The Orphaned Orchid

So, normally I don't pay attention to what people are throwing away in the dumpster when I go to take out my trash, but on Friday, when I threw the bag of garbage into the bin, I saw as sad, abandoned orchid:

Mind you, it is sad looking.  But, it still had plenty of life left in it.  The poor orchid just needs some water and some love and it will come back.  Even as I type this on Saturday morning, the leaves have started to perk up on the plant and you can tell it's going to come back.

I don't really care what people do to their own things, but I really hate to see a plant just tossed away.  I guess I have bond with plants and I feel sorry for the mistreated things.

Now, I won't claim to be a good plant keeper.  My violets are struggling to say the least.  But, I do care about my plant friends in the window.

So, I'll be interested to see of this orphaned orchid makes it with a little water and love.  I think it will!

Also, on an unrelated note, as part of my commitment to be healthier, I have started another blog to chronicle my goal of walking all the trails listed in the Parks and Rec Fun Guide for 2012.  You can read about it here.

Knit on...

Weight

One thing I have struggled with for a while now is my weight.  Two years ago, I was at my goal weight and loving every minute of it.  Then, I tore my hamstring and watched the weight come back on.  Now mind you, I have thankfully not put all of it back on, but I have put on more than I ever thought I would.

So, my journey begins again.  I lost all my weight while I was living in Korea.  As you might imagine, it is a bit easier over there, especially when your school lunches consist of kimchi, rice, and seaweed soup.  But, one thing that I noticed over there was the lack of lots of sweets.  Sure, you can get ice cream, soda, and some cookies, but there is not the same ease of acquisition as there is here. 

I also walked or biked everywhere when I lived there.  There was a level of constant activity there that I don't have here.  Now, I have a 30 minute commute to and from work, a job that requires me to sit most of the day, and a lack of a store within a mile of me to walk to every few days. 

So, what is the point of this whole post?  Mostly for me to put some goals up and re-visit them in a few months.  So, here they are:

1. Be more active.  This is the kicker.  I don't need to walk to the convenience store to buy anything, but walking down there and back like I did won't hurt me.  Last night, I did two laps around the park with a walk/jog.  It about wore me out, but gives me a starting place.

2. Cut out the junk.  I've been eating out more than I like and I've been consuming more Starbucks sugary drinks than normal.  I'm cutting this out.  Sure, I'll still go out to eat once a week or so, but I'm going to do more cooking, especially now that the farmers' market is back in session.

3. Make weekly trips to the farmers' market.  This must happen.  I need good, fresh vegetables again.  I want them.  I need them.  I will have them!  If I can walk to the market from Renee's house, then I will do so. 

4. Track what I am eating.  I have this Calorie King program on my palm pilot (yes, I still have one of those and no I don't intend to get rid of it) and I should use it.  I used to use it when I was losing weight and then stopped when I saw how many calories I was burning when I did a 16 mile run.  I am not running 16 miles at a time anymore, nor will I probably ever be again if my hamstring remains touchy.  I need to keep track of the calories and stop eating when I run out like I did before.  This forces me to make better food choices so that I do not run out of calories by lunch time.

5. Don't use the scale alone to judge.  I am so done with the scale.  I'm to the point I don't even care about it.  I just want to feel good and be able to have fun in life.  I don't want to be out of breath by the time I get to first base when playing softball.  I want to be able to make it around all the bases!

Ok, those are my five goals.  I'll try to remember to post a follow up to this in two months to see how I am doing.  This blog will not be about my weight loss, but hey, it is my blog after all and I can type what I want to :oP

Tomorrow, I'll get back to the regularly scheduled knitting.

Knit on...

The Haul

So, on Sunday I drove back home and actually made good time at it.  When I got home, I had to take some inventory of what I got while at Stitches:

This is the first part of the haul.  This all came from Newton Yarns and are from left to right:

A 100% rayon light fingering yarn in the Nevada colorway.  This has 1100 yards and I am not sure what it will be yet.

This is a wool blend of some sort.  I'm not even going to try to guess at the yardage of this in the hank.  I'm going to measure the yardage once I get it on the swift to wind it.

The blue is also a wool blend of some sort.  Both the pink and the blue were unlabeled and only 10 bucks a skein in the grab bin.  They feel nice and there's enough of the blue for a good sweater I think.

The gray ball in the top is the gray sock yarn I bought for the bead class.  I can't remember the dyer for the life of me right now.

But wait, there's more!

From left to right:

Berroco Versa in color 3689.  This will be for my beading experiments as it turns out non-stretchy ribbon yarn works best for this. 

The needles are Knitter's Pride cubix, which I bought for the class and then didn't use.  I'm looking forward to using them in the near future though and I will pass on my thoughts in a review of the square needles.

Squishy Lace by Dragonfly Fibers.  While at breakfast one morning, I ran into the lovely ladies from Hiya Hiya.  We chatted and ate, and then one of them came out with a coupon for Dragonfly.  Hiya Hiya ladies, you rock!  Also, I'll be picking up a sharp interchangeable set from you all in the near future when finances permits as I adore your needles.  The colors of the lace are Rocky Top and Firecracker.  Each has 870 yards and will become gorgeous shawls of some sort!

And now, I will go play with the yarn.

Knit on...

Beads and Garlic

Saturday was full of all kinds of fun things.  I started off early by taking a class by Betsy Hershberg on how to make 3D knitted beads.  First, I made a strip of knit fabric with seed beads on it:

Then you take the strip of fabric and roll it up to create a barrel bead:

The rest of the class was about techniques to made other beads that can then be strung.  The class was excellent and Betsy is a wonderful teacher.  When it was all said and done, I had three completed beads:

I definitely see possibilities with the knitted ring.  I'll be playing more with this in the future.

In the evening, I went to the Scalini's dinner with my new friend Kathleen.  We met the lovely Agnes there and all Kathleen had talked about for the day were the rolls at this place.  So, here they are:

They were every bit as good as she said they were.  Smothered in garlic and butter.  Yes, I ate a few of these things as well as a wonderful veggie lasagna and a some Italian ice cream.

The dinner had a good turnout:

They had some nice prizes, though sadly I didn't win any of them.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, I spent more time at the market.  You have to wait until later to see what I bought and to see the amazing door prize that I won!

Knit on...

Friday Fun

Once I actually arrived at Stitches, I had a mission: I needed yarn for my class on Saturday.  I picked up my class badge and then hit the market.  I did find a yarn to work for my class, but it really is not all that exciting since it was just a plain gray sock yarn.  I did however find a very pretty batt:

This fiber is so much prettier than the picture can ever show you.  Falkland, merino, bamboo, and firestar mix from Knitty And Color.

At Stitches, there was a wall of fiber:

The market was very fun to peruse:

After I finally got settled into the hotel, it was time to get ready for:

 The PJ Party!  They had a name that yarn contest, which is why the bunny is quite multicolored and yarny in the picture.  At first, they put us in a small room:

 They even had little desserts that were absolutely to die for!

But, as we all know, when there are knitters involved, there is generally going to be more people than any hotel is willing to believe will show up.  So, we moved down to the hotel atrium:

We had knitting pirates:

 We stayed in the atrium until security actually shut us down.  We were apparently getting too loud for their liking.  Benjamin made sure we gave them a good final shout as we all dispersed back to our hotels for the evening.  It was a lot of fun, even if it was not as long as originally planned.

 Tomorrow, I show you how fun knitted beads can be and how much garlic one knitter can consume!

Knit on...

The Road to Stitches

The next few days will chronicle my trip to Atlanta for Stitches South. 

I got an early start and was making good time until I came to a stand still.  For 3 hours, this was my view:

Turns out there was a bad wreck between a car and an oil tanker.  The tanker started to spill, so it was going to be another 5 hours before they opened the road again.  I did a U-turn in the median and headed another way down south.  It took me another 2 hours to get back on to the interstate, but I did eventually make it.  So, what does 3 hours of sitting in traffic give you?  This:

So, in essence, I started my trip to Stitches with a good amount of knitting!

Tomorrow, I will show you what I did once I finally made it to the event, almost 5 hours later than I expected!

Knit on...

A Blanket

I pulled out the WIP baby blanket I showed you a couple of weeks ago, looked at it, then decided to rip it out. I was not happy with how it was coming along. So, I decided to change and turn it into a Moderne Baby Blanket instead. I got 3 blocks of it knit yesterday, so that was pretty good:I have a friend who finds out today what she is having and I'm selfishly pulling for a girl so that I can give her this blanket. If not, then I'll go out and get some other colors for another blanket.

Knit on...

Back Home

For the past two days, I have been on a business trip, but last night I arrived back home and crashed in my own bed. The trip was all right and the meeting was a good one. I arrived Thursday afternoon and watched Murray State's football team practice some after walking around to stretch my legs a bit:I knit some, then went and grabbed dinner. I knit more that evening and then had to switch to business mode for the next day. The meeting had one of the best moments in it when one of the people said, "Do you think our jobs make us grumpy?" Mind you, we are all accountants in the room and all have faced the same issue that we have to enforce the rules and not a lot of people like that. So we started a whole discussion on how do you turn off the rules enforcer when you go home. Turns out me and one of the other accountants turn to arts and crafts where there are rules, but rules that can be broken how you see fit. In the knitting time before the meeting, I was able to get two dishcloths knit:
I'm now contemplating what my next project will be. I need something portable that can go with me to Stitches next week. I'm leaning towards a new Citron shawl, but not totally convinced. Anyone have any suggestions?

Knit on...

An Ode to the Dishcloth

Warm days, Summer breeze,
Wait, did the weatherman just say freeze?
I dream of spring, of little lambs,
Fiber festivals, and knitted ballbands.
To bring on the warm weather I go
To the stash that I love so
Dishcloth, oh wonder that you are,
I know that Summer is not too far.
For when I choose to work on you,
My days go from gray to blue.
There is a turning in the season
Which I know without reason
Is brought on by my cotton, so true.
In shades of cream and bright blue.

Knit on...

Wingspan

I'm doing a bit of a drive-by blog this morning before heading to work. I said in my post yesterday that I had finished the wingspan, so here is proof:At the very end, I ran out of yarn. I found a matching color of Patons Classic Wool, so against my "it must match dammit" self, I finished the last four rows with that. You actually can barely even tell.

After this picture, I steam blocked the scarf and it is now all nice and stretched out. Now, I'm making dishcloths :oP

Knit on...

A Week From Home

This past week, I had been house sitting for a friend of mine, so I was not home and had no access to the internet. I'm glad to be back home, glad to have access to everyone again, and mainly just glad to be back in my own bed! I have spent most of the weekend just cleaning the wooden furniture (I got this furniture a few months ago, but never had washed it down and polished it). The furniture now looks brand new, the apartment is clean, and I finished my Wingspan (pictures coming tomorrow for that).

Now, it's Easter, and my family is coming over for a lunch feast, so I am getting ready for that. I wish everyone a wonderful day and peace.Knit on...

An Old Project

So last night, I blogged how I was thinking of grabbing some cotton to make a dishcloth while watching Survivor. While rummaging through the yarn cabinet, I saw a bag. It's been so long since I had worked on whatever was in the bag that I had forgotten what was in it. Turns out, it was the beginning of a log cabin baby blanket. Hm, easy knitting for watching TV!I only had done the purple center square, so I started working my way around and around and got this much done while watching one of my favorite shows. It's always a good thing to have more than one project going at a time I think!

Don't know anyone who is having a baby any time soon, so this will just go in the bin of things to give as gifts when the time comes.

Knit on...

A Lack of Knitting

As I sit here in my bed, waiting for Survivor to come on, I realized that the amount of knitting I have done the past three days is three rows on the wingspan scarf. And I knit those three rows today at lunch! It's been crazy busy still at work and I just haven't had the ambition to knit once I get home. I am however thinking about crocheting s dishcloth while sitting in bed watching Tv. How is everyone else doing this week?

Oh and the kindle is very nice for this drive by blogging!

Knit on...

New Yarn

So this weekend was ReBelle's March Madness sale. I didn't have a whole lot of money lying around to spend, but I did get four balls of cascade 220 superwash in a nice, bright purple:The picture is terrible since it was taken quickly this morning so I could have something to show you. As many of you know, I am not a very good morning person. Yes, I can get up early with the best of them, but until I have had enough time to wake myself up, it's probably best not to talk to me :oP

But, now it's time to get ready for work. I'm hoping to get another triangle done on my wingspan today. I have five down now.

Knit on...

Spreading My Wings

Wingspan is coming along nicely now. I am four triangles in and beginning the fifth now. Here is the progress:And that drama I was thankful for lacking yesterday hit the college. Oh well. It was nice while it lasted! Oh, and it's not a coworker per say, but much higher up. So I'm not spreading my wings to fly from the job. Just the wingspan :oP

Knit on...

Take My Word On It

I actually started working on Charlie's fleece on Sunday. I decided that while I normally had Wednesdays set aside for spinning, it just wasn't panning out well due to being tired after work and then I joined a softball team who will be having games on Wednesdays and practice then until the games start up. So, I decided that Sundays are now for spinning. On Sunday, I spun up 2.5 batts of Charlie into this:You'll have to take my word on those singles being fairly consistent. The fiber from Charlie is a tad full of nepps right now due to him having some sun damage and the tips breaking some during the cleaning and later carding process. So, in this picture, it looks very fuzzy. That is mostly due to bad lighting and a flash. Take my word on it.

Wingspan is also coming along nicely. I'm almost done with three triangles, but since it's out in the car to travel with me to work tomorrow, you'll have to just take my word on that too.

On a totally different tangent, I am thankful for my job and the people I work with. I have a friend who is dealing with a coworker from hell and hearing her tell the tales of work has made me thankful.

Knit on...

The New Project

It's amazing how time can fly when you have an extra day off. I found out on Wednesday night that we were getting Friday off from work, so I crammed two days worth of stuff into one on Thursday so I could manage to take Friday off. Friday, I ran around town with a friend in search of a toasted soy flour. The Asian market didn't even have it, so she found a substitute in plain soy flour.

On Saturday, I went fishing and had tons of fish biting. Unfortunately, they were all biting my bobber and not the bait. I've never seen them do that before! I at one point finally put a hook on the bobber to try to catch one, but of course that made them not interested in their toy anymore. After that, I went and played disc golf. I am paying for that this morning, I assure you. My arms are super sore, but it's good to know that I need to get them in shape.

Last night, I worked a bit on my new project:This is Wingspan. I am doing the mod for DK weight yarn even though I am using fingering weight so that I get more of a scarf than a shawl.

Let's see what today brings!

Knit on...

Hooking

So, for a change in pace, I decided to do a little latch hook kit and make a pillow. I bought this while it was still painful to knit and have slowly worked on it bit by bit. It's not as enjoyable as knitting, crocheting, or spinning, but it is fascinating and I like that it is something different. I decided to start small (as my usual over ambitious self, I wanted to do a massive rug for my first project, but the amount of money for the kit kept me away) and I'm glad I did as I am about half way through this pillow and I've been working on it for a while now. It's an angel fish:This one is made of just cheap acrylic yarn, but I see possibilities of a custom designed pillow or wall hanging made out of leftover hand spun yarn.

So, anyone else try the rug hooking thing? Did you get hooked (no pun intended) or did you get bored with it? I'm not bored per say, I'm just not very dedicated to the whole project at this point.

Knit on...

Larry and a Finished Sock

I picked up Larry at the Mad Potter on Saturday. I have to admit that I really do adore this little guy:I wonder what cabinet creature I will create this next month?

Also, I finished the socks yesterday:Tomorrow, I intend to wear them. Would have worn them today, but I forgot they were still on the couch when I went to pick out socks to wear. I have decided what my next project will be, and it involves this yarn:But that's all I'm going to tell you until I get a little further into the thing. Right now though, just look at the pretty yarn nestled in the peace lilly :oP

As for the health update, I am currently cooling down from my intervals run and am about to go do a little weight training on the upper body. Then, I'm taking a bath and going to try to remind myself that the pain I feel in the morning from this workout is all worth it.

Oh, and if you want a workout that will kick your arse, I suggest intervals on the treadmill. What I've been doing the past two cardio workouts is run hard for 5 minutes, then walk for 2. Then run hard for 4 minutes and walk for 2, all the way down to run one, walk two to end it. It's only 25 minutes, but I get worked harder in those 25 minutes than my 40 minutes of jogging on the weekends. It's great to have a good workout that doesn't take a ton of time during the week.

That's it for today. Tomorrow, I'm going to share about another craft I am working on. It is fiber-related, but like nothing I've ever done before.

Knit on...

Damn Doctors

So I went to the doctor on Thursday to have a spot on my arm checked out. I've got a long history of skin cancer in the family and a few questionable spots removed off myself a few years ago. Anyways, turns out the arm is fine and it's just a bad eczema breakout happening and should be gone within a week or so with treatment. However, my blood pressure was up.

What? I'm 29 and should not be having any issues with this. It may just be a medication I'm on (I go back in 3 months after taking my blood pressure every week until then), but the doctor then did what I hate. He went all disappointed father figure on me.

"Well, you've gained wait..."

No shit. I'm sorry, pardon the language on the blog, but that was literally my reaction to his comment. I know I've gained weight! In fact, everyone who looks at me that saw me 2 years ago at this time knows I've gained. But, it hit me hard with him saying it and the look he gave me of utter disappointment.

I've struggled with my weight for a long time now. It's always been a sore spot with me and one I generally avoided talking about until I started losing a lot two years ago. Sure, I would occasionally mention it here to just get it out, but it's not something I enjoyed talking about.

I'm not really enjoying this post either, but I wanted to write this out somewhere. I have not put on all the weight I lost 2 years ago. I have put on about half of it. I didn't stick with the habits I picked up in Korea, which is a shame. So, I'm making some changes and going to try to drop 10 pounds by the time I see the doctor again in three months. Hopefully this will lower the blood pressure and I won't have to have a med change (I like this pill I'm on, so don't want to change to something else right now).

So, to keep myself accountable, I'm going to do a once a week update on the blood pressure reading and how my week is going. I kinda have another blog for this, but I used that mostly for my running posts, and since I don't do as much exciting runs these days, it's fallen by the wayside.

So, that was a rambling Saturday post for everyone. Here, look at the sock that's growing:There, now don't we all feel much better? :oP

Knit on...