Depression

In the past few weeks I've gotten my ass handed to me by depression. I normally have low level depression at all times, but every 1-3 years I'll get a few weeks (1-8 weeks) of really bad depression.

I was looking stuff up on the internet about how best to self treat your depression &, as long as you aren't about to hurt yourself or others, one of the best things to do is to drag yourself around & kinda fake it. You should acknowledge that you feel like shit, yes, but then go about your day doing all the stuff that needs to get done. Do that in touch with your feeling bullshit, but then suck it up.

So I'm trying. I'm writing this useless post & I'm knitting a little everyday, I'm not canceling every appointment under the sun. I know in a few weeks no matter what I do I'll feel better, but maybe since I won't have let so any tasks & chores build up it'll pass sooner. I wonder if by letting so much not get done I'm creating an extra stressor that keep the depression here long. Who knows & by dragging my ass around this year instead of wallowing won't really be anything conclusive, but it beats crying in the corner.

Blue Sweater & Holiday Gifts

Still knitting on my blue sweater & while it's going slow it is still going.

I finished the last of my holiday gifts

I might still put some fringe on this, not sure.

Does this need a pom-pom or tassel on top? I just don't know.

365

I decided to do one of those 365 dealies, not one that does just 1 thing for each shot; like the people who do a photo of themselves every day or a certain thing everyday, but rather to do just random shots of my world everyday. I've got the photos over on my flickr & I'm not going to put all of them over here, but I thought every week-ten days I'd put up 2-4 photos in a single post that had been my favorites. So without further ado here are the favorites so far:

This is my aloe plant, his name is Spud (yes, I do name my plants)

The crabapple tree in my front yard

Didn't get it all done

I only had 6 hats to get done for the holidays & I only managed to get 5 of them done. Well I did get 6 done, but my word did I fail at gauge & it would need someone with a really big head for it to fit. I didn't get 3 of them in the mail in time either.

I did get my mother's best friend's mom's (did you follow that?) old knitting booklets. My mom's best friend doesn't knit she crochets; she's been holding on to these booklets because they are old & are a piece of her mom. She sent them to me because she knew I would love them & enjoy them. It made me really happy. I'll try to get some photos of them, there are some from the 50s & some from the mid-90s.

Oh me, oh my, where do I start?

Been a whole lotta crazy at my house lately as you may have guessed by my absence. There was some knitting done, but not very much. I've mostly been caught up in getting evaluations done for the girl-child through our school district. She's had some behaviors that spoke to me of being outside the common. She had about a billion tests & evaluations & in the end they agreed with my original opinion that she has Autism. She'll be doing some 1-on-1 work with the speech therapist to get some better communication skills & with the occupational therapist to get some more skills for writing & comfort being on swings & stuff. They will also help her work on "reading" people as she's not as good as she could be with that.

On the knitting front I'm still chugging away on my sweater; no pics it's been icky out here & the color photographs so poorly indoors. I did finish a hat I meant to get done back in Oct & the recipient (roommate's sister) adores it & had been harassing me for ages to get it done. It's a Capucine (Rav link too).

My sister passed away in Jan a few years ago. She had worn her earlobes stretched for at least 20 years. I have decided to stretch my lobes to have a visual maker on my body in remembrance of her. I'm up to a 14g-12g. I was up to a 12g, but had taken my plugs out to wear some dangles & when I went to bed I took the dangles out & forgot to put the plugs back in so I dropped a size overnight. I'm hoping they'll go back up to the 12g pretty quick.

Anyhow there's my mega-update.

☺

Blue Sweater Update

Going slow, but it's still going. Sorry the color is so far off.

My winter hat shall be

This one!

The color is a bit off, it's more green that the photo shows. I usually like to use no flash & natural sunlight, but early winter in the midwest doesn't really have good sunny days. The yarn is handspun & is a Merino/Silk blend. It was a treat to knit up & I've had the yarn for over a year & finally decided it was time to knit it. I always have trouble knitting up handspun, I'm worried if I mess it up then I will have wasted the spinners time & skill. I need to get over that attitude since I've still got about 1/3 of this skein left & a whole nother one that I'd love to make something else with.