Home Again - SIGH!

We got back on Saturday night after a lovely, albeit chilly, week in the panhandle of Florida. I have no tan (not that I ever tan anyway), and later this week it will be almost as warm here in Minnesota as it was in Florida, but I'm not complaining.

I'm in a bit of a knitting slump. I started work on the VK (Vogue Knitting) sweater I spoke about a few posts ago with the yarn that I pictured (Bamboo), but I'm just not sure I like the overall effect. I love the yarn, and I love the pattern. I'm just not sure I love them together. I may take the yarn and switch it to a short sleeve t-shirt in a garter ridge (3 rows K, one row P) done side to side. I think it would look really great like that. Then I'll still have to find another yarn to make the VK sweater. I'm starting to think a solid or more subtle variegated yarn would be better and possibly something with a little more loft. I looked at one of my local yarn stores, The Yarnery, today, but I didn't see anything that I loved for the sweater. I'll keep you posted...

My home computer is on the blink again. The computer fix-it place says the motherboard is fried, so they're replacing it. I have no idea how long it will take, but my posts will be somewhat infrequent until it's up and running again... More knitting time!

Question: Does anyone out there belong to the Disney Vacation Club? I'd like any opinions you might have. Thanks.

On Vacation

I've been in beautiful Northwest Florida since last Saturday. I am sad to say that I haven't gotten much knitting done, but I've been enjoying riding bikes around the cute little communities of Water Color and Seaside. Seaside is where the movie "The Truman Show" with Jim Carey was filmed. It's an adorable little town. We've been vacationing here for 5 years, and I love it! Our favorite haunts are Roly Poly (a sandwich place), Bears at the Beach (a make your own stuffed animal store) and Fired Up (a ceramics studio where you paint and they bake). It's been a little cool here, so I haven't ventured out on the beach much. But we're staying in Water Color and the pools are heated here, so I have gone swimming a couple of times. We also have a ping-pong table in the house we're renting, so I've been doing a bit of that. And I'm reading - The Queen's Fool by Phillipa Gregory - which I highly recommend.

I'm still knitting on the modular sweater from Vogue Knitting. The first night we were here I knitted on it a little bit, but the next day our relatives started arriving (there are 18 of us here now in four different houses) and I haven't picked it up since then. Maybe tonight.

More when I return from Florida!

Bad Blogger, Bad Blogger

Well, I've only had my blog for a few weeks, and already I'm not posting anything for days on end. Of course, I do have a good excuse! I've been attending the Parent Program at Hazelden Center for Youth and Families. My oldest son has been in a 28-day treatment program there, and this was a way for my husband and me to find out more about the Twelve Steps and his recovery and our role in it. It was a fantastic - but very draining - experience.

I thought I would get a lot of knitting done during the program, but alas I only finished a very easy scarf. I think it's called an Urban Legend scarf, although I'm not positive. I looked at a pattern at Needlework Unlimited briefly once, then just winged it at home. It is made out of some funky, multi-strand, hand-painted yarn (sorry, didn't keep the ball band). Unfortunately, I ran out of yarn as I was casting off today, so I'm going to have to take out the cast off edge and re-cast off with a contrasting yarn. I'll have to think about it... I also worked a bit on a knitted bath mitt as a sample for my website. I wrote the pattern years ago for a knit list gift exchange, put I don't have a photo of the original. I should have that done in a few days. I'll post pictures of both items as soon as I can.

I'm leaving for vacation in three days. In the meantime, I will try really hard to post at least daily!

Feeling Better

Well, I'm feeling a bit better today. No more fever anyway. Still a bit groggy and not eating much, but on the mend I'd say... Mostly over the last few days I've slept and read a bit and knitted even less. I started a book that I'd highly recommend called, "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life" by Dr. Amen (can't remember the first name - I'll look it up). This doctor has been studying SPECT scans of brains and has identified certain abnormalities of the brain that correlate to mental illness. The great thing about it is that it allows doctors to prescribe medications and behavioral modifications in a more precise manner. I've been reading it because my oldest son (15) has some mental health issues, but the amazing thing is that I think I may have some answers for myself regarding my compulsive eating. I've said for many years to doctors & therapists that when I get a food thought or weight thought or fat thought in my head, I can't let go of it. It's very frustrating, because I can tell myself to stop or ignore it, but I just can't. Now, I realize that I have a problem that can be corrected and that I'm not a bad person! Wow, what a relief!... I'll update you when I finally have a chance to put some of Dr. Amen's "prescriptions" in practice.

I have started swatching for my next project, a lightweight sweater from the Spring/Summer 2004 issue of Vogue Knitting, designed by Barbara Venishnick.
Here's a photo of the yarn & my swatches.

Sick, Sick, Sick

I've got the flu... I feel terrible... I've tried to do some knitting, but I just can't get much accomplished... Although I did finish the Knitting Olympics project, and it looks pretty good. Also, my website is finally up and running at www.k5tog.com. I hope to add some patterns to it over time as well as lots more photos... In the meantime, I think sleep sounds really good right now.

Back in the Saddle

I wasn't able to write yesterday, but I took these photos of my Knitting Olympics sweater on Thursday night and altough I'm further than this now, I thought you might like to see my progress.
You can see that the sleeve edgings are done. (Of course they've been done since Monday - it's the body edging I'm having problems with.) The good news is I'm almost done now! Just one last half round of edging to go...

Weight Watchers has not been going well the last couple of days. I know that I really start to crave sweets when I'm under stress, and I've been at some functions over the last couple of days that have caused a bit of stress for me, and as usual I've turned to food. I know that there are other things that help me, it's just hard to turn to them when I'm stressed out. Deep breathing/medidation helps as does going for a walk or knitting or reading... Also, I have to be gentle on myself when I overeat/binge. I realized today that it's kind of like knitting for me. I like knitting not only for the end product, but also because of the process. It doesn't tear me up to rip something back because of a mistake, and a binge for me is like a mistake in my knitting that I've had to rip out. Do I then through in the towel? No. I pick up my kitting needles (or, in this case, my food plan) and I keep going from where I stopped. So that's the plan. Tomorrow's a new day, and I can do it!

Rippit, Rippit Good

ARGH! I hate crochet. O.K., that's probably going overboard, but I hated the edging on the body of my Knitting Olympics project, so I ripped it out last night. I've started it again, but it's going to be another day before the darn thing is done... I just want to move on. Or get back to knitting my vest or my 5 year (7 year?) afghan. Or maybe do a little beading. Anything other than this darn edging... I did receive a certificate (sans my name) for participating in the Knitting Olympics. I'd love to show it to you, but Blogger isn't accepting it right now.

I've had 3 good days on plan with Weight Watchers. After struggling for two months with sticking to the plan, this seems like a miracle. And, I'm going to be fine today, because I had a 45 minute class at National Karate in St. Paul. Tough class - my thighs were burning half way through. But it was a good one.

I wish I could figure out how to put buttons on the side bar of things that I would love people to know about - like knitting podcasts. The one I like the most is Cast-On with Brenda Dayne. She's got a great sense of humor and a lovely, homey speaking style. Check her podcast out.

Detail of the Back

 

Another Photo

Here's a photo of the front of the sweater. I wear it with an orange shirt to pick up the little bits of orange/rust color around the edge of the button & neck bands. It looks kind of odd in the picture, but it works well in reality.

One of the things I really dislike about traditional Norwegian sweaters is the drop shoulder shaping. It doesn't look good on me. I have shoulders that slope quite a bit, and I've discovered that (surprise!) set-in sleeves look better on me. Next time...

Dale of Norway Sweater

Here are some photos of a Dale of Norway sweater I made in 2004. It's a bit big on me now because I've lost some weight, but I still wear it. (I guess one of the benefits of losing weight is that I can make smaller sweaters - less time intensive).

The sweater was made out of Dale's Heilo (100% wool) from a pattern from one of their books. I'll have to look up which book it was from.

I still haven't figured out how to put more than one photo in a post, so this will have to come out as several posts.

Knitting Olympics saga continued

Well, I stayed at home last night to work on my Knitting Olympics project - instead of going to see Brokeback Mountain which I really wanted to do. I got most of the trim done, but it's still not finished. Tonight is the night! I swear! The problem is that the trim is crochet, and I'm just not a great crocheter. I can knit up a storm. Recently I was sitting in a waiting room at a doctor's office, and I was knitting (on the Knitting Olympics) project and reading a magazine and talking to my husband when necessary, but I couldn't even work on the crochet trim last night while I watched t.v. I know it will get done, but I feel like a bit of a failure for not having finished by the time the flame went out at the Olympics. Of course, I suppose I'm a bit like the athletes who came in last in their events. At least they made it to the Olympics and competed. And so did I!