No painkillers, and some Tai Chi

Yesterday, after a comment from Alex that maybe I was taking too many painkillers, I tried to tackle my migraine via natural remedies. So I drank lots of water, had some caffeine because I know I am addicted and my brain needs it, had herbal teas, used my migraine stick and played with the skull pressure points. What I normally do, but I did more of it, and without the help of painkillers to actually take the pain away.

Was I successful? It certainly dimmed the pain, but it was always there. I found that noises bothered me more than lights and the computer screen (which was good, because I still needed to work). I also felt fairly sad during most of the day. I know that the main reason for that was being told off when I was just trying to help, but being in pain couldn't have helped that.

I ended up just curling up in the sofa with knitting and a movie, Enchanted, and that cheered me up a little bit. And I am now half-way up the back of Sizzle, which is coming on very well, and very red.

Going to Tai Chi did make me feel a lot better. It lifted me, and it also made me the good kind of tired. I have noticed that I better at my Tai Chi classes the more depressed I am when I go. Being down makes me concentrate on the movements, and it makes me push through the pain (ok, to enjoy the pain, fine), and reach a bit further, hold my back a bit straighter, hold the positions a bit longer.
However, half way through concentrating on the pain because I am down, I change to concentrating to hold the position, and then I forget that I am low, and just feel the Tai Chi. And the water; I see water everywhere when I'm in class.

So I think this Tai Chi is helping. If only, it lifted my mood yesterday. It also helped to make me tired, and then I had the first half-decent night of sleep in several weeks. Sure, I am still tired, but not as much. It feels niiiiiiiiiice.

Links of the week, 03/08/2008

Oh noes, I', some minutes behind my arbitrarily decided schedule!
I normally write this up on Saturdays, but I went out yesterday, and had a lovely day, with private fireworks display included, so I forgot. And by private fireworks, I mean I had a lovely view from my balcony.

Twist Collective magazine

First issue of the twist collective magazine is up. I fell in love (and subsequently bought) with Wisteria, and plan to make it at some point, honest. I also really like their Houdini socks (yet another way to make sock heels) and their colour work, which I think I'm going to use soon in a capelet I'm going to make.

Lego Knitting Machine

Do I need to say more? Lego is awesome! I have no idea how knitting machines work, but I know this one is made out of Lego, and that makes it great.

Palette Generator

You can upload a picture to this little generator. It will pick up the colours of the picture, and generate a palette to use. You can pick the colours for a garment to use it as a memory of a particularly nice photo, and I thought it was a great way to immortalise a moment.

Bubbles!

Because I'm so mature, I still blow bubbles and chase them around. While I'm not sure bubbles are meant to be preserved, these pictures are beautiful, and capture the bubbleness that makes me so happy while I chase them.

A Galaxy Einstein Ring

The gravity of a galaxy is deforming the light we get from the galaxy behind it. Pure awesome.

Pictures from the sun eclipse

On Friday there was a sun eclipse. It was total only in Siberia and parts of China, so most people only got a bit of darkness. Here are some pictures of it. Notice that, when you see all black and the partial sun, that's not actually how it looks! Unless you get a total eclipse, a partial eclipse simply makes everything dark, as if it was getting cloudy, but getting colder. Still cool, though!

Lace camisole and Möbius (FOs)

Technical details
Ravelry project page
Pattern: Lace nightie (rav), by Carrie Bostick Hoge
Yarn: Rowan Luxury Cotton DK, in Marble
Needles: 4.00 circulars, 3.5 straights for the straps.
Notes: I wanted a summery lace camisole, and this fits the bill. I wasn't too sure until I saw someone else's in ravelry in which they had knit the back much higher, and it convinced me.
I knitted the straps with 3.5 mm straights (so as to have a tighter fabric that would stretch left) in a RS: p1, k2, p1; WS: k1, p2, k1.

I have, in fact, worn this out today, and it's been a great t-shirt! I might need to make the straps be a bit shorter, but I have really enjoyed it.



Detail:

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Technical details
Ravelry project page
Pattern: Prickle (rav), by Huan-Hua Chye
Yarn: Rowan Calmer, in Slosh (blue)
Needles: 6.0 mm circulars
Notes: Used Cat Bhordi's mobius cast-on, thanks to the power of Youtube: part 1 and part 2. Nonetheless, I still had to do it three times! Once I got the hang of it, though, the pattern worked very well. It was easy to memorise each row, so I didn't need to look at the charts for 160 stitches, which is quite a lot.

I have been wearing this to work, because my throat has been a bit funny, and it's been great to have. A good twist (hehe) on a neck warmer!



Look, it also dubs as a headband!

Yarn!

Hoooooot! Today was hot and humid and waiting for a storm.
The storm started about 4 or so, and quieted just when I went home. However, it didn't rain enough to cool down, just to get steam coming off the pavement (this might be and exaggeration) and make it even more humid. One of the most un-fun journeys I've had in a while.

It is raining quite a lot now, and it's considerably cooler and nicer, so I do feel again like dealing with yarn. Get Knitted was doing a sale on Rowan Classic, as they are not going to have it any more, and I went and took full advantage of that.

I don't normally stash, so all my yarn is going to planned projects. It was expensive to get it all in one go, but at least now I won't have to buy more yarn for a while, and it was much cheaper than it could have been.

Future projects are:
Emerald (rav)
Sizzle (rav)
Afternoon tea fingerless gloves (rav)
Assorted projects are like the knitted flower (rav), to for some accessories for my cousin's wedding (to which I really don't want to go, so at least I'll get some nice knitting out of it).

The blue cotton glace is to make a Tachikoma, as I have just finished watching Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. There is no known pattern for a tachikoma, though, so I'll free-crochet it, and then post a pattern. Tachikomas are sooooo cute, people will want to make them!

I also have 1 FO (the möbius cowl) and three nearly-FOs (the lacy summer tee, the black knitted flower, and the dice bag), hence my stocking up on yarn for new projects. I have also figured on what to use the yarn from my crap attempt (via which I learned that gauge *does* matter) at Isabella: Bottoms Up!

Links of the week, 29/06/08

It's hot outside. Normal people go out and play in the sun, and then go to work like lobsters on Monday. Me? I hide! Sun is hot. I might go out for 5-10 min to the balcony, and then it gets too hot and I have to go in. Sure, I'm a lovely shade of white, but I don't go re!

Anyway, as I am inside, drinking cold coke, here are some links for your perusal!

The Rebel Knitter's Guide (Guardian suplement)

Remember Mazzmatazz, and the Doctor Who patterns problems? (which might be on the way to a peaceful solution, without needing to take out the needles). She is the author of the Guardian's Guide to Knitting, out yesterday. Interviews and several patterns ahead.

NASA images

Space images will make me happy any time of the day!

Kitten Wars

Kittens will also make me happy. One day, I will have one.

Optimism software

Sadly, it's not a handy piece of software that I can upload to my brain and be optimistic. I wish. It is, however, a handy piece of software to track down moods, coping mechanisms, sleep hours, triggers, etc. The best thing is that you don't really have to think about it: most of it comes in handy ticky-boxes, so you get the options and can check them, rather than having to think from scratch about what was going on. I've downloaded the demo, and I'm trying and playing with it. If I find it very good, I will buy the full version at the end of the week, and keep using it! I'll let you know how it works out, but for now, you know it's there/

Recycling sweaters for yarn

Having been in the process of unravelling a store-bought cardigan that I wasn't wearing (for approx fingering weight cream cotton), I found this useful, especially to break the cardigan into pieces. Now, were that unravelling was as fun as knitting, I would have finished this months ago, and not still being about. Buy, my laziness aside, it's a good resource.

I hope there aren't too many lobsters around! If it burns too much, tomato slices, cucumber or even yoghurt will soothe your burning skin.