I'm back.......I think

Wow it has been a while since my last proper post. Trying to balance everything in my life has been impossible so something had to give and I'm afraid it was the blogging. So I'm going to give you a bit of a catch up post here and then I should be back on the wagon.


This is Willow. She is about 8 weeks old in these pictures. She's now 14 weeks. She was a surprise present from Spadger. I came back from Woolfest and he dropped this little bundle of fur in my lap. That wasn't all though. She came with a hand woven willow ring tied to her neck and a marriage proposal. Yup, I am bethrothed. Squee does not even begin to cover it. We are planning to marry September next year.


So that's the most important news I have. Everything else in my life is pretty much knitting and stress. The theatre group I'm a part of is 10 weeks away from their next performance and the actor playing the lead has decided to leave us. Stress! I'm nearly 3 weeks overdue for a holiday. I like to have 1 week off every 12 weeks and I don't go til next week. I'm on count down now :o) But it means I'm uber stressed about everything now as I just need a break.

I've been starting to get into some sort of fitness routine. The amount of people that assume it is becasue I am getting married is ridiculous. It seems that getting fit has become so synonymous with loosing weight that you can't just want to get fit. I'd like to quote the actors from 300 "appearance as a consequence of fitness". This is what I am aiming for. I aint getting any younger and have a future of sorting out a homestead to look forward to. I needs to get fit. If I happen to look better beacuse of that then woot! I've moved over to a mostly paleo diet and have been going to Zumba with my mother. I've almost completed the 200 sit ups programme and have been trying to do a bodyweight routine I found on Nerd Fitness. I go for my first crossfit session this week.

On the knitting front Nerd Wars moves on apace. So far this tournament I have submitted 6 items each round and am still just about on track to finish my dissertation. Fingers crossed! The spinning is coming along well too.

I guess that's about it. Not very exciting really but that is kinda how I like my life.

Nerd Wars T2 R3

Well this just seems to be the place where I keep track of my NW stuff. I'll be back with proper posts I promise.

On with the Nerd Wars Challenges for this month.

Challenge (Intellectual):
WIP challenge.

Challenge (Technical): GUILTY PLEASURES
This month I am going to share a secret with you…a dirty secret that only my spouse knows and even he refuses to acknowledge….
I love Judas Priest. I honestly do! When I am home, alone, with no chance of anyone stopping by, I crank British Steel up to 11. Judas Priest is my private, guilty, guilty pleasure.
Now don’t be too quick to snicker and laugh because this month all of you are being asked to reveal your own guilty pleasure..as it applies to techniques that is.

This challenge is to make a project that exhibits a technique that you feel is your guilty pleasure. It could be a technique that feels almost like “cheating” like using variegated yarn or mosaic knitting to replicate fair isle. It could also be a preferred technique or work-around that you use every time rather than what a particular pattern may call for, like knitting in the round to avoid seaming or seaming to avoid using DPNs. A guilty pleasure is something personal to each Nerd Warrior undoubtedly there will be ways to meet this challenge that I have not yet thought of.

Last month I called you all out of your comfort zones; this month I want to celebrate them. Sometimes indulging in these “guilty pleasures” can make us feel like we are not “real” knitters, spinners, weavers, or crocheters. In reality though, no crafter is master or lover of all techniques and our personal tweaks and techniques are what actually does make us “real” craftspeople.

Challenge (Giving Geeks): RESPECT YOUR ELDERS (ESPECIALLY THE LONELY ONES)
Were you taught one of your favorite crafts by your grandmother? (Or was she awful at crafts but did teach you how to be a mean shot with a rifle like dryad23 ‘s did?) Did your father or grandfather take you fishing and bait your hook for you? Did an older aunt bake cookies with you at holidays?

In our ever more busy and tech-ruled world, it’s sometimes hard to remember that many of our elders are lonely, bored, sick or depressed and can be overjoyed by the slightest attentions and demonstrations of respect or affection.

Your challenge is to donate something that will bring a bit of comfort (and hopefully joy) to an older person or to a nursing home, assisted living home, similar facility or an organization local to you that accepts and distributes such items to the residents of such facilities. The item must be new and clean, and does not necessarily need to be crafted by you.

You can also donate time for this challenge. Feel free to be creative. The spirit of the challenge is to somehow bring a bit of comfort and/or joy to the life of an older person who may not have very much of either one of those things;.

Challenge (Scientific): WAVES
Waves are all around us! Light we see, sound we hear, electricity we use, earthquake or tsunami events, even the particles we are made of are all wave phenomena!

In mathematics and science, a wave is a disturbance that travels through space and time, usually accompanied by the transfer of energy.1

Your challenge this month is to create something that incorporates waves, whether you play with them as a mathematical model or a natural phenomenon.

Challenge (Team Spirit): NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION
It’s there when you need it. Or maybe it isn’t, and then you have to go a-questing to get it. This month’s challenge is going to be all about the inventions that make life easier/better for your favorite characters!

Your challenge is to craft something inspired by a tool or invention from your nerdery.

Challenge (Nerd Culture): KNOW YOUR ROOTS
Think back. Think waaaaay back…

Whoa, not that far back. Think forward a little…a little more…there, stop. You are at the beginning. The beginning of a fandom. The beginning…of an obsession.

It’s 1977 and you’re standing in line to see this weird star movie with your parents. You have no idea what you’re about to experience…

It’s some week night in the past decade. Your favorite broadcast channel has been pimping this new show for weeks now, and you’re tuning in just out of curiosity…

It’s the late eighties, and your parents are hooking up this strange gray box to the TV. You’ve heard about it from your friends, but you have yet to experience the wonders within for yourself…

No matter what your fandom is, there is an old school. When I first heard the phrase “old school,” it was uttered with disgust and disdain, as though “old school” were something to discard or forget about. But as I’ve grown up, I’ve realized that my parents, their parents, and their parents’ parents did have a few right ideas…sometimes, just sometimes, it really was better in the old days.

This month, your challenge is to knit, crochet, or spin something that reminds you of the good old days of your fandom. Whether that means the first of many different series (as with Star Trek or Dr. Who), or the first season of a recent show (as with Supernatural or Bones), every show has a beginning, and every beginning deserves a little credit. After all, without it, there’d be no…now…or something.