Panic and Mayhem

Well, it’s Black Friday and the masses are both seething and rampaging if the news is to be believed, with reports of punch-ups over TVs reminiscent of the kind of thing that used to happen in the January sales, or that bit in Airplane! where the passengers are told to assume crash positions and chaos ensues (see pic). My particular corner of the world seems to have largely avoided bothering with any of it and when I nipped out to collect something earlier, the high street was quiet with no evidence of this lunacy.

For my part, I have caved in slightly to the spirit of rampant commercialism and activated a 20% discount on orders over £20 until Monday, valid on anything in the shop. That’s plenty of time, so no mayhem or trampling required. Just pop BAHUMBUG in the coupon code box at checkout to take advantage of the offer and do your bit to help a small, local business rather than flinging your cash at the multi-nationals 🙂

In other areas, panic has set in somewhat in the NaNas. DD is waaaaay behind her target on NaNoWriMo, being still around 8k words short with only a couple of days to go. I did think that 24k words might be a bit ambitious for an 11 year old, but she likes to set herself a challenge. I’m not sure she’ll manage it, but she’ll have a damned good try 🙂

My own NaKniSweMo Esme is also some way behind at around 34k, but I knit fast, so may yet make it in time. The back is finished and a goodly portion of the front (as far as the bottom of the neckline) and there are still a couple of days to go. Excuse the dreadful picture, but the absence of daylight makes it difficult to take a good snap :

I’ve also been working on a couple of other projects at the same time and have finished DD’s Christmas* pressie mitts (it’s OK, she won’t read this). I have rather a lot of yarn to spare based on what the pattern suggested (I suspect they just gave the skein yardage rather than the project yardage), so will also make her a shawlette with the surplus, if I have time.

*It’s almost the end of November so I think I can mention it now

Not that she deserves it, given that I had to tidy her room earlier in the week, which almost blew my mind.  (Think pressure cooker exploding!) The lecture about not burying sweet wrappers in every corner rather than binning them clearly made an impact. What upset me most was the lovely books strewn about, lying under cushions or on the floor with covers needlessly bent. If I hadn’t been so apoplectically angry over this and other transgressions, I would have wept. Still, it’s done now. Wonder how long it will last in its new, mess-free state? No, don’t answer that :/

In other panic areas, I don’t seem to be making as much headway with my work as I could be. I repaired the embroidery machine needle threader last week but it wasn’t aligning properly, so I had to do it again. I think it is all OK again now, so that’s something I’ve achieved, at least. The cold, drab and dreary weather has made me somewhat reluctant to work in the conservatory though. It’s lovely when the sun shines (even when it’s chilly outside), but colder and less appealing than a politician’s heart** in weather like this. That said, progress has been made on drafting a new corset pattern (CAD), which has the advantage of a warm laptop and an equally warm dog at my side. Here’s hoping for a little sunshine to motivate me to crack on with all the other things I need to get done.

**though perhaps spit roasting might give it some slight appeal