The Halfway Point

Here was my progress as of Monday night on my NaKniSweMo project. Please pardon the blechy bathroom mirror photo, it was late, and I was the only one up. Sleeves are done, and I am on the 15th repeat of 30 (or 40 if I have the yarn) repeats of the body pattern. Only 60 (or 100) rows of 189 stitches left! 11340 (or 18900) stitches left to knit! Totally doable. Well, plus the collar, but I'm working on that at lunch currently. I did decide to make the collar about half as wide as the pattern. This is mostly to make sure I have the yarn to knit it, reading Ravelry, this seems to be the major yarn suck of the pattern.

Finally a post on the weight loss progress. After months of saying I needed to get back on track, I finally re-signed up for Weight Watchers. I tried using a free site for months to count calories, but it never "clicked" for me, and I kept going over every day. Friday I noticed my weight had crept back up to the 230's and briefly hovered at the weight I was when I had Kaylee less than 2 years old. Not good. Not good at all. So far so good. I have found it easy to avoid the sweets and bread (except for two occasions where there was stress and all you can eat pizza, but I didn't go as overboard as I had in the past)

My first WI is Friday, and I will try to post the results then.

NaKniSweMo Day 6

Just a quick progress shot as of my lunch break today. I sepereated the sleeves, and have about 160 rows of k3p3 and p3k3 checkerbord before I'm done with the body. I might do the sleeves at the start of the next ball of yarn so I can more effenciatly judge how long to make the sweater.

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Christmas Knitting in November

I've been busy the last few months getting a head start on some Christmas knitting, so I could "relax" in November and work on NaKniSweMo again this year. I started in March (yes March) with Aeolin for my mother-in-law, but that is still unblocked, and will probably remain so until closer to the holiday or the next time my parents have the kids overnight.

Other projects that I have knit are Ice Queen, for my mother. I knit this in about two weeks (off and on) using JeggerSpun Zepher in Juniper and light gold beads.



And pulled up over my head.

For my 15 year old Emo Brother-in-law, knit York. I'm going to embellish around the moth to make the sculls look more like the sculls from the Punisher, but I need to felt it a bit more still. I'm waiting until I have both sinks cleaned out and both kids asleep at the same time. I figure I have until Christmas to get this done, so that miracle is sure to happen sometime between now and then. I knit this in one day while home sick and watching a Buffy marathon.

I'm not sure who this one will be for, I might send it to my sister in Germany, or I might save it for myself. This is knit from my homespun Falkland that I knit during the Tour De Fleece this summer, and is nice and soft and crunchy.

In regular knitting, my Arisaig is coming along nicely. I have the back lace piece finished, and have started on the right lace piece. I'm still pretty confident that the changes I have put in to make this a pullover will work and look nice, but it is going to take a while to do. I am glad that this isn't what I decided on for NaKniSweMo.



But this is. Therapi. Knit in my own hand dyed yarn, using Wilton's Leaf Green (a whole container for seven skeins). I'm 38 rows into the yolk (have 30 more to go) before it is time to separate the sleeves and work on the endless 3X3 ribbing for the body. But I'm sure that I will be able to have this finished before November 30th.

Now back to knitting.

Pullover Fail

Saturday I started working on my modified Arisaig pullover. I decided I would try to knit the pull over in one piece, with a provisional cast on at the start of the lace and would split at the arms. After much adding, casting on, frogging, re-calculating, casting on again and fudging I had the cast on started. All 368 stitches. It only took one repeat of the 16 row chart for me to realize that I was fucking crazy. Yeah. I frogged again last night and am going to work the body in pieces, and will seam, and knit the ribbing in the round. Take two begins tonight with the back.


This weekend also had me dying the yarn for my NaKniSweMo project, Therapi. I wound up dying 7 skeins a nice bright leafy green, and realized that the green is the same shade as the school colors for the Uni that I work for and graduated from. Oh well, it is going to be the office sweater. I just hope I will have enough yarn.

I did finish the Chickidee Cowl and Ice Queen, and will try to get pics up as soon as I block them.

Sickness, Changes, and Casting on like crazy

I've been sick for 10 days :( Not the flu, but a head cold turned upper respiratory infection. Breathing has been hard to do the last few days, as it feels like my nasal passages have been rubber cemented together, but other than that, I feel ok. I've missed two days of work, which gave me some time to knit and spin a little, but not much, as I spent much of those days sleeping. I cast on for two projects during that time, Ice Queen and Kernel from Knitty. Ice Queen will be a Christmas gift for my mother, and I'm using yarn that has been in the stash since 2005 (when I first started knitting) and have been using as scrap yarn for years. Kernal is being knit in conjunction with the Sexy Knitter's Club current knit along. Its my second project using my hand spun yarn:

The other thing I cast on for in the last few weeks was a pair of mittens. After I finished Corwin's Spidy Mitts, Kaylee kept steeling them and putting them on around the house. Corwin came up to me and said that I had to knit her her own pair, so she would stay out of his. I am knitting the Alphamitts in Knit Picks Palette, Calypso Heather and Lilac (both yarns left over from other projects). Corwin picked out the colors to use and they look awesome!

I finally got photos of Kaylee's Jacket on here with the buttons and ties done. She loves this coat, and the matching hat, and asks for it to be put on in the mornings. Everyone who has seen it has mentioned how cute it is on her.



I've also finished Corwin's Pembrook Sweater, in time for him to wear it on Photo day at daycare. Oh my goodness, this was a knitting marathon, but so worth it. I knit the whole sweater in less than 10 days, and I say it is just about perfect. The only problem is that the dyelots of the yarn (which I had in stash forever) didn't match up, and the labels had been long gone, considering I had started and frogged many projects with the yarn over the years.

I'm trying to finish up as many small projects as I can this month so I can devote November to NAKNSWMO again. Right now I'm debating between two sweaters: Therapi and Arisaig. I have enough yarn in stash for both, and both would be challenging projects for me to do.

With Therapi I would need to dye yarn, and reading the commits on it at Ravelry, the yarn amounts on the pattern are way off, almost 50% off. I'm debating either a leafy green or a dusty rose color, and would have to dye in two batches (and alternate skeins). I'm thinking I'll overestimate by a few skeins and shorten the collar if I run out, but I'm dreaming of a nice big comfy cardi to keep in my office. The downside is that this whole sweater is knit in one piece, and would be rather cumbersome by the time I finished it.

Arsaig would be knit in KP Palette, and modified very heavily. I think the project as shown on Knitty looks sloppy and baggy, and I've seen other's project pages where they have modified it to be a pullover and I think it looks great that way. I'm thinking I'll knit in one pice, starting with a provisional cast on at the start of the lace, knit up from there, and then after I have that done, decide just how much overlap I will want, and knit the ribbing down from there. Since the sleeves are knit in pieces, this would be the more portable project for me to take to work for lunches and on car trips to the store or my parents. All changes would be documented on the blog.

Time to get back to knitting

Beck Diet Solution

I picked up this book through interlibrary loan, after hearing good things about what it teaches you, and have decided to give this a try in addition to following WW. I think in addition to witting things out on note cards, putting the information from Response Cards on this blog will be great journaling tools.

Reasons I want to Lose Weight Chart
I'll look better
I'll be more attractive to others.
I'll be able to wear a smaller size
I'll be able to wear more stylish clothes.
I'll be happier when I look in the mirror.
I'll get joy out of shopping for clothes.
I won't feel so self-conscious.
I'll be in better health
I'll be able to exercise without discomfort or embarrassment.
I'll live longer
I'll feel better physically
I'll have more energy
I'll feel more in control
I'll feel as if I've accomplished something important.
I'll have more confidence
I'll increase my self esteem
I'll be less self-critical
I'll feel more outgoing
I won't have to listen to my family comment on what I'm eating.
I' won't have anyone bugging me about my weight
I'll be healthier to have another baby
I will lower my risk of developing diabetes later in life
I can knit smaller sizes.

Man I identified a lot of them as goals. Almost the whole list. I do need work. Now to get index cards tonight and remember to write them all down.

I've made negative progress on my NaKniSweMo project. I finished the 5th repeat of the raglan increases, and tried it on, and hated the neckline. It seemed like the body of the sweater was too big for me as well. I had DH give his opinion of the sweater and he hated the neckline as well. I frogged it that night, and re-cast on last night for the next size smaller (36 and something, the L) I know the sweater is designed to have negative ease, but this much negative ease does worry me a bit. But since I am knitting a smaller size, I'll have a bit extra yarn and should be able to do some short row shaping at the bust. And since this is a top down sweater, it will be easier to add some extra increases for the hips if I need them.

I have been lagging in the 100 AP's in November goal. Here it is day 7 of the month, and I am only at 11 AP's. But I will earn some this weekend. I don't think I will be at my goal of 25 a week, but I will try.

Lunch break is over, back to work.

November Goals and a NSV

I have two big goals to work for this month.

The first is I'm participating in NaKniSweMo for the first time. The idea of knitting and finishing a whole sweater in a month is not that daunting, especially since I'm doing the short sleeved version of the Silken Scabbard. But I only have 800 yards of yarn and that is just shy of the called for for my size. I'm already planning on cutting out one cabled repeat on the bottom of the sweater, both to shorten and save on yarn, but its going to be close. The hemmed neckband took up a lot of yarn. But on the bright size, I figure I'm already 5,000 stitches in, and its only day three of knitting.


It doesn't look like much in the pictures, but the hem did eat a lot of knitting time.

On the workout front, I've committed myself to earning 100 AP's in November. If i complete this task, then I will buy myself a new pattern. With doing the Turbo Jam, its easy for me to earn 5-9 AP's a day, so as long as I am consistent, I don't see the numbers being a problem.

Workout Schedule
Monday- Punch Kick Jam and 10 min Ab Jam
Tuesday- 20 minute and Turbo Sculpt
Wednesday- Cardio Party Mix 1 and Ab jam
Thursday- Fat Blaster and 3TTurbo
Friday- Cardio Party Mix 3 and 10 minute Ab Jam
Rest Saturday and Sunday, unless I need to make up a workout.

There, its in writing, lets see if I can stick to it. Today is day 1 and I have already earned 9 AP.

Saturday DH and I had a date night. Nothing fancy, just the two of us going to the Abby Inn for dinner without the children. I tore apart my closet looking for nicer jeans to wear than the saggy baggy jeans I had been wearing since K was 3 weeks old. My Size 16 jeans that I had went on, and buttoned, but the gave me horrible muffin top. It was so bad that in the empire style shirt I was wearing, I looked very, very pregnant. I did go out and buy a new pair of jeans, with a bit of strech to them, also size 16 that fit beautifully. While I'm upset that my old jeans are still to small, I'm thinking because of the material and the cut, I'm ecstatic that I did fit in a different pair of the same size. There isn't even a "W" after the 16 on the label. I don't think I have fit in this size in over 10 years.

Tuesday Weigh In

I had a good week last week. Ok, so I wasn't 100% on with the program, and AF finally showed up after K's birth. But I had a loss of 3 lbs this week! That put me at 209.6, and down almost 8 lbs since I got back on track last month.

Last night was knit night. I did indulge in a Pumpkin Pie latte at Art Six while I knit and my companion crocheted. We are a small group, and we have had a third person hop in from time to time, but maybe its just this semester keeping people away.

I got home and was too wired to get to sleep right away, so I watched some NCIS re-runs off the DVR until midnight, and much to my surprise, was up at 5:15 to work out today.

I was sick last week, and took the whole week off of working out, so I started back small, with the 20 minute Turbo Jam DVD followed by the whole AB Jam, and I felt great afterwards. I really need to get a set rotation for me, and try to get all the videos in an order. Maybe I will try setting up a grab-bag, and do the video I pull out the night before, and for the shorter videos, remember to double up with a longer video.

On the knitting front, I finished A Cardigan for Merry on Sunday night, now I'm just sewing the hems in, and I'm hoping to be able to block it tonight, and get buttons this weekend. Its been chilly in the mornings, and my little girl needs something on her head, but she won't wear a hat.
I'm trudging along on the Apris Surf Hoodie finally. I did the first sleeve in two weeks, started the second sleve but messed up the increases, frogged it and decided to cast on for the body in the round. That is a whole lot of stocking net stitches. I did get to the waste shaping, and I am about 5 rows from starting the lace. That at least should make things go faster....

But Saturday is the start of November, and that means it is time for NaKniSweMo, or the National Knit a Sweater in a Month. I decided to join this year, and do the Silken Scabbard in the Brooks Farm Solo that I picked up at Fiber Fest in April.