Lou-quacious

Just two rows to go on the Gap Year Travels shawl now:

Travelling Woman "Gap Year Travels" shawl in progress

I’m planning to finish it and leave it blocking before I go to bed. Yay!

Mirrored from Enchilada Sunrise.

Today is my lovely friend Noxie‘s birthday, so much love and happy returns to her!  We originally met through both being fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and are still friends twelve years on!  Isn’t the internet grand?

As for me, I’ve spent the day plying and knitting again – some progress made, nothing finished as yet!  Hopefully I’ll have more to report tomorrow.

Mirrored from Enchilada Sunrise.

When I’ve not been out (Tuesdays is the day I volunteer at the library) or on the computer today, I’ve been industriously knitting away on my Travelling Woman shawl.  I’m determined to finish it soon!  I am a little worried that I won’t have quite enough yarn, but I put a lifeline in so that I can rip back to the middle of the previous patten repeat (if you know the pattern, this is the logical place) if need be.  No pictures yet, but there will be once I’ve finished. Go go go!

Mirrored from Enchilada Sunrise.

It's carnival week again, and I'm excited. Whee! I know it's daft, but it does make me feel like I'm little again and it's the summer holidays. *g* Not only that, but the Olympics starts technically-today (I'm going to bed any minute, really), which for me mainly means the Ravelympics. Which is like its own Olympic Games, only for knitting! No, really. I'm going to be having lots of fun with it anyway, and it might make me actually sit and watch some of the actual Games on telly if I have something to occupy myself with knitting-wise at the same time.

Since multiple affiliations are allowed, I've signed up to be in Team TARDIS (duh), Team Dog, Chicken and Aardvark (AKA the Brighton & Hove (and surrounding E Sx) Safari Knitters), and Team Posh Knitters. The 'Events' I'm doing are WIP Wrestling (because my WIPs need wrestling into submission very very badly!) plus the Handspun Heptathlon for Team DCA (yes, I've started spindle spinning, but no, I don't have to do seven sub-events, it's just a catchy title) and the Amigurumi-n-Toys Toss for Team TARDIS during which I'm going to actually try to crochet an Adipose. Well, it's sposed to be a bit of a challenge, you see, so I thought trying two small projects in crafts that I'm a novice at would give me that and also give me a break from wrestling the WIPs so that doesn't get to feel like a chore. There's method in my madness! This time ;-)

Getting back to the carnival, there's been various events going on all week and I've been down to a couple. I got well and truly drenched last Sunday, going down to the gig in the Old Town - elen_ancalima was visiting, so I was showing her the typical British summer seaside weekend ;-) Which of course includes sudden torrential rain! Anyway, I'm hoping to go down to a knitting exhibition thingy tomorrow afternoon, and of course to the main Carnival parade itself on Saturday.

Anyway, I think I'll wrap this up now and get to bed. Zzzz. With a bit of luck, it should crosspost to LJ*. However, I have now decided to change how this site works, so alterations to the look (as well as 'my end' of things) will be coming.... er.... some time this year? I have planning to do first! Night all.

* HAI LJ! Looks like that worked, then. Hoorah :-) So FYI that last para about the changes to "this" site actually apply to loopylou.co.uk.

1. I seem to have a thing for lists recently.  I think it's all the web coding I've been doing.


2. I have a few people to wish a very Happy Birthday to - some are a little late, sorry!  So, elen_ancalima and megolas, I hope you had lovely ones, and sbisson, I hope yours is similarly fab.


3. Web server still down.  Or rather, new server not up and running yet.  Gaaargh.  Naturally, I now really want to do all sorts of things that I need that server to be up for.  Like post to my knitting blog, and read my blogroll.  Why didn't I back that up into a feedreader?  D'oh!


4. I made my friend C some fingerless mitts for early-xmas.  Apparently he liked them lots, because today I received a really nice webcam in return!!!  Bweeeeeee! :-D  I'm now all set up for video chatting on Skype - don't know yet if I can v-chat through Trillian, which is what I use for AIM/ICQ/MSN/Yahoo chattage.  But if anyone wants to see my ugly mug and have a voice-natter (the camera has a built in mic), now you can.


5. Must get on with the xmas knitting.  I'm getting there, but I'm not done yet!  Wish me luck...


6. And talking of xmas, thanks to those of you who've sent me cards.  *hugs*  I... haven't sent any out this year.  Thing is, I'm now on a really tight budget, and I can't actually afford the cards and stamps.  Sad but true!  Therefore, it's e-cards this year.  Just as soon as I've made the graphics. *slacker*


7. The knuckle joint of my left index finger hurrrrrts.  Probably from the incessant knitting, unless I squashed it when I nearly dropped the printer.  But I think it hurt before that.  I reckon I need a splint.  Or the wah-mbulance. *nod*

1. Blogathon '07, which is taking place on 28th-29th July.  I'm going to be taking part in it over on my other blog, mainly because I'm going to be doing a knitting-y theme for the most part.  More details are over here, including what you'll get if you're kind enough to sponsor me.  The charity I'm blogging for is MDF (Manic Depression Fellowship) The Bipolar Organisation - it's something that's obviously near to my heart (or, um, brayne) and I'd like to support them with more than the piddly membership fee that I pay annually.  So, sponsor me kplzthx?  I'll love you lots, and stuff.


2. In addition to my own blogging, I've signed up to be part of the fandom_helps group blog.  So if you fancy doing some fandom-related blogathoning and/or you don't think you can manage the entire 24-hours yourself, come join us!  The more the merrier!!


3. I've signed up for the brit_knits Stash Swap, and SP11 - yay yarn (and other knitting related stuuuuuff) swapping!  Although, I haven't had my stash swap details from miss_bell yet, and I think I should have... unless she's just running a bit behind.  Don't want to pester her, but I think I'll drop her a mail if I haven't heard anything in the next few days.  I really do want to clear a few things out of my stash that I'm never going to use - nice yarn, but stuff that I bought in a fit of "ooo, on sale!" with no real idea of what I was going to do with it.  D'oh!


4. I've rejoined the gym, and paid for a year in advance.  This works out cheaper overall, and means that... I have a year's membership!  So now I can go to all the classes I want (with Ally, or on my own) and I also plan to start swimming again, and go back to working out in the gym proper.  Because I'm feeling a lot better in my head, so I want to feel better in my bod as well.


5. In the same vein, I joined Slimming World last week.  I've sort of tried to do the healthy eating thing, but I've been utterly rubbish at it without any outside motivation and structure.  I asked the doctor for help, but they just gave me the sort of advice that I already knew, and just wasn't acting on.  So, I shall now be going to this weekly group, and I have a target and everything.  Plus, I really like their food optimising thingy.  I've been doing well on it so far, and I think I can stick to it: already, I don't fancy the sort of food I was scoffing randomly beforehand.  No more crisps and chocolate and Pepsi all the time.  Except, I can have that stuff if I really want, only I have to record and count it... and that's seeming to make the difference for me.  Well, we shall see tomorrow if I've lost any weight.  Fingers crossed!  I think I'm either going to have a weight / fitness stuff filter, or I'm going to use another LJ I have for all those things.  Not quite decided yet.  *ponders*  Is anyone actually interested in following along?


6. And finally, since my head is doing better, my doctor has told me I can start doing wrrk again!  Part time, and taking it carefully so I don't over-do things and knock myself back again (*sigh*).  So I called Fiona, and it looks like she might have something for me.  Yay!  This means I have to arrange stuff with the Incapacity Benefits people (there's this thing called Permitted Work you sign up to) and with Housing Benefit and so on.  Which is a pain in the arse of a procedure, but necessary.  Still, work = good! :-)

• Don't wear those particular shoes in wet weather.  The right one leaks at the toe.  Ewwwwwwwww.  *squelch* :-(


• The lady I had an interview for a course with today is married to my fave science teacher from school!  Hi Mr P!


• The phone and the doorbell will both ring five minutes before you have to leave the house for an appointment, and neither will be things you can put off.


• Cap sleeves (knit from the bottom up) have an enormous cast-on edge.  HUGE!  Which makes perfect sense when you actually think about it.


• The cat will only get squarely in the camera shot when you're trying to take a photo of something else entirely.


• When you make changes to the rss feed template of your Movable Type blog, then rebuild that template, it results in all the posts liek evah turning up again on the LJ Feed for said blog and therefore cluttering friendslists.  Many apologies to the three people that were affected!  I shall try not to do it again, but I might, because I'm not sure I'm quite happy with it yet *hides*.