Blah... and some yay :)

Suddenly got a annoying feeling... Suddenly I'm sad and very nervous, although I don't know why. I guess it could be a guilty concience for just ordering a few new tatting shuttles (I really can't help myself when I find brands that I don't already have!). Heh. And my biology exam is in just a week! I don't usually get nervous until the day before or something, but it's an oral exam, and that makes everything a lot worse. I can be very confident on a written exam if I'm a little unprepared, but on an oral exam I feel like dying no matter how hard I've studied. My mind goes blank and I stutter a lot. Utterly useless :( Good news is that my troublesome infection seems to be gone, and I feel a lot better now :) I've lost about three weeks of study time because of the troublesome infection, but I think I've managed to catch up most of the work the last few days... Exhausted!

Or I could just be hungry :p Will go home and have dinner in a few minutes, and hopefully things will improve :) Tonight we get visitors for a Warhammer RPG session, which means lots of crochet time for me, hehe. Perhaps my second Great Big Firefly will finally get his wings today? :)

Excuses, excuses...

Just thought I'd post a little something about why I've been gone so long.. There are two main reasons. One is that I've become completely hooked on tatting since this summer, so I started a tatting blog to have a place to show off the things I make and buy (there has been some serious shuttle shopping this fall!) because there is just so much of it, and I didn't want to clutter up this blog completely :) This place is mainly for crochet, hedgehogs (of course!), some random craftiness and bits of my life.

(Warning: Long story ahead! Skip to the last paragraph if you're not interested...)

The other reason is that I've been sick for a while. I think I mentioned in the Pumpkin post that I had some wrist pains a few weeks ago, so I stopped crocheting and tatting for a few days as soon as the pumpkins were done, and the pain went away. A few days later my right breast started feeling really warm and sore, and then I found some lumps, so I immediately went to the doctor to check it out. I figured it was an infection of some sort, and I really thought it would be easy enough to get a prescription of antibiotics and be done with it. But nooo... The doctor examined me for about four seconds and told me I had something called Fibrocystic breast disease/disorder (or something), which was fairly common and harmless. And there was nothing to be done about it other than wait until it went away. I was sceptical at first, but then another doctor came and took a blood test to check for infections and the test came back negative, so I finally believed the doctor. He gave me a referral to get a mammogram and/or an ultrasound to confirm what he suspected, and then I went home, happy that it was nothing serious.

Curious me went home and looked up the condition online and read all about it. Pain was normal... So when the pain started getting worse, I didn't think much of it - I was going to get it looked at soon anyway. Or so I thought... The clinic that received my referral managed to lose it in a pile of papers or something, so I didn't get an appointment until two weeks later. By then my breast was swollen and red (the redness appeared the last two or three days before), and there was no way I was going to let them squish it in the mammogram machine of horror! The doctor took one look at it and said I didn't need to :) He did the ultrasound and said it was an infection that needed immediate treatment, and he made an appointment for me at the hospital the next morning.

I don't want to get too graphic with the rest of the story - let's just say it includes getting stabbed with a VERY large needle (twice!), and then a scalpel when the needles didn't work... The first treatment only made things worse, despite me chewing antibiotics like candy, and the second treatment just wasn't enough. Now I've been to the hospital five times in the past week, and finally it seems to be healing up nicely. Got a week left of Penicillin and going back for a check-up next Thursday, and that's it :) Crossing fingers...

Whew! Long rant. Hope I didn't make you queasy... Now onto something more pleasant: I've done some yarn shopping today! Feeling that much better :) Got more yarn to make some new Great Big Bugs. Progress is slow with the one I'm currently working on - I've lost count of how many times I unraveled it - so perhaps it is best to do something else in between. After my wrist started acting up I've been taking it slow with the crocheting - only doing a few rounds a day - so if you get bored with the silence in this place and want to see what I've been up to you could always check out my tatting place :)

Pumpkins!

Here are two pumpkins I've made over the last few days. The small one is for PlanetJune's Fall CAL, and the big one is for Itsy Bitsy Spider's Pumpkin Patch CAL. 

I almost couldn't finish them because of wrist pain, but I only had the stems left, and I decided to do them anyway. Carefully, and only one stem a day :) I think the pain (beginning tendonitis) is because I've mostly been tatting for a long time now, and the sudden and intense crocheting was suddenly very straining on my wrists...

PlanetJune's pumpkin is crocheted with a lovely soft acrylic yarn (Idena Twins, now unfortunately discontinued) and crochet hook 4.5mm. The pattern was easy to follow and the pumpkin could easily be made in a few hours :) I had plans for making a couple of the Pocket Amis as well (the witch and ghost), but because of my wrists I think I'll be satisfied with just the pumpkin. I would really love to make more of those and line them up in the window for Halloween :) We'll see how it goes... The big pumpkin was crocheted with the same bulky wool yarn I use for my Great Big Bugs, also with a 4.5mm hook:

This pumpkin could easily be mistaken for an ordinary pumpkin, albeit a very pale one... Let me tell you that he is not :)

This is Archie. He is a very special little albino pumpkin who needs glasses because his eyesight is a little poor. He feels like all the other pumpkins are looking at him and teasing him for his glasses. Not cool! If anything, glasses make you smarter, and your nose doesn't look so naked :) Archie is a really sweet little guy who's going to be an ophthalmologist when he grows up. He has one really good friend, and they stick together like - well - pumpkins! 

Have a good weekend, and don't make fun of people (or pumpkins) with glasses! :) (In case you are wondering - yes, I was inspired by this post..)

CALs and give-aways and stuff

First of all, I really need to thank Greenpixey for the lovely prize I won from her give-away in July. Thank you! What I won was a little heart shaped tin of mint candy to give to my boyfriend :) 

Also in the package was a surprise that I decided was just for me :p A yummy bar of milk chocolate! It was gone within minutes, hihi :)

The package arrived several weeks ago, but I waited to post about it since the mints were going to be a surprise, and I'm not sure whether my bf reads my blog or not. And then, of course, I forgot... I remembered to post about it now because my boyfriend came home from the library the other day and gave me the empty tin to keep little treasures in :)

I'm currently participating in another give-away that (hopefully) has not ended yet. At Artikaur's blog you can enter to win a ball of pretty blue crochet/tatting thread:

I think the give-away will end in a few hours (some time after midnight in my time). Hope I win - my thread stash is not big enough yet! Perhaps it never will be...? :p

So, the CALs... Well, I never got any further on my alpaca for PlanetJune's summer CAL :( I feel really bad that I got the pattern cheaper than I normally would, and then I never had time to make it... The CAL has now ended, and you can see all the finished alpacas and violets HERE.

Finally, there's a new CAL that's just about to start - a halloween themed fall CAL at Itsy Bitsy Spider (who also hosted the Great Owl CAL earlier). This time we're making pumpkins :) 

We are to decorate the pumpkins however we want, and at the end there will be a contest with a prize. Whoever makes the coolest pumpkin wins! I have to concrete ideas for my pumpkin yet, but I'll come up with something as I crochet along :)

Happiness is a new tatting shuttle - or seven :)

My mother has been visiting us since Sunday. Today we went shopping together - among other things for more yarn for a new Great Big Bug :) Just because we had time we stopped by another little yarn store to look at fancy yarns. I have no money right now and had no plans of buying anything, but when I suddenly came across tatting shuttles, I just had to get them! There were even two kinds, and I naturally had to get both :)

The shuttle on the right is a pretty blue Milward with a crochet hook on the front and a removable bobbin. It came with an extra bobbin, but I'm not sure if you can buy more bobbins separately like you can with many other brands. The post sticking out the back is originally for putting the bobbin on when winding thread on it, but - as with many other Aero copies - the bobbins don't fit on there... So it's pretty useless and only in the way when tatting. I think I'll try to "neuter" it, i.e. cutting off the post and filing the end smooth. Maybe I'll even decorate the shuttle with decoupage, I've seen people do it and it looks really cool :)

The one on the left is a very plain purple shuttle by Prym. It's just about 2 inches long, fairly narrow and very thin. And you can actually take it apart, something I don't really see the point in, except maybe to remove thread easily when you're done using it. It tends to make the two sides slide apart, though, and the tips aren't very tight anymore. Plus it is difficult to wind because you have nowhere to hold :/ I've seen somewhere that these are recommended for beginners, but I don't know why. Perhaps they are good for practicing adding new threads to your work, because the post is so short you can only load it with a little thread at a time...

If I were to recommend any shuttles to a beginner, it would have to be the Clovers, of which I got five in the mail yesterday :)

You can get them both with and without points. They are pretty small, just a little more than two inches long. They definitely hold more thread than the Prym :) The only "problem" with the Clovers is that those points are seriously pointy! I've almost drawn blood more than once since yesterday :p However, the points are great for joins and or unpicking stitches.

 

Other shuttles for beginners would in my opinion be the Sew Mates. 

They are just like the Clovers, only bigger and therefore holds more thread. They also come both with and without points. Here is a picture comparing the two brands:

I've sort of become used to the size of the Sew Mates, but they are still a little big for my hands. Plus the tips are a little uneven (cheaper plastic, perhaps), which makes them unsuitable for picking out mistakes as it tends to frizzle the thread. However, it makes them better for joins. You could easily fix them by filing them with a nail file or something :)

Now I'm waiting for a few more shuttles and a couple of books in the mail, so fingers crossed that the mailman (mailwoman in this case) brings me goodies tomorrow :)

I'm still here

Just thought I'd post a little something to let you all know that I'm still alive :) I just finished taking notes from a really long chapter about eukaryotic cells, and I thought I'd take a small break before I start doing the exercises. *sigh* I read through the chapter last week, but for some reason I didn't take notes. Don't ask why... Next week I plan to start on the math. I haven't done it sooner because I need to borrow a fancy calculator from a friend who won't arrive in town before Sunday :/ Hope I have time to do it all. I figure that if I don't spend more than two weeks on each chapter, I'll get through the whole book by the end of November. Fingers crossed :)

Though I really need to focus on my studying this fall, I hope I'll be able to get some crafting done as well (I have to do something, or I'll probably go insane). I'm almost done with a new Great Big Bug - a firefly - and I have another one started. Plus I'd like to make another firefly as a mate to the first one. I have only four legs left to make! I'll do my best to finish it by this week :) For the body I've used glow-in-the-dark yarn (yellow Bernat) for the first time! I ordered it from here, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to people ouside of US or Canada, the shipping cost was insane compared to the price of the yarn :/ I tried ordering another brand (white Nightlights) from another site, but they had problems with overseas shipping, so I didn't really have a choice. Of course I could have waited until they had their issues fixed, but you know me :p Anyway, here's a sneak peek at the firefly:

She's quite large, and the back end really does glow! I'm pretty pleased with this one :)

Oh, another thing... I've managed to get tangled up in a craft project with a deadline of  August 31st, so that naturally has priority right now. Not sure how much I can talk about it yet, so if you feel like I haven't posted much craftyness lately it's not because I haven't done anything :) I promise I'll tell you more about it when I know how it turns out!

And then there's the tatting :) I'm hooked! On the bus here I started a new project, and during the next two or three days I finished my first "big" item, a crocodile bookmark :) Thought it would be cool to put in my biology book. The pattern is called "Alligator bookmark" from the book Animal Bookmarks - A Tatted Zoo by Dianna Stevens, but I think it looks more like a crocodile than an alligator. I like crocodiles better :)

Bookmarks are both practical and fun to make, and I think it's becoming a new obsession :) I'm not at all a fast tatter, so I can only make a few rings and chains every night, but I've just finished a thistle bookmark from this pattern. It doesn't say how many colors to use, but I made mine in green and pink. Pictures will probably be up on Flickr and Facebook tonight or tomorrow :)

Home again :)

My summer holiday is now officially over, and I'm back home in my apartment. The dreaded busride turned out to be quite nice this time. Not really sure what's happened, but I guess the bus routes have been changed or something, because now I only had to change buses once, and not in one of the places it used to be. And all my luggage was still with me! Yay :) Here's a better picture of all my stuff (the previous one was taken with my phone):

Because of the weight, that black bag and the big suitcase are now ready for the scrapyard... Oh, by the way, more than half of that pile is YARN! Some stuffing and finished amis as well, but mostly yarn :) I guess you can imagine Dung Beetle getting tangled up in all that, with the Velcro on her legs! She'd stick to everything and frizzle up my yarn... So I solved the problem by putting her in a plastic bag. Not the most pleasant picture! But I can assure you she survived the trip and is now happily reunited with her dung ball :)

Bollan, Glyptodon and I were all very happy to come home, but I think Piggen and the kids were just as excited! They couldn't wait to show the family pictures and tell all the stories of their summer adventures :) (I will tell you all about it in a later post, I promise!)

Yesterday I got a lot of things done, but I'm still working on my CV and I haven't applied for any jobs yet... So many details to include! I don't even have all my records of school and previous jobs, so I'm not sure what to do about that... Looked all over the apartment today, but can't find them :( But at least I got to buy math and biology books yesterday. The biology book is so cute! It has a honey bee on the cover, because the book is called Bi 1, which is short for 'biology', but it's also a pun on the Norwegian word for 'bee' ("bi", even though "bie" is most common these days), plus the ring around the '1' sort of makes it read 'bio'. Very clever on so many levels. I think if I'd been high school age I would be embarrased for the people making this book, grownups weren't supposed to have humor back then :p Almost finished reading the first chapter already, and I love it! This is definitely what I want to do :)

Tomorrow I'll go out and talk to some councellor about jobs and financial support, because I won't get payed for the last week of work until the middle of September. That's a long time without food! Well... if my blog doesn't get updated in a while (within a week or two, I think - you can survive for a long time as long as you have something to drink!), I'll propably have starved to death or something :p

Bags are packed...

And I'm sort of ready to go home to my apartment. But only sort of. I hate traveling alone, especially by bus. Have tons of luggage and I have to change buses two or three times. Always worried I won't get everything with me, or that someone else will take my bags :/ They are locked and tagged, but still... And then the buses are so crowded this time of year, all the students coming to town at the beginning of the semester. At least I'll have things to pass the time on the ten-hour bus ride. Tatting shuttles wound with thread for a new project, yarn  & stuffing to make some Bug legs, and best of all, my new laptop has batteries to last at least six hours of music and movies :D Perhaps I even get to sleep some of the way, that will shorten the trip a lot.

But, when I finally get there with my 30+ kilos of stuff, I have to drag it with me virtually uphill all the way from the bus (can't afford a taxi on a Sunday), and the forcasts say it will be 24 degrees C and bright sunshine! Whew, think I'm going to die... At least Bollan and Glyptodon are anxious to go! Wish I could be carried home in a bag, too :) (Um, you know what I mean!)

When I get home I need to put together a proper CV and start applying for jobs. Really scary stuff. Worried I can only get crappy jobs, or that I won't be able to do the ones I do get. Maybe I can't find anything at all and end up on welfare or something... I know I can probably get a job as a cleaning lady fairly easily,  but I'm not sure if I want to have that as my first option. The cleaning itself is not that bad, but I've become allergic to the gloves that are used :( I've tried wearing cottong gloves inside the latex ones, but that only helps a little... 

Plus I'm no longer a university student. Was going to take a year off anyway when I couldn't begin a Master in Arabic this fall, but now I've decided to give up on languages & linguistics pretty much for good. It's all very exciting, and I'm pretty good at learning new languages, but I've come to realize that I'll never find a job with an education like that. I wouldn't survive as a teacher, getting a PhD also includes teaching and stuff, and that's pretty much all there is as far as I can see right now...

So, I've come up with a new plan. Since I'll be working for a year now anyway, I can just as well spend the time doing something useful, like studying! :p I've decided that if I go back to the university I'll study biology. To qualify for that I need to take some math and/or biology classes at high school level. I sent in an application to a school which has adult classes in the afternoon, but they were all full, so my only option is to try doing this by myself. Signed up for an exam in math and the beginning course in biology, and we'll see how it goes. Off to buy books tomorrow, and hopefully I get to spend most of next week reading biology :) 

Well, time to have some breakfast before I go! Ugh...