fred_mouse

• two more radiation treatments to go; I have a mild (and itchy) looks-like-sunburn across a roughly 20cm square running between my armpit and my midline
• the new medication I'm supposed to start after radiation is back ordered until May. need to contact the specialist on monday
• general body health alternating between 'ow' and 'fatigue'. but i'm getting some stuff done
• mental health - struggling with the cognitive load of daily treatments, but mostly chill.
• i have started the 'reading fiction' part of my project; the first book has a lot of details, but suffers from coming out in 2020 and thus is showing a lot of the pre chatgpt tropes surrounding AI
• I am knitting a tiny fifth doctor scarf as a decorative item; it is getting less and less accurate to the pattern as I go on. I only have six of the seven colours....
• reading? not much.
• walking home from the hospital? did it the once. have not had the spoons since. have been using the cane more than some.
• other exercise? bugger all.
• garden: birds have eaten all but one pomegranate. hoping that one gets ripe enough. guava are ~2cm across; I thought i had done a good job of thinning, but nope. have not thinned the feijoa even that much so argh.
• family: youngest has a job contract signed; to be starting in ?august.

Last weekend I got Eldest's quilt to the point that there is a 6x6 block section, which is now hanging on the wall. There are four more rows, being 24 blocks, that are to be made -- I had four of those done, so 20 to make. With the goal* of getting the top assembled by the end of the year I worked out that if I got two blocks done a week, by picking the fabric through the week and sewing one per Saturday/Sunday, that should be doable -- if I can maintain that rate, I'll be done by the 21st December, and then the uni will be on shutdown, and it is entirely reasonable to believe that I can assemble the rows (I might actually do some assembly ahead of that) and get it done.

I had some paper blanks to draw, which I did through the week (I was short four because of the mishap earlier with doing the margins wrong), and I've laid out three of the slightly odd ones. I sewed the first of those today, trimmed it, did a seam on the next, and declared that was enough. But it does put me ahead by a block and a half :) (the incomplete is a three pieces of fabric block, rather than a seven pieces of fabric block, so it is half done with a single seam. Yes, it is weird).

I had been underwhelmed with the selection of fabrics on the first block, but I trusted in the planning, and sewed them, and I'm really happy with the way they look. I might have to unpick the second one, because it isn't quite sitting right, but I might just trim it slightly differently.

I do have some other craft goals for the rest of the year, but if I only achieve one, this is the one that I want to have done. I have finished the second section of the brown / green blanket, I just have to cast on for the third (I'm picking up along the side, which is a new-to-me skill, and I am very much procrastinating. Going to go and lay it out now, and see if I can motivate myself to at least decide how many stitches I'm going to pick up :) )

* stretch goal: sandwich and start quilting; not plausible goal: bind / finish

The last week or so has had a lot happening, and apparently I've entirely failed to note any of it down. So, stream of consciousness dot points it is.

• skating today - Salchow preparation (this is an edge jump, rather than a toe jump, which I'm mostly noting for my own memory). Outside forward three turn on the foot one doesn't land on, making sure to pull up as straight as possible when going backwards; head turns from facing along front hand to along back hand (ie. still looking in the direction of movement). Then the landing foot comes to the ankle, straightens to parallel (hip needs to be lifted or the toe rake hits the ice), passes beside the foot, and then the supporting leg bends. This is as far as we got today, which is apparently usually two lessons; if we get this bit right then the next bit, which is the rotation into the jump position, will just happen, and then we 'just' waltz jump. There are three things I need to focus on (head/arm relative position, lifted right hip, don't let the toes on my right foot scrunch up because then I start to fall over) and I can do any two. Practice for next week is to be confident in my waltz jumps (I've done a few off ice, I will continue).
• Friday we went to the storage unit, filled up the back of the blue car with an assortment of craft containing boxes (I was looking for something specific, but I've forgotten what at this point. ETA: pink/cream/brown yarn that matches the current blanket; I found cream, but it is a bit bright. We then went to Spotlight and got bright pink yarn, failed to get 35mm velcro (options: 19, 25, 50), got stitch markers to replace the set that have vanished, and some grey yarn for Middlest to make a Mothman plushie). One box is the books needing repair; I've sorted through and binned a set that I declared too hard and not valuable enough to make the effort; I'm currently in the middle of cataloguing them and putting them back in the box. Another had more Cupcake and Beetle yarn, that has been documented and shelved (the Cupcake is going to be for me to do one of those ridiculous fancy crochet blankets). A third had a set of 'gradient' acrylic yarn (another For Me crochet pattern I've had put aside). Two more have the fabric for Middlest and Youngest's 21st quilts (for those now attempting to work out numbers, I'm nearly 3 years late for Middlest's 21st b'day and have about six months to get Youngest's done before it is late). I think the other two have various 'in progress' projects, which is why I'm now working on my fifth (or more?) project I've progressed since.
• today's project: the collected ends of yarn / skanky yarn are being assembled into a dog blanket for chaosmanor's new friend. It's currently about 18cm square. I'm doing approximately the same approach for assembling as I did for the cat blanket many years ago, which is to not worry about loose ends, to use the secure knot that I learned somewhere (or a variation that works) because the lumps don't matter, and to grab whatever is next in the pile, even if the weight is different (and I've got everything from a rather light probably-cotton through to a 12ply acrylic in the current pile). Two of the balls I've grabbed so far have turned out to be accumulations of multiple sections (recovered yarn, possibly) so I'm alternating those with other (longer) segments.
• hex patchwork is nearly ready to quilt. I had to cover some more blanks; those haven't been sewn in yet. I have the backing in the hoop, which means that I can put the in progress section over the top and see where the gaps are. Maybe tomorrow I'll get those sewn on? Goal was all the hexes sewn by last Friday, but that was before I added ~12 more; I have fewer than 12 to go.
• bag for chaosmanor that needs modifying (and for which the velcro is required) has had the machine sewing done, and I'm procrastinating on hand-sewing velcro because it hasn't been a good week for my wrists
• skating yesterday, 13-15 public session; with Middlest, their friend S (who is doing learn to skate, has the same coach I have), and another friend J, which has the making of a speed skater, given the way that they were throwing themself into attempting skills they really don't have the balance for, and solving the problem by just moving their feet faster to keep head approximately over feet. Middlest attempted a few things they haven't done in years; discovered that long hair is a nuisance when spinning, and today worked out that maybe they shouldn't have been quite so gung-ho.
• Sunday: two adventures, one expedition. Artisanat and I went to Subi for an extra practice of the recorder trio, ahead of next weekend's Soiree (and AGM, but I'm ignoring that bit) for the Recorder and Early Music Society, then headed to Freo to the session at the Australia Hotel, where, hmm, blues band that might have been called Big Al and the Wolf Pack were playing. I struggled with too much sound, and uncomfortable seating, and retreated to the car for half an hour, which included a 10 minute video chat with Youngest. But managed nearly four rows on what I'm calling the Neapolitan Icecream blanket; I did a bit more yesterday sitting at the rink, as we were sitting and being social between the public session and S's lesson session.
• last Thursday: we rearranged the garage. Previous sub-optimal arrangement was because the old freezer needed to be in reach of a power point; now that the new freezer is inside, we wanted to move the shelving around. Which meant car in driveway, everything off the shelves into that space, everything around the shelves into that space, then four of us arrayed along the big shelving unit shuffling it around. (it is one of those modular IKEA storage shelf sets; the big set, from the left hand end, is two regular, a corner, one regular; and now the separate set is next to the single, so it looks like 2-C-2). Some of the stuff went in a pile for bulk rubbish collection booked for the 18th November, almost everything else went back. Several other bits of sorting happened concurrently, because there was more wriggle room in the timing (Eldest had to be done by 11:30, so it was empty and move the shelves as fast as possible, and then do the sorting and reshelving together). We also rotated the bike rack, which is now oriented so that the bikes point towards the other garage door (double garage; one side for the car, one side for bikes and storage) rather than the car. I have hopes that this will be better. We have also determined that we will get rid of one bike (my old road bike; I'm unlikely to have the fitness and time to ride that I used to -- this is looking for a new home, if any locals want more details).
• mulberry tree has reached 'covered in ripe and over ripe fruit' stage. I've not yet harvested any for the freezer; I have gone out there and snacked a few times. One of those I trod on something sharp, which reminds me that the back yard isn't really a safe barefoot zone, and I'm going to have to find my thongs (because tidying up the back garden is not a 'heading into the hot season' activity). Grape vines have flowered (or at least, one has) and set fruit; I haven't really checked the rest.
• knitted blanket is progressing; I keep being paranoid that the second section is going to be too long, and then measuring it against the existing section and discovering I have a long way to go. I've now clipped the two sections together with the recently acquired stitch markers (these are the plastic safety pin style) and can stop worrying for at least another 20cm.