Update

I've been really unmotivated as of late. I haven't wanted to do much of anything, it's weird. I've not worked on my research papers nearly as much as I should and I've been meaning to get some pictures up on the blog for days. Luckily I'm remedying this today. I've already done some readings and I'm getting ready to write some, as the BF is at work and I have the apartment to myself.

Anyhow, without further ado the almost-finished Chur Relic-Purse:



What, looking a little small you say? Yeah, with time restraints (as well as my lack of want to work on this) I decided to nix adding one more of the tan/red motif. It looks pretty good, although my tension is a little wonky in a few sections. It's hard to get the floats the right tension going between sides, since I'm using the Magic Loop method. I don't know that I'd try color work doing ML again. I give my presentation on it on Thursday (3/11). I think blocking will even out the tension a little.


I also snapped a pic of my nearly-completed Hey, Teach! sweater front. You can see I knitted on the button band, this side has the button holes on it, I'm not quite finished with it, but I knit this really quickly in 2 sessions. I'm looking forward to working on this more over break. Actually, I can't finish this front piece until I knit the back. I wanted to cast on right away so I didn't read the pattern through, and the top of the front is supposed to be knit 'as long as the back', so it's on hold until I get to the back.


The sunlight makes the yarn look a lot lighter/more yellow than it actually is. Ravlink, if you want to see the actual color.




One more week of classes, then finals, and then Spring Break! Woo!

I'm actually taking a road trip on spring break, up to Cleveland to see a fellow Raveler and eat Pierogi Sandwiches. It will be awesome.

In fitness news, I'm on track so far. I'm half way through week 2. I think the updating this is hard, because I don't want to have a say nothing entry just so I can tell ya'll I worked out, that's not that interesting. So I'm taking advantage of the blog on SparkPeople.com and if you like you can check it out, or not. It's mainly for me to have somewhere to talk about any struggles or little successes or whatever I have on my weight loss journey. I really like Spark People, it's a positive community, although I don't partake in the community aspect as much as other members. I'm also going to be adding the link to my side bar.

One more thing- I lost 3 pounds this week. My gained weight and then a little. =D

Until next time.

Ow

I didn't realize that running could make a person so sore! I usually can do 20-30 minutes on the Elliptical with no repercussion, but running on a treadmill made me hips sore. My hips. How odd! I guess it just goes to show how high-impact running on a treadmill is compared to the elliptical.

I even though I said I wasn't going to turn this into an exercise blog, I do want to talk a little about the goals I posted yesterday. The reason for the dates on my goals are as follows:

The March 30th goal is because that's the date that next quarter starts and I want to be fitter before starting my weight training course, as I have no idea the level of fitness the other students will have or what is expected of me. Originally I wanted to be at 180, but then one week I gained instead of losing so I made it a more realistic 185.

The second goal, June 7th is because that's when I'm leaving for North Carolina with my mom. We're going to the Outer Banks, which we have for the past 3 years (Except not me last year because I was flying to Italy). I hope to be 170 by then, which I think is realistic also. It's 15 lbs in about 11 (Or 12?) weeks. That's a little over a pound a week and I think with the weight training, this will be very possible and I may even be able to lose more than that. I will have to continue exercising, since I'll be in a class and my grade will depend on it!


In knitting news, I am getting tired of the Chur Relic-Purse. I'm a little over half done. I just have a few more rows of the blue/red motif and then some stripes, the tan/red motif, more stripes and arrows, and then some tassels. I have to have this finished in a little over a week, so I guess I should kick it into gear!

I want to knit other things. Like Hey Teach!. I swatched for it yesterday in the Knit Picks Mainline in adobe that I have. I'd originally bought it for Bella Paqiuta, and then changed my mind and picked out Wicked. Now I've settled on Hey Teach! because I really like the pattern and this yarn will work well with it. I'm doing a few mods, like an eyelet hem/neckline, a garter stitch button band (instead of a picked up 1X1 rib), twisted rib at the waist, and 3/4 sleeves.

Last night I worked on my mom's Emerald(Ravlink). Yes, I know it's finished already, but I had to make a couple of adjustments. The collar was HUGE and the button hole after blocking was in the crotchular region. It was also stretching at the shoulders since there wasn't a seam there.

Sooo I ripped out most of the collar, and redid it with only 1 sew of short rows, replaced the button hole (which is now too high, bleh). I also crocheted a chain along the back where the body of the sweater meets the collar to give it some more structure. It'll fit a lot better and mom won't even need the button, which is good because she wanted to be able to wear it open anyhow.




Today might be a good day for some yoga to stretch away some of this soreness..

Until tomorrow (I think).

Spinning, spinning...

Soooo I told you all that I ordered this spindle. It arrived (to my glee) on Saturday and I immediately took it out and admired it:



(Plz excuse flash photography)

I also admired the gorgeous fiber that Jesh was kind enough to send me to get started on. =) The pink is some Corriedale, and the white is Alpaca. Love it! You can see some of the pink spun up on Jesh's blog.

I ordered the spindle after talking to Jesh on a whim because Heavenly Creations was having a spindle spinning class the 28th. So I signed up and ordered my spindle. However, to my dismay, the class had to be canceled due to a wrist surgery that the teacher had to have. Bleh. So I bought some black Shetland to use as a practice fiber since the stuff Jesh sent is too pretty to make crappy yarn out of.. hehe.

But, it was a little difficult trying to do it myself using Youtube videos as teachers. So I did a little research and found out that Shetland is difficult for beginners to spin. Sooo I tried out the Alpaca for a little bit. I didn't do much better with that. Boo. It seems Spinning isn't as easy to teach ones self as knitting.

But, ah a silver lining! The class is rescheduled for the 14th of March and I'm sooo there. =)



So, I have another confession. I haven't been working out. At all. Yuck. I lost about 8 lbs by the end of January, and I had an extremely busy week where I gave up on any kind of exercise or eating properly, and that carried through February until, well, today.

I gained 2.5 lbs back of the 8 that I lost, which is depressing a little. But I am taking steps to make sure I have better success than I did last time.

I've been trying to lose weight since I was in middle school, and I've obviously never done a very good job of it. January was the most progress I've made in a long time. A lot of that progress was due to sparkpeople.com, where I tracked everything I ate everyday and so I got a healthy dose of reality when it came to what I was actually eating. Obviously when I fell off track I stopped tracking everything I ate.

The reason I'm posting about this is to keep myself more responsible about what I'm doing- if I'm keeping track of it publicly I'm less likely (In theory) to 'fall off the bandwagon' I took a step towards that in January, when I put up that weight loss tracker on the side of my blog. But I stopped reporting to that too when I stopped losing weight.

So I'm counting on some of my regular readers to keep me in line (I mean like.. leave me a comment saying "You didn't check in, missy!" ;-]). I plan on doing a mini check in about 3 days a week on my exercise. Nothing major, just a sentence or two at the end of a blog post, because I don't want to turn this into a boring "I worked out on the elliptical for 30 minutes today, and I ate..." blog. I decided to start the Couch to 5K running plan which has a 10 week schedule. I think that working towards a goal with my exercise instead of just thinking that I need to do it will also be a help.

Another step I've taken towards this goal is to sign up for a Weight Training class next quarter. This class will be M/W/F 8:30-9:18 (I know, our class periods are odd). Hopefully this class will teach me proper strength training techniques and get me a little more toned for vacation in June.

So, here are my goals:

1) Check in on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday or Sunday with an update of the Couch to 5K running plan (Ex.: "Workout 1 Week 1 completed).
2) Weigh in on Thursday mornings and update the tracker
3) 185 by 3/30/2009
4) 170 by 6/7/2009
5) Track daily calories on www.sparkpeople.com

Today I completed Workout 1 of Week 1. =)

Fair-Isle

Okay, so I said that I wouldn't be blogging again until I have pictures to share but last night I tried out Fair-Isle and I knit up Norwegian Star Hat in one evening. The color work was surprisingly easy and I really like it and the results! I'm only worried about the hat fitting my friend's head because the Fair-Isle isn't super stretchy (But it's not all bunched up or anything, it has some stretch just very much)

I really want to do some more color work. I liked doing this hat and the results are really nice. =)

I'm no longer afraid of Little Birds! I so want to knit it now. I just need to be able to afford the yarn...

Also, I've always been one of those people who think "I'll buy myself nice clothes once I actually lose some weight." The only problem is that I've been thinking like this for 4 years. This year I've shed about 15 pounds, but lately I've been so sedintary and with (not horrible) but poor eating habits.

I know that this sweater will take a while to complete and I will love it when it's done. I've been seriously trying to lose weight again.

So here's the question? Do I wait to knit it? Or do I knit it up risking it not fitting in a year or so? I feel like I would be a little sad about all that work going into the color work and shaping and such for it not to fit too soon.

Then again I may never get around to losing that extra 35 pounds.

Thoughts?