Super Saturday

5K, well a 3K for Scleroderma a d now a spin/yoga class.
Bookclub tonite and then rest.
Whew!

Untitled

Busy day today.

First up: Scleroderma 5K to support my cousin June.

Before & Well, Now

In the past year, I've become an avid exercise buff, primarily doing cardio (spinning, swimming, elliptical and bike riding), along with strength training.  Prior to that, I worked sporadically and never consistently. After having some health issues, I finally decided to do something about my weight, which was a primary factor in my digestive issues. As I'd always wanted to learn how to swim, but had problems mastering breathing, I was never successful with swimming. Fueled by my desire to attempt to learn to swim (yet again) last summer, I took swimming lessons at my local recreation center. In order to build my endurane, I started practicing kicking with the kickboard and taking aqua aerobics.

 

While I did not learn how to swim last summer, I continued to work out and then later worked with a swim coach and learned how to swim this year, finally. I ran across some old photos yesterday and decided to post them.

 

It's not a before & after, because I am, after all, a work in progress, but rather a before and now.

 

When looking at the pictures, I can truly see a difference. Over 2 years, I've lost about 30 pounds and still have another 20-30 lbs to go. But I am very happy with the changes in my body and feel that I am much healthier than I've ever been.

 

With all the fitness enthusiasm, sadly, my knitting productivity has waned. I'd like to think that it will pick up at some point, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen again or not. I've still been knitting, but mostly socks and it's off and on, more off than on.

 

That's all for today.

 

Hello There World

So, I doubt if anyone is actually checking this blog for updates, but wanted to let you know 2 things. One, I finally actually graduated from grad school with my Master's in Human Resource Management. Two, I have started a new blog on Posterous at http://whirlgirl.posterous.com/

Hope to see you there.

It's been such a long time

I really debated whether or not to return to blogging or to just call it quits. Sometimes I really enjoy it. Lately with so many different pressing desires, I just have not made blogging a priority. It really started to feel like something I had to do, on a long list of things I had to do, it was not high on that list.

School is wearing me out. I am starting to get sick of it; however, I only have 3 more classes after the current class I'm in, so I will stick it out, obviously. I'm just ready for it to be done.

There's no way that I can possibly update you on the past 5 months. School has been busy of course, although I had a little break after the first Fall term. However, that "break" just became study time for a work test, which I passed, YAY! Right after I took the test, 3 days later, my mother, sister and supercute nephew came out to visit over the Christmas holidays, which was awesome. We also completed some home renovation, putting down wood floors, which I may have previously mentioned and bought adult furniture (new table). Just lots of things, then school started again the first week of January.

I have been knitting through it all, just not as much as I would like. Something I finished were a pair of socks in Shibui, a 3x1 ribbed sock.

Lately, I've been casting on for some new projects, although not a lot of finishing:

Aestlight Shawl

And I signed up for the Knitting Olympics. The project I signed up for is the Bramblewood Vest.

Not a lot of progress on the vest thus far and who knows if I will ever finish it in the time? But I'm not stressing about it. We'll see what happens. I'm not even minding the cables, yet. 

Well, that's all for now. I may be moving the blog too, but if I do, I will let you know, however many readers that may be at this point (haha!).

Dishcloth Mania

This summer I knitted quite a few washcloths for my knitting girl friends, for our knitting camp weekend. Since then, I have been on a cotton bender. I have finally turned the corner and while I am still knitting some cotton, it's not the only projects on my needles that I'm actively working on.

Here are some of the finished cloths, many of which were made from the leftovers of Reynolds Morocco (a bulky cotton/linen blend):
Garter Ridge Washcloth from Knitter's Stash

Basket Weave Cloth

Starfish Cloth from 

Leisure Arts #3892 designed by Evelyn Clark

 Bubbles Border cloth from Leisure Arts #3892

Berries Cloth (Leisure Arts #3892)

For the cloths, I used Reynolds Morocco, a discontinued bulky linen/cotton, for the Berries cloth, Garter Ridge cloth and the Basket Weave cloth. I used Sugar N' Cream for the Starfish cloth and the Bubbles Border cloth.

I have another cloth that wasn't pictured yet, but it is late, so I will upload it next time. I have cast on for some new projects. Lately I have been in sock heaven and have 4 pairs of socks on the needles. I ripped out one sock that wasn't working out and have cast on for three new pairs of socks, while needing to finish the second sock of a pair I've been working on for awhile. I also cast on for Tomato with some lovely bamboo/silk yarn which I will have to share with you all soon.

One of my LYS is going out of business. The owner has owned the shop for 30+ years and did not find a seller when she was interested in selling the business. As the owner has gotten older, she wants to retire, which is understandable. Strawberry Tree closes its doors on August 31, 2009. This was not the store where I learned to knit, but one that I spent considerable amounts of time after my first knitting class. In the past 8 years since I have become a knitter, I have spent many memorable hours shopping, conversing with customers, winding yarn, sifting through old patterns and sitting and knitting. It breaks my heart that the store is closing, although I completely understand the reasons why. I live very close to this store and will no longer have the option of just popping in on my way home for no particular reason, or to visit one my friends who works there. Things change and we must adjust. I am sad to see this LYS close. Thankfully I live in a city with several yarn shops, but it is still sad to see a beloved yarn store with so much history close its doors. I suppose it is a good thing the shop owner is able to close the shop on her own terms.

School is back in session and I am back in the swing of things. I hope to be back here to post soon as well.

Still Here and Knitting

Yikes, I was hoping to be back sooner than this, but at least it is twice in a month, right? I actually have a finished object photo for this post too. I mentioned in my last post that I finished Lutea Lace Shoulder Shell.
I really love the finished result and have worn it a few times already. Since I covered it in the last post, I won't go over all of it again. Here are the pics:

I didn't get M to take a photo, but one of my knitting girls helped me out. Thanks Terrie!

Project Details:

Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton-Ease

Needles Used: US 7 (4.5 mm) needles used

Project length: a month or so. It really didn't take me very long to knit this top up. The tank knits up so quickly. I ripped out my Hey Teach earlier this summer as I could not face the task of figuring out where I was in the lace pattern. I had found some errors and I had to rip back anyway and when you dread a project, it's not an auspicious start to begin working on it again after I'd put the project down last summer. I decided if I had that much dread, perhaps I should just rip it out. I did and then worked up this bottom-up tank in no time and actually have 3 skeins of the Raspberry colorway. This project has made me fine-tune my short-rowing skills. I have found that I am not dreading short rows like I used to. The V-neck is worked by short-rowing, which is quite unusual. Again, very satisfactory knit.

Until next time . .  .

P.S. And today is my birthday. I have had a great day with lots of fun birthday greetings on Twitter and FaceBook. M cooked me breakfast and dinner and I took the day off from work today. Went to see a matinee of Julie & Julia today and just enjoyed it. We also had to go to Back to School Night for M2. Tomorrow we will go out for dinner.

Has It Really Been This long?

I can't believe it's been 2 months since I last blogged

First, thank you to all of you were able to contribute to my cousin's Scleroderma walk. That really meant a lot to me, especially as it at the last minute. Anything that we were able to raise was helpful.

Since my last blog post, so much has happened. I don't think I mentioned it previously, but in May I went to Atlanta to visit my with my mom and sister. And I got to see my favorite nephew, Chason. I flew in on his birthday and got to attend his 4th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. And yes, I did volunteer to go this party. Mad props to my sister because she planned it at 10:30 a.m., so there were no other children there. We had the whole place to ourselves, which was perfect for the 4 year-olds who wanted to get on rides too big for them or play games where their feet or arms didn't reach and required adult assistance. I had a ball and it was wonderful to spend a birthday with my nephew. We also took a short weekend jaunt to Tybee Island and Savannah, GA. I had such a great time staying on the beach and touring downtown Savannah, I didn't want to come back.

After that, I decided to take off the summer from school and it was the best thing I did for myself. I really needed a break as I was starting to get burnt out. And there is no deadline to completing school. Better to take a rest than to take a permanent break from school. Now the fall term is upon us and I am refreshed and ready to start anew.

In knitting news, I have been knitting in fits and starts. I decided recently to take the pressure of NaKniSweMoDo off and just knit what I want to knit. I'm a NaKniSweMoDo dropout and I'm ok with that. Our knitting group recently had its annual Camp Retreat weekend and this year we decided to make or contribute items to the goody bag rather than have it assembled for us. My contribution to the goody bags were face/washcloths.

I am posting a couple of pics here:

However, you may look at the rest of the photos on Ravelry at my Camp facecloth collection.

Also, I have completed the Lutea Lace Shoulder Shell and I love how it turned out. I have already worn it three or four times, but I really need to get a modeled pic.

I have another summer top, Pintuck, on the needles and it is coming along. Please excuse the horrible picture. I wasn't able to get a progress pic in natural lighting.

I also have a pair of socks on the needles. Actually two pairs that I just started and I will be ripping out one pair, as I don't like how it's knitting up.

As what seems to be my habit now, every summer I am inspired to knit dischloths/face cloths, etc. After I had to knit 10 wash cloths in about 17 days, one would think that I might be a bit burnt out on cotton cloth knitting. Not so, I am still knitting face cloths, with the leftovers for myself. After three of them and I still have enough yarn to knit 2-3 more, I am moving on to dish cloth knitting. It's time to refresh my kitchen with new dishcloths and perhaps purge some older ones. It's always fun for me to knit up some new patterns and see which cloths are the best to use for my kitchen. I have found that overly lace patterns do not work well for the kitchen. Perhaps those are better suited to the face. I have about 7 skeins of dishcloth cotton hanging around my house. I would be very happy if I could use up what I have and get rid of it. Then when I am ready to buy new cotton yarn, I can just do so.

I'll post some pics of the dish and face cloth pics next time. I'm sorry for the length of this post. Hopefully I'll be back to post again in a shorter time frame.

Till next time . . .

And There is a FO Pic

Ladies, I am pleased to present finished FO pics of my latest garment, Flutter Sleeve Cardi. It turned out great! (If I say so myself! ;-)

Anyhow, not going to be much of a write-up. It's late and I would like to go to bed.

Front:

The pictures were taken at the end of the day and M is no stylist. Overall, I am very pleased with the look and fit of this garment. If I were to make any changes, I would add a third button and perhaps make the cardi a smidge longer, but really no complaints. I am seriously entertaining the thought of a second one. When I would get to it, who knows, but it certainly a winner in my book! Yay for finished projects.

This is number 4 for NaKniSweMoDo. Got some catchin' up to do. Oh and in the photos, you might notice that I added some highlights to my hair.

Raveled

And lastly, this is really last minute and I do apologize. My only family member here in Denver was diagnosed with a disease, scleroderma, a couple of years ago. This weekend, I will be walking for the second time in the Steppin' Out for Scleroderma Walk. This disease doesn't get as much publicity as others, but it can be life-threatening to those affected by it. Thankfully, my cousin is okay, but she has a lot of health conditions, including hardening of the skin, which can affect her organs. It's also scary because it can be hereditary too. I walked last year and didn't receive my registration packet in the mail, so I just signed up online yesterday. If any of you are able to contribute to the fundraising efforts, I would appreciate it. At the top, right-hand side of the page, you will see a widget to the donation website. You can also go directly there to donate as well. If you can't, that's ok too.