Where Are My Pictures Blogger?!?

Well it seems that by plugging in your smartphone and signing into Google Accounts that some setting on something totally wipes the  Picassa Web Albums where Blogger hosts all the photos.
The auto sync thingy on your phone/Google Account wants to sync everything - I didn't have any blog pics on my new phone so Picassa goes oh no photos hey? well I'll just remove all your web albums and blogger pics then!

So now the last few years of my life are not documented for all eternity.
The only way to get them back is to find what pictures where in the particular post, find them on your computer, and add them back to the post manually, then delete the place holder wher your missing picture is. I did not want to spend the six weeks holidays that I have re-uploading my life's pictures to my blog!

What a complete stuff up Picasa/Blogger/Google!!!!!!!!!!!

I am not the only person this has happened to so beware!

So sorry everyone (one) the job is just soo huge I don't think I will be able to reload all the pics.
And what if it happens again? I think I would cry.

Merry Christmas


ETA Posts beyond Jan 2007 seem to have photos still so it's just 2007 to present that need re-uploading.
I have decided to go to Photobucket and host my images there, that way if it happens again Blogger is not part of the link to my pictures and therefore cannot remove them. Fingers crossed.

New Projects - inside and out

I have finally gotten around to having a go with Wollmeise.

First I swatched (but not with the colour I was going to use):

To me it feels like cotton to knit with but it came out much softer after washing and blocking.

Deciding on a project was hardest, in the end Raiun won. My project or  Rav Link

Specs:
3.25mm needles
Wollmeise twin in Petit Poison Dark
gauge 6sts/ 8 rows per inch

Things I have learnt:

Provisional Cast On.  A simple figure 8 cast on. You can just see the wonky stitches where the marker is denoting the Cast on row. It took me an hour to get this right, I nearly gave up.Looks ok though, I will try to snug the stitches up later.

 M1P = Make one purl, yep I have never done this before either. Some are a little wonky until I got it right. I bit the bullet and looked it up rather than trying to work it out myself. I couldn't decide whether to pick up the bar from front to back or back to front.

There are a few mistakes right up near the beginning of the sleeve increases. A purl that should have been a knit etc.  This is where I second guessed the designer's plan and changed a knit to a purl because I thought the pattern ribbing would not be correct. So I have learnt to trust the designer in future and just go with the pattern. I will not try to fix it by dropping it down and picking back up because I know what will happen if I drop down 7 rows and can't get back up sounds easy but it's near another lifted increase and I just know i could stuff it up really well so I will live with it. Yes, I can do that, I can live with imperfection, just watch me.
It is actually bugging me a lot but it's such a tiny thing that no-one will see because my hair will be covering it up. So shhh, no-one will know it's there but me.

Outside of the house we have been developing our veggie garden this long weekend.
So far we have planted corn, tomatoes, coloured silverbeet, lettuce, leeks, capsicum, zucchini, carrots and basil.
We also have most of our dwarf fruit trees in. We have 2 apples, 2 nectarines, peach and an orange, we are still looking for a dwarf mandarin. Most trees are full of blossoms.

Here's the resident gardener planting out the ornamentals. The veggie patch is the part covered in pea straw at the back. This is where our big double shed used to be.

We also have the formal ornamental part complete with pot:

I reckon the pot will get blown over in a strong wind gust but we will see. It looks crooked but I keep telling myself that is part of the optical illusion of the pot's design.  Either its that or already on its way over.

Must include a pic of our water feature now that we have pots next to it:

Finally the obligatory kitteh pictures.
They are sneaky, I opened the craft room door to hang up some laundry indoors (didn't want pea straw on the freshly laundered clothes) Kitty snuck in, ignored my stern NO, jumped up on the sofa and immediately snuggled in as if she had been asleep for ages.  Andy soon followed her.

They had swapped places from where they first were, my guess is that Andy went to bite snuggle Kitty so she got up and moved away from him and he took her spot - this happens a lot.

The best part is no more uni until January next year, well one more assignment to submit but it is DONE, just hanging on to it because I always think of other things to add after submitting, yay. I'm taking Summer Semester off this year before I burn out. That leaves just 4 units to go then I will be finished. Two each year as two units are full on practicums, one music which should be easy and an Entreprenurial Professional something or other.

So the next few months will be focusing on making resources for my current class- still working as a School Services Officer in Special Ed, unpacking the many boxes still in the shed, putting my craft room in order (no pictures because it is too messy at the moment) and knitting -can't wait to try out my new garnrollenhalter that came today:

It spins so quietly and effortlessly releases your yarn as you knit. A combined bulk order with a Ravelry group. I had been using this:

from here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Rotating-Yarn-Holder/
This one is noisy as the lazy susan is very rattly. However it did work quite well and the noise was ok after a while. I simply Blu-Tacked a small lazy susan spinner onto the bottom of a CD spindle, nowhere near as complicated as the linked project. It needed the whole spindle to spin and not have the yarn rotating around the stick part causing friction.

So...I have Raiun to complete then on to a Featherweight Cardi in Wollmeise lace (Im Jahr Der Ratte), Ardelise in Bendy (Red Tweed) oh and I must make a Vanadium Bendy Classic 5 ply (Cranberry) and I must make Elfe too though not necessarily in that order. What's on your To Do list?

FO Dark and Stormy

My first finished jumper for 2012 - Dark and Stormy
Specs:
4mm needle
Bendigo Woollen Mills Rustic 12ply in Midnight Tweed.
Buttons from the Button Bar.

I'm happy with this although there is a bit of pooching at the top of the fronts, but hopefully blocking will help improve the look.
The buttons are just gorgeous, the photo does not do them justice, they have a shimmer that matches the colour of the midnight tweed. The lady in the Button Bar was very helpful and was able to find just the right buttons in a matter of minutes. Definitely well worth the cost in the end they are lovely.

Dark and Stormy progress

This is coming along well. Although I got a little keen last night and kept knitting when I really should have stopped and tried it on to measure sleeve length. I had knitted past the point where I should have started the ribbing. Only had to rip out 15 rows - luckily.

I've given the blog a revamp. Blogger is much more user friendly than it used to be, so easy to customise the widths of the sidebars, change fonts etc, I remember years ago when I just started this blog staying up late at night trying to understand HTML. It was interesting to go back and re-read it and see how things have changed over the years. Maybe I will endeavour to update it more often (even if noone reads it :) )

My Stick Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Long Time No See

Wow, it has been ages since I posted.

A quick update:
Still at uni - 4 units to go = 2years. Doing it really slowly now, motivation has dwindled some after starting about 6 yrs ago. Plus no guarantee of a job after giving up the hours that I have now.

Much has happened in my personal life in short....found the man of my dreams, demolished my old home, built a new one, got engaged and now we all live happily together.

Started knitting again about 3 months ago and currently knitting Dark and Stormy  (Rav Link) have 1.5 sleeves and part of body to go.