14 Days Later

I've have been so busy working on a new business venture that I haven't had a chance to post on my blog or anything! I'm hardly even knitting! SIGH! But, I am having a really exciting time meeting with my business partners, writing a business plan, talking with the current business owner, interviewing attorneys, etc. At the same time, I'm thinking alot about how to hire someone at my husband's and my business, Odyssey Restorations, Inc., to take over at least a portion of my job. Ideally, I will work two days per week at Odyssey and two days at the new place... Don't ask me what the business is; I can't tell you yet...

By the way, I'm onto the first sleeve of the modular sweater I'm currently working on. To see a photo of the front, check out my website at . After that, I still have the Sunrise Circle jacket to complete (and since I'm only about 2" into it, that will take a while).

Also, my karate instructor told me that I will probably test for my black belt in early December! YIPPEE!

Repeat Trick

Here's a nifty little trick I learned from Lizbeth Upitis many years ago at a Minnesota Knitters' Guild Yarnover. If you have a pattern that involves repeats every x number of rows you can use a piece of extra yarn to help you keep track of your repeats. Take a piece of scrap yarn and double it, then tie knots in it (far enough apart so that you can get your knitting needle into the holes in between the knots) equal to the number of rows in your repeat. One end will have a loop in it formed by the doubling of the strand of yarn. This is the end that I call my "repeat loop." Here is a photo of what several of these look like.



In the photo above, the "repeat loop" is on the right hand side of each of these "Repeat Threads" or RTs. The bottom one has 10 holes, the next one has 8, then 6, then 4, then 2.

To illustrate the use of an RT imagine you are doing a cable that needs to be crossed every 6 rows. So, you make a RT with 6 holes in it (tie 6 knots). The trick is to put the RT onto your needle either at the beginning of the row (or if you are doing a repeated motif within the body of your sweater, at the beginning of the motif) the very first time you cross your cable, making sure that you use the end of the RT (your "repeat loop"). On the next row, when you get to where the RT is, slip it to the other needle,but slip one hole down on the RT. Do this every row, until there are no more holes to slip into, then you know that you are on a repeat row. This time, slip the RT back on at the "repeat loop," cross your cable on that row, then keep going.

This trick works really well if you are doing different cable patterns within a sweater that don't repeat on the same row. Just put RTs at the beginning of each cable section and follow that.

Needlework Unlimited

On Saturday, a couple of friends and I visited Needlework Unlimited to spend some time with my friend, the owner of the store, Karen Rumpza. Karen was nice enough to let me take some photos of her shop to put up on the blog. So here they are (thanks, Ann, for the loan of your camera!).





Needlework Unlimited is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, not too far from Lake Harriet. They have a really nice selection of handpainted yarns and one-of-a-kind-skeins of yarns. They carry Rowan, Dale, Noro, Addrienne Vittadini, Alchemy, and many more brands. And, while I'm not a needlepointer, they seem to have a nice selection of canvasses and yarn for that as well... The best thing about them in my opinion is that they always seem to be well-staffed with knowledgeable people who aren't intrusive. In other words, they are there to help - but only if you want to be helped. You can browse to your heart's content.

I took a Knitting Camp there a couple of years ago in the summer. This was not an overnight camp, but it lasted a couple of days, and there were probably four new techniques we learned, plus door prizes and food and lots of knitting. It was really enjoyable, and much more convenient than going to an overnight camp or Stitches or the TKGA Convention. I noticed while I was at the shop that they are planning on doing it again this summer (but I think it's called a mini-camp now). Unfortunately, I'll be out of town when they do it. SIGH! But, here's your chance!!

I've Got a Secret

... but I can't tell it yet. You'll just have to keep coming back to find out more when I'm ready to spill.

In the meantime, I thought I'd update you on my karate, since I haven't mentioned that in a while. On Friday evening last week, I tested for my double black stripe belt (that's a brown belt with two black stripes) - and I passed! Yippee! I was so nervous all day. I have been plagued with balance issues since I started karate. I have improved so much over the four years I've been taking classes, but I still have major problems balancing when we do multiple kicks. (Imagine standing on one foot, then moving your other leg around alot without setting down - it's hard.) Anyway, everything came together really well on Friday. My instructor said that it was the best karate I've ever done! I'm so pumped... My next belt is the big one - black. I was hoping to test for that in September, but now I'm thinking December is more likely.

I'm still knitting away on the sweaters pictured in my last post. I can't believe I still haven't finished that teddy bear sweater. Maybe tonight...

Photo of Yarnover Project

Here's a photo of the teddy bear sweater I'm making using the instructions for the Garden Maze Design class I took at the Minnesota Knitters' Guild's Yarnover.
The design is by Rita O'Connell. You're looking at the front of the sweater. The two sleeve holes are on the left and right. After the body is finished, I will pick up the live stitches on the sleeve holes and knit the sleeves down. It shouldn't take me long to finish the rest of it. Of course, it's not my top priority right now.

Instead, I've been working pretty consistently on my modular sweater designed by Barbara Venishnick from the Spring/Summer 2004 issue of Vogue Knitting.
This has been a fun sweater to knit. I'm using Rowan's Cash Cotton, which I love! I tried several different yarns before landing on this one, and I'm very happy with my choice. My only complaint is that there are so many ends to weave in!!

There are two other things that are biting into my knitting time: Disney World and karate. I'm planning a trip to Disney World July 19 - 25 for me, my 8-year old son, my 13-year old daughter and my daughter's friend. I'm so excited!! I adore anything Disney. I just recently became a member of Disney Vacation Club, and the kids and I are going to use that membership for the first time. I'm a little nervous about going during the hottest and rainiest time of the year, but we'll have fun anyway... And, as for karate, I'm testing for my brown belt with two black stripes tonight at National Karate. This is my last belt before black belt. I'm exceedingly nervous! I had a pretest yesterday, and I didn't feel like I did very well - and I was pretty vocal about it. The instructor told me that she's confident that I will do fine tonight, but that if she hears even one little peep out of me that sounds like I'm disgusted with how I'm doing, she'll fail me. UGH! I have a really hard time keeping my negative thoughts to myself when it comes to physical activities (I used to do it to myself when I played high school and college tennis as well). I know expressing those negative thoughts doesn't really help anything - it probably hurts my performance even more. So, tonight, I won't make a peep. I can't...

Yarnover

I went to the Minnesota Knitters' Guild one day workshop, the Yarnover, this past weekend. I meant to take a camera with me to click photos of the market and my classes, but unfortunately I left it at home. I did take photos with my phone, but I can't figure out how to download them. UGH! Anyway, I had a fabulous time. Lucy Neatby was the keynote speaker. (See her website, Tradewind Knitwear Designs for a good photo of her.) She talked about designing and how she comes up with designs. The talk was not as informative as I had hoped, but she had some great anecdotes. Mostly, though, I was impressed with the way she looked. Her hair was bright pink, as were her pants. She wore an orange t-shirt and a multicolored vest. I thought it was great and that she had to possess a lot of self-confidence!

My first class of the day was "Shadow Knitting" with Jane Killian. My friend, Jean, helped her out. We used the Vivan Huxbro (sp?) technique for shadow knitting and a pattern that Jane gave us to knit a hat. There was not a lot of teaching in the class - more following the pattern and knitting with some suggestions thrown in occassionally. But that was o.k. with me. Since I've been knitting for over 20 years, I've found that there are few things that I have to be taught - most things I can learn or intuit by reading patterns or directions. That said, I enjoyed the class because: 1) I learned a new technique, 2) I got to knit the whole time, and 3) it was fun talking with people... Now if I could only find the hat I made (I didn't finish it in class, but I did finish it later that day). My son was having fun playing with it, and who knows where it is! Once I find it, I'll post a photo.

After the first class was a long lunch with plenty of time to shop at the various vendors that were in the market. I won't talk much about the market except to say that I spent way too much money! I bought some hand-dyed fingering weight yarn in some lovely muted shades called Tree Bark from Josyln's Fibers. And I bought a wonderful skein of hand-dyed yarn from Amazing Threads. And, as a last minute splurge, I bought three skeins of Fiesta Yarn and a vest pattern from Knit Wits. There was a booth selling light up knitting needles - so you can knit in the dark. Only straights - no circulars. I wasn't really interested...

In the afternoon, I took a class on "Garden Maze Sweater Design" taught by an old Knitters' Guild friend of mine, Rita O'Connell. She has taken the idea of a garter stitch sweater shaped by increases and decreases to its farthest reaches - kind of like taking Elizabeth Zimmerman and Cottage Creations patterns and jumping off the deep end with them. This was her first time teaching the class, and while she gave us very detailed instructions, it was really too much info for a 3-hour class. I did fine with it, but there were some less experienced knitters who had a difficult time figuring it out. As it was, I only got to the armholes of the teddy bear sweater (from the top down), and I've had questions since then about what to do.
I'll post a photo as soon as I have one of the finished project.

All in all, it was a fun and inspiring day.

Designing II

Gee, it's hard to get time to make these posts. Sorry...

The next step in my design process for the Bendigo Cotton sweater was to draw a proposed picture of the final design. Here is my drawing:

(Please excuse the clarity of these scans - the drawings were done on tracing paper, because it was the only thing I could find at the time). I'm not a great artist - particularly to scale - but you get the general idea: cardigan with moss stitch button band, moss stitch panels at the bottom edges (2 in front, 2 in back & 2 at each side) narrowing to 2 stitches then increasing again to 4 stitches for the duration. The decreasing/increasing will cause the sweater to be fitted. The sleeves are set-in with another moss stitch panel at the wrist.

The next step was to figure out the math. Whenever my children say they won't need to do certain math in real life, I tell them that I use it all the time with my knitting. Here is my calculation page:

My gauges that I got from my swatches are listed on the left. My measurements are at the top (center to right). Then the remainder of the info is calculations and the beginning of the instructions. The instructions will be completed as work commences. The plan for the body of the sweater is to knit it in one piece. The moss stitch panel and subsequent 2 stitch vertical row of moss stitch at the underarms will produce a seam-like juncture in the knitting.

So, normally, next I would start knitting. However, I have decided that while I like the idea of the design, I'm uncertain about doing it in cotton. With the wider width at the bottom, I think this sweater needs to be long - at least hip length if not a few inches longer. But, because this sweater is to be made out of 100& cotton, I'm worried about stretching. As you know, cotton grows over time. I think it would be better to make this sweater out of a blend of cotton and lycra or out of wool.

That means, it's back to the drawing board... But, I have an idea...

Designing I

I've been working on designing a sweater, and I thought I'd give you some insight on how my mind works through a design challenge. In this instance, the designing started with a specific yarn - one I have in my stash, Bendigo Cotton. Bendigo Woollen Mills is located in Australia, and I bought this yarn from them directly (which as far as I know is the only way you can buy it if you live in the United States - unless you go there). They make beautiful, relatively inexpensive, yarn. I've had the cotton in my stash for at least 6 or 7 years - maybe longer.

Anyway, I knew that I needed a summer cardigan for those chilly moments in theaters, office buildings, etc. So I started playing around with swatches. My first thought was that I wanted it to be a simple stockinette stitch garment. So that was my first swatch (on the right in the above photo). Then I started thinking about how to accomodate my hips that are larger than my bust. I've been working on my 7-year afghan for a long time (at least 7 years, but probably longer) using a modular pattern in which you cast on 15 sts, then by using decreases at the center you form a diamond-shaped piece. This creates a curved edge, and I thought it would be interesting to use a similar technique at several spots at the bottom edge of the cardigan, thereby being able to cast on enough stitches to accomodate my ample hips (which my OB/GYN says are "good for childbearing") and then decreasing to the waist. I didn't want to use stockinette for that so I decided to try it in moss stitch. Hence my 2nd swatch (on the left). I didn't get as much curve along the cast on edge, which I decided I could live with, but I wasn't sure I liked the way the decreases turned out. So I tried the panel in reverse stockinette (the middle swatch) - but I really didn't like the decreases in that.

After that, I decided that I had sufficiently swatched, and that I could start to figure out more details... I'll get into that next time.

Recently Completed

Here's a little item I recently finished. I think it's called an Urban Legend scarf. I first started noticing this type of scarf about 6 months ago and was intrigued by how it corkscrewed, so I asked some women who were selling their creations at a craft sale. They said they had gotten the pattern at Needlework Unlimited in Minneapolis. (Now, I won't go on a tirade here regarding copyright laws -- I just hope that they had the permission of the author of the pattern to sell items made from that pattern!) So, I happened to be at Needlework Unlimited one day, and I picked up the pattern brochure, which had several scarf designs in it. Well, I had to wait in line to check out, and while I was waiting (and waiting) I looked at the pattern and realized that I could memorize it, it was so simple. So I put the pattern back & went on my merry way. (O.K., probably not the most ethical thing I've ever done - I think I'll have to go back & buy that pattern booklet to assuage my guilt!)

Anyway, the pattern was a pain in the butt to make (no, I won't divulge the pattern's secret), because I cast on too many stitches on too small needles the first time around, so I had to rip it out (which is not easy with mohair). So when I started over I used much larger needles and cast on less stitches. This time, I ran out of yarn when I was trying to cast off! Ugh! This was very expensive yarn (in the $25+ range for one skein) - hand-dyed mohair with a second strand of rayon, also hand-dyed. After several attempts, what I ended up doing for the cast off row was separating the yarn into it's individual strands and casting off most of the way with one strand at a time; however, I still didn't have enough yarn, so in the middle of the row I had to use another mohair I had in my stash to supplement. And, actually, I probably could have gotten away with just using the stash mohair for the whole row, but that's o.k. I'm happy with it. Of course, it's now in storage until next winter, but that's o.k., too!

Two Washington State Yarn Stores

Yippee! I finally got the photos developed. Next time, I'll make sure that I take my digital camera with me, so I can download photos on the fly rather than having to wait to finish the film.

Anyway, here's my report on the two yarn stores I briefly visited last week in Washington State. The first one, The Twisted Ewe, is located in Port Townsend, Washington, about 1 1/2 hours outside of Seattle. Apparently their website isn't up and working today, because I'm having no luck accessing it, but for future reference their web address is www.thetwistedewe.com. This is a cute, albeit small yarn store. The yarn selection is not vast, but there were some interesting yarns that I had not seen in other stores (sorry, forgot to write the names down). The store is under new ownership - I was there just a day or two after the change. The new owners are a husband and wife team. I spoke to the husband (wish I had written his name down); the wife was on a buying trip. They plan to expand the offerings of the store to include needlepoint. I'll definitely make a follow-up trip later this year to see how things are progressing. Here are some photos:


The other store I visited was Tricoter in Seattle. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was what I call 'The Wall of Color.' Actually, it was 1 1/2 walls, but it was all of these wonderful yarns arranged solely by color. The effect was wonderful, but I found later that it was really hard to find specific yarns in different colorways unless you knew what you were looking for. I wish I had taken a photo of the wall(s)... I do have a slight gripe as well, in that one of the women working in the shop came up to me to see if I needed help, and when I explained I was just looking, she said something along the lines of, "Did you know that we can help you make sweaters that fit?" I found it somewhat condescending, particularly when I said that I felt comfortable doing that myself, and she continued to talk about it. There must be a better way to let people know about that service than to assume people don't know how to make a sweater fit... Otherwise, the employees (owners?) were quite willing to let me take photos for this blog, so here they are:

New Photo of Me

Well, I still don't have my photographs developed yet. Maybe tomorrow!

In the meantime, I've decided to try to get a photo of me at the top of my blog. Unfortunately with Blogger, in order to put a photo in that portion of the blog, the photo has to come from somewhere on the web already. For some reason, I can't get a URL off of my websitek5tog.com in order to post it on the blog. So, I'm going to post the photo here first, then get the URL from this post. Strange, eh?



This photo was taken at Disney World in October 2004.

The Beginning

Jeez, no photos yet! So, instead of pictures of things I'm working on or essays on my design process, I'm going to tell the story of how I began knitting. First, here's the setup. My mother taught me the basics of knitting when I was probably 11 or 12. We lived on a ranch in Colorado, and it was a wonderful life - horses, cows, sheep (when the coyotes left them alone), pigs, chickens, and lots of dogs. There was only one problem - my stepfather who also happened to be a wife-beater and believed strongly in the "spare the rod, spoil the child" theory of child rearing. But I digress... Anyway, my mom taught me how to do the knit stitch and possibly the purl stitch, but that's about it. I wish I could say that I took to it like a fish to water, but it was more like a cat to water. Nonetheless, it must have had some impact, right?

In 1983, I took off for England in June for a study abroad program at the University of Cambridge. We had a month long course, followed by a 6-week break, then back to school with two more 6-week breaks at Christmas and Easter. During the first break my friend Sarah Craven (who happens to now be the head of the UN Population Fund) and I did the whole Eurorail and hostel tour of Western Europe. We had exciting adventures - my passport case & lots of money were stolen in a laundromat in Paris; a man on our train to Bern, Switzerland gave us some chocolate, then came back later to tell us it was poisoned; we were flashed by a pervert in Bern; we accidentally went to the red-light district in Amsterdam instead of the youth hostel; etc. Anyway, you get the picture.

During our trip, we spent a few days in Interlachen, Switzerland at a youth hostel. One day one of the other patrons pulled out her knitting. She was in her early twenties (or late teens), and she knit all the time. I was really intrigued. I thought to myself, "I know how to knit." HA! But somehow that thought stuck with me until we got back to Cambridge. As soon as I was settled in again there, I found a local yarn store where I bought some yarn and a small, paperback Patons how-to book (which I'm proud to say I still have). I didn't ask for any help at the yarn store. I just went back to the house that I was sharing and re-taught myself.

I got bored really quickly with the scarf I was intending to knit. Then one day at the local book store, I saw this fantastic book of knitting patterns. It was called "Knitting in Vogue" (this would have been British Vogue by the way, not American Vogue which to my knowledge has never carried knitting patterns). A very young Andie McDowell graced the front cover. It was filled with a lot of "Then & Now" patterns - patterns that had been published previously and were now redone in current yarns, etc. I picked out a pattern called "Moss-Stitch Woolly Tunic." O.K. I was probably crazy to pick out a pattern in moss-stitch, but I must say that except for a small mistake in the patterning on the top left side of the front, it turned out pretty well.

And the rest is history... I haven't stopped knitting since. And, I think I've made at least 3 sweaters from that book.

Years later, I learned that I was wrapping my yarn the wrong way on all of my purl stitches, so the stitches became twisted on the purl rows. This is not a problem if you untwist them on the next row (as some people do), but I didn't know to do that. But, you know what, I don't care - and I still wear some of those early sweaters.

No Photos Yet

Well, I haven't gotten my photos developed yet from my quick trip to Washington State, so you'll have to wait a while yet for my info on the yarn stores I visited.

I started the Sunrise Circle Jacket today. I'm using Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran in a dark blue tweed. I think this will be a fun sweater to knit. Of course, I'm not perfectly on gauge, and because the sweater fronts are constructed in a semi-circular rather than a horizontal manner, I'm just hoping that I've picked the right size to do. I think my sweater will end up slightly larger than the size I've chosen to knit, but that should be o.k. I'll post some photos of my progess as I move through the sweater.

I've also been thinking about how to make this blog more interesting. These are some of my ideas:
1) Design a sweater for the Bendigo cotton and post photos and drawings and caculations to give you an idea of my own design process;
2) Tell you my story of how I came to knit;
3) Describe "whapping" (I bet you're intrigued, but you're going to have to wait on that one) ;
4) Explain the one little trick that I know that will save much pain and anguish when doing cable patterns or other patterns that repeat every x rows (and who I learned it from);
5) Review the blogs that I've been listening to;
6) Tell about my local guild - and why I haven't been going much lately;
7) Photos and review of the upcoming Minnesota Knitter's Guild one day workshop, the Yarnover.

More tomorrow...

Back

I can't believe I haven't posted anything in over a week! I haven't been knitting much either, but I have been thinking alot about knitting. I'm still not sure what to knit on next. I've been fiddling with my Bendigo Woolen Mills cotton that I've had in my stash for years, but I've come to the conclusion that in order to use it I will have to design something, and unfortunately, I just don't feel I have the time right now to do that. As for the Bamboo yarn, I'm still undecided about whether to continue with the sweater I started or to make a simple t-shirt (side-to-side with a little waist shaping) instead. And, finally, I arrived home yesterday from Washington state to find a box of yarn from Webs. This is the yarn that I plan to use for the Sunrise Circle Jacket from the Interweave Knits website. Here's a picture of the sweater:


So, I need to decide soon which sweater to knit. Of course, I have my 5 year afghan to finish (see it at my website), plus a pair of socks on the needles, and a scarf that just needs binding off.

As mentioned above, I just returned from Washington state - a quick trip to drop my oldest son off at Gray Wolf Ranch. I was lucky enough to have some time to visit a couple of yarn stores. I'll tell you all about them tomorrow...

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!