Category: Life Happens

More about that title later.

The Yarn Focus Challenge, organized by Rebekah of Knit Knack, is now over. This was an interesting challenge for me. I have found that I tend to buy on impulse, and the lure of internet shopping is always there. Being “forced” to only buy on one day a month made me think just for a minute every time I was all set to hit that “buy now” button. I plan on continuing this yarn-buying habit on my own, since it’s really not much of a hardship. In reality, I already have more yarn and projects stored up than I will ever knit before I die.

Which brings me to the title, and the new ticker.

I am seriously going to have to live until I’m about 105 to use up all the yarn I have in the stash, and to do all the projects I want to finish. I’ve decided that I need to get healthy and fit so I can live that long, in good enough shape to do the things I want to do. The first “fifty” in the title refers to fifty pounds that have crept on over the years. The second “50” refers to the age I will be turning later this year. It’s actually close enough (October) that I won’t get rid of the whole “fifty” by then, but it makes a good campaign slogan, I thought. The “fit” refers to the exercise component, sadly missing from my daily routine. Knitting apparently doesn’t count as an aerobic activity, unless you do it while on the treadmill, and I am not that coordinated.

I’m putting this out here in blogland for motivation. I figure that you all are a bit like all the regular girlfriends that a woman has in real life, except that there are more of you. Having that ticker up there will keep me honest. I’m pretty sure none of you will let me slide on this. I have a date to go to my first Weight Watcher’s meeting later today, and today was the second day in a row that I got on the treadmill before my morning shower. PJ, of Golden Oasis, led me to the American Heart Association’s program, Choose To Move, a 12-week program to encourage women to exercise regularly.

So there you have it. Don’t cut me any slack.
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In knitting progress, here are some photos. There has been little knitting around here this past week, for a variety of reasons. Here they are, anyway.

First, the STR sock. I can’t say enough good things about this yarn. It’s a good thing that I like it, as I have several more skeins of it in a variety of colors.

I like the way this is striping. Some of the socks that I’ve seen in this color have had quite a bit of pooling, and though I’m not opposed to pooling, I like nice tidy little stripes better. Watch, now that I’ve said that, it will pool like crazy on the rest of it.

Here’s the Pippa cardigan. Sleeve of a cardigan, that is. There has been more backwards progress on this one than forwards this week. I got off a stitch on one column of twisted stitches, right in the middle of the sleeve, and knit about three inches before I noticed it. I tried to just drop down a few stitches in the middle rather than unknitting the whole thing, and made a total mess of it. The result was about four inches of frogged sleeve. It then had to spend a few days in the time out chair.

Last but not least, is my Amazing Lace teammate, Langsjal Johonnu. I haven’t worked much on this since I last posted, as I’ve been distracted and busy, and this one requires at least a half a brain in order to not screw it up. Way back when, I promised a pinned-out picture so you could see what it looks like. Here you go.

Only about ninety-billion repeats to go, and it will be a stole. I really like this pattern, and the yarn. The yarn is rustic in feel, but I’ve decided that I like it. It’s definitely different than the smooth wool-silk of the Zephyr from the last lace that I did. Once I got past the mental block I had in figuring out the center portion pattern repeat, this one’s not difficult, it just requires that I pay attention. I have the other border all done and waiting on a holder, so as soon as I run out of yarn, I can graft it together.

I’m off to eat carrot sticks. And yes, I already know how many Points bourbon has.

First of all, I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth. Last week was my 7-day work week, and was just busy enough that I didn’t get much knitting done, much less blogging. This week, my internet connection has been on the fritz. We took Comcast up on the offer to switch our phone service over to cable, and it worked well, for the first week. For the past week, it has been less than ideal. Some days I have internet, some days not. To give the Comcast folks credit, they have sent guys out twice, both times on the same day that we called, and were very helpful. So far today it’s been OK, since the cable guy came out yesterday. There were a couple days when we didn’t have phone service, either, but now that’s working as well.

I thereby proclaim today an official email-blog-post-answering amnesty day. I will go through all the comments and answer questions, but being as I’m over 60 emails behind (and that’s just the blog comments), I’m not answering all of them. Thank you to everybody who has 1) said how lovely my sister’s scarf was, 2) liked my Amazing Lace post, 3)felt sorry for me because my house has been eaten away by wood rot, 4) complimented my dog, and 5) offered Icelandic translation services. There, I think I’ve covered it all.

Oh, and I was joking when I said that I had Icelandic music loaded up on the Ipod. I have listened to some songs on Rhapsody, but they have precious little from Iceland. Lots of Scandinavian artists, not so much Icelandic. Though it might help if I knew what I was looking for.

Today was sort of a loss. I have been very distracted by all the pounding and sawing going on here. The stucco guys start tomorrow (at 6:30 AM, on a Saturday), so they are definitely making progress, but the noise is starting to get to me. It’s been rainy, so we’re still under the Big Top, which is starting to drive me nuts. Normally Riley gets to go for a long walk to the park every day, but today it was raining off and on, so I took advantage of a lull in the drizzle to take her out just around the neighborhood. I got about ten minutes away from the house, and the sky just opened up. Even Riley tried to hide under the bushes, and she normally likes the rain. By the time I got back to the house, I was drenched, and soaked all the way down to my underwear.

Then I started knitting. I should have just known better, given the way the day had started. I’ve been working on those two-color socks, and have gotten the second one done past the gussets, so now I “just” have the foot to go.*  As a reward, I picked up the Langsjal Johonnu, and did a couple of rows. Then I found a mistake, and ended up tinking back the same two rows. Here’s a picture that shows about where I am. The idea is blatantly stolen from Claudia.

I’m starting to like the yarn more, though some parts of it worry me a bit. It is unevenly spun, with some parts looking more like a fingering weight than laceweight. And there have been a few short sections where calling it “cobweb” would have been generous. I’m hoping that these hold up to vigorous blocking. We’ll see.

I am liking the pattern. I think I might do the two ends first. The construction goes like this: you knit one border and the center section, put it on a holder, then knit the second border and graft the two together. I’m thinking that if I do the two borders first, then I don’t have to think about how much yarn I might need for the second one, and can just knit merrily away on the center part until I nearly run out, leaving just enough to graft the last row. Smart eh? We’ll see on that, too.

Everybody think good thoughts for sunshine in western Washington. I’m just sick of rain. Even the ducks look like they are sick of rain. I’d even settle for just overcast and dry.

*”Just”. I have size 10 1/2 feet, so this is not much consolation.