Because of my CFS I don’t get out much, but the last two days I have gone out with our oldest cat to play in the garden. Yes, play. This cat thinks she is a dog! I don’t have good video of it yet, but she loves to run and chase. Something we’ve never see her do inside (though maybe its just because there is no room) but just this past week that we have been going out into the garden on her own that she has come back to the door, meowing for us to come out with her. The game is that I stand at one side of our garden (which is really large) and call her and she comes bounding across the grass like a dog! I swear if we found something to throw that she would carry back, we could play that too. Our garden is quite overgrown and she comes back covered in pollen and with various bits of grass stuck to her, but it brings such a smile to your face. And its a little bit of exercise for me - just that little bit to built up my muscles. So its more that just a literal breath of fresh air, its a good breath for me too.

I asked you for your thoughts, and 15 of you gave them:

You picked out I’ll Knit You One Designs.  I’m sure my gran is up there smiling at the choice.  I kinda feel like I have taken on the family baton.

Now… the next part of the process…  any business worth it’s salt needs a logo!  I am looking for someone to make a logo for me and my new venture.  I’m looking for something with a hand drawn feel to it.  I know I could go make one myself from the stock image sites, but I’d like something that is mine only.  If there is anyone who thinks they can help, please email me. I can’t afford to pay much so preferably I am looking for someone who is willing to be paid in yarn, or minimally, or will do it just for the credit and good karma.

Feel free to use this form or email me directly.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

I finished the first glove of the pair of knucks this evening.  Well, just before midnight.  I tried some stupid technique to make less holes between the fingers - still had to sew them up - and then I spent a while hating the textured cuff I had chosen and then about 3 hours trying to get to grips with the crab stitch  crochet finishing.  I can’t decide if the glove looks too hideous to gift.  I’ll knit the second one and see how I feel then.  If they actually turn out similar, it would be a shame to waste all that work.

In the mean time, I must go to bed because my eyes are starting to blur from that stupid cast off.

Did you vote in my poll yet??  Its there, just on the previous post.  If I don’t get any more votes tomorrow, I’ll close it and then we can discuss what happens nexts.  About discussing… Do people not comment any more?  I’m feeling a bit like I am talking to myself here.  Or it could just be the past midnight blurry eyedness.  Sorry.  But please comment.  If only to see what cool little avatar the Wavatars plugin makes you.

Yup, I have sunny blue skies outside, a nice little breeze to keep you from getting too warm, my roses are in bloom.  What more could a girl want?  Well, she wants to work on Christmas knitting and knit a pair of knucks.  A nice simple pattern for fingerless gloves.  The ones I making today are for my brother’s girlfriend.  The yarn for my brother’s pair is on order.  I’m not bothering to put it as one of wips on Ravelry because the last time I made a pair it took me just more than one day.  I recommend them to anyone looking for a quick gift.  And I will not do what I did with my last pair, and embroider the hands wrong, so the words were the wrong way round.  I don’t have the yarn to do the embroidery anyway, so it will have to wait.

The poll I talked about in the last post is still going, as we currently have a tie between two options.  So please vote if you haven’t already and vote on what I should call my knitting business!

n

I think its time for a little interactivity on this blog, just to make sure you are paying attention. I’m working on my first sock designs and I really would like to be a knitwear designer when I grow up I’m thinking ahead already and wondering on a design business name (I know, I think too much) and I can’t decide quite what to do.

Before the poll, I’ll explain out the options for you:

• Knit With Cat Hair Designs - yes, its me, but I don’t want people thinking they need cat hair to make my designs!
• I’ll Knit You One Designs - ‘I’ll knit you one’ was one of my gran’s favourite phrases - whenever I told her I wanted something, be it a book, toy, or walkman (hey, this was a while ago) she would say ‘I’ll knit you one’. I think it would be nice to honour that. But there is the worry that if I don’t follow this through, I’ll have messed up her memory. Neurotic much?
• Hazy Knits - simple, and to the point. No big story behind it or anything, just what I do.
• Or feel free to suggest!

Thanks in advance for your input!

Well, I could perhaps have broken my laptop today as I spilt some water on it. Its sitting with a fan directed on it drying and refusing to switch on, but according to Mr Google it could take 3-4 days to dry out completely, so I am using N’s laptop in the mean time. I found this list over at Tales from My Dusty Ovaries. Its a big long list of things you could have done. The ones I have done are in pink.  I really need to do more with my life.  Any thoughts on how?

Bought everyone in the bar a drink (it was real quiet)
Swam with wild dolphins
Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
Been inside the Great Pyramid
Held a tarantula
Taken a candle lit bath
Said I love you and meant it
Hugged a tree
Bungee jumped
Visited Paris
Watched a lightning storm at sea
Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
Seen the Northern Lights
Gone to a huge sports game
Walked the stairs to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
Grown and eaten your own vegetables
Touched an iceberg
Slept under the stars
Changed a baby’s diaper
Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
Watched a meteor shower
Gotten drunk on champagne
Given more than you can afford to charity
Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
Had a food fight
Bet on a winning horse
Asked out a stranger
Had a snowball fight
Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
Held a lamb
Seen a total eclipse
Ridden a rollercoaster
Hit a home run
Danced like a fool, not caring who watched
Adopted an accent for an entire day
Actually felt happy about your life, even for a moment
Had two hard drives for your computer
Visited all 50 states
Taken care of someone who was too drunk
Had amazing friends
Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
Watched wild whales
Stolen a sign
Hitchhiked in Europe
Taken a road-trip
Gone rock climbing
Midnight walk on the beach
Gone sky diving
Visited Ireland
Been heartbroken longer than you were in love
In a restaurant sat at a stranger’s table and ate with them
Visited Japan
Milked a cow
Alphabetized your CDs
Pretended to be a superhero
Sung karaoke
Lounged around in bed all day
Posed nude in front of strangers
Gone scuba diving
Kissed in the rain
Played in the mud
Played in the rain
Gone to a drive-in theater
Visited the Great Wall of China
Started a business
Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
Toured ancient sites
Taken a martial arts class
Played a computer game for more than 6 hours straight
Gotten married
Been in a movie
Crashed a party
Gotten divorced
Gone without food for 5 days
Made cookies from scratch
Won first prize in a costume contest
Ridden a gondola in Venice
Gotten a tattoo
Rafted the Snake River
Been on television news program as an “expert”
Got flowers for no reason
Performed on a stage
Been to Las Vegas
Recorded music
Eaten shark
Had a one-night stand
Gone to Thailand
Bought a house
Been in a combat zone
Buried one/both of your parents
Been on a cruise ship
Spoken more than one language fluently
Performed in Rocky Horror (by this I mean went to see it in costume)
Raised children
Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
Picked up and moved to another city
Walked on the Golden Gate Bridge
Sang loudly in the car and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
Had plastic surgery
Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have
Wrote articles for a large publication
Lost over 100 lbs
Held someone while they were having a flashback
Piloted an airplane
Petted a stingray
Broken someone’s heart
Helped an animal give birth
Won money on a TV game show
Broken a bone
Gone on an African safari
Had a body part below the neck pierced
Fired a rifle, shotgun or pistol
Eaten mushrooms gathered in the wild
Ridden a horse (does a pony count?)
Had major surgery
Had a snake as a pet
Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
Slept for more than 30 hours over 48 consecutive hours
Visited more foreign countries than US states
Visited all 7 continents
Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
Eaten kangaroo meat
Eaten sushi
Had your picture in the paper
Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
Gone back to school
Parasailed
Petted a cockroach
Eaten fried green tomatoes
Read the Illiad
Selected one important author who you missed school to read
Killed and prepared an animal for eating
Skipped all of your school reunions
Communicated with someone without sharing a common language
Been elected to public office
Written your own computer language
Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
Had to put someone you love in hospice care
Build your own PC from parts
Sold your own artwork to someone that didn’t know it was yours
Had a booth in a street fair
Dyed your hair
Been a DJ
Shaved your head
Caused a car accident

I’ve been yo-yoing over the past few days.  Yesterday was the big day where I was to go to actually see my gp instead of Neil going on my behalf.  It didn’t go very well, to put it mildly.  The gp said some hurtful things that he didn’t realise were hurtful and I was in a state about it all day yesterday and haven’t been much better today.

But I have made one decision at least - my dad will be getting a knitted Christmas present for the first time.  In fact, I’ve never knit a Christmas present.  I’m quite excited about the idea and I’m wondering about the other knitted gifts I can make too.  I think this is a good time to be planning it - plenty of time to knit the things I choose!  I don’t think I will be starting them straight away as I haven’t gotten the yarn yet and that is a big thing to be in the way. :)  In the mean time I will work on the shawl, or I’ll start a pair of socks, or I’ll make a toy for a friend’s baby.  Choices, Choices… yo-yo, yo-yo…

It’s strange what kind of effect people can have on you. I’ve always been shy (apart from when I was in university I completely lost my shyness, such fun). I’ve been married for more than 8 years and I am still shy around N’s family, but I have now discovered that perhaps what I need to help me get better is people. A while ago my parents came to visit for a few day. I see them quite rarely since they live up in Scotland and I live down here and its hard for me to travel. But I couldn’t believe how transformed I was for those few days. For the first time in a long time I completely forgot I was sick and just enjoyed myself. I didn’t even really suffer for it physically, apart from one day but that I was stuck flat on my back because I hadn’t been paying attention to how I was sitting. I had the euphoria of the “cfs free days” for about a week after they left and then I slumped into a depression.

It was only over the weekend that I really thought about it, and thought how I could replicate the feeling as a way to combat these horrible illnessses of depression and CFS. It can be weeks before I see anyone other than N, apart from maybe the upstairs neighbours or the gardeners. I think the cats don’t really count, since there isn’t much of a conversation back. The easiest access to people is go along to church with N. Its a Catholic church and I am more on the Baptist-y side of things, but he assures me they are a very welcoming and open church, they also have a lot of non-religious activities, so I am hoping to go along to one of them first.

Who thought talking to people could be an actual treatment for disease? :)

My shawl needed a time out.  You can see from my wips on the sidebar that the shawl is no longer there.  It was a bad shawl. I don’t think I have ever frogged and refrogged an item so much.  In the end I was so fed up of ripping rows back and trying to pick up stitches and trying to get the correct number of stitches for more than two rows running, I frogged the whole thing and decided it needed a time out.  I’m selling the yarn on Ravelry and I’m going to start another shawl in another colour and will put all thoughts of the evil Diamond Fantasy Shawl behind me.

But it looked so pretty…

Moving on… Its nearly the weekend.  It’ll be nice to have N around but he has work to do.  And according to my weather widget its going to rain all weekend.  I expect he’ll knit and I’ll work.  My mood has been pretty low this week, so I doubt I would be up to going out anyway.  I’m having a hard time mentally at the moment.  So much to think about, decisions to be made.  Perhaps a weekend inside watching the rain will allow me to figure it out.  My own personal time out.

This week my mum will be meeting her bridesmaid for the first time since she got married, 35 years ago.  At the young (ha!) age of 29 its hard to comprehend not seeing someone for that long.  They had been out of touch for maybe 30 years or so and they found each other on one of these school friend finding sites.  I’d like to say that something like that will never happen to me, but I know there are already people who I were friends with in University that I have completely lost touch with.  With thanks to Facebook I have a connection to some of them, even if I don’t actually email them often, but its nice to know I could if I wanted to.  But what about the really lost ones?  There are two or three that I would be desperate to get in touch with.  I won’t name them here though its tempting in case they google their own name.

My mum has got me thinking about losing touch and finding it again.  The memories lost and refound.  With my CFS I have a problem with my memory, more commonly referred to as Brain Fog, and sometimes its hard for me to remember what I had for dinner the day before, so for those people that I can’t find - sometimes I am forgetting their names.  I must write them down while I can remember.  I don’t want to wait 35 years to see them again.

Have you met up with a friend you haven’t seen for a long time?  How did it go?