Saint Brigid of the Socks

Hmm, hope the title of this post doesn't sound blasphemous... But really, I am overwhelmed with the socks formerly known as just 'Brigid'. It may be because they're my first socks evah, or it may be because they fit like a, um, glove... It may be because by the second sock I'd figured out the hell turn. (Sorry, the spelling is staying like that now.) It may be because they're cute and cosy. It may just be because I feel like the proud new mother of twins...

But anyhoo, may I present my first pair of socks...

Cute, eh? (Feel free to say yes!) I took them on their first visit outside yesterday and they behaved very well indeed. I'm going to stop the baby analogy now to add that they were boot fillers so they didn't really see the light of day, but my tootsies were cosy and comfortable, which means they fulfilled their requirements!

Now, of course, I want to make MORE socks... You have to have a look at this wonder from the Tsarina of Tsocks. It's called 'Firebird' and I almost dribbled with sock-lust when I saw it for the first time. But I have to wait a while before it makes it out of the sock club and becomes available to the general public. Ah, me...

And talking of Ravelry... (There's a perfect logical explanation for the subject change in my head. Should you wish further commentary, then my head will be happy to help.)
...What an interesting few days it has been on the forums. There were some strops beheld and a business flushed itself down the tubes on one. There was a part of me that felt sorry for the person at the centre of the complaints, but it all came down to (IMHO) very shoddy customer service over a long period of time from the business in question.
It seemed it was a day of bad karma all round - full moon? Um, no - waxing crescent at the moment. Maybe a mass biorythmic energy flash? A sun-burst in Earth's direction? Maybe an international coffee outage? Who really knows, but on another forum a fire was flamed under a reputable small business owner, started by someone new to the forums. This was very quickly extinguished, as although the OP had a valid-ish complaint, he/she hadn't actually checked whether it was still valid. Which it wasn't. It all smacked rather distastefully of witch-hunt inciting. But then, if one was, wasn't the other? Perhaps, and I have to admit I'm not the one to judge, even if I am writing about it here... But it did make it a car-crashingly interesting day. Too interesting, really, as I think I spent most of the day on teh interwebz. Icanhazcheezburger.com has a lot of time absorption to answer for aswell.


Maybe I need to get a proper job?

But, knitting-wise, it is now time to start the Aoife (pronounced 'Ee-feh') jacket thingy that I've been drooling over since I saw the pattern on Knitty.com a month or so past... Oh, and Coco is still on the go, as are the mary-janes... Want to start a bag for my sis (but not naming it here in case she looks!) and maybe another bag for me... (Hah - I say 'maybe' like it's not already a certainty!) And there's that wire I bought up in Holland and ALL those pretty beads...

I'm just going to bask in the glory (and warmth) that is Saint Brigid for a bit first...

Help ma boab!

AARGH!! (Translation - WHEEEEE!)

This is a nightmare. (Trans. - this is fabulous!) I can't keep away. I can't stop fiddling. I can't stop fussing. Maybe this will be the last template incarnation, and I can get on with whatever I'm actually supposed to be getting on with! And I'm supposed to be getting on with learning some Mahler, learning Santuzza's aria (what?!), re-learning the Monteverdi, Luzzaschi and Rossi for the MERG dance performances, getting to grips with some new Mozart arias and finishing the Teddy for my best friend.

And not necessarily in that order.

But as addictive fun goes, I give this blogging lark 10 out of 10. (FYI - I decided to go with the black background as it's environmentally friendlier than a bright screen [less energy/power is used to show a dark screen], and it has nothing to do with my faffing about with what I think looks prettier! At all. Honest.)

So, I shall sign out, make some coffee, rev up the engine (warm-up) and start annoying the neighbours. Mind you, one of them seems to have a deep and intense need to loudly play his recordings of Romantic piano music at random times of the day, so I'm sure my screaming away will cause not an eyelid to bat.

But I might just check my emails first...

Fickle?

Well, am I? Fickle, that is... I just don't seem to be spending the same amount of time on Facebook any more (bien sûr, it would help if the site wasn't misbehaving...) Of course, that would be a good thing if I was doing something profitable or mind-expanding in its place, but I'm creating addictions to blogging, picture-sharing and widget-searching instead.

And it's fun!! I take back my many scoffings, my doubts and my prejudices. I've been reminded about a marvellous blog called 'The Stitch' on one of my favourite sites 'The Very Merry Seamstress'. This marvellous lady writes very wittily also makes and designs historical costumes. It's the stuff of dreams.

(Princess Elizabeth Tudor court dress)
I've only ordered one thing from her in all my years of slavering over her site, but on reading her jottings, it's good to be reminded of the plus points in all of this scribbling. (Sorry - typing. Oh I lament the rise of the keyboard and the demise of the dip pen - but that's for another day.)

But now I am going to have a game of Command and Conquer Red Alert 2. In that respect I am not fickle. I am slavishly devoted to it and have been since I bought it in 2003. No C and C Generals for me (hmm - do have it somewhere, though...) no C and C Yuri's Revenge, Counterstrike or Tiberium Wars... They tried to make me buy the latest ones, but I said no, no, no... (Wonder if that's copyrighted?!!)

Crivens!

It is now 2.22 in the morning.

It's all C's fault. She introduced me to the joys of knitting when we were playing in a Handel project in Germany. She then introduced me to the joys of the knitting website 'Ravelry'. Through that I have joined 'Librarything' to catalogue my extensive book collection and joined 'Flickr' so could upload my photos of wool and knitting projects. And I have started writing this after reading C's rather lovely and insightful blog. And this is after many an hour already spent on facebook!

And now it's 2.25 in the morning...

So, my books are all catalogued, I've uploaded and categorised my woollen things, I've joined some 'Ravelry' groups and written in response to some threads (boy, am I learning some new language options), played about with the settings and format of this particular site and spent hours with my computer photo studio making headers and footers! And there was I worried about not being able to 'share' on a blog! HAH!!

It is now 2.29 in the morning...

And I say verily again unto thee - it's all C's fault!