Showing Interest

     August.  My last post was in August of last year.  I've decided that I'm just really good at long pauses.  Not something to be overly proud about, but this last pause was different.  It stared as a "life being overly busy" kind of pause, but by Thanksgiving it was more of a growth spurt kind of pause.  I lost interest in almost everything.  Then I learned a few things about myself.  

     Shortly after Thanksgiving, all I wanted to do in my free time was binge watch Netflix or read Harry Potter.  I didn't even go all out during Christmas.  I didn't spend very much time shopping for presents, I didn't send out cards, I didn't plan any special parties or dinners.  But I did purchase one Christmas present that I'm pretty proud of, it also helped me get out of my "uninterested" slump.

     On Dec 16th I took my husband to a local Genesis Health Club and signed up for a three year membership.  That was his Christmas present from me.  He told me that he wanted to be the same weight as James Bond.  According to Ian Flemming, Bond is 6 foot tall and 167lbs.  My goal is to lose enough weight that I weigh less then my husband.  I'm not going to lie, I've out weighed him for some time now, by about twenty to thirty pounds (depending on the time of year).  It's probably been over five years since my wedding ring fit.  I know that some of my weight gain has come from the type of birth control I use, Depo injections.  But this is my body and I knew when I started taking Depo that weight gain was highly possible, but I didn't take any action to prevent it.  So it's not the medicine's fault, it's mine, and I'm going to try my hardest to reverse the effects it's had on my body.  

     Since we got the membership, we have been working out 4-5 times a week AND we decided we wanted a trainer to help us, at least for the first year.  So two of my workouts a week are trainer guided and the rest are up to me.  The trainer also did the math and figured out caloric intake for both my husband and I.  He also broke it down in to carb, protein, and fat ratios to help us stay in check.  I updated my info on the myfitnesspal app (food and fitness journal) to the caloric info the trainer gave us.  And now, a month after signing up, working out each week, using my food journal, I'm down ten pounds.  I've become friends with a treadmill and a StairMaster.  I've learned that I can live without Starbucks without killing anyone.  I've discovered that 60 min of cardio isn't that bad and my body is more then willing to go longer.  I purchased some running tights the week of New Year's Eve, they are now to big.

  

     I think that focusing on going to the gym enough times each week and trying to use my free time more efficiently has helped me get out of the slump I was in.  I started knitting a sock, I baked a cake from scratch; a carrot cake, I even shredded the three cups of carrots myself.  I improved my crochet skills and learned a new dishcloth pattern by heart.  I went through my desk at home and got rid of a LOT of junk that was just cluttering it up, taking up space.

  

     The point is, I feel motivated again.  Now I just need to find the motivation to take down the Christmas tree.

Knitting Project Update

Since I took a long break. . I thought I'd better catch you up on my knitting projects ;)

Silver Gin Fizz Cowl in Bernat Alpaca; knit for a co-worker.

Pine Forest Baby Blanket in Lion Brand Wool-ease for a friend of mine who's baby is close to a year old now. . . . it's the thought that counts. . . 

Time Turner Shawl in Knit Picks Gloss Fingering.  This blue yarn was purchased with the intent of knitting up a Dr. Who related item but. . I decided that a Harry Potter related item that has something to do with time travel was good enough for me. . .

I LOVE THIS YARN!!

Broad Spiral Rib Socks... I know. . I cast these suckers on over 6 months ago. . but that baby blanket took up a lot of time AND I really only wanted to work on the sock during traveling and I haven't been doing a lot of traveling.

I have another WIP but it's a Christmas present for hubby so I can't go about flashing pictures of it. . but the yarn looks like this :)

Meanwhile In Manhattan

 First of all, it is the 5th of May AND it flooded here last night so. . . thought this would be appropriate:

 

Intersection of North Manhattan and Anderson via City of Manhattan Traffic Camera

 

Ditch near Tuttle Creek and Anderson Via Manhattan Mercury's twitter account

Ok, so the first one is just silly, but the other two pictures are from Manhattan Kansas on 5/4/15.  I left work around 3:45ish.  It had already started raining by then.  Glad I left when I did, otherwise I would have been driving through this. 

Another Dye Day

Started out as black but turned a bit red/purple

Same skein after a second dye bath, lowered pH

Not sure what to call this one, "The Green Fairy" or "Grandma Smith"

Started out with neon pink and blue.  I decided there was to much white so I made a dye bath if purple

Thanking of calling it "Tutti Fruiti"

This one is still drying. . .  So not a good picture of it yet.  Maybe next time.

All is quiet

I know, it's been a while since I've visited my lonely little blog. . .  Don't let the title fool you, it has not actually been quiet, but at the moment it is.

Let's see, where to pick this thing back up at. . oh yeah, de-stashing and re-organizing the craft supplies. . .

Well, I got rid of the table in my craft area, which was a big goal of mine.  I now have this lovely little bookshelf. . .

It's cute but not big enough, which I knew that when I got it.  The plan is to get another one just like it and put it side by side.  This photo was taken shortly after setting it up, but not filling it up.  I still have lots of yarn in plastic bins.

After I got the shelves, I started de-stashing again.  One cubby hole is just dishcloth cotton.  Most of the remaining space is taken up by knitting books and patterns.  Hopefully a secondary one will hold the rest of my yarn. . .  probably not, but we'll see.

My knitting books and other non-yarn related knitting supplies used to be stored elsewhere in the house, but recently we had to rearrange our living room to make room for more furniture.  So all of my knitting stuff is now stored in the bedroom.  I'm a little sad by this, because I have less space (even through the de-stashings and general crafts supply give away items) but I can't be sad for long because the furniture we made room for was an upright piano. 

It belonged to my husbands grandmother.  She recently moved into an apartment so most of her furniture has been given to other family members.  But she specifically wanted my husband to have her piano.  And I'm very happy to have it even if that means I have less space.  My husband (for those of you reading this that don't know) is a jazz musician and teaches private guitar lessons.  He's played piano since he was a kid.  It's nice to knit and listen to him practicing. 

A little bit of history, Husband's Grandma told me that she bought the piano when her husband died.  That with out that piano, she wouldn't have moved on with her life.  She said that she would stay up well past midnight playing, because playing piano felt better then crying.  I told her that I'd take really good care of it.  

<3 H U G S <3

Once we got the piano in the house, I decided that we needed a nice knitted table runner to go on top of it.  I don't have a clue what pattern I want but I did find the right yarn.

I got this yarn at The Shivering Sheep in Abilene Ks.  It's Overberg by Fleece Artist.  The color is called "smoke" but it looks more like gray yarn that someone spilled coffee on.  And I LOVE coffee and yarn so. . it just seemed kinda perfect. 

In other news: Unwind

During my little blogging hiatus, Manhattan Ks got a new Yarn Store!

Unwind, a Yarn Store Without All the Tangles

I went on opening weekend and got some of this:

Knit One Crochet Two Elfin Tweed

I already had six skeins of Cara Cinnamon at home and I thought these colors would make a good Color Affection Shawl but after getting my knitting groups opinion, I've decided that these colors would do better as a sock weight sweater.  I probably have enough yarn to make two sweaters. . .

Craft stuff finds a new home

Talk about an emotional roller coaster.  Since my last post several exciting, but not necessary good things have happened.  First, the craft area is looking MUCH nicer.  My yarn and patterns are easier to access and the bedroom looks neat, tidy, and more comfortable. 

During my cleaning I decided that I didn't have the time or space to learn to sew, so there was no need for me to own TWO sewing machines.  One I gave one to a nice lady in my knitting group.  I told her that I'd take $25 or she could sew the ends into 25 WIP's.  She chose the non-monetary exchange and I'm loving it.  Wow, talk about killing two birds with one stone!  She has been dutifully working on the WIPs ever since, and each week I have several finished items that I can use as Christmas gifts. 

The other sewing macheine was given to a friend of mine from work.  She is a very generous and sweet lady who does all kinds of sewing and quilting projects.  She's also the kind of lady at work where everyone sees her as some sort of motherly figure.  You do what she says, because breaking her heart would hurt way to much.  Over this last summer she fell in the freezer at work (I work at a very large grocery store) and hurt her shoulder, arm, and hand.  So she's been limited on what she can do at work.  Despite her injuries, almost every day, she can be found sitting in the break room during lunch, hand sewing or cutting out bits of fabric for her Christmas gifts this year.  She is determined to get them done regardless of how much it hurts to use her injured hand, arm, and shoulder.  One day we started talking about sewing and she told me that when the electricity goes out during a storm, she uses her incredibly old, non electric sewing machine.  But that her current electric was having issues so she's been using the old non electric one more often.  So I offered her my other sewing machine for free.  It will save me space and I know that she will love and care for that machine.  Also, I know that it will be put to good use, where at my house, it was under the craft table collecting dust. 

Second amazing thing that happened over the past few months is that my husband found an awesome house for us!  Three bedroom, two bath, unfinished basement, wood floors, garage. . .  All the things we were looking for.  Most exciting thing for me is being able to put my craft stuff in it's very on room.  I'm also pretty excited about having a basement for storage.  We currently have a shed for storage, and nasty little things like bugs, bees, and muddobbers like to live in the shed.  So we don't use it for anything other then gardening supplies.  It's a rental house, so the bad news is that it's available for move in on Jan 2.  That will give us less then a month to pay the deposit, first months rent, and the pet deposit to ensure that the house was ours, AND less then a month to pack up our current home.  So, my amazing family helped out with the needed funds and I started bringing home large boxes from work and diligently packing up all the non-necessities.  Books, nick-knacks, pictures and artwork were taken down. . .  Lego displays were taken apart and packed. . .  Then the rental agent emailed us, telling us that they were denying us. 

Since then I have had friends and coworkers come to me with horror stories about this rental agent.  We are so thankful that we didn't get the house based off of the stories that I've heard.  My opinion of them didn't improve when I realized that they had actually declined us the same day we submitted our paperwork, but didn't bother telling us until all three checks I wrote them had cleared the bank.  Then they waited over a week before reimbursing us.  Really?  If we had been looking at multiple locations, holding on to that money would have kept us from securing another place.  And if they knew they were going to deny us, why bother even cashing the checks in the first place?  Why didn't they just return them to me?  

So I've been spending what little free time I have unpacking the boxes that had taken over the house and trying to finish Christmas knitting.  Besides not having to deal with a bad rental agency, the other bit of silver lining is that when I was in "we're moving" mode, I threw out so much stuff.  Our new goal is to look for a place that will be ready for us this summer.  Lets hope the "we're moving", lets throw stuff away feelings don't go away anytime soon.