Various Things

Well, I've had a few interesting things going on the past few days.

Adventures in Knitting Land

First and foremost was our very first knitting meetup at Panera in Huebner Oaks. I think it went very well and am looking forward to making this into a regular event for the San Antonio Fiber Junkies. At this event, the wonderful lady who introduced me to the sock yarn blanket gave me some yarn for said blanket. I have not yet worked all of it in, but I have knit squares from some of it. Please excuse the horrible quality of the photo and feel free to chastise me for my terrible laziness about weaving my ends in. I now have a system, I think. Every time I knit one square, work in those ends and the ends of another square. It's time consuming, but worth it because... ack! It's a huge mess with tangly yarn bits hanging out everywhere. Also, yes, that is a hallway and I do seem to have something attempting to escape from my linen closet. What's a girl to do when she's making a blanket large enough for a king sized bed with no bed to model it on? The hallway will just have to do for now, then I will start putting it in other hideously large floor spaces in my house... that do not currently exist. Expect rants about spontaneous furniture rearrangement in... a few years when I've knit enough squares to need to worry about it.

Anyway, at last count I had 61 squares. That is, of course, provided I actually counted correctly and do not stay up all night knitting. I'm kidding! (maybe not)

I have also been knitting those socks I started. Do not worry, I'm not cheating on them too hard with the blanket. They are looking great so far. I am not exactly sure on whether they will fit in the calf/ankle area. I can only feel confident in the fact that my gauge seems to be spot on and trust in the wisdom of the whiz who wrote the pattern. Anyway, here is a picture of the awesomeness. It's sort of amazing because the color of this yarn does not ever, ever come out correctly in pictures. It doesn't matter what color I have in the background. Anyway, I took this picture with my work resting on my knee while wearing the pink scrub pants of awesomeness (kidding, I really don't like pink!) . All in all, I think it's going well and am looking forward to getting further along and showing off.

Heathen Happenings

Anyway, I do have other things going on! For example, today I received my very first issue of Idunna. I joined The Troth at some point in the not-too-distant past. I'm not entirely sure which month it was since they all seem to have run together recently, but I was quite surprised to receive it today as I have been too busy to really think about it.

 
So, there it is nice and neat on my desk... with yarn in the background. :/ Anyway, I am looking forward to reading it and thinking about everything I'm reading. Probably after finals week, though. I have been so busy I haven't even had the opportunity to download the Odroerir journal, much less read it. I will definitely be reading that one as soon as the semester insanity has ended, as well. It would seem I am going to have quite a busy May.

Serious Things!

Work and school seem to be going in a great way. I am very happy with the new client I have at work and am really getting a lot of points on Nexercise from cleaning around her place. There is good in that, right? I am also happy to be getting paid because I spent some time with absolutely nothing from work and was miserable with lack of income and things to do. So, now that those things have been fixed I am feeling a lot better about life in general.

School is going... all right. I have to admit that I have been very unmotivated for the past few weeks. I am not sure why, but I feel that it is passing and I will be doing better for the rest of the semester. I am really quite terrified of tomorrow because we are having our post test... meaning a 1.5 mile run/walk. I am confident in my ability to do better than I did last time, but honestly I am pretty discouraged about the information I got from doing my measurements. It's sort of strange because nothing really changed... except my legs. I will have you know that my thunder thigh situation has gotten better by a few inches, mmkay?

Anyway, I have a lot to do tomorrow with all of that and a few things I need to take care of for my chemistry lab so I'm not going to be blathering on about it all night. All I have to say is that I am going to forgive myself for the horrible behavior that caused this semester to have disastrous parts to it and do better. There are only a few more class periods in the semester and I will shine for them, dammit. Next semester will be better.

A Heartfelt Note...

On a more serious note, I would like to share something with you all, my rather amorphous and invisible blog readers who may or may not actually exist. Last year, after my car accident, I received four blood transfusions. I had some serious damage to my lungs and lost a lot of blood with all of the fractures I sustained. If it was not for someone donating blood, I would not be here today to ramble on about knitting and all of the things I guess I'll have to read later. So, if you are eligible, I am going to go ahead and encourage you to donate blood. I'm feeling rather inspired  because I am officially now able to donate as of the first of this month and we are having a blood drive on campus next week. I will be there. If you are in the San Antonio area, there are a lot of different resources available, the most prevalent of which would be the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center. So, without further adieu, I say get thee to a certified vampire for the good of mankind!

Finished BFFs

Well, I have finally finished the BFF socks I have been working on! They are beautiful.

I only had a slight problem on the second sock. It seems that, on the foot, I was not holding the needles tightly enough when transitioning from the top to the bottom so there is a little bit of laddering on the purl right before you transition to going to the bottom of the foot. I fixed this about halfway down by pulling the yarn very tight on the second stitch on the next needle and it seems to have worked itself out nicely enough. I only wish I had noticed it much sooner and started to do it before! Ah, well. I love them dearly, anyway. I work them outside to take a picture in the sunshine. I doubt I will be doing that again because merino is very soft and does not hold up very well. I worked hard on these socks and want them to last.

It's funny, last night as I was getting to the toe I was terrified that I was going to run out of yarn. The Tosh Sock does not have quite as much yardage as some of the other sock yarns I have seen out there, but I was left with a nice little hunk. I will be parceling it out to share with all of my friends who are knitting the sock yarn blanket. It is a gorgeous color and I have seen many an eye linger on it, ha!

I do not have very interesting project notes, but if anyone is interested in seeing how I did all of this with links to the pattern pages and whatnot, the link to mine is here. I think maybe next time I knit them (and I probably will, somewhere down the line) I will knit one sock with the normal cables and do the other with a cable to the back instead so they will be mirrored twins.

As soon as this project was finished, I of course went ahead and dove into another. I started another pair of socks. I am currently gauge swatching, but I plan to knit up Down The Rabbit Hole in Knit Picks Stroll Multi in the Peacock Multi colorway of old. It is apparently no longer available. Here is a picture of the starting supplies (sorry it's kind of blurry). I'm glad to be using this, because I feel it's important to use up some of my stash before going to Yellow Rose. Hopefully these socks will be finished by then and I will have a clear enough slate to look at everything available and get plenty of fresh ideas.

Well, that's about all for now. I hope everyone has as enjoyable an Easter as I am! I thought I was supposed to be working today, but when I arrived I found that I wasn't supposed to be there at all. Apparently there was a communication mix up with the boss. Hooray for waking up early and then not having to be at work, thus resulting in a longer day. I have no idea what we have planned for Easter dinner, but I'm glad it's not going to be too high-maintenance.

Update on the Yarny Things

Well, I did not mean to be away from blogging for quite so long. Oops! I should have been updating this entire time.

I have been doing quite a bit of knitting these days.  Maybe even to the point of being ridiculous? I'm not sure. It has occurred to me that I did not ever post pictures of the gray Hermione's Everyday Socks I was working on. That is because there currently aren't any of the finished pair, as I am lazy and have not taken any and I haven't even woven in the ends for them yet! However, I do have a picture of the first one right before I began the toe.  That particular pair of socks was rather amusing, as I found out after knitting most of the first one... that I have been doing the knit stitch incorrectly for a number of years. Purl, also.  It's rather sad and I am not happy about it, but I have corrected the issue and the second sock was knit very differently. The difference in how the eye of partridge heel looks between the two is astounding! It also fits much better. I have a number of beautifully done things since, and I will shamelessly flaunt them before you as they come up.

Anyway, nearly immediately after I finished these socks, I started another pair. Surprising, I know! I decided to use the pattern BFF out of Cookie A's book, Knit. Sock. Love. This apparently used to be a free pattern, like Monkey, but I had it in the book and it fit the Sock Knitters Anonymous prompt (cables!) for March... so why not?  I have not quite finished, but I have gotten to the heel flap of the second sock and am really enjoying the knitting. Really.  I have a picture of the first one completed:

And another of the yarn in more natural lighting to show off the color:

I absolutely love this yarn! It's Tosh Sock by madelinetosh and now I understand why people rant and rave about it. Really.  The color is beautiful, the yarn is soft and workable, and the stitch definition is good. All around, a great yarn. 
Another thing I have been getting into recently... is the sock yarn blanket. I know, I'm so shameful! I resisted temptation for over two years before I caved. I couldn't help it. Mine is just now starting out. I don't have a ludicrous number of squares yet, but I do have one picture so far:

I have not been taking any pictures of it, as it is significantly larger than that now, because I have not been weaving in my ends like a good girl and it is spiraling out of control.  It's an off and on project, so hopefully I will remember to take and post pictures as I go along. Hopefully. My grand plan is to knit it large enough to fit a king sized bed. I figure it'll be a wedding present to myself or something... which is nothing to worry about. It's going to take me forever and I'm not even dating anyone right now so I'm right on track!

I also feel like I have been very blessed with the people on Ravelry being so awesome.  I posted the need for sock yarn scraps for this blanket in Random Acts of Kindness, as I have not been a sock knitting fiend until quite recently, and received two packages so far. I only have a picture of the contents of the first, but I will put it here:

I was so happy upon receiving this, that I skipped around the house saying "yay, yarn!" for several minutes.  I'm sure my family thinks I'm absolutely  nuts. Really.

Aside from that, I have a few other little things going on here and there.  I will be sure to post about them as I see fit. This is a horrendously long blog post with tons of pictures, as is. I will say, though, that I went to Yarnivore with Chirp in a fit of madness quite recently and came home with this:

Yes, it is orange malabrigo sock yarn. Yes, I am aware that there is something painfully wrong with me and I do.not.care. I am enjoying this particular fit of insanity, thankyouverymuch. We will see what this becomes. I am also looking forward to the Yellow Rose Fiber Fiesta coming up this month. It just so happens it's the weekend before my birthday and I do most certainly plan to attend and blow every bit of birthday money I may have. :)

Week of Crazy

Well, I have gone through some pretty terrible stress in the past week. With everything going on, I just don't know where my head is these days.

Friday
I'm pretty sure Friday had a lot going on, but really all I can remember is one thing: Mini Book Club. A few of the ladies from my knitting group got together at our last potluck and decided to start a mini book club that will meet here and there to discuss a book we've been reading. The really big reason I'm mentioning this is that it's a very good book. I've never really been one to read books in the adolescent fiction genre, but honestly I didn't think that this matched up with my original concept of "adolescent fiction". I seem to mentally equate the term with Twilight, which I know is erroneous, but the author actually uses some great vocabulary and doesn't have me wanting to gouge my eyes out with a spoon with inanity of writing. The book is Sabriel by Garth Nix. We were supposed to read the first five chapters for our meeting and I sort of inadvertently read the entire book. I know! I'm bad! It was a great book, though. Check it out.

Another book I'm reading is The Kingdom of Gods by N.K. Jemisin. That is the third in a trilogy a good friend suggested to me a while back and I waited forever for this book to come out. It is amazing, though. Just absolutley amazing. I really enjoy the writing and the Universe is very unique and unlike anything I've ever really read before.  If you're interested, read the trilogy. They are phenomenal.

Saturday

I weighed in and met my 10% goal. Huzzah! I have an awful lot of pride for that and am looking forward to doing well in the future! I got my 10% medallion but it broke on my keychain because I wouldn't stop fiddling with it. I'm hoping to talk to my leader on Saturday to see if I can't get a new one. But... yay! 10%! That, according to my mother, is 97 sticks of butter. I think I'm going to have to start putting my weight loss in terms of sticks of butter. It's just amusing.

Then, I went up to Austin for our Disablot. It was a lot of fun and I was very happy to see everyone. It has been too long. The kids were very entertaining and I endjoyed seeing them. We were asked to bring an item that we felt represents someone we believe is one of our disir.  I brought my great-great grandmother's practice violin.  According to my great-grandmother, Beatrice the Younger or "Bebe" (and this may be shaky, as she suffered dementia near the end), this violin is the one that Beatrice the Elder played when she met her husband, Frank.  Sort of an interesting story and rather weird to hold that same violin in my hands, many years later.  Anyway, the violin was given to me when I was starting to play in the orchestra in middle school.  It has since been reduced to storage state, with strings loosened or taken off altogether.  It is in need of a new chin rest since the fastener for the original finally gave up the gost a few years ago, at which point my parents decided to retire it and get me a new violin.  I have since stopped playing, but I would really enjoy getting back into it again.  Music is something that has literally created my family, in many ways, and I have many fond memories of my great-grandmother Bebe and music, as it was one of her many creative passions. Anyway, I thought that this particular instrument was a rather huge piece of my family history and I am sure my cohorts are well aware of how much regard I have for my great-grandmother, maybe it was time to go back a teensy bit further and go into that bit of family history.  Family history is certainly not something I am lacking, per se. The rest of the gathering was wonderful and Jenn made a fantastic stew. Very tasty stuff, I must admit.

I ended up staying overnight due to the just... blahness... of not wanting to drive all the way home afterward. I mean, really, who can blame me?  Fun people, great atmosphere, interesting discussion as opposed to two hours of driving home? Decision made fairly easily. I must say, also, that they have some crazy comfortable recliners. Really. Anyway, it was good that I stayed because this meant I could partake in the interesting late-evening activities. The night involved mead and a lot of interesting discussion about runes. I have never been particularly interested in the runes for divinatory purposes, though, so I did not have much to say on the subject.  However, the meanings behind them are very fascinating and I was very interested to learn more about them. More reading is in order, of course, but I'm quick to point out that that seems to be the case for all of my knowledge about Heathenry, and I'm hoping that there will never be a point at which I say otherwise.

Sunday
Well, a good part about Sunday is... that I woke up. That was very good. The recliner was good to sleep in and rather comfortable, so there was no problem with that. We had pancakes for breakfast and it was really great to just sit and have breakfast with my peeps, you know? Yep. We had a bit of amusement trying to rouse some of the folks who stayed up a bit later than we did. I would say we were only marginally more wise, but the margins are very slim on that one. Anyway, it was soon time to go home. I was not excited about the trip, but it wasn't so horrible.

The interesting times really began when I got home. My sister and her fiance were leaving to go horseback riding and my little brother was rather upset about the entire thing. So, I talked to him and we decided to go bowling with my friend, Chris. It was good and we had tons of fun. I even won the first game. Can you believe it? If you've ever been bowling with me, the answer to that should be a resounding "no". Anyway, it did happen. I swear it. Dax got very upset at the end because he didn't win. He gets very upset and down on himself. It just has a lot to do with all of the things that have been going on lately. Anyway, we did go home later and he calmed down quite a bit. It was pretty fun, all in all.

However, right before I was going to go to bed... my mom's dog decided to pick a fight with our new porch cat, named Sage. I have the feeling that she's some sort of Maine Coon mix because she is just absolutely ginormous. Here is a picture for reference:

Anyway, the stupid dog got a scratch on his eyeball so my sister and I went to take him to the vet. He was fine, but there were hours of waiting just to see him have a cone put on his head and given eyedrops. However, the wait was very amusing! There were some interesting signs in the examination room. I have an example.

I have no idea if it was the exhaustion or what, but for some reason this was absolutely amusing. Anyway, we had quite a bit of complaining to do before we had someone finally see the dog and we got his silly cone put on at about 1:45 am. Ugh.



Monday

Nothing happened. I was sick. I did do an awesome marathon of Bones, though.

Tuesday

Well, I was miraculously better that morning but decided to stay home, anyway. I have quite a bit of interesting fun times when I am sick and don't realize it, so I decided to stay home. I'm glad that I did, because my dad very crankily went off to the emergency room complaining of a stomach ache and lo and behold! Appendicitis. My sister caused mild panic when she translated this as a ruptured appendix, but he did have surgery and everything is fine. He came home yesterday and is doing very well. I just hope he doesn't decide to go running around all willy-nilly while he's home on "vacation". Bah.

I have a lot going on in the next few days and, because this week has been a week from hell itself, I have not been very good about exercising. Ugh. I'm going to have to work a bit harder at it next week, but I'm trying to do well. Really. We'll see how it goes. The Internet connection at the house has been fixed, so I am going to hopefully be able to update as things happen. Hopefully.

Approaching 10%

Well, I know it's been a long time since I have posted. Things are a little funky with the Internet connection at my house. We are in the process of replacing our router and crossing our fingers that that was the problem.

A lot has been going on, but the biggest thing is my weigh-in on Saturday. I stopped by the meetings location on the way out to knit night because I was terrible and slept in too late to make it to the meeting. The lady there was very nice and was very encouraging and celebrated because... I lost 3.8 lbs last week. Yep. Scary thing, isn't it? I think whatever was making them stick finally just gave in. It makes me very hopeful.

I am only 0.2 lbs from my 10% goal. So, next week I will be 90% of the person I was in July 2011. One tenth of me just gone. That's crazy! I had been very good and on-track and I remember how frustrating it was to fall off the wagon. This is the first time I've been below the weight I was at in October before my knee surgery. Finally on track and feeling great. So, wish me luck for the rest of this week. I've got to lose at least 0.2!

The Soreness, She Hurts!

So, my couch to 5k run went well yesterday... Except for one thing. Something happened about 1/3 of the way in and I had to restart the whole thing. Thus, I was out 40 minutes instead of 30. Honestly it wasn't so bad at the time, which is something I find very heartening, but my legs were pretty angry about a jiffy after I stopped compelling them to move. I took a long soak in the bathtub in some hot water to relax my muscles and warm up since it was cool and rather damp outside. I'm not feeling fantastic, but it's better. I'm going to have to do a better job of stretching next time. I'll do some research on better stretches and post what I find.

Oh, I was able to run the nexercise app in the background while I had the runner app up. It was great.

I bought a huge bag of cuties at the store the other day. They have cute sayings on the stickers. I'm still eating them. They are the only tolerable citrus fruit in my opinion.

Working Out

Well, over the past week I've been working very hard to get a lot of activity in.

I started couch to 5k this week. I am using the iphone app called 5k runner. You can listen to music while doing it and it tells you when to walk and run. I had wanted to start on Monday, but I was called in to work so I went ahead and did my first run on Wednesday. My sister, her boyfriend, and my little brother all came along with me. It was great to have that support and everyone enjoyed it. The first run was rough. I think some of the problem is the heat. Yes, folks, I live in south Texas and it was pretty warm on Wednesday. Anyway, I did the second yesterday and it went much better than the first. The thing that helped is the fact that it has been cooler for the past few days. I am enjoying it. My sweater has been located. It went much better yesterday. I'm feeling very encouraged.

I did not go running today because the weather was rainy and nasty when I wanted to go. So, I decided to do 50 minutes on the exercise bike/spinner. I have been using a new app a friend introduced me to for that. It's called nexercise. I'm pretty happy with it. It tracks your activity and calculates experience points for it. It's pretty cool and I'd suggest it to people with an iPhone. I believe it's in beta for android, as well. I know someone else signed up to do beta testing. Cool app. I'm going to see if I can get nexercise and my 5k runner app to run simultaneously and see how that goes tomorrow. We will see.

I am very surprised at how I've been feeling about this. I have never been one for much physical activity and part of me has been terrified of how this would go, but I feel really great about it. We'll see how much I progress as time goes on.