Three Day Weekends are awesome!

I have to keep reminding myself that it is Monday. Three day weekends ROCK!

Stick it & Stuck it.

So I finished my Snappy Hat of Doom this weekend. It was really hard to knit! I knit it in Bernat Roving and the yarn was very dense and knit tight. The cable row was a nightmare and I dreaded it every time. This was definitely a much funner knit in the chunky alpaca! Not a surprise there though. Alpaca feels like heaven on the hands and I love the feel of the yarn floating around. **Sigh** I heart me some Alpaca.


I tried to knit a second diagonal scarf out of Mini Mochi - but I kept loosing myself in the pattern and finding I was too short on stitches. So I ripped it out and cast on for a simple cowl in the Mini Mochi - ignoring my own rule about letting a yarn rest after you have to frog it - because I am trying to knit up stray balls that are rolling around in the open and that was definitely a stray! This will be my third attempt with these two balls. I think I have a winner this time. I am knitting up the Aspen Neck Cowl and it is so very simple. I followed another raveler's advice and I am knitting the purl rows and purling the knit rows - since this pattern calls for mostly purling. The end is curling a lot - and I don't see myself having enough yarn to get through most of the pattern - but I think it will still work out well. I am almost through the first ball of mochi and the cowl is close to 4 inches - so I am guessing it will be an 8 or 9 inch cowl when I am done.


I also finished another dishcloth over the weekend. I knit it out of Knit One Crochet Too Cotonade which is really fun to knit with. I really love the rich colors this yarn comes in. I get tired of knitting in the happy soft shades of cotton I find at JoAnn's and WalMart... so it's really fun to see some wash clothes that POP. We will see how they launder - how the dye holds in them and how they work in the sink on my dishes. But they were fun to knit. I could see making an afghan out of this yarn with no problem.

How's the Weather up there?

It is crazy warm here this weekend!!! We went camping up by Superior Wisconsin this weekend and it was significantly colder up there - but here near the Twin Cities it has been hitting the 80 degree mark. That is shockingly warm for October and I am loving it! I am so not ready for winter even though it will give me a better chance at showing off my knit wear. :) So having a weekend like this when normally we would be doing yard clean-up and winterizing - well it's straight up a gift!



Camping was really only an overnight - but it's the first chance we have had to get away in months so it was really nice. We took Emma hiking on the trails - which is a bit of a challenge in Wisconsin as they do not allow pets on most of the trails. This really pisses me off. We love camping and want to bring our dog with. Our dog is welcome to come with - but they frown on us leaving her in the camper alone. And we really don't WANT to leave her in the camper. We want to take her out with us and exercise her and have experiences with her. She is such a fearful dog - the more we can exercise her and get her outside the better. So it's really frustrating when we go to a park and try to take out dog out for a walk and are met with sign after sign that states No Dog. Argh! Not cool. Makes me want to stay in Minnesota where dogs are welcome on the trails.


ANYWAY - despite that we had a really nice time and we really enjoyed out get away. I am hoping we can still get one or two more getaway's in this year. With the camper having a furnace in it that is a definite possibility.

Pod People
I just finished listening to the last episode of SassyPants Knitter and MAN did I enjoy listening to those podcasts. I would recommend her podcast to anyone who knits or crochets. She is a HOOT! I hope she keeps podcasting.

My latest listen is BarknKnit. I am only on my third or fourth episode so far - and one episode didn't load on my pod well - so I haven't listened to much yet. But so far I am really enjoying it. I listened to a full episode while on my Treadmill today and listened to her talk about her dog's allergies. I can't imagine a dog with a cotton allergy! I would freak if Emma had that. Cotton is all over the place! So it will be interesting to listen to her figure that out.

On my Needles

I have just been in a hat frenzy this year! I am currently knitting my 12th hat this year. Seriously! Granted - I work in a warehouse and I freeze all winter long - so I wear A LOT of hats. Pretty much I put a hat on in October and my hair isn't spotted again until April.

So right now I am knitting my second Snappy Hat. The first one I knit over the weekend and I knit it in Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Chunky and it is SO soft and warm. I really love how it turned out even though I sort of fudged up the cables at the top of the hat and I suspect knit the cables backwards as well. I am knitting a second one now in Bernat Roving Yarn. It's really dense! And it's a total wrist breaker - although I suspect I will love the end product. It has the look of a hat that you can wear when it's REALLY bitter out. Like a January hat. Every year here in Minnesota we get a week in January that is just revoltingly cold. So cold you can't stand it. I think this hat will be awesome to wear that week. One other thing with this. I am knitting with an Addi Turbo Lace needle - and it smells like copper! ICK! I feel like I am knitting with Old Penny's! I had heard about this when Alana on Never Not Knitting did a review of these needles - and now I know it's true. These needles SMELL! I will be avoiding the lace needles in the future!

Over the weekend I also knit my Diagonal Scarf. (Really original name!) I knit that on Nashua Handknits Wooly Stripes. The yarn is really pretty - but there was a splice in the yarn and the color jogged pretty harshly - so the whole flow of the scarf is messed up there. Pretty irritating. It goes from mossy green to cranberry in the middle of a row. I think if I had planned things out better I would have cut the yarn before the color change & made a smoother transition. It was my first time working with this yarn and I think I always trust the yarn to not have breaks my first time. I don't know WHY I would think that. Silly silly girl.

My Treadmill Afghan is going well. I took a break from my treadmill over the weekend. I pretty much lived in my Pajamas and slept most of the weekend really. But I am back in action today and am looking forward. I started listening to the Sassy Pants Knitter Podcast this morning at work. I am really enjoying this one! She had me laughing out loud at work. When I got home I PM'd Sillyfru on Ravelry to thank her for a fun podcast and she wrote me back right away and friended me on Ravelry! How sweet! :)

Water Tower Crochet Cozy

Temptation everywhere!

Instead of knitting last night I curled up on the couch and looked through my knitting yum that was in the mailbox. Yesterday I received the Lion Brand Yarns catalog and the Holiday 2010 Knit Simple magazine.


The Lion Brand catalog was particularly yummy this time around. I opened the first page and saw that they now have an Ap for the ipod/phone. I downloaded that immediately and then kept it by my side to investigate the patterns I saw a little further.


On page 5 of the catalog they had used yarn to cover containers - literally wrapping the yarn around a vase from top to bottom and gluing it in place. I am in heart with this idea! I just recently picked up a wine gift box thingy (think tube with a cap and pretty gift like paper on the outside) at JoAnn's that I wanted to use for some kind of needle storage. I can't help but think how good a bunch of yarn would look glued all the way around this!


On pages 8-9 they had an article about yarn bombing. The Water Tower Cozy made out of Thick and Quick was most impressive! I have spotted a few yarn bombs around the Twin Cities. Most of the time it's near a knitting shop - but not always. I love the idea. It makes me smile. Some person worked on a project and then attached it somewhere for people to see - to think about - to smile at. Love that.


The felted pillows in Fisherman Wool on page 21 are just AMAZING! They take three or more (one of them 6) skeins of Fisherman wool. That's a LOT of knitting. But man are they cool looking. The one on the front cover caught my eye IMMEDIATELY. I was sure they would not have a pattern for something that cool available - but they did! Maybe I could make a mini version. But I think scale is part of the cool facter here. I just don't see myself spending a year making one pillow. I can't even get myself to finish my shrug I started this past Spring. Seriously. I am actually getting worried that I will have a different tension and it will look weird when I finally do commit to it. Sigh. They also had some amazing felted bags - but again - we are talking around 2000 yards of fisherman's wool in order to make one. I just don't knit that fast - or much - to make them. But man are they cool!


One thing I did not like in the catalog was the felted armwarmer on page 25. It looked like a wool cast! I imagine they are quite warm - but for some reason that is all I could think when I saw this picture. Felted. Wool. Cast.

The Baby Tree of Life Throw looked pretty awesome. It only takes one skein of Pound of Love and it looks like the perfect gift to give someone with a little human in their life.

It looks like they have a bunch of new yarns too. I will be keeping an eye open at the local stores to see if I can cop a feel of these new yarns. Although I suspect the cashmere won't be found at JoAnn's anytime soon. :(

As for the Knit Simple Magazine - My favorite thing in the whole magazine - and the only thing I REALLY want to make ASAP - are the Little Owls by Susan B. Anderson. These are SO adorable. (Ok - all the toys are really cute - but the owls - COME ON! Super Cute!) I need to find out if any stores in my area carry the Worsted Cotton by Blue Sky's Alpacas. They just have to be made!

I also marked the Faux Fair Isle Set - also by Blue Sky Alpacas. Knit in super bulky yarn - it looks fast and warm. LOVE! Another one to research and track down.

There really wasn't that much else in this magazine that I marked and was WOOHOO about. It was heavy with sheer little wraps for holiday parties that look like a pain to make and are SO impractical in Minnesota. Maybe for a July wedding - But you would FREEZE at a holiday party around here in those wispy little things.

So that is pretty much all for those two.

I am still knitting away on my Diagonal Scarf Pattern that I found on the Double Ewe Yarn Shops web site. I am loving it!

I have a lot of WIP's running around right now and I am freaking out about it a little bit. I guess they are more like UFO's that I sort of ran away from. I really need to get going again on my Shrug a Bug. I have pretty much stalled out on it. You would thing mindless ribbing would be great for sitting in front of the TV - but I just can't get myself to keep going on it. I really need to make it a goal to finish it before the end of the year. I had originally wanted it done by fall so I could wear it NOW - but that is not to be.

Time to knit!

Bad Blogger

I have been a very bad blogger! I think I have convinced myself that it is ok that I am not blogging because I have been busy living - but seriously - if I have time to harvest crops on Farmville on Facebook then I think I have time to blog.

So I have made great progress on my Treadmill afghan over the last ... ufdah...7 months. I have stitched on my 6th row and I have enough squares tucked away that I could have my 7th row on the blanket done and am working on my 8th.

I weighed my squares recently so I could use my yarn more wisely. I weighed a single square and then I weighed 10 squares together so I could get a safe average. Each square weights in around 18 grams - so if I have 20 grams of yarn on my ball I know it's safe to knit a square with. I am having a lot less left overs! Nice!

As for my weight loss - I am hovering around 25 lbs lost. I had hoped to do better than that after 9 months of effort - but I can't seem to stick to the good life as well as I had hoped and I seem to bounce a lot. I am trying to look at this as a much more long term thing - and am looking toward what I will knit when I finally finish this afghan one day.

End of February Check in

Well - It's the last day of February and I am still working out on my Wii Fit everyday and hitting my treadmill everyday. My Treadmill afghan is slowly growing. I took a couple of pictures of it yesterday since I haven't taken a picture in awhile. I have almost another row of squares to sew on already. It's kind of time consuming to sew the squares on - I tend to save them up and hit them all in one shot.

I have dropped around 15 lbs and my BMI has dropped almost 3 points. I am down one size in my clothes as well. :) Feels nice to have more of my wardrobe back again!

I have three complete rows on my afghan now. Each square takes around 30 minutes of treadmill time - 16 squares in a row - so three rows is right around 24 hours of tradmill time. Nice!

I'm Back in the saddle again!

Well - I made my first square on my treadmill afghan today. Again. I believe it was March last year that I pooped out on this thing. We got the dog, Tom lost his job, excuses, excuses....

So. We got a Wii and I have been doing the wii fit faithfully for 10 days in a row for 30 minutes a day. And today I dusted off my needles and headed down to the treadmill and made a square for my afghan.

I know it's cliche to start trying to be healthy again at the New Year - but now that the holidays are over and I have months of ice, snow and cold to look forward to, it just seems like a good time to work it out.

I am trying to not obsess over the numbers but facts are facts. I want the numbers to LOWER. One thing that is a blessing and a curse about the Wii is the tracking of the BMI and the Weight. I love it when it does what I want - hate it when it goes up. (guess that is a du.)

I am having a hard time setting goals in terms of numbers. I want to drop a lot of weight. If I do the math - and I set a goal of 2 lbs a week from now until June 1st - that would be a 52 lb weight loss. That would be amazing and wonderful - but it still would be well above an ideal weight for me. I am struggling with what is reasonable. Should I set my goal at a weight I haven't been since high school? As a woman pushing 40 - that seems a little unlikely. I guess that is why I have been silenced in my goal setting. I just know that I am not healthy right now and I know movement and a healthy diet are key to what I need to do going forward. I feel like I should not worry about where I end up so much as just putting my head down on the path toward healthy and just keep trucking up the mountain. I will know when I get there.