Checking up…

Yesterday was my second third weigh-in at Weight Watchers.  We had our annual “really big pic-a-nic” on Saturday, so I was a bit worried.  But I did my best to plan for it.  Instead of the pub burgers that everyone else was eating, I made up some yummy spiced turkey burgers that were pub-sized.  It was a nice day — great weather, and nice company.  My family wasn’t able to attend, nor was M’s family, but lots of friends.

So, weight loss this past week was -2.2 pounds, with a total weight loss of 17 pounds.  It gets slower with each week. 

But enough of that stuff.  On to the knitting front.  I started my first Clapotis, as I said in an earlier post.  It’s a bit boring, but now that I’m in the straight rows and dropping stitches, it helps to break the monotony. And this alpaca yarn (Araucania Atacama) is yummy soft and so pretty. 

But I also cast on yesterday for the February Lady Sweater.  I’m knitting it up with some gorgeous Dream in Color Classy in Beach Fog.  Can I just say that I am in LOOOVE with this yarn.  It’s WAY sproingy and just gorgeous colors.  Color me sold!  I’m still working on the raglan increases, but instead of the M1s, I’m using YOs to create some more detail in the top.  I have a pretty strong aversion to garter stitch, so the little eyelets at each corner break it up a bit.  I’ll post photos when we get our computer situation fixed.  I somehow managed to get a virus of some sort on our old computer.  I’m in the doghouse.

I’m also hoping to start another baby blanket this week in organic cotton for my sister-in-law.  M and I are in disagreement about the colors, but then again, he’s the one who consistently needs to ask me which shirts will go with which pants every morning before work.  Best to use my own best judgment, oui?

Musikfest begins this week.  Woowoo!  Zen for Primates, our friend’s band, is playing there on Friday night, and I can’t wait.  I love them! 

Aside from that, just reading for comps in a few weeks.  Looking forward to this hurdle being finished so I can move on to a dissertation topic that excited me a bit more than the old one.

Knitting and Movies and my date night fiasco

We went to see The Dark Knight on Friday night, and it was incredible. We went to The Boyd Theatre in Bethlehem, this fantastic old theatre, independently owned, with the old-school balcony. I love that place. Dark? Yes. Very much so. But by far the best Batman film yet, in my opinion. It was chock full o’ intense performances, yes, by Ledger as predicted, but also by Bale as well. It was just a really incredibly well-done film. M even boasted that while I had to drag him to it on opening night, he got street cred today with the other engineers at work for seeing it on opening night. He didn’t tell him that his WIFE dragged him to it.

But date night became my WW nightmare. I dutifully sneaked in a ziploc of WW-friendly popcorn, but the boy bought a large movie popcorn with butter, and it just smelled so GOOD. I couldn’t eat my measly crappy 94% fat free microwave popcorn when he had REAL MOVIE POPCORN!! And then, after the film, he wanted to go to this great local ice cream place, Nuts About Ice Cream. They have these amazing exotic flavors — rose, cardamom, guava sorbet, coconut, ginger, saffron pistachio, etc. I couldn’t resist. BAH!!!!

But I’ve been on plan since then, so I’m nervous but hopeful about weigh-in tomorrow.

I finished baby present #1, finally. I really like how it turned out. I’ll post photos once it’s been gifted, or for those of you on Ravelry, you can check out the photos on my project page. I’m going to take a wee break before I begin the next baby project. Everybody’s reproducing! All at the same time! Ack!

So I’m doing a project for me. I have this gorgeous alpaca Araucania Atacama in blues and teals. 10 skeins of warm and fuzzy loveliness. I’m going to cast on for my first Clapotis wrap. I’m in the increase stage now, so not much to look at. But look at the glorious yarn.  So soft.  So warm.  So pretty.  I love these colors.

And finally, I’m heading to a Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs game tonight. I think I’ll take my knitting along. It will drive the boy crazy, of course. Baseball and knitting???? Yep. Baseball and knitting. Knitting goes with everything.

First weigh-in

Ok, so I did a yoga class this morning before meandering over to the WW meeting.

I was nervous.  I mean, I was very mindful and tracked everything.  Paid attention to what I was eating and tried to make sound choices, saying “no thanks” or “instead of that, how about this.”

I lost 11 pounds in my first week.  Which, I know, is mostly water weight during the first week and everyone loses a lot during their first week.  But still, it’s 11 pounds that aren’t on my body anymore, and I like that.

I also found a yummy little treat to tame that deadly chocolate craving I often get.  You take 3 cups of fiber one cereal and melt a bag of dark chocolate chips over them.  Portion them out into 24 little “haystacks,” and refrigerate until they’re solid.  Very high in fiber, very low in points.  Now, how to keep the boy away from them! =)

So:

Weight loss this week:  11 pounds

Total weight loss to date:  11 pounds.

Not a bad first weigh-in.

Here we go again…

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but it’s been a pretty busy couple of weeks.

Started Weight Watchers again. I got tired of telling myself that stupid line I feed myself every time I fall off the weight loss wagon — “I’ll go back when I’m back to where I was when I stopped going so I’m not embarassed to see the other members and the leader.” What IS that? If anybody understand falling off that wagon, the people at WW meetings do, right? And I hear myself saying the same thing about going to the gym. “Man, I can’t wait to be able to go to the gym — once I lose some weight.” If anybody understands the desire to become more fit, people at a gym would, wouldn’t they?

But still, I attended this Pilates class two weeks ago, and the instructor was stick think and tiny, and she frowningly watched me do my very best with some of the mods on the poses. I worked. I did my best. But she was still all frowny and stuff. I won’t go back to that class, but I’m not going to let it deter me from going to other classes.

I went to my first WW meeting last Tuesday. Weighed in at a new all-tome high. I feel like I should post it here to hold myself accountable, but I don’t know that I can shame myself like that publicly just yet. Maybe when I’ve hit my first 10% goal. I’ve been going to the gym at least 3x a week, and am going to increase that to 6x a week. M says that I’ll burn out, but the nice thing about belong to such a very large, very nice gym is diversification. It’s worth the price tag. They have yoga. They have Latin Cardio classes. They have step aerobics. They have pilates. They have BOSU/Stability ball classes. They have powerstrike classes. They have kickboxing. They have interval classes. They have water aerobics. They have spinning classes. They have SO MANY cardio machines — and a fantastically modern strength training studio on which I was just trained this past weekend. My butterfly wings hurt in a good way. =)

I feel like I’m committing to it for real this time.

On the 4th of July, M and I found out that his sister and her hubby are going to have a baby! whee! I’m so excited for them. I’m going to be an auntie! I’m so excited, and M is too. But it was a real eye-opener. M and I have been trying to no avail, and it’s difficult. I know that if I lose some weight, our chances are greatly enhanced. And the arrival of this amazing news was a bit of a prod to start living a more healthy life. Several of our friends now are having babies. Plus, I just want to be able to do the things I love to do. Canoe. Go to amusement parks. Hike. Go running. All of the things I love to do.

So here it is. A photo of me now. Or at least, a photo of me recently. This was a photo of me, about 10-15 pounds lighter than I am now, during our honeymoon at our B&B. (October 2007)

This one is from a Cinqo de Mayo party taken about 2 months ago. (May 2008)

This one is from a canoeing trip I took with two of my colleagues from work (June 2008)

And finally, a photo from late June 2008 (ignore my idiot husband’s “thumbs up” sign)

So as you can see, my weight is out of control and I need to get some control over my life now.

Tomorrow is my first weigh-in. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Sock Yarn Cinema (Spoiler Alert)

I spent most of my years in grad school studying film, with a lot of performance studies and rhetorical studies thrown in for flava.  So it would only make sense that I would fall in love with a sock yarn club called “Sock Yarn Cinema.”  The fiber artiste has chosen a pop classic film and interpreted it through yarn.

Color me sold.

And then I received my first care package last month.  For The Sound of Music. Not one of my favorite films, but man, was it a cool package.  First, it came in a brown paper package, tied up with string.  There were stitch markers with snowflakes and mittens.  A little postcard with reflections on watching this film again as an adult.  Recipes for crisp apple streudel and schnitzel with noodles, and some tea to drink with jam and bread.

So surely this is just an inaugural thing.  She can’t keep this up every month, can she?

I just got my July care package for Field of Dreams.  Cool red, cream, and brown yarn completely reminiscent of baseball.  Packaged in a popcorn container.  Baseball card.  And a baseball-themed fabric dpn holder.

How cool is this?  This is, by far, one of the best and most creative sock yarn clubs.

Amused musings

It’s been a while, I know. But it was the end of summer session I, and I’m exhausted. Teaching summer classes takes a lot out of me, for some reason.

Still, I have some updates.

First, photos a-plenty. I have an update of my WIPs.

Baby Blanket. Learning to work with the acrylic, and feels good to get it out of my stash and into a project. I like this pattern, really. It’s fairly easy to remember, and it’s knitting up to be pretty. M said that I’d better hope my friend has a boy, but my argument that even if she has a girl, girls like blue too, damnit! Hell, blue is one of my favorite colors!

Details: CO 181 sts on a US10, did a few rows of alternating K1, K2tog openwork border, then switched to US8s and began the “Plain and Fancy” lace stitch from The Big Book of Knitting Stitches. Is going to be about 36-38″ wide, and will probably make it about 36-42″ long or so, I’m guessing. I’m going to need to block this one. I’ve been after the boy to build me a blocking rack-type thing. Thus far, no luck.

I took my first Pilates class last week, and it kicked my ass. Really. Pilates? Yep, pilates. I hurt the next day. M was NOT the bastion of sympathy, either, I’ll have you know. But I’m going to start with this latin dance aerobics class this week, and then start a 2x/week yoga sequence. We’ll see how it goes. And of course, if I have a nice yoga mat, I need to knit myself a nice little yoga mat bag from Stitch n’ Bitch Nation. Cotton. Blues and creams. Simple diagonal lace pattern. Very quick and easy to memorize. I like it. Should have it finished by tomorrow, I hope. Just in time for my next Pilates class. *ouch*

Details: Using a US10.5, I cast on using a long-tail cast on (I cast on really tightly, no matter how hard I try to keep cool and loose, baby!)  Added 8 stitches to the pattern to make it a bit longer, and added a bit on the length as well to add to the circumference.  Will stitch an I-cord for the tie.

On Friday evening, M and I went to a friend’s house.  She and her beau have recently set-up house nearby, and we had a fun couples game night.  I’m hoping we can make a tradition out of it.  They cooked dinner (yummy), and then we imbibed a bit and played Taboo (one of my favorite party games of all time), and 90s Trivial Pursuit (I won!!!).  I’m hoping we can have them over next time for an evening of games and good food on the back patio soon.

I went today to pick up a spinning wheel that was kindly donated to me. I’ve been working with hesitation on a bottom whorl drop spindle, and I like it, but in the process of talking with a friend, she said she knew a woman who had an old spinning wheel in her attic, fully functional. It’s a New Zealand Jenny Style Sleeping Beauty wheel, but I know NOTHING about it. I’m going to touch base with a local knitting guild to see if I can bribe someone to help me or guide me a bit if I buy them some fiber and coffee. But it’s cute. And it will be a nice start until I figure out what I like and don’t like about different styles.

We have a big family picnic on the 4th of July each year, and this year will be no exception, though my family will be in absentia, so it will be just M’s family. I planted a bunch of flowery things that are starting to sprout, and I gave the puppies a bath (they were mad as hell and stomping around in protest, I assure you!) while M steam cleaned the downstairs rugs. Then, the puppies cooled their heals and dried off in the back yard, and I happily snapped photos. You say you want to see them? Of course, I’m happy to share photos of my two furry, once-smelly kids, and the photos even tell a story.

First, the greenery. I love greenery.

And the furry ones? Here is their tale of a lazy, hot, Saturday.
The boy: “Gee, this sunbeam sure feels good on my old-man bones.”

The boy:  “Maybe I should just roll around a bit and make Mum really mad since she just gave us a bath.”

The Girl: “I’m bored.”

The Girl: “Maybe if I pretend to be looking at something, I won’t be so bored.”

The Girl: “Still bored.”

The Girl: “STLL BORED!!!!”

The Girl: “Maybe I’ll see what the boy’s doing.”

The Girl: “Man, I’m bored again.”

The Boy: “Man, she’s such an idiot.”

And finally, look at these faces. Faces only a mother could love. =)

Finally, I cleaned out my office at my old job and now have all of my belongings in a cardboard box, waiting to be installed into my new office in August.

Am also working on trying to get things ready for August exams. This is a right pain in the ass trying to do this long-distance, but my advisor is a gift from above, helping me figure things out since I’ve been on hiatus for a while.

I’m becoming a damn hippy.

Ok, so it’s true.  I’m admitting it. So there.  You’ll still love me, right?

Every day, I get more and more intent on owning a little farm. 

In the Poconos. 

Growing some organic fruit trees and strawberry fields. 

Running a ceramics artists commune, holding classes and such. 

And owning lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of fiber animals.  Alpacas?  Oh, you know it.  Sheep?  I love them more than words can say.  Goats?  I *love* goats. 

The pups could run and play (ok, the boy, being a 9yo Great Dane, would probably sit in the sunbeams, or more likely, in the air-conditioning, but the girl would run and play and chase bunnies). 

And I could get closer to my increasingly unbridled desire to become a new age prairie wife, complete with homemade sundresses (yes, I’ve been working on these patternless little sundresses and I love them), bare feet, pottery, spinning wheel (I’ve been campaigning for my very own spinning wheel for quite a while now), handspun and handpainted yarns, and knitting workshops.  Painting in the mornings whilst watching the baby sheep frolic and bounce.  Maybe teaching a class or two as an adjunct at the local college.  For the library privileges.

But I love the idea of a simpler life.  Life outside of the suburbs.  I want to grow my own veggies and fruits, and weave my own cloth and raise the animals from which my fibers come.  Can you imagine?  “This sweater?  Oh, this sweater came from our alpaca named Henry.  He makes a fine fiber indeed.  Spun the fiber myself, I did.”

Want to see some really fantastic photos of frolicking baby farm animals?  Look no further.

When does one have too much yarn?

I’ve heard most of the arguments, I think, about stash guilt.  Some say that if their yarn is going towards garments, then it shouldn’t be something to be considered guilt-worthy.  Others have incredible organizational strategies.  Some don’t buy yarn unless they have a project in mind already.  Some go on crazy de-stashing purges, getting rid of tons of yarn. 

My husband has been giving me a hard time about my stash.  Most of it is sock yarn, but some of it is for sweaters and some of it is just really pretty worsted or DK weight yarns.  I bought a book with one-skein project in it, but have yet to really use it.  I like knitting socks. 

I moved in 3 years ago with less than a tote of yarn, and it was acrylics, something that I have grown to dislike intensely.  Since then, my stash has grown to 5 large totes, and I can’t get the lids on most of them, and I have bags sitting around that won’t fit into the totes.  DH says that I’m not allowed to buy any more yarn until I use the stuff that I have.  I like the idea of organizing my stash and using what I have, but I just love buying yarn.  I love getting it in the mail, opening it up and smelling it, squealing with joy at the colors, stashing it carefully with its kin in my totes, promising to do something really special with it.

But sock yarn clubs are going to be the end of me, I think.  Sock Yarn Cinema.  Check.  Yarn Pirate Booty Club.  Check.  Zen Yarn Garden Art Walk Sock Yarn Club.  Check.  Three Irish Girls Sock Yarnista Club.  Check.  Rainy Day Sock Yarn Club.  Check.

And now I’m starting to look at roving for my new attempts at spinning.  I need a room for my fiber life, I think. 

When do we say “enough” and hope for an intervention?  I’m worried that my new husband will divorce me, citing fiber-related differences.  And to be honest, I feel a little overwhelmed by my yarn stash.  I love this yarn like crazy.  But I don’t know what to DO with it to make it more neat and organized.  I need a bigger house!

On a nice note,  I AM destashing a bit by knitting up a baby blanket for a friend of ours who is expecting this winter.  I didn’t BUY yarn.  I am using some baby yarn that I’ve had in my stash for a while.  It’s pretty baby blue and white, and lacey enough to make it heirloomish, but not so much so that a baby could pop its poor misshapen head through the lacey loops or anything.  I know the photo is a little dark, but with the flash, you couldn’t see ANYTHING. 

I’m not allowed to choose our date movies anymore.

So on Friday, we went for another date night.  We saw local Philly boy, M. Night Shyamalan’s newest film, The Happening.  M didn’t want to go, but oh no, I had to insist.  Let’s just say that I’m in the proverbial doghouse, and I’m restricted from choosing our films for date nights for a while.  I deserve it.  I really do.  It was AWFUL.  And I’ve stuck by him through the tough times.  I found at least a little bit of beauty in those films that others didn’t enjoy, like Lady in the Water and The Village and Signs.  I think that generally, he’s a skilled filmmaker, but this man is NOT allowed to write his own screenplays anymore.  It had an interesting premise, and could have been incredible.  But let’s just say that it wasn’t and leave it at that.  I’m repressing it. 

Moving on.  Saturday was World Wide Knitting in Public Day, and I did just that.  I met up with a bunch of ladies from Ravelry, and it was a really nice time.  I’ll admit that it was a bit anxiety-inducing for me.  I’ve lived here for nearly 3 years now, and I don’t really have many girlfriends in the area.  I’m just not good at meeting new people, and I’m not always much of a joiner, per se; rather, I like to find a few super close girlfriends-for-life and leave it at that.  I get all angsty and kindergarten-y and “what if they don’t like me oh I’ll just DIE if they don’t like me” when I meet new people.  My students always scoff at my confession that I’m actually a pretty shy girl (being a college professor who teaches communication courses, this seems odd to them), but I assure them that it’s possible to just learn to cope and fake it.  But on Saturday, we had wonderful weather, and it was great to meet some local fiber artists.  Several of us knitted blocks for a charity throw.  And I even won a really cute prize from the Needle Art Studio in Emmaus, PA.   It had a little slushy-style cap to it as well, but our youngest Dane realized that it looked a lot like the slushy things that people eat, so she checked it out.  Needless to say, mint green yarn ain’t so minty, and the cap was broken.  But very cute, nonetheless.

I finished another sock.  This one I love.  I am obsessed with the yarn.  I love the pattern.  It’s “‘Vog On” from Knitty, and it’s perfect for the omnipresent Docs on my feet.  As I get older, the hippy in me keeps surfacing, but I’m a child of the 90s, so the hippy in me wears Docs.  All the time.  These little ankle socks are perfect for teaching and clubbin’ (ok, so I don’t club anymore, but if I did, they’d be perfect for it!!). 

         

I’m also starting on a little folk lace baby blanket for a friend who is expecting.  I’ll post a photo when I’ve done more than cast on.  Yes, I’m dragging my feet on the lacey baby blanket thing.  And I think you know why.  I hate baby yarn.  Yes, it’s soft.  Yes, the colors are all cute and stuff.  But it’s also slightly fuzzy and slippery and acrylic. 

I’ve had a few REALLY good classes these past few days.  My students are attentive, for the most part, and they seem really jazzed up by the discussions we’ve been having — cultural studies, cultivation analysis, etc.  It gets them a bit heated, talking about media effects.  I like that.  I walked out of the classroom reveling in how much I truly love what I do.  =)

Film Reviews and other things

M and I had a date night this past Friday — our first in a long time.  We ended up going to one of the local drive-ins to see a double feature:  the new Indiana Jones film, and Iron Man.  We HATED Indiana Jones.  It was just awful.  I felt so sad.  I had high expectations.  Iron Man was ok.  Not stellar, but entertaining.  I think we’re going to be able to have another date night this Friday, and I’m trying to convince him that “The Happening” is going to be a good bet.  We’ll see.  But I love the drive-in.  It’s inexpensive, you can BYO, and just generally nostalgic. 

While I’m talking about film, I should mention that I showed my students 12 Angry Men this morning.  We were discussing “GroupThink” as a communication theory, and it’s just the PERFECT example.  But, it’s a 1957 film (granted, an AMAZING, Oscar-nominated, Henry Fonda-starring 1957 film), and today’s students think that films from 5 years ago are too old for any enjoyment.  And I often hear students whine and complain and proclaim films to be unwatchable if they’re black and white.  Still, I wanted them to see it.  I was surprised that only one student had seen it previously.  He is my age, though, and a very big film buff, so maybe that explains it. 

But surprise, surprise!  They laughed at the funny parts.  They were apalled at the difficult parts.  They walked out talking about the film, surprised at what a good film it was.  Many said they wanted to tell their friends about it!  A 1957 b/w film!  HOT DAMN!!!  Miracles DO happen!

Maybe I’ll show them some avant-garde art film from the 1920s next!