fak’s foughts

OK, so I haven’t sold my house or left my job, yet, but I need to do something different and figured I might give this making money out of knitting a try.

I’ve just designed a new cowl and have been pleasantly surprised about how quickly knits up. Checking out etsy (the place for selling handcrafted items on the interweb) similar items are selling at around the $65 mark. This seems to go along with the accepted practice of $10 an hour for labour + materials way of pricing. A cowl should take me between 3.5 and 4 hours to churn out (possibly faster once I’m thoroughly bored with the pattern) and I can get some nice luxury yarn to keep within that price range (probably some alpaca or baby llama, maybe some silk/cashmere/mohair). I also have a couple of thoughts for some more intricate lacework.

This is really just a heads up for my female friends - if these don’t sell, expect cowls for Christmas. If they do sell, well it’s not going to make me rich, but if I turn over my weekends to knitting for profit (up to 20 hours per week) it might keep me in nice yarn. I’m also probably going to sell the original designs (gotta be original designs to get past copyright) on Ravelry for between $3 and $10 since knitters won’t buy hand-knit items on etsy if they can make it themselves, but they will buy patterns.

Just had a phone call from the lovely Leon. Apparently the people who have been on site today don’t know what this leak is that people are talking about and the whole thing needs to be re-surveyed. So I won’t be working from home tomorrow, and as I originally thought, there probably isn’t a leak (I haven’t reported one, nor has my neighbour and they couldn’t hear it when they listened to my pipes back in the day).

My latest 3 month contract (running to the end of January) has coincided with being put in a proper team with a proper team leader. It means one person to sign holiday requests and I actually have to have some sort of performance review. If this morning is anything to go by it’s going to be a long 3 months (or longer depending on house).

Thames Water helpfully called me and asked if I was at home and why not. I very calmly explained that no-one had told me about the work going on today so no, I wasn’t at home. They asked if I would be at home tomorrow and I said I would see what I could do.

So, I took the opportunity to fill in a leave form for next week (leaving a couple of hours early to get ready for the RFP) and ask my new team leader if I could work from home tomorrow (working from home today would have been much better). My leave form gets scrutinised to the point where I almost go and get my contract to prove how much leave I have been granted, then I get asked to confirm whether I am even allowed to work from home. Charming. As a member of staff (albeit it a temporary one) I do actually have the same rights as everyone else, I’m just on a shorter notice period than most people. At least when I wasn’t in a team I could blame that on being treated like a second class citizen.

Think of the money, think of the money, think of the money, think of the money…

It was a struggle getting out of a very agreeable bed this morning and dragging myself to work in the rain, but bills need paying and all that.

I continue to be curious about what constitutes a problem on the railways large enough to be reported on the local travel news. Apparently a broken rail on the line between Reading and Paddington isn’t big enough. An interesting thing I’ve discovered about high speed trains (or possibly their drivers): if they’re running at low speed they judder, so I got 45 minutes of having my insides scrambled before getting poked with other people’s umbrellas in London town.

Thames Water continue to be incompetant. I was advised of a possible leaked on my shared supply about 4 months ago and sent of the necessary forms to get it fixed. I finally get a call out of the blue about 3 weeks ago saying it would either be today or next Monday and did I have a preference (I would need to be in the house to grant access and turn off water, etc). It’s the RFP next Monday so I chose today. Nothing came in the post, no further calls, I tried the number they gave me - didn’t work. Looks like they decided to start the work this morning. They’ll have to do it without me. I did call them again and all they can confirm is that the job is listed as “under construction” but with no start or end date.

Oh, and work have blocked gmail again.

Interest rate cut to 3%. Woah, that’s one heck of a cut. Now if only the Bank of England could lend to mere mortals and not just banks…

Phew, Indecision08 is finally done. Whether the right person was elected will be seen in time but one thing I will take away is a disgust for fellow human beings (moreso than before). It is unfortunate that the most vile outpourings that I have seen have come from McCain’s supporters and I wonder whether this turned some undecided voters away from him.

Just in the last couple of days I have seen McCain supporters suggest that the announcement of Obama’s grandmother’s death was spin, and at least two go on to suggest that she was deliberately killed (and no, there was no indication that they were joking).

There were others who claimed they were going to buy extra guns as they expected riots after the election and time after time these self-same people were quoting Bible verses whilst espousing violence towards anyone that disagreed with them.

It makes me glad that I don’t have these kind of people around me. They are a stain against civilisation and only drag others down. Shame on them. Shame. I would like to be unaware of this level of vitriol, but ignoring it isn’t the answer. I would much rather be unaware of it because it doesn’t exist.

I once wanted to live in the States, for a few years anyway, but even if I closeted myself in a location of like-minded people the things that I have learned during the campaign means I no longer want to. The lack of free at the point of use health coverage would be my main concern. It is still hard to comprehend for me that a wealthy country such as the US allows people to die in pain because they cannot afford medical care. I have heard numerous accounts of people not seeking treatment as they cannot afford it even to the point of not calling an ambulance because of the cost.

Depending on who you listen to my belief in free medical care makes me a socialist or a communist. So much for “hippy capitalist”.

Stephen Fry’s BBC programme on America this week was in Houston and illustrated how (certain sections of) Americans prefer good works to be done though the charitable giving of the wealthy (rather than through higher taxation) - the problem with this trickle-down approach being that it’s the wealthy who get to choose who gets the money based on their view of who is “needy”. I’ve read such hatred towards people claiming unemployment or disability that I fear there will be many homeless and hungry sleeping under exquisite grand statues.

It’s just so sad and disheartening.

it’s widely anticipated that the Bank of England will lower the interest rate again tomorrow (maybe as low as 4%), so what have the banks been doing? Well, apart from not passing on previous rate cuts Abbey has raised their lending rate by 0.5%, Nationwide is increasing theirs, HSBC have said that they won’t pass the cut on to customers.

Which all means that they will be able to get money from the government at a lower rate of interest than they are paying it out at. Good for them, nice way to rebuild profits. Bad for exisiting mortgage-holders and people looking to get mortgages.

The Bank of England is starting to run out of options. If they lower the interest rate again and the banks continue to hoard profit and not pass rate cuts on nothing will change except the banks get more money, which helps no-one except the banks (haven’t they already been given a large amount of cash?).

My mortgage provider (Bank of Ireland) has cut its interest rates in line with the Bank of England’s reductions. Scant comfort, but if they can do it, why not others?

“I think uncertainty is maybe more painful than any other emotion, it both drives one on and disappoints and paralyses, so that we went on in a mounting kind of suffocation and bursting.”

90 minutes into my latest project and I have yet to cast on. 15 minutes winding the first 1,000 yards, 75 minutes untangling the final 200 yards which flew off the swift.

It’s a lovely yarn though, delicate and soft (a blend of cashmere, baby alpaca and silk). It should be worth it.

Whilst searching for cheap ways to make my house more saleable (I have decluttered yet again, moved stuff around and bought a new lampshade) I came across some delightful wall graphics at

http://www.supernice.co.uk/

I would definitely like to use these in any future house I may be allowed to decorate so am posting the link here to allow me to find it again.