Spreading some colour!

Yesterday I saw a note on my To Do list - 'Check Zazzle and Add something!' . It must have been there for months.

Zazzle is a print-on-demand (or POD) site based in the USA but with an international marketplace. People can create their own templates or upload images for use on various printed and personalised products, and also sell their designs. I was starting to get to know my way around it (and other POD sites) better, when my old computer crashed terminally and I lost access to Photoshop Elements, which I used to use to manipulate images to create digital art.

Amongst the deluge of messages into my inboxes, at some point there will have been a 'we are changing our policies' message, which prompted me to add the job of checking it out to the list. But, as usual, I didn't get around to it for months. When I checked my account, there was a minus figure! Wait, what? 'Non-contributing account fees' have wiped out the paltry balance I had from sales commissions, because I hadn't been in there to do anything but look for since their policy change back in April.
Zazzle also have a policy of expecting their users who sell to create 'collections', curating designs they like from other Zazzle users, and sharing on social media. This way, you complete your user profile and raise your visibility. If you don't, your designs are consigned to the bottom of the search pile. It's fair enough, the products need to be promoted and POD sites have a huge number of designs, all vying for attention.

So, okay, lesson learned. I shall have to be more active, and that will be okay, because over the past few months I have been learning how to use GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program). I also have a new image to go.

I remembered that I didn't find the POD sites easy to navigate as a designer/seller and had written myself some notes. These came in handy so that I could upload the image easily, but when it came to applying it quickly across a whole range of products, the system only came up with 20, and only a few suited the image. Hmm. I suspect Zazzle's 'quick create' option over their range of products left them with huge numbers of items, some of which weren't ideal for the image. They want their designers to think a bit more about what they offer and that's fair enough. It might also be a difference between working from Zazzle.co.uk instead of Zazzle.com, as most of the designs are made up in the USA, hence a UK Sterling price which makes me gasp a little, so that's another thing to look into.
I went through to my existing products list, and found most of it hidden from the public, so it wouldn't come up in a search or be available for sales. That's not good, I thought I'd left it all public; perhaps this is another difference between .co.uk and .com? There were also some products which were being discontinued, so I deleted them and a few other items (like dartboards and baseball caps) which I don't really want to offer my designs on.

While thinking about what I do want to offer, I had a look at my 'collections', started several months ago. Some were empty, and I know I hadn't left them that way, so probably the items I'd previously added had been removed by their designers. I created a few new collections, including one for cushions, not that I can afford them, unfortunately.

With a bit of work, I found my profile completion had gone from 25% to 60%.

While I've been playing with kaleidoscopic art, one of the issues is creating a nice image on a rectangle; a square seems to lend itself much better to the reflections and repetition of a kaleidoscopic image. I tested out my new image on a square cushion and liked it, so completed that for sale (although it will take 24 hours or so to show up).
Then I loaded another image (which I thought I'd already loaded, but couldn't find it) and did another cushion. I'm biased, obviously, but I think they look lovely. There are options for two sizes and different fabrics.

I checked my profile completion and it had gone down to 55%. How does that work? A bit more product 'tidying', and it bounced up to 75%. I looked for my cushions so that I could copy their links into this, and the profile completion had bounced back down to 55%. I visited my store description, replaced the banner with a neater one, and the completion rate is up to 65%. And my products' visibility depends on this?

Aaargh!

With the amount of work involved here (it's not as simple as just uploading something!), I claim 2 creations.
Create 365 totals:
This batch of things: 2
Cumulative total: 37

Celebrating socks!

As the weather turned cold and I started to wear my wool socks again, I found myself looking back at the socks I've made in the five and a half years since I learned to knit socks.
After my first pair, which in my normal, perverse way I made with impulse-bought yarn which didn't show the pattern to best effect and the instructions for which I had first to translate from Finnish/Suomi, they rapidly became my favourite thing. I was astonished by how the immediate warmth dispelled osteoarthritis pain from my feet.
I needed more; more pairs, more knowledge, more practice. I've experimented with patterns made cuff-down and toe-up, singly and two at a time, circular needle with magic loop and on dpns, plain knit, patterns with yarn overs or cables and a little stranded colourwork. From the basic heel-tab-and gusset with a couple of variations, eye of partridge and other slip-stitch patterns, I also had a go at an afterthought heel, wrap and turn (frogged, not doing that again, what a faff!), Priscilla Wilde's no-fuss short row, German short row ('boomerang'), 'Strong' heel, and, my favourite so far, Cat Bordhi's Sweet Tomato heel.

Patterned socks

I have a pair of intricately patterned socks which are sort of being worked on in slow time, because the twisted stitches and change of pattern on every row, the charts for which are tiny (I'm thinking of getting a Fresnel lens magnifier to help out here) as are the stitches on 2.5 mm needles. So I started another pair of patterned socks.
I've worked out my own, plain pattern for socks and tweaked it a couple of times, so that it fits my wide foot and ankle and round heels.

Plain socks

I've used my basic pattern, adapting it for a narrower foot and different sizes to knit socks for sale.

Socks for sale

I've just finished my tenth pair of plain socks for myself, in DROPS Fabel Wooden Rose long print, because it looked so pretty in the ball, despite containing pink and purple, which I really don't wear. Except on my feet, it seems.

Wooden Rose long print plain socks

Yes, all these socks represent more expense than the usual chain-store cotton socks, as well as hours of work, but they are so much lovelier. I wash them on a 30 degree wool wash in the machine and hang them to dry, simple!
I think everyone should have at least one pair.

My name is Dancing Moth and I'm a hand-knitted sock addict.

Create 365 totals:
This batch of things: 1
Cumulative total: 35

Spider season

As you may guess from the title of this post, it's not one for arachnophobes! So if you hate spiders, perhaps you would like to read a different post?

My house is generally home to a large number of spiders, mostly 'daddy long-legs spiders' Pholcus phalangioides. They are a synanthropic species, that is, a non-domesticated species which benefits from their association with people, in this case, houses with a mean temperature above 10 degrees C. The numbers here are partly due to my laziness when it comes to housework, but I rather like them hanging around, dealing with flies and so on. Apart from the mess they leave, as they clean their webs by cutting their prey out of it and leaving them to drop, shed their skins five or six times as they mature and they produce lots of unstructured web which festoons the upper corners of rooms, they are no trouble at all. When disturbed, they gyrate rapidly in their web, which helps confuse potential predators and trap unwary flies, entangling rather than sticking them to the web. They look dainty and fragile, but are surprisingly avid hunters, and will eat other spiders (including other Pholcus and their own young if no other food is available) as well as woodlice - I've even seen one take on a dozy wasp and win. Yet they are very gentle and ticklish if you happen to have one descend on you (an occupational hazard in my showers). The female carries around her egg bundle and newly-hatched spiderlings in her jaws, until her babies go their own way.

Pholcus phalangioides, the 'daddy long-legs spider'

Around the start of September, I found that a lovely, golden-coloured spider had moved into the living room, near the window. At first, I thought it might be male, but over the next few weeks, fed on a a good supply of flies which had strayed into the web, the spider doubled in size, was slightly greener (though still golden in setting sun) and was evidently a female Araneus diadematus (often referred to as the 'garden spider' or 'crowned orb-weaver'). I've nicknamed her the Golden Girl. I haven't managed to get a good photo of her though - she spends most of her time tucked up on the window surround with a toe on the line into the web. The ones in the garden, like this one I found at St Ishmaels Garden Centre, tend to hang around in the centre of the web.

Araneus diadematus adult female, big and beautiful!

In the second week of October, I saw another spider in the corner of the adjacent window to the Golden Girl. On closer inspection, it was a female Zygiella x-notata (often referred to as the 'missing sector orb weaver' because their webs generally have a section missing from the circle) with a fresh egg mass covered with strands of spider silk which looked like finely-spun gold.

Zygiella x-notata female with egg mass

Not an ideal location, as the Golden Girl would happily have eaten her. Maybe she has, as Ms Zxn disappeared a few weeks ago. The eggs aren't due to hatch until spring (assuming I don't clean up and remove them). I saw three of the same species around the kitchen window.

I saw a male Amaurobius (not sure of species, probably fenestralis or similis) on the wall near the back door, and a female of (presumably) the same species has decided that the downstairs shower mat is hers. As I don't generally use that shower in winter (a bit too chilly!) she can stay there, for the time being. They look pretty scary, as the females are quite big (ha, all of 12 mm!) with big jaws. Their close relation Amaurobius ferox can bite, but they would all prefer to run away and the only problem is usually if you pick them up and they feel threatened. I had problems getting a photo of the female, as all she wanted to do was move away from the light, but managed in the end.

Amaurobius sp female

Amaurobius sp male

The weather has been unsettled for a while now, and there wasn't much evidence of spiders outside when I went down the garden earlier today. At this time of year, numbers of adults start to fall off. Those outside might find more prey, but both the spiders and the flies are vulnerable to the weather. No wonder some spiders prefer to find the shelter of sheds and houses. Even so, there are fewer flies in houses once the weather gets colder too. The Golden Girl Araneus is still hanging on, but as with the Zygiella around the windows and the Amaurobius sharing the shower, it's only a matter of time before this year's adults give way to the next generation.

12 Down, 12 Up

My right knee is 'in flare', that is, very painful (rather than just the 'normal' background ache), not reliable in bearing my weight, which in turn affects my balance, stiffer than usual with a reduced ability to bend and painful to straighten fully, feeling like the knee is on sideways and contains a ball of over-tightened rubber bands which break and twang painfully, and generally the cause of much swearing! It wakes me during the night, and between coping with it and not sleeping so well, I feel so tired and lacking in energy.

It's been like this on and off this year and then consistently since mid-August, when I twisted it attempting to stop a shopping trolley with a mind of its own in a blustery wind from wandering off to play with other cars and pedestrians.

I refuse to go back onto oral pain relief, relying instead on the various methods of pain relief I'd found, but even they are sometimes not enough. I looked for information on rest and arthritis and concluded that although 'sit down before you have to' is good advice, the other advice to get 'proper rest' needed a little more exploration. I was also reading about time-restricted eating - restricting meals to a 12 hour or possibly 8 hour window in the day, so I thought I would combine rest and time-restricted eating and see how that went.

The result was reasonably successful. During my 12 hours 'down' horizontal rest, I could do all my horizontal physio exercises, some yoga and mindfulness exercises, check some email and other messages and get some decent sleep and rest to counter nights disturbed by pain.

During my 12 hours 'up', I tried to get everything else done and feed myself.

I've been on this 12 Down, 12 Up for the past six weeks or so. Now, it's time to stop. My knee is better than it was, though still painful. The time-restricted eating has supported my gradual, imperceptibly slow weight loss. I feel well rested. But, I can't do as much as I need to in only 12 hours, things have slipped due to lack of attention and I'm starting to feel like I'm just being lazy (a sign, if any were needed, that my energy levels are back up!)

I didn't discuss it beforehand, knowing that many people who don't live with chronic pain and the resulting fatigue would not understand, nor be sympathetic. Even so, I found it difficult to give myself permission to do this, but I'm glad I did. It's joined my arsenal of potential techniques to manage and live with severe osteoarthritis.