No knitting or spinning pictures tonight.  I finished the first Solstice Slip sock, but the second is, for some reason, smaller than the first.  There will be ripping.

However, now I have the pleasure of finding out that the dryer is broken.  You press the button and…nothing happens.  I’ve checked the breaker, the plug, the door latch.  I’ve kicked, and I’ve held down the button as the Whirlpool site suggested.  The button thing, not the kicking.

It started up for a few seconds when I started hitting the button in frustration, but soon petered out.  I have a feeling that I’m going to be getting some knitting time in at a laundromat soon.  If I can figure out where one is…

Next post, there will be a picture of the best spindle ever.  It’s the only thing keeping today from being a complete wash.

2006 was not a good year for me. Probably evident in the low blog volume. And, honestly, the lack of knitting volume. Anyone like a list of FOs for 2006?

1. Jaywalker Socks
2. Dublin Bay Socks
3. One cotton dishcloth, in a revolting series of colors that I never wove the ends in on and have since lost
4. Jayne Hat (My favorite project ever, honestly)

I spent the largest part of 2006 depressed. Don’t want to get out of bed, crying at the drop of a hat, life is miserable depressed.

I’m feeling a great deal better now, most of the time. I have wonderful friends who push me into taking care of myself. I have a great psychiatrist, and now an equally good therapist. And I have a loving family. (Yes. Yes I am tearing up while writing this. I’m so grateful for you all).

Not every day is better. I still have times where I don’t want to do anything, but they get less and less. Honestly, the thing I want to say most is this: If you are suffering from depression, or know someone who is, find a good doctor. I’ve seen a psychiatrist before, but not one that I really got along with, and that really hurt my progress. I spent six years with the worst parts of my problems undiagnosed, and on an incorrect dose of medication.

Something else that’s important to me: You hear stories of the horrors of anti-depressants. I’m not doubting they happen, honestly. But something I don’t think is often heard is when they help. Too often someone tries one (if at all) from their family doctor, has a side-effect, and gives up on the whole class of medication. Please, don’t, if you need help. The first one my family doctor put me on was awful for me. However, now that I’m on the correct dosage of the proper medication, it’s amazingly different.

I don’t want stigmas to interfere with anyone feeling better. You wouldn’t feel guilty about having the flu, you shouldn’t feel ashamed of mental disorders, either. So, to show I’m not ashamed, I’ll disclose my own issues.

For the longest time last year, agitated depression ruled my life and made everything else seem minimal. However, under that I have agoraphobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. But I can and will learn to live a good life, even if it’s hard. There’s no reason not to.

For anyone. It just takes help. And there’s always someone out there willing to help. It’s scary to take the first step, but it gets better. Trust me.

*hugs all*

If there’s anyone out there still reading, there will be knitting content next post. Including my first FO of 2007, and my current WIP. Excited?

Just made a large move. From one web host to another, and from MovableType to WordPress. We’ll see how it goes. But that’s why things look different now. I’ll still be playing with it for awhile.

Please, please, let the RSS feeds forward *this* time.

I know, I’ve been missing lately.  It’s been a bad few months, but things are starting to get better.  I hope.

Without boring everyone with the details, I’ll just let you all know that depression sucks.  I’m under a doctor’s care, and I’m starting to be me again.

And, for putting up with that, there’s this picture.  What could I be knitting?

Shh.  Yes, I’m sneaking back in.

So, Mike and I are in the car other day, discussing Pokemon.  Because isn’t that what two adults do while driving?  Ahem, anyway…

He turns to me and says, "You know, you never know *what* Jigglypuff was singing about.  For all we know, it could be about how she was going to pop a cap in some punk’s ass."

There’s just no comment to make to that. 

Hey, folks.  Just a note that I won’t be posting for awhile.  Life has blown up, and I need to take care of things.  I’ll be back, don’t worry.

Okay, so I have a reason why I haven’t updated. Knitting content is included. I promise!

My hard drive decided to start going back, and it needed replaced. If you’ve ever done this, you know it’s a complete pain in the ass. I *think* I’m back to where I was before with most things. We’ll see.

Also, things in SWG are kinda uneasy. For those who don’t play online games, I’m part of a fairly good-sized group of people, commonly known as a guild. People generally join guilds to make playing more fun, make friends, etc. You can do more fun things if you have people to go play with, since these kind of games are generally designed so that most things are designed for groups to do.

Unfortunately, in SWG, there’s not a lot to actually *do* that hasn’t been done many, many, many times. This isn’t a problem for my guild, Total Eclipse, since we’re what’s known as a role-playing guild. In other words, we all have characters in the game, and we try to “live,” for lack of a better word, in the Star Wars world while we’re playing. So our characters don’t talk about things like what’s on TV, or our real life jobs, or whatever. They might discuss what they do for a living, since they’re separate people. Or whatever their hobby is, or what’s going on with people they know, or the war. (It’s Star Wars, after all!)

At this point, you all probably think I’m insane and should be carted off somewhere. You’re probably right. However, it’s great fun, and generally lets you forget real life problems, at least for awhile. And it beats “Let’s go out and kill Tuskens again!” It is, however, extra work on top of all the standard work that guild officers would do.

Let’s face it. Any time you’re responsible for a group of people, there’s work. Some of it is what my friend Thirteen would call “cat herding.” Just getting people to do the right things at the right times, for the good of everyone. There’s things like inventory and finances, and just keeping track of things. I have spreadsheets for all different kinds of things in the game.

I take the majority of the work. I’m the guild leader. And, going into this, I knew it would be work. I don’t mind at all. TE is an incredibly great group of people, and I’m honored to be trusted like I am. However, I can’t do it all myself, and so I have some officers. Unfortunately, I lost two of them last night. One of them was Mike, who was my Executive Officer.

Yeah. So…stress. I’ve gone from having four officers to two. And one of those two is out of town at the moment. So…a bit of panic on top of the stress. We’ll get through it. As I said, it’s a great group of people, and I love them all. They all understand that I’m stressed and have jumped to help out wherever they can. I love them all. I really do. I’m happy to count almost every member of TE as a friend, and our new members will be friends in time, I’m sure. But it’s affected my knitting, in that it’s hard to hold needles when you’re pulling your hair out.

However, I did manage to finish the Dublin Bay socks. I’m rather happy with them, but I’m starting to think I’d like to get hold of some size 0 needles that won’t snap when I look at them funny, because I’d like to see how I’d like a tighter gauge.

And, without further ado, pictures.

Odd perspective, I know. Picture taken by my webcam, which sits on top of my monitor. Trying to get both feet in the picture was a bit difficult. And my desk is relatively clean there. Sad, isn’t it?

I do love the little lace pattern up the side of the leg. Enough that I shaved my legs just for these pictures. Heh. Yes, you guys can feel loved.

Been too busy to post lately, and now my camera’s broken. So no pictures of the lovely final package from my SP, Gina. A copy of the SnB Design Journal, a copy of Simply Knitting, a pocket calendar and stitch markers. She is simply the best SP ever!

You can, in fact, jury-rig a muffler using sock yarn. At least, long enough to get your car to the shop. *sigh*

And thankfully. Not terribly strong, as I’ve spen the past few days as the guest of Inova Fairfax Hospital. After a bunch of tests, IV fluid, and such, the diagnosis is that I was suffering from viral gastroenteritis. I ended up staying a day longer than the doctors thought I would, since I was incredibly pale and weak when they were originally going to discharge me, and I’m glad I didn’t come home Wednesday.

I am very grateful that Mike took me to Fairfax instead of our local hospital, even if it’s a much longer drive. Whereas I’m used to a several hour wait in the lobby to even get triaged, Fairfax had me in triage in minutes, and when the triage nurse saw my heart rate (160), immediately had me down for an EKG and in a bed. While the rest of things weren’t quite that efficient, it made a big difference.

You can all forgive me, though, if I’m still vaguely amused at the doctor (he may or may not have been a med student - they had some around me, as I wasn’t in any huge danger or whatnot) who kept trying to ask me questions while under the influence of Phenergan, which causes both drowsiness and confusion. I’d close my eyes and start to drift, and he’d ask if the light was bothering me. Two days running. Heh.

Anyway, time to nap again.