Handgemacht – Folge 43: Im Stickwahn

 crafts, Podcast  No Responses »
Feb 162014
 
Handgemacht - Folge 43 [ 52:06 ] Play in Popup | Download
Gestrickt habe ich:

Gehäkelt habe ich:

Gewebt habe ich:

  • das zweite Geschirrhandtuch fertig und das dritte angefangen
Gesponnen habe ich:
  • BFL von Dornröschenwolle auf der Tiny Turkish Spindel ein bisschen mehr
  • grüne Merino vom Wollschaf, die zweite Spule fast fertig
Gestickt habe ich:
Erwähnt wurde:

 

Sleep is really important

 life  2 Responses »
Feb 132014
 

and not getting enough messes with your life in a big way.

Today was supposed to be the day I exercise (first time in weeks), take a shower, and go grocery shopping. After a rather lazy start into the day I changed my plans to taking a shower, and then cleaning the house because that seemed more important than the groceries. (Cleaning also hasn’t happened for some time, and right now you can really see it, and we still have enough food to get us through the day.)

Then I rested a bit. I was, of course, determined to only lay down for ten minutes, and then to get going. Yeah, not so much. Thirty minutes later I went into the kitchen, found that my husband was late as well, helped him prepare lunch, and emptied all the waste paper baskets. I even dusted the house but then I ate, and then I worked, and then was now.

This sounds like the mid-morning nap was the problem but the problem was – as always – that I had been so sleep deprived that I not only felt the need to retire to bed in the middle of the day but that I also fell soundly asleep on the spot.

The past week has been really bad for getting enough sleep. Some days I’d go to bed too late, so I was tired. Some days I went to bed on time but slept badly. Some days I went to bed almost on time but woke up early, and couldn’t fall asleep again. And then on Tuesday I went to bed really, really late – like three hours too late – woke up one hour before the alarm and couldn’t fall asleep again.

Which brought me to the point where I’m now, sleep is the only thing I can think of. I even contemplated going to bed without eating dinner first. Which just doesn’t happen with me.

And this last week showed me again and again why getting adequate sleep is so super-important. Since I was always tired I haven’t cleaned anything, I haven’t made music, I haven’t worked on my novel, I’m just too tired. I’m a bad listener, everything I do takes ages, I’m sloppy, I make mistakes, it’s a big mess.

So my firm intention is to go to bed before 10 tonight, and tomorrow.

Maybe then I’ll be able to think straight again.

Happy blog anniversary, eight years and counting

 blogging about blogging  5 Responses »
Feb 122014
 

Well, it’s not exactly my blog anniversary today, first the anniversary was yesterday but I was just too busy for writing a post. (Yes, I could have written it before. But I didn’t. Sorry.) And also there was one other post on the blog, a year before that. But that post sat there, lonely and sad for a year without anything else happening which is why I declared February 11, 2006 to be the birthday of this blog.

Back then the blog was called “Diapers and Music”, and was hosted on blogger. My son had just started kindergarten, and there were still diapers and zippy cups in my life. Not for long, though, which is why I changed the name of the blog. And now my son is in 5th grade, and parenting is just a little less energy-consuming, and the blog is still here.

I have been thinking of stopping it at times. Especially since I don’t post here nearly as often as I used to. I do most of my writing on ravelry these days, and anyone who wants to find out what I’m doing day in and day out can go there and post-stalk me. But as much as I like that forum I still love reading blogs as well. So even though this here blog has become mostly a place where I post my podcast (and I know I should record another episode, and I will, soon) I still want it to be blog as well.

Two people who brought home to me what I love about blogs versus twitter or Facebook or things like that were Neil Gaiman and Frau Kaltmamsell. Neil Gaiman is taking a sabbatical from twitter and such at the moment, and has therefore started to post blog entries again. I do like following him on twitter but reading his blog is just so nice. Everything in one place, and it’s a proper read, I like it very much.

And Frau Kaltmamsell is currently writing a daily journal on her blog again. She does this from time to time, and while she feels that her daily life is rather boring I love reading about other people’s days. I’m immensely curious about how people spend their days, or what they put in their bags, or the small ordinary things. I often find those details interesting, and soothing.

So I’m thinking of doing a little daily journal blogging of my own for a bit of time. I’m not quite sure I can do this, and I definitely don’t know for how long. I also am not quite sure what you, my readers, will think of this. I know that I often quit reading blogs when they are updated too often. One post a day, when it is entertaining and interesting, I can handle. Multiple posts? Then the blog better be really, really good and interesting, or mostly pictures.

But I think there should be some kind of celebration for eight years of blogging. So there will be extra posts for a while. It might be that each of them starts with, “I meant to post yesterday but then I didn’t because…” We’ll see.

Anyways, thank you a lot for reading here. Because without readers and listeners the whole blog would be rather futile. I do have a paper journal for that. Thank you for reading, and being curious about my life, and for sharing your lives back with me.

2013 was supposed to be the year of not buying books

 reading  2 Responses »
Jan 202014
 

Well, that didn’t happen.

I only thought about it because there were so many unread books around the house and on my ereader, and also I wanted to sew and buy more clothes, and the money for that had to come from somewhere. The many, many books lying around that I had bought or gotten as a present, all books that I had been very excited about when ordering them, or receiving them, those books were weighing on me.

Every single book I have around that I didn’t get to read felt (and still feels) like a chore not done.

I don’t want reading to be a chore. Since I no longer am at school there is really no mandatory reading in my life and that’s a good thing. About a dozen unread books to choose from feels like opportunity, and choice, and freedom. Two shelves of unread books, and more than a hundred ebooks I haven’t read yet – not so much.

I started buying ebooks because I don’t have room on my shelves anymore, and I won’t be installing new bookcases soon. Though I have to admit that I’m thinking about adding a shelf in the bedroom for my books about knitting, spinning, and sewing. That’s a whole new field I’ve added to my library, and I don’t really want to throw out that many books from my fiction or other non-fiction books.

But. I started getting ebooks. And they’re very tempting. Also you can want one, and then have it within minutes. It’s almost too tempting. The ebooks were one reason why I started turning off the wifi before dinner. Otherwise I’d stay up all night reading a book – which is already a bad thing because then I’ll feel horrible the next day – and then I’d download the next in the series immediately afterwards and stay up even longer. I no longer do that, it’s not good for me.

So I had this plan, I’d only buy books I had either pre-ordered already, or that were coming out from authors I buy everything from. The rest of the year I was going to read the books I already had. 150 books, or rather 200 should get me through almost three years without buying anything new so I wouldn’t actually be depriving myself of anything. 

If I encountered a book I wanted I’d put it on my wish list, or download a sample and put it in the “buy later”-folder. All very sensible.

Then I found Debora Geary’s “Modern Witch” series. And soon I was downloading all of them, and wanted more. And all the books I had suddenly became very unappealing. And then I bought a new book. And then another one. And another one.

I don’t know how many books I bought last year. I think it might be a little less than the years before but not all that much less. So not buying books was a complete failure. (My plan of updating my wardrobe didn’t work either, by the way.

It seems that buying books is still more important to me than buying clothes. Which is no surprise when you know that I’m reading about 70 books a year but am basically wearing the exact same thing most days. I usually am the kind of person who only buys new clothes or shoes because the old ones are full of holes or completely faded. Or don’t fit anymore.

So that leaves me with still way more books than I need. I can’t sell ebooks, unfortunately. Most of the books I still want to read, only I never quite get around to it. It feels as if a book has grown stale sitting on the shelf for more than a few weeks. Which is complete and utter nonsense.

So I’m trying something different this year in dealing with the pile of unread books, I’m making a new rule to read one “old” book for every new one. I don’t know if that will be enough but right now it does feel doable. Much more realistic than last year’s attempt. Right now I’m finishing a book that I started about 1 1/2 years ago or so. It was a birthday present. It’s a real book so I decided to put it with the swimming stuff and take with me to the pool. Then I hurt my ankle and didn’t go to the pool anymore. So I never finished it even though I like it. Of course the problem with this book is that it is the first of a series. So when I finish it, and since I like it, I might have to buy seven more books because I read this one.

I could put them on my “buy later”-list, though…

How do you deal with piles of unread books? Or don’t you have any? How?

Books I read in 2013

 reading  2 Responses »
Jan 172014
 

So here’s my yearly post about which books I read. I was (as usual) surprised at how many there are in there. I actually read more than a book a week on average. Which is good, I suppose.
I’m not quite sure any of you actually looks at the list. No pressure but maybe you enjoy it. Of course I’m already diving into the piles of books again.


Handgemacht – Folge 42: Faserverrückter Jahresrückblick

 Podcast  No Responses »
Jan 112014
 
Handgemacht - Folge 42 [ 44:42 ] Play in Popup | Download

Gestrickt habe ich:

  • Magnolie ist komplett fertig, gewaschen, mit Knöpfen und passt.
  • Carrot Sweater ist komplett fertig, gewaschen, mit Knöpfen, eine Spur zu eng:
NaKniSweMo2013 day30
  • Lintilla fertig gestrickt und gewaschen
  • Carrots and Oranges komplett fertig und passt auch
  • Silky Strength angefangen, ich vergrößere gerade den kraus rechten Anfangsteil, weil die Wolle so superdünn ist
  • Socks with a Twist: der erste Socken ist fertig, beim zweiten hatte ich den Schaft schon gestrickt und habe dann gemerkt, dass ich zu weit gestrickt habe und am Anfang zu viele Reihen bevor das Muster anfängt, deswegen ist der zweite gerippelt.
  • Autumn Featherweight: angefangen, habe die Passe gestrickt und die ersten 12 cm des Vorder- und Rückenteils

Gehäkelt habe ich:

  • Quick Christmas Beanie: ist fertig, aber die Fäden noch nicht vernäht, weil ich nicht genau weiß, wie. Die Wolle ist zu dick für die Stopfnadel
  • passenden Halswärmer: gleiches Problem
  • acht Maschenproben für die Jehanne Jacke

Gewebt habe ich:

  • ein Drittel Geschirrhandtuch
Gesponnen habe ich:
  • BFL von Dornröschenwolle auf der Tiny Turkish Spindel
  • grüne Merino vom Wollschaf
 Die Fragen des faserverrückten Jahresrückblicks:
  1. Dein Strick/Häkel/Web-Jahr 2013: Erzähle von einem, deinem Projekt, es muss nicht das grösste und das liebste 2013 gewesen sein, sondern das Projekt, was dir aus irgendeinem Grund einfällt. Vielleicht, weil das Stück, das herauskam, etwas ganz Besonderes ist, oder weil das Muster dir etwas neues beigebracht hat oder weil das Garn so besonders war… greif 1 Projekt heraus und erzähle uns etwas davon.
  2. Dein Stash 2013: Wie hat er sich entwickelt? Hast du tolle neue Garne erworben, hast du ihn ab- oder aufgebaut? Hat sich dein Geschmack geändert – was war dein liebstes Garn/deine Fasern in 2013?
  3. Spinnen 2013 (wenn du spinnst): Welches Garn kommt dir in den Sinn, von dem du erzählen willst? Hast du eine neue Spinntechnik gelernt und Herausforderungen gemeistert?
  4. Welche deiner Stücke, die du gemacht hast, waren 2013 deine Lieblingsteile (also, die du oft und gern getragen hast)?
  5. Die “most knitworthy person(s)” 2013 für dich?
  6. Was waren die schlimmsten Crafting-Unfälle und Reinfälle?
  7. Lieblings-Designer_in 2013?
  8. Song des Jahres?
  9. Buch des Jahres?
  10. Film/Serie des Jahres?
  11. 3 Dinge, die du nicht hättest missen wollen?
  12. 3 Dinge, auf die du gut hättest verzichten können?
  13. Was hast du 2013 neues begonnen?
  14. 14: Wovon hast du dich 2013 getrennt?
  15. 15: 2013 in einem Wort? (oder ein Motto)

 

Erwähnt wurde:

Handgemacht – Folge 41: Nationaler strick’ einen Pulli Monat

 Podcast  2 Responses »
Nov 282013
 
Handgemacht - Folge 41 [ 56:56 ] Play in Popup | Download

Gestrickt habe ich:

  • Magnolie ist fertig, muss noch gewaschen werden und Knöpfe bekommen
  • Carrot Sweater ist fertig gestrickt, muss noch gewaschen werden und Knöpfe bekommen
  • Wooly Wormhead KAL habe die Mütze komplett fertig, muss noch gewaschen werden
  • Lintilla angefangen, das Gelb geht ganz langsam in Rot über
  • Carrots and Oranges gerade angefangen, ein Pulli aus dem Rest orangen Bluefaced Leicester, aus dem ich den Carrot Sweater gemacht habe
  • garter stitch mitts fertig

Gehäkelt habe ich:

Gesponnen habe ich:

Erwähnt wurde:

Handgemacht/Handmade – Episode 40: Fourth Ever English Edition

 Podcast  1 Response »
Nov 122013
 
Handgemacht/Handmade episode 40 [ 1:40:13 ] Play in Popup | Download

(An alle, die wegen des Artikels in “Handmade Kultur” kommen, herzlich willkommen und keine Angst, die nächste Podcastfolge ist wieder auf Deutsch.)

All that I’ve made since episode 30 in February:

Knitting:

Crochet:

Spun:

  • orange BFL for the Wheatgrass Truffle Cardigan is almost finished
  • green BFL by Knitting Spiro finished a little more than a third of the fiber
  • brown Shetland for socks
  • dark brown Shetland
  • bright merino for garter stitch mitts
  • red merino/silk
  • BFL by Knitting Spiro
  • green merino/silk
  • Polwarth by the Painted Tiger

Woven:

  • my first dish towel is halfway done
  • the first half of the Sock Yarn Leftover Blanket

Sewn:

  • orange skirt, not quite finished

Topics:

  1. Spinning sock yarn
  2. How many knitting books are too many?
  3. The To-Sew-List
  4. The problem with motivation
  5. Spinning sock yarn – part 2
  6. Knit to flatter
  7. Shopping spree and spinning wheel dreams
  8. Project wardrobe non-progress
  9. Time management, or – how do I make get projects small, and small ones done?
 Older Entries