Not Much But More Than I Thought

Due to a combination of recent health issues and a tremendous lack of personal time in my life, I do not believe that I’ll achieve my goal set forth for April’s Camp NaNoWriMo. I will do my best and write as much as I can but at this point I do not believe that I’ll cross the threshold I set out to cross within the timeframe allotted.

 

Rather than run myself ragged trying to do all the things, I’m going to focus on a few specifics which need to take priority. So, if you hear from me even less than usual lately, that’s why.

 

I am determined to pick up where I left off at the next Camp NaNoWriMo event later in the Summer.

 

Aside from that, only a few things are happening here.

 

I’m just living on soup, Duolingo German, as well as the music of Die Ärzte, and Farin Urlaub Racing Team. I’m almost at the point where I know the lyrics to some of the songs. I’m happy about that.

 

To be honest, probably sixty percent of the words I’ve listened to over the past ten days have been German. I might consider switching my profile language preferences to German to get me to use my linguistic translation capabilities more.

 

I’m considering becoming a vegetarian again. Between the fact that I do actually get ill from eating some forms of animal product to the fact that there is a health benefit to being a vegetarian for me to the rising cost of food prices in the supermarket, I’m definitely looking into this one. This time, I’m going to do my research and find the appropriate methods for me to do so.

 

I’m dyeing yarn now as a hobby. This is part pain reliever/part stress reliever and it works on both fronts. Thus far, I’ve managed (with the help of the Maternal Parental on two of the four ounce dyes) three hanks and one cake of four ounce yarn in Lion Brand’s Fisherman’s Wool, in addition to the two cakes of four ounce yarn I dyed previously. I’ve also dyed a hank of Cascade 220 Superwash and a hank of Red Heart’s Heart and Sole Sock yarn.

 

Cascade 220 Superwash

Red Heart’s Heart & Sole

Lion Brand’s Fisherman’s Wool

Lion Brand’s Fisherman’s Wool

Lion Brand’s Fisherman’s Wool

Lion Brand’s Fisherman’s Wool

 

 

The end result of the four ounce dyes will be a sweater. I don’t know what I’m going to do with the Cascade and the sock yarn.

 

 

Starting next week (I hope!) there will  be Basil and Spearmint in the Aerogarden. The tomatoes are making me sneeze entirely too much to hang around for much longer. Plus, they’re coming to the end of their cycle. I got another good crop of tomatoes off of them but it is time for them to go.

 

 

The Basil I’ll be growing will be Genovese, Cinnamon, and Lettuce Leaf. In addition to this, I’ll be growing Spearmint. I really have missed growing it and look forward to having it in my room again. I’m also going to attempt growing Lemongrass again. Hopefully, it will thrive with the hot summers we tend to get nowadays even in my window.

 

 

Until the next time, have a safe and fantastic journey around the Sun. Take care, my friends.

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Testing My Balance

I’ll be the first to admit that, when it comes to knitting and crocheting, I’m not stretching myself nearly enough for what I know my capabilities could be.

One example of this is Continental Knitting. I have been meaning to switch over for years but have always found some excuse as to why I needed to knit English style.

No more excuses.

The next knitting project I start will be done Continental or will not be done at all. I’m going to make sure it is something repetitive and simple so I don’t frustrate myself too much but I need to get the practice in so I can properly adjust my tension.

 

I have a few contenders in the running. In no particular order:

 

1. Rye by Tin Can Knits
2. 198 yrds of Heaven by Christy Verity
3. Easy Brioche Baby Blanket by Yay for Yarn Patterns
4. Pine Forest Baby Blanket by Ingrid Aartun Bøe

 

Of course, all of this is coming after Camp NaNoWriMo and after the completion of my sweater and socks.

 

However, first I must get past this baby blanket. I’m going to knit on it every day from now until the 31st of March, for no less than four hours per day, until it is completed. This will be quite an entertainment as I’ll have just woken up during the wee hours of the morning when working with knitting needles…near my eyes.

 

That’s about it really. Nothing much else has been happening aside from my twin tomato plants developing sentience and demanding to be fed.

 

Until the next time, have a safe and fantastic journey around the Sun. Take care, my friends.

Procrastination Station

In a world where pain runs the show…

 

Hello all. It has been some time since I last posted. I’ve been in some measurable amount of pain over the past few months and it all finally came to the point where I had to see a specialist. For months now, I’ve had bilateral Plantar Fasciitis. I can definitely attest that this is not a fun thing to have. I went from walking two to four hours a day in the morning to screaming and crying bloody murder upon standing. Needless to say, I’ve been spending a lot of time utilizing my rest mode function. Which has exacerbated the weight issue which has, in turn, exacerbated the Plantar Fasciitis issue. *headdesk*

 

I’ve been in so much pain that a lot of complex things have fallen by the wayside in favor of less complicated subjects. I’ve picked up yarn dyeing when I should be knitting a lace blanket. I’ve been doing a lot of horizontal reading when I should be vertical and writing. I have sorely neglected the upkeep of my plants, my sweater is on hiatus and my studies have dropped off considerably as I have to be vertical for a good portion of those tasks.

 

After the second visit to my physician, she could see that I was fed up with this whole thing and gave me a referral to see a podiatrist. It was worth it going to get some temporary relief from the pain. The good doctor taped my feet up and, until yesterday evening, it was working like a charm. I hardly felt the pain. I was diagnosed with Bone Spurs which are causing the Plantar Fasciitis injury. Basically, the bone spurs are irritating the tendons. The next step from here is to take some NSAIDs to relieve the pain. If the NSAIDs don’t work effectively, it’ll be time to get more radical. *ominous music*

 

Enough about my feet.

 

This is what I’ve managed to get done on the blanket since the last posting. I am presently one row shy of one complete pattern repeat completed. I really like this pattern because, unlike the next mentioned pattern, I don’t need my glasses for it. 

 

 

I’m also making socks. This is a Kate Atherley pattern I came across on Ravelry a while ago. It is pretty much my go to pattern to fit my gigantic feet because it is sized all the way up to men’s sizes and I wear a men’s 9.5/43cm. I’m making four at a time on one 60” Size 2.75mm circular needle. With the exception of the inevitable tangles, all is going well. I need some new socks. I’m calling them Eris and Harmonia.

 

 

I have also been knitting on my Flax sweater. The body is complete. I’ve tried it on and it fits. All I need to do now is knit the sleeves and weave in the ends. The picture below is me binding off in pattern. Between needing to finish the blanket and the sudden heat wave a couple of weeks ago, I put this sweater on hiatus for a bit.

 

 

In addition to this, I have been teaching myself how to dye yarn. Thus far, I have two cakes I’ve dyed myself. These colors are called Redshift and Decomposition of Light. The yarn is Lion Brand’s Fisherman’s Wool.

 

There is also one collaborative effort done with the Maternal Parental. No name as of yet. The yarn is Cascade 220 Superwash.

 

 

As if that weren’t enough for my plate, I’ve got even more planned for the months of March and April. I’ve got a few classes I’m planning on attending, feet willing. I’m also doing Camp NaNoWriMo. I got to fifty-thousand plus words on my story last November but I didn’t complete it. I’d like to set aside time to work on it specifically. Camp NaNo seems like a good opportunity to do that. I’m going for five hundred pages of writing. Hopefully, I can get that done.

 

I have to go now. Food is being called for and I am being summoned for its preparation. Until the next time, have a safe and fantastic journey around the Sun. Take care, my friends.

Prune, Write, Knit, Grow

Over the past few days, I’ve been continuing the clean up effort I started regarding my blogs and journals. After more than sixteen years, I’ve finally deleted my Livejournal and Deadjournal accounts. I’ve also deleted all my old posts from my surviving InsaneJournal as they’re not really reflective of where I’d like to go in life. So, I am starting from scratch as far as the InsaneJournal is concerned. I have also added a Dreamwidth account to the mix.

 

I’ve also managed to write in my hand written journal for a change. That was quite the experience after so long without writing in it. Hand writing practice. It is a thing. To give you some idea of how long the stretch between entries is, the last journal entry was from August of 2016. I fully intend to keep up with my writing this time around. I want to keep a few journals. One for writing, one for self improvement, at least one for languages, and one for personal stuff. That’s not counting the online journals and blogs.

 

I have a cousin in gestation. My cousin with whom I share a birthday is expecting a baby on or around our mutual birthday. So, I am going into crafting overdrive in making her a plethora of items. My intentions are to make at least two (maybe more) baby Flax sweaters, the Lacy Chevrons Baby Blanket, a toy of some kind, and, perhaps, a second crocheted blanket. In addition to this, if I have the time, I’ll finish the never collected Soft Purple Baby Blanket I was making in 2014.

 

In the realm of growing, my tomatoes are growing and maturing in the Aerogarden. Plant two may need to be cut back as it is getting leggy but Plant One is growing quite well. It even has a number of maturing fruit growing on it right now. My other plants, the Snake plants, Spider plants, and Pineapple are all doing excellently as well. I’m not sure when or if the Pineapple will grow a Pineapple fruit but it is now nearly three feet in diameter.

 

The one thing I would love this year that didn’t occur last year would be for me to get the garden plot I signed up for. I really want to grow different fruits and vegetables not only for my own household but for family members, friends, and people in need of fresh produce. At present, I have to take public transportation to the nearest market about twenty minutes from my home as the bus rides. The nearest community garden is slightly closer and much less travel time. My plan is to get a wagon and hike it home once the produce starts growing. Either that or save a lot of carfare for cabs, which in truth might be safer given that the roads near where I live and near the garden site don’t have sidewalks.

 

Though, at this point, all of this is mere speculation on a fantasy. I have no garden excepting my potted plants and Aerogarden.

 

I need to wake up so I can get back to knitting. I’ve been quite ill over this past few weeks with various colds/flus etc. I am now, thankfully, recovering.

 

Now, to get into this knitting. Until the next time, have a safe and fantastic journey around the Sun. Take care, my friends.

New Year, New Stuff

Some changes are afoot here. I’m going to be deleting some things, expanding on others, streamlining a few things, while creating some new content.

 

First the new stuff. I’ve been fascinated with the German language for some time and I’ve been on and off attempting to teach myself this language since I was ten years old. I am finally at the point where I feel comfortable (Read: Brave) enough to make attempts at posting in German and English on a separate blog. I am specifically separating the language blog from this one so as to keep me from backsliding into English when things get rough or I forget a word. I am, effectively, being hard on myself.

 

The name of the blog is IchbineineTomate’s Practice Blog and I am behind on my posts thus far. I need to allocate time in my day to do the dual language posting.

 

Onto the deletions and also expansions. For some time now, I’ve maintained the RIDigitalFic InsaneJournal under the premise that it was my story blog. In truth it has become my story tomb and refuge. I don’t post my stories elsewhere because I have a “safe harbor” in which to anchor when I’m feeling particularly low in self-esteem regarding my writing abilities. I may not be the best writer out there but I’m also not the worst. I won’t improve my skills hiding my stories in a remote corner of the Internet behind F-lock. Some stories that have/had promise have been stagnating while others either fizzled out or never got a healthy start because I’m too afraid to put myself out there. That changes this year. RIDigitalFic is going. Any stories on there will be polished and posted to story sites, any fragments will be worked on before being posted, and the journal is going bye bye.

 

More on expansions: I have been neglecting my YouTube channel greatly. While it isn’t the end of the world that I’m not posting endless videos on the growth rate of plants in my Aerogarden, I did promise to do more on YouTube and a promise is a promise. In truth, my channel will likely be a lot of different things. I’ll try to keep a general theme but I’m not making promises. A few of the things I am interested in are Knitting, Crocheting, Writing, Reading, Gardening, Doctor Who, etc. So, you can expect something in the realm of those topics. The funny thing is, I’m not doing this for the views. Rather, I’m doing it to create something artistically viable. Hopefully, I’ll get a garden plot this year so I can move beyond my room for filming locations. Yays!

 

Also hoping to get a sewing machine as I’m interested in taking that up again. The Brown Battle Beast was not the right fit for me and went back to another family member. I’m looking more for something that’s compact and computerized. All in good time.

 

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have rather a lot of crocheting and knitting to do. Until the next time, have a safe and fantastic journey around the Sun. Take care, my friends.

I’m Baaaaack….

It has been some time since I last posted here. NaNoWriMo was and still is a success. I’m still writing my story. Though there isn’t the pressure to finish within a month like there was previously. I’m seriously considering participating in Camp NaNoWriMo when it comes up. I’ll have to read more into it.

At this point, I’m barely a third of the way into it and I’ve got so much more to write. I’m hoping I’m up to the task as it is building up to be quite a good story.

Among other things, namely my sweater. I’ve been sporadically working on that since the end of NaNoWriMo and have made some progress in the length of the body. I’ve added another cake of yarn to the Mir Ist Kalt sweater and caked the rest of it for processing as needed. I’m hoping to get this thing finished before the end of the year but, knowing my notoriously slow knitting, it doesn’t seem likely.

At this point, that’s the only project I’m working on as I wind down from the stress of November.

During my hiatus from the blog, a few things happened. I found my old hat and scarf set, so no immediate need to make a new set. I won’t freeze in the descending chilly weather.

 

I also managed to finally get my glasses. It is great to finally see things again without using my manual zoom function or having blurry vision. I also took the Sweet Pickle Organic Peppers out of commission. They’ve been replaced by Mega Cherry Tomatoes. Let’s see. What else? Gave one of the pineapple babies away and it is being cared for very well. My home got new windows. Yadda Yadda Yadda.

 

I’ve also been social. I’ve been going to *shock*gasp*awe* events held at local establishments like the Libraries. Finally, I am learning from the Khan Academy and Duolingo again.

 

I’m doing the Computer programming section and struggling through programming languages. I think I’m starting to get an inkling of it. However, only time, practice, and more practice will help me. Right now, I’m working in JavaScript but my ultimate goal is to learn Python.

For Duolingo, I am, of course, taking German. It is remarkable to me how much I’ve retained. I took to the app like a fish to water. My language level may be Beginner/Basic but I retain the words very well. Next step, an academic course in the language.

 

That’s about it. Until the next time, have a safe and fantastic journey around the Sun. Take care, my friends.

NaNoWriMo 2017 Participation

Greetings All,

 

This is my formal big announcement (as opposed to the small one on my writing journal) that I’ll be participating in NaNoWriMo for 2017. Year after year, I only manage to get to the fifty-thousand-word threshold before losing steam. My problem is usually one of a far too complicated world for a month’s worth of writing. One story, in particular, Forsaken Paladins, has forty-seven directly referenced characters. That’s not counting the *spoiler alert* attacking or defending forces. The next year’s story is much the same. I plan on finishing both, I just need to make the time. Hopefully, there will be the time in December.

 

This year, I’m trying something different. I’m using a minimum of characters and I’m changing genres completely. I am so far outside of my comfort zone. Previously, I was writing Fantasy and now I’m writing a Romance. Well, we’ll just see how this goes. Shall we? I don’t know the first thing about writing one of those things. Erotica, sure. That’s easy enough but Romance…drawing a blank.

 

Nevertheless, I’m going to try because to not try isn’t going to get me anywhere at all. If I fail, at least I can say I did try and put forth my best effort in the process. If I succeed, then I’ll have a usable Romance novel on my hands. Maybe I could flog it!

 

I’ve put the Mir Ist Kalt sweater on ice until after I’ve gotten past the fifty-thousand-word threshold. Hopefully, that will be the ending of this year’s novel. If not, I will pick up knitting the sweater once I have achieved that goal. In the meantime, I am knitting a temporary Winter hat for myself due to misplacing my Crocheted Mexicana Rainbow hat. The hat I’m making now is nothing more than a transitional hat and won’t be worn long because I have a truly epic hat in the planning stages.

 

The hat currently on the needles is based on the Beanie 212 pattern and is being knit using Lion Brand’s Fisherman’s Wool in the Natural colorway. The hat I will be making in a few weeks is the Nomad Hat and Scarf, designed by Kat Coyle. I have at least five different colorways going into this hat when it is finally knitted up. Though, Kat Coyle’s hat is for weeks from now when my sweater is finished. For now, I am only working on one project and that is Beanie 212. It is getting cold out and I really need a hat.

 

Anyway… Lots to do. Things to plan and a hat to knit.

 

Until the next time, have a safe and fantastic journey around the Sun. Take care, my friends.