Frogged

Learned something new! Frogged an almost finished body of a cardigan and started it over again. I will never sew in ends EVER again! *yay*

SOLD!

I sold my sewing machine. After years of just having it stand in different places, occupying space and staring at me reproachfully, I caved in and found her a nice new home where her quilting abilities will be useful. Can't stop thinking about doing one last project with her, it's keeping me up at nights...strange how things go.

Success!!!

Yay! Passed my exam and can now call myself an officially certified quality representative! Aaaand *drumroll* I managed to finally pick out my dress (will need to do a second fitting next Saturday). Aaaand *moredrumrolls* I bought my ring! Checklist: Dates - Set and booked and paid for! Food/Drinks - All arranged! Guests - All are informed of the big event, official invitations will go out this week! Anticipation is mounting and happiness is all around.

Things...

are really working out well at the moment!

Thursday last week: Horseback riding. Went well. The pain afterwards was just as bad as I'd anticipated but for my back it was a relief.

Saturday: Gym. Went as expected. Very unfit. Pain on Sunday was horrible (legs and breast muscles...back feeling better).

Monday: Inline skating. Didn't fall. Experienced Windmill of Death only three times. No pain any more.

Today: Gym. I expect to hurt afterwards.

Next Thursday: Riding lesson in the morning and inline skating in the evening.

I feel healthy and fit and I've lost three pounds. So something is happening!

Sadly, no knitting whilst at home but I've downloaded knitcompanion and already transferred some patterns. Now I just need to work out how to actually use the app properly.

Change of heart

A while back I decided I needed to do something about my back and yes, I'm working on that (and general flabbiness of body and mind)

A colleague of mine and me, we decided to join forces and found a great place for grown-up riders in need of a fresh-up, once or twice a week I'm now back to riding.

Tomorrow, a different colleague of mine and I are going to go to a different and smaller fitness studio.

And I have decided to stop and not buy myself a big loom, instead, I spent some of that money on a device which is being launched in stores today (hopefully mine will be with me by Tuesday) and some bucks on inline skates, protective gear and a helmet. A lot of people are already busy on the streets and after much trial and error I might be one of them!

So, yay to health and fitness...yayyyy...

To Spend or Not to...

Should I buy myself a treat and indulge in my weaving fancy? Should I spend LOTS and get a "real" loom like the Schacht Baby Wolf (and deplete my funds completely) or should I do the sensible thing and get a Flip? Sheesh, I haz easy life if these decisions are troubling me...

Early Spring Cleaning

Bought boxes from IKEA and started sorting through fabric and yarn stash. Three medium sized boxes are now filled with yarn, two big boxes harbour my fabric. All are crammed underneath my project table.

BF's snarky comment: Doesn't look any different from when you started trashing this place.

Thanks so much.

Then again, looking at it from a distance...he sadly is right.

Need to do a lot more knitting and sewing, methinks. Haven't bought fabric or yarn in five months. Yours truly, a proud destasher.

Hellooooo!

2012, can't believe how fast the days are passing by. *whooosh*

As is usual, I do have a few resolutions and yes, I'm not above it all and will tell you about the most important one:

Tomorrow I will go and get myself a health checkup and the incredibly fit person doing it will certainly tell me I need to shape up. And I am going to do just that.

My back is killing me but test results show it's nothing to do with intervertebral discs (at least not yet) but is due to a lack of tummy muscles. So I need more tummy muscles and that's the reason I've booked into a fitness center. They do offer Zumba and there's an adjoining spa so...

And then there's stash reduction and the likes *patati patata*.

End of resolutionary post.

Work, Life and So Much More...

I've been drowned in work and life and people.

Work: Success! TQM rulez!

Life: The Big Day is approaching. Rapidly. Details are already set but what to place on the menu??? And a Kindle e-reader has moved in with us. I've finally broken down and invested. Makes me happy. Makes bf a lot happier (no more books crowding "his" living-space and no more lights getting on his nerves at night...living with a guy who doesn't like to read can be slightly trying).

People: Family can be alarmingly obtrusive, be it mine or the prospective in-laws. Especially mine. And the prospectives. Can't decide.

And fluffy-puffy heffapuffles are invading all free time left...you know what I mean, I'm sure!

Ahemm...

Life has been quite meddlesome these past weeks and months.

There have been massive changes on the big scale of things but yeah! I'm alive and kicking and reallyreally pleased my career is finally taking off in a direction which is both personally and financially rewarding!

Three cheers for me sticking through!

Knitting has been sidelined, sadly, I got a few things done, but right now I can't even find the time to knit those plain socks for a good friend *lesigh*

Learning Curve

Still working on the Irish Cottage Technique on dpns.

It took me quite a while to find an efficient way of wrapping my yarn around my right hand and still manage a correct tension.
The way I do it now seems to produce results which are acceptable:

Wrap yarn around right hand middle finger clockwise once (I have the yarn running over the back of my hand before I wrap it), then position ring finger under the yarn. The middle finger just holds the yarn, the ring finger actually applies the necessary tension.

The needle is positioned between the right hand thumb and forefinger and both play an important role when sliding the needle backwards through the loop, because then they make contact with the needle and guide it on it's way.

The limiting factor regarding speed so far has been my left hand which is not fast enough in pushing the stitches upwards.

I have managed to synchronize the motion of my right hand with that of the right hand needle when it goes through the stitch to be worked, but have not been able to do the same for my left hand.

So...practisepractisepractise and practise some more.

I am...

right in the middle of some serious spring cleaning! And I did find the energy to finish a sewing UFO. *yay*

Today...

I will, for the first time, meet a few people who are just as crazy about knitting as I am. *yay* for ravelry!

Sick leave...

and trying to learn a new knitting technique! I have sharp needles and 2000 m of waste yarn and I will prevail!

Alive and kicking...

No, I'm not dead. So much has happened around here, I don't even know where to start. And I have been knitting, actually a lot. My sewing machine is buried under at least a foot of dust (not really, I try to maintain a dust-free home since my allergies tend to protest, but it does yell at me, alas I can't bring myself to start one of my many wips which I've banned from the living room to sit and whimper in the cellar) and knitting seems just the thing to do right now. I've started and finished quite a few projects (care for ravelry) and yes, I am proud of most of them. And yes, I know I have to take pictures of them. Project infos without pics are stupid. And I will. Just not today ;o)

Hiatus...you bet!

Since my announcement, I was forced to work a lot...and since my work allows for knitting but not sewing, I did knit:



This is the lace border for my Snowdrop shawl. And I love it :oD

Hiatus!

With a costuming deadline creeping up, I need to take a knitting hiatus!

See y'all in a few weeks!

And lest I forget...

a picture of my latest addition to the household (employed here with lovely Evilla laceyarn 8/1):

I am back!

Wehell, back I am and really busy straightening out everything that was sorely neglected these past few weeks.

And of course I have pictures (two that is) of my knitting done during my trip to my sisters'.


The Snowdrop Shawl, preblocked and yet without the finishing lace border. Done in Wollmeise's gorgeous lace yarn in the undyed colourway. Intendet first as a present for a very good friend of mine, I have since learned she'd rather like a brown coloured shawl, so I am going to keep this one! *yay*

This is the Rebecca Shawl I did before for a German Christmas Swap. As I cast off that one, I knew I needed one for myself and since my wonderful and great pal from SP10 had sent me a parcel full of lovely things, amongst them the prettiest red yarn speckled with colourful bits of gorgeousness, I decided this would be the right yarn. Sadly, my inability to take nice pictures produced only this blurry picture which does neither justice to the yarn or the pattern...the shawl is also in its sad preblocked state.

Just in case...

anybody is wondering where I have gone off to...I am not at home :o)

And won't be till the beginning of March! *yay*

I took along two knitting projects, one is already finished, the second one just as good as and so I went out and bought some green yarn I hope I will not find hideous too soon and started knitting an afghan which will take AGES!

This is all.