Is this the most boring knit ever?

Clapotis.





It's starting to look like one now, but I'm bored!



I want to knit socks...



...or some other small, instantly gratifying project.

Light at the end

I can see some light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm trying to slow down, while simultaneously trying to catch up with all the things on my 'to do' list and get on top of my job again.

This week I've been forced to slow down a little at the start of my day as a consequence of the contraflow section on the A689 road into Hartlepool. I sat there for 25 minutes, fuming and adding to my stress on Monday. Tuesday I took a different route and went up the main road into the top of the town. I used to drive this road everyday for my last job and I had forgotten how much I hated it.
Wednesday, I saw the light and went out through Seal Sands and along the coast. It's alonger drive, but takes me through the new Saltholme RSPB reserve

and Greatham Beck, where the seals live.

Then it's through Seaton Carew, past the newly restored art deco bus station and along the seafront to the Headland.

A nice start to a day when it isn't essential to arrive really early.

*****

Streamlined the 'to do' list into a 'to do this week or Monday' list. I put lots of things in the bin, delegated the things that were appropriate towards other people and spent yesterday working towards the surface of my desk.

Walking back to happiness

We've been trying to get a daily walk in again. I know that it helps to reduce my blood pressure and helps me unwind. Needed to be well wrapped up this morning around Hartlepool Marina.

Inside looking out.

I've been looking at some personality tests. No, not the kind I used to cheat at in Cosmopolitan when I was in my 20s, but this kind of thing: Jung Typology Test

Your Type is
INTJ
Introverted Intuitive Thinking Judging
Strength of the preferences %

44 25 1 67

This means I am:

• moderately expressed introvert
  
• moderately expressed intuitive personality
  
• slightly expressed thinking personality
  
• distinctively expressed judging personality

No real surprises there. Explains why I don't like parties and don't socialise much. Apparently I'm in the same sort of bracket as Hilary Clinton and Stephen Hawking. Who knew?

Introversion aside, I haven't been feeling too good lately. Just don't seem to have been able to shake the lurgy from before Christmas. I'm tired all the time and feel really run down. I'm anaemic and my blood pressure is elevated. I've been feeling quite feel stressed much of the time and feel easilly overwhelmed. My hormones are misbehaving too, so I'm having some gynae treatment and hopefully that will help.
It got so bad that I took three days off work last week, mostly because I was frightened by the scale of my blood pressure issues. I'm trying to tackle it all by resting when I need to, by eating well and getting some exercise. Hopefully, things will start to turn a corner soon.

Currently on the needles:

Unpattern top-down sweater for me. Making this in Marble, but not really enjoying it. Having got past the arm holes, I'm going to finish it.

Clapotis in Noro Kureyon Sock for me. I finally succumbed to the clapotis virus.





Currently on my bedside table:
Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett.


I love the Lancre witches.

Through the roof

Was at my GP's surgery for a minor gynae procedure this morning. Not very pleasant but not terribly traumatic. Had my BP checked afterwards:
230/170

Very traumatic.

Went home to lie down and think about it. I have to go back and get it checked regulary.

Knitting up the miles

As I mentioned, I'm trying to reduce my stash this year. Yesterday I dug some yarn out from one of the storeage boxes in the wardrobe. It was at the bottom, naturally. I'd almost forgotten about it, which means I need to look my stash in the eye rather more often.

Anyway, thanks to the technical features of Ravelry, I was able to work out, this morning over a cup of tea, how much yarn I got through in 2008.



13259.6m or 13.26km. For those of us who still speak in old money, that's 14500.87 yards or 8 and a quarter miles of yarn knitted up in 2008. I'm quietly impressed with myself.

If I can manage a similar yardage this year and avoid adding significantly to the stash (you will notice I don't say 'knit only from stash'...)it should chip away at it.

Welcome 2009

Happy New Year!



Like many people, we had a quiet night at home last night. Even j stayed in with us and then found most of his friends online just after midnight, so even the young were staying home.

If I could have been anywhere, I would have been at the Elton John Red Piano party at the O2. We watched bits of it on TV this morning and the £675 ticket experience, including being able to go onstage and gather around the piano, looked great. Lots of the party-goers were older than us and I saw some lovely sparkly cardis. Kate Thornton summed it up when she commented on how civilised it was that the ladies took their handbags with them when they 'invaded' the stage. 60 is definitely the new 40 and long may it remain.

It's freezing here - minus 2 degrees, according to the car sensor. J and I went for a walk round the marina this morning, but my nose started to freeze up so we came home for lattes. I cast on my third item for the Great Stash Down of 2009. I'm counting these two baby kimonos, finished off on New Year's Eve.





They are for the baby daughter of a colleague. The baby is due on January 15th, so I'm uncharacteristically ahead of myself. I will add some embellishment to the pink one and make some hats and booties to go with them.

My latest cast on is this cardigan. It will eat up all the bulky yarn in my stash and leave almost a whole storeage box empty.

You may have worked out, by now, that I have resolved to reduce my stash this year. It's part of a general thriftiness that I am trying to adopt. I am ashamed of the amount of food I throw away each week, uncooked. We eat too many processed and ready made things too. I am aiming to make some gradual changes to all of this waste. I will be very trendy too. Thrifty is the new black.