another knitting blog

pi

I knit this for the store, but I want it back. I had a dream about it.

This is the famous Pi shawl [I followed the recipe in Knitter's Almanac] knit from two skeins of Noro Sock--color 226, I think. Skein one got me from the center to about five inches from the edge; skein two was the last five inches and and edging.

I kept things simple with an eyelet row every six rows and a fairly staightforward crochet edging. Unfortunately, I neglected to get a close up of the edge before I dropped it off.

I didn't fall in love until I blocked it. Now, I pine for it. I'm knitting a replacement in color 180, but I don't like it as much. I already had the yarn, and in theory I like the colorway, but it's not making my heart go pitty-pat...yet. Maybe the magic will happen again with blocking. If it doesn't, I'm going to propose a trade, or start knitting a third pi.

also orange

orange

After two purple shawls in a row, I needed to go in a different direction. I went for the anti-purple.

This is Blue Moon Laci in Oregon Red Clover Honey.

Lately, I have been craving orange. Maybe it’s in reaction to the purple shawls. Maybe it’s a more fundamental alteration. Since I’ve moved into my house, I’ve had the growing urge to paint at least a couple of my living room walls orange.

Which orange?

untitled post #13

resisting the urge to cyberstalk someone I shouldn't have turned my back on

I'm sure he's better off without me and confirming that won't make me feel any better

shoalwater

While I was away, I knit another sample shawl for Twisted. Another Evelyn Clark design—this time, the Shoalwater Shawl in Blue Moon Silkie (which I'm not certain is still available).

Once again, rotten photos.

flower basket

I’ve been doing sample knitting for Twisted; or, as a clever coworker labeled it, bait knitting.

The first piece is a Flower Basket Lace Shawl by Evelyn Clark knit from Alpaca with a Twist Fino. [I used a pattern leaflet from Fiber Trends; but apparently, it also appeared in the Fall 2004 Interweave Knits].

I only had the briefest time to take a few uninspiring pictures before it went to the store and I went off on ‘vacation’. [This was almost a month ago].

I have reached a plateau

In the past month, my net weight loss has been close to zero. I knew this time would come; I am not surprised. The question now is: what will I do about it? The way I see it, I will have two options for getting off this plateau: wait it out, or change things up.

One thing I will not do is get discouraged and stop going to the gym. Right now, that’s the one fitness goal I’m pretty sure I can meet. I think the best strategy at present is to focus on process goals like getting to the gym four times a week and packing my own lunch every day. It’s not wise to get caught up with the numbers on the scale or even size.

First of all, let me assure you that there is no fat to muscle alchemy going on, at least not in a big way. Yes, muscle weighs more than fat; however, I am still not doing any weight training. The only exercise I’m getting is on the elliptical and that’s mostly cardio, although I’m trying to up the resistance. This month, I half-heartedly made a fitness goal of being able to do a full pushup. I tried for a couple of weeks to work up to one by doing incline pushups. Maybe I’ve gotten slightly better at incline pushups. I don’t know. Anyway, I’m not really doing anything to grow muscle and given that I’m still the consistency of a gel-filled wrist rest, in don’t think I’m toning the muscle I have.

I think it’s more likely that my metabolism has adjusted to my new activity level and caloric intake. I’ve attained equilibrium. I could further increase my activity level, or decrease my caloric intake; either one of those steps could knock me off this plateau. However, I’m not willing to make any changes to my diet or exercise that I’m not prepared to keep up for the long term—potentially, for the rest of my life. Ask me to give up fast food? OK. Ask me to give up half and half in my morning coffee? No way. Ask me to give up my morning coffee? Leave now.

I’m willing to bet that if I keep up my current routine, my weight will start to creep down again eventually. And maybe after I get accustomed to eating better and moving more, I’ll decide to make additional changes. I’ve lost twenty pounds so far and have ten pounds to go to reach my goal. Even though my weight hasn’t changed in weeks, I am still ahead of the pace of a pound a week overall. If I never lost another pound, I would be disappointed, but I would be mostly OK because I feel more like myself again.

Something Something! Amigurumi

I don't speak a word of Japanese, but that hasn't stopped me from buying a passel of Japanese craft books at the Kinokuniya bookstore in the Uwajimaya grocery store in Beaverton.

Amy wanted to know more about the book that contained the pattern that produced Boris.

It's a small book from the Ondori 280 yen series. I'm pretty sure the second line of the title says amigurumi. The ISBN is 4-277-49039-5.

Check out what other people have made from the patterns in this book at Crafting Japanese.

[You can see a bit of the chevron scarf that I'm working on in that picture just to prove that I still knit and haven't completely converted to crochet].

How come they look so innocent and Boris looks mildly evil? Must be the eyes.

Of course, it's the smiling ones that get ya.

Here's a completely logical thing: bears dressed as people wearing frog hats. Yay!

boris

Boris' pattern comes from the book I actually use to teach the amigurumi class. It's only available in Japanese, but I like it because it has a nice selection of simple patterns and good photos that show the double-loop start.

Boris is a lot like Big Head Bear, except that his ears are a bit bigger, which makes his head look less freakishly huge. However, you have to avoid gazing too deeply into his eyes, or he will hypnotize you.