thinking that it was the 3.95€. At the till, I find out that it’s actually 3.25€ a skein! I was on such a high that day. ^_^ Also, on the day that I left, my mom started making the Hederas. She started a bit before noon and every so often she’d say: “I’d forgotten how much fun this is.” By the time I was in the waiting area at the train station in Brussles that night, she called me to ask exactly what I meant when I written out the heel instructions. Yep, I’ve gotten her hooked, so to speak. Maybe now that both she and Jade have tried knitting, they’ll keep each other interested in it instead of putting away the needles again. A cool thing that I discovered tonight: I can knit in the dark. Oliver and I were watching an episode of House and he turned off the light. At first I was like: “But I need it…” then I tried a few stitches. Voila! Being able to work on my Tempting while watching TV is very good. Because otherwise it’ll just bore me to death. Seriously. I have another two inches of 2x2 rib to do and I want to poke my eye out just to get rid of the monotony. Even Oliver knows this. When he saw it, he was like: “That’s a very uninteresting pattern for you…” I need something that occupies my brain! Like the Jeanie that I’ll start working on soon-ish.

Oliver’s been working on the language program thing a lot tonight. I keep hearing my own voice. I’m getting used to it, but it still manages to make me cringe once in a while. Do I seriously sound like that??

I think this is enough babble for one night. But it should make up for the over three week silence. Either life is too busy for me to write about it or then nothing happens and there’s no point in blogging about it. Either way, I don’t seem to write a lot lately. Hmm, I guess I should get cracking on my Writing Project piece, huh… it’s due in April. I know it seems far away, but with the ideas I have for it so far, it’ll take a lot of rewriting the 2000 words or so that I already have and then I need to add another 4000 or so + commentary. That’s a lot of work.. o_O