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I have a confession. I get sucked into reality TV shows. It started off with America’s Next Top Model a few years ago. And then some of the spin-offs of it. And some of the Survivor series. Then 16 and Pregnant. And Teen Mom. Some of the Jersey Shore. The Great British Menu (this kind of qualifies even if it’s not the same format as the others).

And my latest reality show addiction? The Biggest Loser. I stayed away from the show at first because I didn’t like how it fixates on numbers. I still think it does that. But, watching everyone working so hard to lose weight is inspiring. It also makes me feel glad that I’m not as heavy as the contestants are. Over-weight, yes. Definitely could lose some weight, but I’m no where near as bad as they are.

The reason why I started watching The Biggest Loser? Because I started the Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred programme. I wanted to see how she coached the contestants and compare that to the workout videos. I didn’t want to mention it on the blog yet, but I have been keeping tabs on myself on Twitter and Plurk by posting once I’d completed a workout. Hoo boy, it’s hard. She’s not kidding when she says that you will feel like you’re going to die. But the workouts get easier with time. My endurance has gone way up since Level 1, Day 1.

That being said, today I completed Level 3, Day 1. At the same time, I’m amazed at how much I can now do (like punching and jumping jacks with weights) and how much I still can’t do. I do know that I can do this for another nine days. Will I keep going after that? Probably. Every day? Nope. I know I’m more likely to stick to doing the workout if it’s only three or four times a week. Or I might switch it up and find a different workout to do for awhile. We’ll see.

From Blog photos

Sip’N’Stich came last week! The yarn is a gorgeous gorgeous red that photographs do not do justice. I haven’t tried out the coffee (Cafe Femenino from Joe Van Gogh) yet because, believe it or not, I still have some left from the previous shipment. I guess I just haven’t needed/wanted the caffeine as much in the mornings lately. I’ve been choosing to have tea instead. Maybe it’s a comfort thing, picking tea over coffee.

The January shipment of The Great British Wool Club also came. It’s a very pretty blue, 50/50 blend of BFL and Exmoor Blueface. Don’t know what it wants to be yet, but as the whole club is coming from a co-ordinated palate and spun to the same specs, I may save it for a colourwork project. Photos are up on my Rav stash page for those interested.

That Lia sweater I’d started last time? In the frog pond. I’d finished the cable chart and decided to try it on. It just did not look flattering on me. I don’t know what exactly it was about the fit, but it just didn’t seem good. The cabling section fell wrong and I decided that it didn’t matter how much work I’d already put into the sweater, I was not going to knit a sweater that I wouldn’t love and especially one that wouldn’t fit.

So I frogged it.

And cast on a shawlette. I’m using Luxe Soles from Stitches’N’Rows in a custom colourway (Purple berries’n’cream) with my 3.75mm Signature circs. The pattern is Minttumaari. It’s free, from Ullaneule.net, and only available in Finnish. It’s took me a little while to get used to all of the Finnish terminology (since almost all of my knitting knowledge is in English), but I think I’ve got the hang of it again.

The shawl for my mom is going along well. Almost eight repeats of the Body Chart are done on the second half and I’m still enjoying it immensely. Lace patterning on both sides keeps me interested, but it’s not too difficult to keep track of. The shawlette has patterning only on the RS so it’s my travel/knit night knitting. And it’s kinda boring me already, even though I only cast it on last week and haven’t worked on it that much. But the result is pretty so I’m going to keep knitting it.

And that’s it for now. I’ve still got two book reviews (both fiction) and a confession to make, but they will have to wait until next time.

One of my friends wanted a pair of mitts for his wife and asked me to design and knit them. Since the idea of what he was requesting was intriguing, I gladly began working on them. The result is above. They’re a really quick and easy knit. It feels like I spent more time weaving in ends than actually knitting them, but they’re really cool and stretchy. Kind of like an accordion. I also discovered while knitting these is that I really like using Wendy Norse Chunky. It’s surprising since the yarn is a wool/acrylic blend and I usually prefer all natural blends (mainly due to the softness and sweaty-ness factors). But I can see myself eventually knitting a whole sweater out of this yarn. Once I clear out some of my stash and queue first obviously.

Speaking of knitting sweaters, I’ve cast on for Lia by Mandie Harrington. It’s Knitty pattern (as most of the sweater patterns are that I knit up). I’m using INOX 6.5mm circs. I originally bought these needles to make a French Market Bag back in 2007, but I never got around to knitting it so the needles have just been lying around in my needle stash. As many of you may have noticed, I gravitate towards knitting with smaller needles and thinner yarn. But now that I’ve found a pattern and yarn that called for bigger needles, I’m glad I have them. And they’re unexpectedly good! I guess I just assumed that since I bought them when I was still a beginner knitter, I didn’t know what I was getting.

Still making more squares. And knitting that shawl for my mom.

Book review time! Quickies, I promise. For Christmas, I received a *lot* of books. Mainly from O. ^_^

I devoured The Help by Kathryn Stockett in three days starting immediately on Christmas Day. It was really good and I had a really hard time putting it down. I would have finished it in two days, but I had to drive to O’s parents place and back, so that cut a little bit into my reading time. I just hope the movie lives up to the high standards of the book (of course I want to see it now).

Next up, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. I liked it. It was quirky and fast and I could feel the narrator Rose growing up as she told her story. The story begins when she’s a child and ends when she is in her mid-twenties. She has a peculiar ability; she can taste the emotions of whoever cooked or baked the food she eats. And the story starts off with Rose feeling her mother’s sadness in a lemon cake. I was telling O about one section of the book where she is eating a sandwich prepared by the girlfriend of a baker. She feels the sandwich yelling at her “Love me!”. So O lifted his eyebrow and said: “That sounds like something you’d write.” Which is really funny, because when I was in Montana a few years ago, my writing teacher compared my style with Aimee’s (who I had never heard of until then). So it makes sense that I’d like her books.

I’ve got one more book that I’ve read since Christmas, but since this post is getting to be really long, I’ll leave it for next week. Need something to beef up next week’s post since my knitting won’t have really made much visible progress by then.

Brandy - Jan 6, 2012

OMGosh I am so hooked on Downton Abbey too! Sounds like a wonderful day. Secret knitting you say?!? ;)

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So, hi! Happy New Year! December just kinda flew by. Just like last year. And kinda like the year before. Maybe I should just make this a yearly thing, to take a break from blogging in December. It makes sense since I’m at work most of the day and then the rest of the time is spent doing gift knitting so I can’t talk about it anyway.

This year, I kept the gift knitting list small. A bookmark for the Secret Santa thing at work (along with a gift card to the bookstore) and two felted mug cozies for my grandparents. I also sent a pair of mittens (the Ruba’iyat pattern) to my youngest sister, but that wasn’t a Christmas present. But I had other secret knitting to do that I still can’t talk about so moving on to things I can talk about!

I did crochet some more squares for the never-ending FrankenBlanket. No idea how many, but quite a few. I’ve also started spinning up some Shetland fibre that I bought from the Sheffield Wool & Textile Fair a few years ago. It’s a pretty brown and white mix. I’m going to aim for about worsted weight, but I can never tell in the beginning how thick or thin the singles will be. I usually just let the fibre be whatever it wants to be because I can’t be bothered to fight it.

I also received my prize from Pampered Knitting (an Etsy shop) for participating in the Knit.Sock.Love KAL on Rav. Two very cute project bags big enough for a sock project. Both fabrics have ladybugs on them. One has a pretty yellow background, the other a green background with sparkles. Jenna also sent some stitch markers and dpn protectors. It’s an awesome prize.

I may be a bit ramble-y, but that’s because I’ve been up since 5 am today. I got up early to help O do his hair for the competition. And then I just didn’t go back to bed. I had every intention of going back, but then the siren song of the shawl that I’m currently knitting beckoned me into the living and I sat down, put on an episode of Downton Abbey and knit. It’s almost 4:30pm now and I’ve watched like five episodes. I have taken breaks to tidy up the living, do the dishes, tidy up the dining room, vacuum, do two loads of laundry, the ironing… I even had plans to go out for a run. But Downton Abbey sucked me in and I knit. All day. This has been one of the best days ever.

…

So O’s back. Apparently the competition didn’t go that well. But that’s fine with me. Means that I get more snuggle time with him. We just watched The Simpsons Movie and I had a short power nap while snuggling on the couch with him. I say nap, but really it was more like me resting my head on his chest with my eyes closed but still listening to the movie. This is why I like audiobooks. Quite often I’m tired, but my brain is alert enough to focus on listening as long as I can have my eyes closed.

Anyway, I’m off to watch one more episode of Downton Abbey (O’s best R texted me today to say he’s hooked on it now too!) and knit some more. I’m hoping to finish the body chart of the shawl tonight. This isn’t Super Secret Knitting. It’s a gift for my mom for Mother’s Day (but I may just send it out as soon as it’s done because I want her to have it), so I don’t want to give out too many details until she’s received it. But if you’re on Rav, I’m sure you can figure out which project it is. ;)

And no, I’m not going to show a photo of my swollen cheeks. I had two of my wisdom teeth taken out this morning. It went a lot faster than I expected, even with the left upper tooth being stubborn. My dentist really had to work at it and when it finally did come out, she went: “Wow that’s a big one!” I took the day off work and I’m not going dancing tonight either. According to the leaflet I got, physical exertion can cause the sockets to start bleeding again, so I’m staying put. Totally fine by me. Been knitting and crocheting while watching TV. And it’s easier to find soft foods to eat that I don’t have to take with me. Like yoghurt. Been having lots of yoghurt. Mainly because I can’t think of much else that I could have as a snack/small meal.

There isn’t a whole lot of knitting that I can blog about right now. There’s the pair of colourwork mittens that are over half way done. I’m at the thumb gusset of the second mitt. But they don’t really excite me, so I don’t make an effort to work on them. Then there’s the secret knitting which I can’t talk about. And when I need a break from that, I’ve been crocheting more squares for the blanket. At about 520 in total right now (still need to update the sidebar).

No spinning to talk about yet, but I’m thinking of spinning up the Shetland top that bought from the Wool & Textile Craft Fair a few years ago. It’s a pretty brown and white mix (I think they called it Humbug?). Anyway, I see that becoming a nice bulky-ish yarn.

I’ve started re-reading the Little House books again. They’re nice and quick. And comforting. They’re the only series of books that I’m willing to re-read every year. And I’ve discovered that there are spin-offs of the series! I don’t know how good the spin offs are since they’re not written by Laura Ingalls Wilder/edited by her daughter Rose, but I’d still like to see what kinds of stories they are. I have a feeling that they’re not as realistic though, since they’re not based on someone’s actual memories of childhood. Yes, I know, Laura made up some stuff and moved events around chronologically and left stuff out (I wrote a paper about the Little House series while in college, can you tell?), but in the end, the stories are good and captivating. That’s all that matters, right?

From Blog photos

Okay, so this came last week. Monday I think? Anyway, yesterday it was finally sunny enough to take a photo of the package. It was really hard to resist waiting until today to open up the coffee. I don’t know what it is about the coffee that the Unique Sheep send, but it always seems to be amazing and have tons of caffeine in it. The coffee beans I buy here (either from the supermarket or from a coffee stall at the farmers market) just don’t have that same kick. The mug is super cute and has been officially designated being MY mug. O and N know that it’s mine alone to use. Just like the other Unique Sheep mug I received in a previous round of Sip N Stitch from a few years ago. MY mugs. Mine.

Now that that’s been cleared up, onto other things! First up, spinning! I am so close to being done that I’m almost giddy. Turns out I got three small hanks from the fibre. It looks to be fingering weight, 2-ply. Well, I know it is 2-ply since I just plied it, but I haven’t measured my wpi yet. The first hank is fully plied, twist set, dried, wound onto niddy noddy and calculated yardage, and twisted up into a hank, but I still need to weigh it. The next step for the second batch is to go on the niddy noddy. Third batch needs to be dunk & thwacked. I only just finished plying it. I was determined to get it done before writing up this week’s post. And yay, I did!

As for my knitting, I’ve still got the Ruba’iyat mittens going. Had a few false starts: the green wasn’t contrasting enough so I frogged it all and restarted with an orange-y red and the same yellow, then I cast on the wrong number to stitches so I had to restart again. It’s gotten to the point where this has become a process knit for me. I like knitting it, but I’m just not thrilled with the end result like I usually am. So that’s going a bit slow. I’m going to cast on a very quick project later on tonight. We’re doing Secret Santa at work again this year (limit is £5.00), and the person that I got I know pretty much nothing about. But I do see them reading during their lunch breaks so I’m going to get a £5.00 gift card to Waterstones and knit a bookmark. I’ve also got most of my family’s presents sorted out. Obviously, I can’t list them here, but there are a few quick projects that I’m planning on churning out during my week off.

Oh look at that, it’s my week off! Glorious sleeping in? You’d think I’d try to sleep in as much as I can. But no, my body won’t let me. Woke me up at 7:30 today (it’s a Sunday for crying out loud) and I just felt silly trying to fall back asleep at that time, so I got up and watched an episode of Mad Men while I waited for O & N to get up. I like not having to worry about being quiet while cleaning.

I’ve also finally caught up with my RSS feed (had almost 200 entries to read/watch last week!). So now I’m looking for new stuff to watch/read. Any recommendations? To give you an idea, I currently watch Yarnivore and Round the Twist with Carin. I also listen to Cast On, ChopBard and CraftLit. I have a few episodes of 2 Knit Lit Chicks downloaded, but I haven’t listened to them yet. Can you tell I was an English Lit major? Speaking of English Lit, on a whim I checked out what classes my old university is offering for the degree I did. They all sound so cool. They’re offering lit classes like “Demons, Degenerates And New Women: Fin De Siecle Fictions” and “Renaissance Magic” and “Other Worlds: Utopia To Lilliput” and “Haunting Texts: Victorian And Modern Ghost Stories” and “Romantic Eroticism” and… I wanna take all of these classes! Why can’t I be a student for the rest of my life? Or why doesn’t either of the Sheffield universities offer cool classes like these as night classes? I seem to really want to be a student again. I’ve even started dreaming about it. Last night I dreamt that my dad sent me back to Montana since I was so happy there. I even had my old roommate Michelle rooming with me! Apparently she needed three more credits (ie one class) to graduate. But O really wasn’t happy with this and he was all grumpy because he thought I’d be there for a whole year and it turns out that it was only for six weeks but he still didn’t like it and… really, the dream didn’t make a lot of sense after that. So instead of getting to be a student again, I’m going to make up my own reading list from the ones listed for the modules I’m interested in and see how that goes.

No photo this time. Mainly because there isn’t anything to show. Spinning is still going along as planned. All of the fibre has now been spun up and I’ve even started the plying process. Still madly in love with it. The fibre and colours are wonderful to work with. Can’t wait to knit with the finished yarn.

In knitting news, Secret II (using Handmaiden SeaSilk which was *really* nice to work with) has been bound off. And to celebrate, I’ve cast on a pair of colourwork mittens in the Ruba’iyat pattern by Heather Desserud. I’ve already completed the cuff patterning. I do have one quibble about the pattern so far: there are no finished measurements listed. Which means that even if I get the gauge listed, I’ll have no idea what size my mittens will actually be. So, based on my experience knitting the Andalus mittens by HD, I’m went up to 2,75mm dpns instead of 2,5mm as written. My Andalus mittens are perfect except that they are a tad too short. I’m hoping that my current mittens will be longer, but they’ll also probably be looser since I went up a needle size. If they turn out really massive, I can just wear a pair of gloves underneath like I do with the mittens that my grandma knit for me years ago.

Yesterday, I baked a cake. A Chocolate Cola Cake to be exact. I was a bit dubious about using Coke (well, decaf Diet Coke since that’s what we had at the time) in the cake, but it worked. O went out and bought some “full-fat” Coke to use in the frosting since aspartame does weird things. The cake itself is very moist and a bit gooey. But everyone’s liked it so I’d say it was a success.

Charlotte came over earlier. She’s a friend I met through dancing and today while we watched Persuasion (2007 version) I also taught/reminded her how to knit. She knows how to knit, but hadn’t done it for ages so I basically just taught her how to cast on and then let her have at it. She came over to keep me company for a little bit while O went to a dance comp in Scarborough. He & E did very well. Came 3rd in both Novice and Intermediate Ballroom; came 1st in both Beginners and Novice Latin. The one thing that I’ve noticed while I lack a dance partner: I don’t miss competing, but I do miss being able to dance at dance class. Lately a lot of the Novice classes turn into supervised practices. Which isn’t a lot of fun for the ones who don’t have partners (mainly me and Charlotte). I’ve learned to bring a book with me so that if it does turn into a practice, then I just go sit to the side and read while O dances.

Only one week to go! I’ve been counting down for the last two weeks until we have week off work. I plan on whipping the dining room into shape. I want at least a part of my dining table back, so we’re going to move the table a bit and get some of the computers hidden a bit better (and off the table!). Plus, it’ll be easier to vacuum once all of that has been done. Lame vacation plans, I know, but I’m kind of excited. Might even have enough space to start eating at the table again! ^_^

From Blog photos

Quite often, I forget how much I love spinning. I don’t own a wheel, only two drop spindles, so when I do spin it takes me awhile to get a finished yarn. I think that’s what puts me off. It’s a long term project.

But last weekend, I got the urge to spin again. Nina picked out three tops from my stash and I picked from those (I wasn’t able to choose by myself). It’s one of my more recent purchases: UK Merino Top in Tobacco Rose from Wildcraft Fibres. Love it. Absolutely madly in love with it. The photo of the spinning in progress does not do justice to the pretty colours. I’m almost halfway through the 100g. Might even have a finished yarn by the end of November (told you it takes me a long time to spin!).

In knitting news, the Maluka scarf is done. Just needs to be blocked. It was a fun quick knit. No photos yet though. Keep watching my Rav feed though, photos might appear there sooner than they appear here. After I bound that off, I haven’t actually knit anything. I’ve crocheted squares for FrankenBlanket, but it’s just not as satisfying as knitting. And the reason why I haven’t been knitting? I’ve been working out the math for a new design. I don’t want to cast on until I’ve got it all worked out.

That’s it for now. I know, not that exciting, but I can’t really talk about what I’m knitting until I’ve actually knit something. I kinda want to cast on a sweater and a pair of socks and a shawl and mittens and… well, I want to cast on a lot of stuff and it’s gotten to the point where I can’t decide what to cast on first. In the meantime, I’ll go back to spinning.

Yeesh, it’s been three weeks since I last posted. Been a bit busy. Like getting the above pattern tested and ready for download! The Berry Berry mitts are knit with two weights of yarn (aran and worsted) with optional beading (only need 8 4mm beads and a crochet hook). If don’t want to do beads, that’s just fine, there’s still the berry lace pattern to keep it interesting. The pattern also comes with two short photo tutorials on how to place beads with a crochet hook and how to do a backwards loop cast on. I was originally going to call it the Blackberry Pearl (blackberries because of the yarn colour and lace pattern; pearl because of the beads) but then O pointed out that that’s a phone… Then one of my testers used pink and red in her mitts and they reminded me of raspberries, so I changed the name to Berry Berry so it can be whatever berry you pick.

As for my other knitting, I’ve knit a pair of Ken Phelz by Heather Zoppetti from Malabrigo Sock in Velvet Grapes (so so pretty). Just need to weave in ends and take photos. I’ve almost completed a scarf/shawlette called Maluka using LuLu’s TM Sock in Lamponi. When I saw the pattern, which a free Rav download btw, my first reaction was: “Yes! Finally a pattern that’ll work with this yarn!” I’d had the yarn wound for about a month. I was going to use it for socks, but then decided I don’t actually like tencel on my feet, so I set it aside. I only have three and a half rows to go (they’re really really long rows now) before bind off, so I predict getting that finished today.

I also finally have a photo of me wearing my Cadence sweater. I’ve had this done for quite awhile now, but just hadn’t had a chance to take photos of it. It was an easy and fairly quick knit (pattern from Knitty, last fall I think? By Jordana Paige). If I were to knit it again, I’d probably make the body just an inch or two longer. Oh! And I tried out Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off for the first time with this project. LOVE it. I really like the edge that the sleeves now have. It’s not as neat as my usual bind off, but that’s okay since the rest of the sweater is fairly plain.

So yesterday, when O had a private dance lesson, I sat in Starbucks doing some research (tried their Creme Brulee Macchiato; not bad but probably won’t buy it again). I just re-read that sentence and realized it could come off wrong; no, I wasn’t researching their coffees, but that’s the coffee I had. XD O had this brilliant idea for knitting patterns, so I was researching that while he danced. I just hope these will turn out as awesome as I’ve got them imagined in my head. And that’s all I’ll say about that for now. But as usual, I will be needing testers. If anyone wants to volunteer, just let me know and I’ll put you on a spreadsheet where I’ve got everyone’s info of what kinds of patterns they want to test.

Speaking of dancing, my dance partner Ian and I have decided to part ways. He couldn’t commit to the same amount of time I want to set aside for dancing, so we figured it would be best to split now instead of in a few months when both of us would get frustrated with the other. I had a trial with a guy who went to Oxford, but as he’d rather concentrate on Latin and I’m definitely a Ballroom girl, it didn’t work out. So I’m still on the lookout for a new partner. Still going to dance classes, but it’s not as fun to go now that I don’t have anyone to dance with.

But! There is the Scarborough dance festival next month. The competition that O & E are hoping/planning to go to is on Sunday, but the festival starts on Tuesday. O suggested that the two of us go over already on Saturday and join in on the tea dances and workshops they’ve got and spend the night there. It sounds like fun, so I hope we do decide to do it.