Sick… but still working

I can’t make this long (or can I?) because I should probably go and get some school work done. This is my procrastination.

After work yesterday my cold caught up with me in a big way. My muscles still are hating me and whenever I get sick my jaw hurts (why I dunno, but it is super weird). I think the worst part is I can’t stop sneezing, or get rid of the pre-sneeze feeling. My tracking project got put on hold this morning also because of my cold, as did the soup making. So sadly this post is a little less colourful than I thought it would be. The only soup I’ve had is premade chicken broth with zucchini and quick cook vermicelli noodles. Cold food.

Blergh so far this is just me complaining about having a cold. Deepest apologies, allow me to move on.

12 days people. After almost a year of waiting, my spinning wheel (and my sister and her fiance) will be coming home to Canada. Guess what I am doing Sunday January 29th? I will post pictures I promise because it will be epic and awesome and mine (finally).

The problem I face then is this.

I live with a cat. Cats like to chase yarn, and they love to sink their claws into soft stuff.  I know from first hand experience that Suki in particular is very good at drafting expensive fibre (she got into the box of fibre when it first came and I had to yell at her a bit…being a cat I don’t think she cared). If I leave fibre on my wheel Suki is very likely (a guaranteed will) to get into it and I will come home for the weekend to find my special fibre spread around the house in little fluffy balls and Suki happily nested into a cluster of these very same fluff balls like royalty.

Some of you may (will certainly) say, close the door where you keep the wheel. But if I keep the wheel in the bedroom, if my Spartan forgets to close the door in the morning Suki will come in to play with my wheel. The other room on the main floor is where her litter box is so I can’t close the door there. The basement is laundry, and the computer room. Also not good places to keep my new wheel.

The conundrum shall be figured out soon. I’ve got 12 days.

Life is too short for bad yarn

Note: Please bear with me as I play with formatting sentence structure etc. this will go on over several posts but who gets good without practice?

Ok, so yarn diet? Maybe even in my stash their is some unwanted weight hanging around. Also if you count roving (I don’t but that’s me, there is still a lot of work before it becomes yarn) I’ve cheated 2 weeks in. If you are strictly counting yarn? I deserve a frickin Platinum medal because I spent almost 4 hours in a yarn store without buying ANY yarn. That’s right, 0. Platinum – Olympic athletes have nothing on my self restraint.

Today I took a workshop with Kate Atherley from knitty.com and it was amazing. I bought her book (and some Alpaca roving shhh!). In her book there are little blue boxes with tips and quotes and fun. One says life is too short for bad yarn. It is so true.

So I looked through my stash.

Am I really going to use that pastel toned Bernat satin (probably not), the nubby acrylic (I don’t even know what it is…), glow in the dark plyarn (well it is so COOL!!!).  Life though is too short to work yarn that squeaks on my needles, so I think it is time to pack it into a bag with some clothes that don’t fit and donate them to someone who will use it. Maybe someone just starting out who doesn’t know what really nice fibre feels like (ignorance is bliss). So while I try and shed a few pounds on my body I will shed a few from my stash as well. This may be at least in part due to laziness… I promised myself I would update my stash page on Ravelry and donating this means I don’t have to go through the effort of cataloguing it all.

  So what am I working on right now? A sweater… That is me with the swatch, it is untreated, all natural wool from New Zealand and it smells like sheep! I was shamed into test washing my swatch after the workshop today. I realised that if it was going to shrink, I should find out before I finished the sweater back and cast on the sweater front. Good news, I got lucky, no shrinking (though lots of potential for felting if the finished project gets agitated).

I should be more specific than just sweater. It is the Shawl Collared Sweater from Berge France knit using Wanaka Station All Natural Wool from black sheep. The colour is an all natural deep brown, like bark on a tree. I am not making it for myself (sadly many wools make me itch like crazy even with a thin cotton layer between us, there are a few exceptions and blends are my hero). I am making it for my boyfriend of 6 years. I figure that is an acceptable length of time and perhaps if what comes next is the sweater curse perhaps it is time. I believe though that we will move forward together with him dressed sexily in a nice rich brown sweater.

Tomorrow I work. Monday dear Spartan (my boyfriend but because that is silly I shall call him the Spartan) and myself are going out to look for some animal tracks. It is for a school project, my goal is to have the minimum done early, and then go above and beyond when time permits. I will also make soup. Maybe I will try photographing soup making and post it on the blog. I think more pictures are needed than those of my cat and me with a yarn swatch.

Who knows maybe I will even weigh in same day as Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, (though I think he will loose the equivalent of me, where I only have about 20 pounds to loose. Ok perfect honesty? I have maybe 40 pounds to loose. But I’m going to talk to my Dr about that and see what weight she wants to see me at then aim for that. What is healthy. That is the goal).

A New Year – A New Diet

This year I have two new “diets” or goals for the new year. Bare with me, I know this is a crazy time of year for this type of thing.

First is health. I started this last year by visiting a naturopath and seeing what my body was, well I guess “sensitive” too because I’m not truly allergic. At least not collapse on the floor – can’t breathe- swollen face- allergic. Just like wheat gives me acne. That sort of fun.  So, with that in mind, and getting sick of being winded after climbing only 3 bloody flights of stairs, I made the resolution to be healthy this year. Not like give up sugar and only eat raw veggies healthy – like balanced meals, more exercise and making the move to achieve the weight my doctor would LIKE to see me at (she has told me for several years I could probably do well to loose a bit of weight, but I mean there is hearing it, and deciding to DO it and now I’m on board too so everything should run a little smoother). Coming up in March is my physical, and with going to the gym 3 times a week and a change in eating habits (more veggies, fewer cookies, but still having cookies) I am hoping to loose a pound a week for the next 8 weeks. (technically I’m giving myself 10 weeks for the 8 pounds but still). The idea being that if I can keep on track on my own then I wont pay for help from a company, and if I can’t make it move, I will need additional help. I have done weight watchers before, but didn’t finish reaching my goal. Why 8 weeks do you ask? Well I will still be a student so the rate is cheaper, and if I do it before their promotion ends then I don’t have to pay registration fees.

Next the yarn diet. Yarn diet. It hurts to say it. Here is the truth. I have lots of yarn, in fact I have more than enough yarn. Many knitters would probably say this is silly. My stash has not exceeded what I can knit in my life expectancy, but to my family it seems like an extreme amount. So to help my stressed out budget and growing student debt I am invoking the yarn diet. This is where except for one super secret super special project I have planned I am not permitted to buy new yarn (or roving) until I have a. used up my current supply (ahahahaha) or b. I have a permanent job, or c. the year ends. I am making 1 possible exception (I know I know its January this is a bad sign) I signed up for a workshop last year that happens this weekend and I might not have yarn in the right weight to work with. So for this, I might buy 2 balls in the right weight to get through the class.

Back at school things are starting off nice and slow. I think it should be a good semester and fingers crossed about job prospects. That’s all for now, I hope everyone else has great new years goals and I will try of course to update a little more frequently.

25 Days

   There are many things to do, clean the house for the holidays, figure out what is going on with my spinning wheel, send out my holiday cards, buy people Christmas gifts, maybe buy a new pair of jeans? And homework. Lots and lots of homework. Over the next 25 days there is a ton of homework to do but then… but then… I’m done for a whole 3 weeks!

    I’ll get to knit, and bake pies, and watch cheesy Christmas specials. I can watch a Muppet Christmas Carol repeatedly and go for walks in the evening to see my neighbours Christmas lights. I can finally settle in and just relax (maybe clean my keyboard too, the J key is just kind of sticky)

   I finished the scarf, pictures to come when I have them. It is currently blocking upstairs. I am so proud of myself for finally finishing the darn thing now I can knit other stuff just for fun. My little cat friend is still as noisy as ever. Right now is quiet time because she is sleeping, but that can only last for so long, then the noise Siamese cats are known for will start again.

  Lately a couple things have kept me going. One is Knit 1 Geek 2, a set of lovely ladies with a podcast about knitting and being geeky. It keeps me light and laughing when school is dragging me down. For now though I’ll leave you all to get back to the real world. Hope everyone has a good time over the next week. Till next I have a chance to type.

Heather

When we are young there is no doubt in our hearts, only a full and complete belief that we CAN do anything. Such is the faith of our youth that no others doubts can hurt our dreams.

Then those doubts become your own. Every small perceived flaw or mistake torn apart by our own super critical, expecting a standard of ourselves no one else can even see.

Disbelief at kind words, offerings of too little too late, for we calmly say thanks and add on our own "but I didn't/don't/can't/"

So I tell you now only belief in your own abilities and your desire to try can limit you. Failing is a terrible word, trying and not getting the right answer is only failing when we don't try again. The person that hurts is only yourself. So try, believe, and do.

A mistake is the obstacle we make it, keep it in scale, because it is hard to crawl back on top of the elephant when we fall off, but you probably only fell off an mouse.

So with that esoteric motivational blurb I leave you to the night, and shall try to sleep like my body probably wants.

Goodnight world, I'll try all this again tomorrow.

Cat Pinned

This is what it looks like when a cat pins you. Please note the smug appearance and paw holding down her my arm and pillowing her head.  This is what happens when you sit still for even a little bit of time in this house now. Suki (exhibit A) has decided that I am her personal couch, so are visitors to the house, my darling man, the couch, the kitchen… you get the idea. I am not usually a cat person, I make an exception for her.

I am taking advantage of being cat-pinned to update this blog since I pretty much fell off the face off the earth with all of this. Firstly I’m back in school, it’s driving me insane but I’m working through and its only 4 weeks of class and a week of exams before I get my life back for a couple of weeks.

When I get my life back I plan to do a major knitting inventory for my ravelry page. My Stash (for any non-knitter tuning in this roughly relates to my closet full of yarn, shh don’t tell!) needs to be fully catalogued (I really don’t know what I have to work with so I am going to catalogue it all and then I can use it up (hahahaha) or at least use some of it. I also want to get some serious knitting done, mittens and hats and maybe a sweater! So excited!

The knitting that is holding me back is a scarf I’m making for my man’s sister. I’ve been working on the damn thing since September and it is literally CREEPING, small quarter inch by quarter inch. It is my goal to complete that project before the end of the semester (this weekend would be great but not likely happening).

Till my next update world!

Heather

Hello World,

I'm full of news today. My graduation has been delayed, which has been devastating but I'm adapting. I need (of all things) electives, which at least will be fun. The cell biology final is coming up quickly (April 13th) and I'm way behind. Making this post probably isn't helping, but I think it is time to vent a bit. I have an essay I'm writing and units still to do, the essay at least I've worked on a bit.

Other news: I might be getting a car. A honda Civic, probably a boring colour but in general a reliable car that is ALL MINE... no more mini van! This is super exciting for me because I'm growing up. When I travel, my mom will have use of the car and the van can cough its last gasping breaths.

Yesterday I spoke with a travel agent about my New Zealand trip and instead of being "awesome I will help you plan your trip" she was all "No way should you be travelling alone, do your parents know?"

Do my parents know! Ummm yeah they know, and guess what EVEN IF THEY HAD A PROBLEM I WOULD STILL GO! There are people who have been kicked out of their house at 18, traveled all over the place and are alive and well with awesome stories to tell.

Ok if I'm missing something then I will post again. Unfortunately knitting is a little on hold. But I will get a chance to pick it up again soon.