The weather is bloody Baltic at the moment, it's well below freezing at night and sometimes in the day, and I think this is affecting my temps, which have dropped to lower than usual since this cold snap started. Some nights I'm sleeping naked, some with a nightie on (last night I really should have got up and put on pyjamas instead of lying there shivering too sleepily to move!), and occasionally I put the central heating on overnight. My chart can be seen here, and I'm wondering whether CD18 would make more sense for ovulation. CD17 would give a coverline substantially lower than usual (it ranges from 36.29 to 36.49 but is usually about 36.35), and I can't work out whether I'm seeing a slow rise or whether CD17 is a pre-O temp. I usually have nice clear thermal shifts that follow the rule that the post-O temps are 0.15C above the pre-O ones, and I don't usually get an ovulation dip so that doesn't tell you anything much. My cervix would seem to back up CD18 too. Note that I don't actually check cervix openness, I just put in "open" whenever I get high and soft so that the little box turns green, it's a purely visual aid (my real chart is on a spreadsheet, this is just a backup), and that I always get fertile CF continuing for a few days after ovulation. I haven't been checking CP for all that long so I'm still getting used to my patterns there.

I'm sure I'm probably being paranoid... ( TMI )

               About artist Valentin Massov OLEG TSELKOV: - I regret that I can't like Christ as you can... - Oleg I didn't say anything about Christ at all... - You needn't speak about him. Your paintings can tell everything. You do what nobody has done yet everything that is left by the art on the Earth... http://community.livejournal.com/massov_art/

I've been taking a monophasic pill for almost two months, never missed one or took it late.

I had spotting in the middle of the first pack and didn't think anything about it since I read it was common.

Now I've taken two weeks worth of my 2nd pack and I'm spotting again, kind of at around the same time.

I did have dull cramps for a few days and am now concerned that I'm spotting because this pill isn't working for me.

On Christmas I had planned to have condomless sex with my boyfriend for the first time and thought everything would be fine since I took the pill correctly. But now I'm concerned.

1)Does THIS spotting mean something more than my body still adjusting to it?
2) On BCP, do you get cramps randomly or over a week before your supposed withdrawal bleed?
3)Are there any other indicators that could tell me that the pill isn't working properly? I thought there were none :(

For my Gran I knitted the Baroness Beret ravelry link   in cascades Venzia worsted weight yarn. ( 70% merino wool and 30% glorious silk) The yarn was really nice to work with, slippery and a bit splitty but gorgeous non the less. It blocked like a dream. I knit this up in about 3 days and added an extra inch of ribbing to the brim because i found the brim in the knitted prototype was too small for my gran to wear comfortably. Lots of pics under the cuts.

( Baroness Beret under the cut )

I also Knitted The Flutter Scarf Ravelry link( 5 Dollar knitting pattern) Using Malabrigo Lace in Bobby Blue. The malabrigo is great to knit with, really soft but is a bitch to tink back because it seems to have a habit of sticking to itself. This also blocked really well , and it's the first scarf I've ever blocked so yay me. The Scarf itself was fantastic to knit up and it was the first time I'd done a provisional cast on and knitted from the middle of a project to the end. I was almost put off by this, but I did it anyway because it was just too pretty not too. The resulting scarf is very, very delicate and light something My gran will enjoy :) I may do this one again with a heavier wool for myself :)

( Flutter Scarf under the cut )

All in All I loved both of these projects and will be doing them again :)

Thanks to VP, I went to see a nurse for a urine test this morning to see if I had a UTI. All my friends insisted that 'I'd know it' if I had one and I had virtually none of the symptoms - just a very slight discomfort upon peeing and later, pain in my back which I had convinced myself was in my head. Even the nurse said she doubted I had one based on my symptoms, but when she tested my urine, there were white blood cells so she gave me antibiotics. I was pretty shocked, as the symptoms were so mild, I probably wouldn't have even noticed normally. I'm worried about my kidneys now, I explained to her that they felt very uncomfortable and she said not to worry, just to take the antibiotics and go to the hospital if anything got worse. She pretty much said I'd know about it if I had a kidney infection, but then that's what everyone said about the UTI! I'm totally bummed out now. Can't believe I got this on top of my constant vagina problems, and at Christmas as well. I'm gonna have a hard time getting more antibiotics if I need them.

LifelikeTexture: They're holding a petition for people trying to get a space probe launched to Venus with pictures of Miku in it o_o
Guren Senpuu: ....
LifelikeTexture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFYcd8EzC2w
THERE'S EVEN A PROMO VIDEO
Guren Senpuu: She's just a voice synthesizer
Guren Senpuu: why do people worship her?
LifelikeTexture: BECAUSE SHE CAN FLY IN SPACE
LifelikeTexture: If they want to put her picture on a launcher, whatever, I'm just dumbfounded at how seriously they're taking this ;_;
Guren Senpuu: I KNOW
LifelikeTexture: It's like they want to help fulfill the wishes of some dying kid
LifelikeTexture: Or think she's a real person and she would go to Venus and bring hovercars back to earth
Guren Senpuu: it's a bunch of fantards who fap to her each night.
MIKU TO VENUS? SHE'LL BE THE REAL GODDESS OF LOVE NOW!
LifelikeTexture: but then it's like MIKU'S MY WAIFU LET'S KICK HER OFF THE PLANET ANYWAY
LifelikeTexture: ahh I don't get it

Ok anime fandom, we seriously need to have a talk.
Vocaloid is so weird. I blame this all on tillumni_s

Because I'm geeky like that, I knitted myself a Christmas hat. The pictures were taken on November 11th when my friends Sam and Niels and I invaded Disneyland Paris' Christmas season, I just didn't get 'round to posting them before now X_x

( Read more... )

It might be a semi-long shot, but has anyone out there made Norah Gaughan's Phyllo Yoked Pullover from the book Knitting Nature? (Ravelry link, link to blog entry found on Google) If you have, can I ask for help with interpreting the pattern chart?

I posted on the Norah Gaughan forum and on the pattern page asking this question, but am hoping that someone here might see the question and be able to help. It's with the chart, which I can't reproduce, but hopefully someone who's made this before will be familiar with it.

My problems are with Round 11, aka "the first k3tog round".

Round 11 on the chart, as I can best interpret it, says:
1) (In a color that means do this once only, on the first repeat): Yo, K3tog
2) K8, yo, k3tog, repeat till end.

If the k3tog is meant to apply ALL repeats, then if I followed the chart as written, I would need to finish the round with another yo, k3tog right next to / on top of the yo, k3tog I began the round with. That can’t possibly be right – it definitely looks strange.

Should I just end the round with k8, and then keep on knitting as if to start the next round of plain knitting?

It certainly seems so, as this leaves me with a 10-st repeat all the way around (and the next pattern row of the sweater is a 10-st repeat). Doing a final yo, k3tog would be a 1-st decrease and only leave me with 9 st on the repeat where the rounds join. (This would be easier to figure out if I hadn’t had to keep moving my beginning-of-round marker. I don’t know where it actually is anymore!) But that is not what the chart says.

I am not sure I should trust my instincts here, as I have googled and searched for errata and found none. Hundreds of other knitters didn't seem to have any problem with the chart!

Any help would be appreciated - I have already tinked back 2x and my yarn is getting shreddy :( Thanks!

It's Beginning to Smell A Lot Like -     
     Yes, I am, in fact, using a version of that tired old seasonal entree for this post.  Because it does smell a lot  like Christmas, here at Casa kaffyr.  It certainly smells absolutely wonderful in here, all piney and forest-y, and I think that smelling like Christmas is almost more important than looking like Christmas.
     The wonderful aroma comes from a long-needled pine tree  (long-needled, but short in stature because I insisted) sitting in the living room, its limbs settling before we start decorating it tomorrow. I'm not used to long-needled pines, but BB has gone with short-needled trees for 20 years, gamely giving up his own childhood type of tree; it was high time we gave him his due.
     It isn't perfect; its hind end looks rather as if it had hiked itself up and hadn't realized how high it had pulled its rear hem, but it doesn't matter. As every Christmas tree that ever came into our house has been, it's the best tree ever. And we'll probably turn that side to face the corner anyhow. Heh
.      And I can't tell you how glad I am to see this little, undecorated thing sitting in the living room. We none of us have felt very festive recently, and we don't realistically have the money to buy presents for each other, or the time (or energy) to make them for each other. And I felt, at times, as if I'd be dragging BB and FB along unwillingly with me if I unilaterally decided that There Would Be Christmas! Damnit!
     So I asked them. Pause, while your humble scribe whups herself upside the haid for not thinking of that earlier ... anyhow, they both said yes to Dinner and Decorations. So this morning I picked up the phone and invited our oldest friends over for a buffet Christmas dinner, and this afternoon, we went to our regular tree lot and picked out the best Christmas tree ever. And, since the tree lot is next to one of the finest fish and chips places on Chicago's north side (props to the Fish Keg, yo!) we also went in and got our traditional post-Christmas-tree-pickin'-meal. MMMMmmmm clams and hush puppies and scrod. Oh, stop twitching.
     So, yeah. Emo old broad is feeling a lot better today.

The sole purpose of her work is to tempt people to dream.
click on the picture to see and know more

FOTC fan art


http://straystraystray.blogspot.com

So, VP, I think I have had many a yeast infection and just not known it. Maybe a hundred. Maybe four.

I mean, sure, I've had a lot of cases of OMG ITCHY VAG in my time. I've also had a LOT of white, thick discharge. I mean, at least once every other month.

I've had about every symptom in the book, now that I know what it is. I've always just marked it up as life and moved on.

Is not treating a yeastie a really, really bad idea?

So I'm sexually active, and last month my period lasted a little over a week. I had about 3 days of normal bleeding, then brown spotting for the rest of the time. Now this month, I got my period yesterday. Today I still had it but it was very light, and now it appears to be gone. What's happening? We use condoms AND I am on the pill.....

Last month when I was on the Pill I missed a lot of the pills (I know, I know, not a good thing) and it took a few days for my period to start after I took the last one (it usually starts right away) and that was 2 weeks ago. I still have my period! And I've been back on the Pill for 8 days (usually when I start back on it's gone within a few hours to a day). Is this abnormal? Should I contact my doctor?

Hello

For the past few months I've noticed that sometimes, my breasts ache. Its not like the sensitivity they normally get when I'm about to begin my cycle... its kind of like a vague pain somewhere in my chest, that only lasts for a few seconds. At first I thought it was my heart hurting, but it aches in both my left and right breasts.

I've felt around and there are no lumps of any sort. Just this weird ache every now and again. Should I be worried?

U.S. personnel in Iraq could face court-martial for getting pregnant

By Teri Weaver, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, December 19, 2009
The Army general commanding U.S. forces in northern Iraq has added pregnancy to the list of prohibitions for personnel under his command.

The policy, which went into effect Nov. 4, makes it possible to face punishment, including a court-martial and jail time, for becoming pregnant or impregnating a servicemember, according to the wording of the policy and confirmations from Army officials.
( Read more... )

I had a D&C back in October because of a Molar pregnancy. I have not had a period since. I had put that down to the fact that I had the depo shot about 2 1/2 weeks after the D&C.  I've started wondering if I'm right though. Is that what you would expect when you start taking depo (I've never used it before) or do you think that it's something I should get checked out?

My best friend told me a story today, and I have to wonder how other folks would react. What better place to ask than wonderful VP?

She went to a party on friday and spent all of saturday hungover and feeling "bleh." I think most folks have done that at least once in their life. She was still ucky this morning and her husband woke her up before he left for for work to try to have sex with her.(He has 15 min before walking out the door, it's 745am, and her day off.) He starts rubbing her back, she rolls over and says, "no way that's going to happen." He then says "give me a blow job then." to which she replied "are you on f'ing crack?" he got pissed off and left to go to work.

She's still really ticked off over the whole episode and I would be too. She says she felt like he was treating her as just a piece of meat, etc.

If you were in a similar situation, would you be really angry too? I think if my husband pulled that on me, I might have gone ahead and tried, and then when I ended up puking on him, that would have served him right. (sorry if that sounds too mean or not-safe-spaceish.)

just wondered, thanks all.