Cotton Bam Boo Tastic, and how the girls are a signal of weight loss to come

I called Woolcott and Company, my friendly yarn shop. I'd say my neighborhood yarn shop, but since the yarn for my pink cardigan was a vacation purchase in Cambridge, Mass... it's not my 'hood so much.

Not only did they still have more balls of yarn in the right color- it's even the right dye lot. Never one to turn down the quirky wonderfulness of fate, I've ordered two skeins which MUST BE more than enough. I probably only need half a skein, but these are not things you take lightly when you have to add this much fabric for the bust-line and still want to have 3/4 length sleeves. If I end up having way too much, I'm sure I could come up with some interesting uses for it. Cute little baby sweater tops the list (as an accent color, if not enough for a full little sweater or hat).

While the new yarn is wending its way to me, I've been re-working the dagnabbit sweater fronts. And this time they really are zooming. There's something to be said for re-work- at least it's easier!



It's funny what it takes to get a person to realize their real size. I'm making size C of this sweater, 39 and 3/8 inches around. And it looks to be fine, width-wise. And yet I needed to add significant space to accommodate my significant frontage. I know this- I know my bra size, and I know I'm not a tiny person. But it's still an awfully visceral way to be reminded of what I'm really like. It doesn't quite match up with my self-perception.

My general size is like that. I'm a great deal bigger overall than I can really comprehend. I'm getting it, though, and this has lead to some pretty big changes. I don't just have a gym membership, I go to the gym on a regular basis. And I'm working up to going on a more frequent regular basis. I started the Couch to 5k running plan, and just finished week 3 this evening. I walk home from work on occasion (it takes an hour and a half or so, with a big ole hill in the last half hour). I wear a pedometer and aim for 10,000 steps a day. I started doing crunches again, and other ab exercises, because my waist size has increased commensurate with my bust size. I have started cooking more, and especially cooking things that I can pack and take to work for lunch. Every lunch I bring with me saves me 8-10 dollars and ensures I have some notion of the nutritional content of what I'm eating. I also miss doing yoga, but haven't been brave enough to try any of the classes at my new gym. I do it at home sometimes, and hope to get more into it again soon.

I wish I could say all these changes were making a big impact- and I suppose they are helping. I gained 15 pounds after starting my new job, and when I began a new medication, and I've lost that excess weight already. But I have a long way to go, and it's incredibly important that I not get complacent. I may be the bounciest and flubbiest chick working out at my gym, but at least I'm there- and eventually, surely, more of the weight will come off. Maybe someday I won't need to alter my sweaters anymore, and I won't need as many skeins of yarn or as much time knitting to have beautiful hand-made tops that fit.

I'll keep you posted.

My very first knit-along

You may be aware that I'm knitting the Hanami shawl. I even have managed to post pictures of that work in progress- pretty pink! What you may not know is that Pink Lemon Twist, the designer of said shawl, has done two Mystery Stole knitalongs in the past. And I got notification that round 3 is about to begin. Having never joined a real knitalong before, and of course never a mystery knitalong, I was excited to sign up and check out this new and exciting thing. Here's the link to the group, in case you are interested in signing up: Yahoo Group for MS3. Essentially, she will send out clues, in PDF format, which include tips/charts/etc to creating an entirely new lace pattern. There is no way to know ahead of time how it will look- you just knit along for the ride! This sounds perfect to me. I should be able to keep up with the group, since it's only ever a few rows at a time and you have a week to complete them. Of course, if I don't keep up, nobody is going to knock down my door in disgust. Thus far, we have been told that the theme would work best with white or black laceweight yarn, and we can elect to use beads. I have a trillion beads left over from Hanami, so I plan to use those (clear with silver lining) and the Knit Picks Bare (Color Your Own) laceweight yarn. It's a completely natural color, and I already had one skein in my stash. I ordered another, assuming an undyed yarn should be approximately the same "dye lot" even after some time, and that brings the total cost of new yarn for this project to... 4 bucks. That's within my yarn diet rules! I also ordered a chart keeper from KnitPicks, because I have a hard time keeping track of the rows with my bad eyesight.

Yesterday I also picked up the new sock kit from the Sock Knitting Club at The Celtic Knot Yarn Shop in Ellicott City. This month's theme seems to be beachy- the yarn is a beautiful blue, and I got a nifty blue stitch marker. The sock pattern for this month is a little ankle sock, which should be a fun and fast knit. While I was there, Carole (the lovely shop owner) also sent me home with some donated fabulous pink ribbon yarn so I can knit a scarf for the SOS project. It's a great reason to knit, and of course I would not ever normally choose this yarn, or certainly wear it... so this way I get to knit with it, and pass it on. Not bad!

In other knitting related acquisitions, I ordered a few travel-sized vacuum bags. The kind that you can roll all the air out, making the contents into a tiny little package. I've decided that using these will help with stash management, and alleviate my fear of bugs getting into my wool. I also got a few Large size ZipLocks (they're huge! 3 gallon!) which I've already started using. I can fit two sweater projects in one bag- which is awesome and amazing.

Stay tuned- I've been working on a crocheted baby blanket, Brian's sweater (the back is DONE!), and the Manly Socks (one sock is DONE!). Piccies to come! For now, I'm off to WoolWinders, my other favorite LYS, to work on a baby owl sweater. Did I mention I have a really hard time with the yarn diet? At least this is a gift.