Flowing River Shawl from Goddess Knits

[photopress:Picture_001.jpg,thumb,pp_image] Before Blocking

[photopress:Picture_044.jpg,thumb,pp_image] Blocking

[photopress:Picture_048.jpg,thumb,pp_image] After Blocking

[photopress:Picture_049.jpg,thumb,pp_image] Close up

I loved making this shawl and I love the pattern. The yarn was handdyed by Kae. I can’t believe I actually finished something!

I have decided that I’m tired of being overweight. I’m tired of being achy all the time.  I’m tired of being tired.  I found the free online diet (lifestyle change really) website called SparkPeople and I’m going to give it a shot.

One of my Daily Fast Break Goals is to journal 1 time a day. So..guess what? You get to hear it. I will probably include it in other posts so as not to bore people to tears about how fat I am *whine whine whine*.

If you’d like to join me over there, feel free. It’s all free (from what I can tell so far) and looks to be pretty good. Even the exercises it’s given me (gasp..did I say the E word??) seem to be not so bad.

Ok..so my goals

Short term:

Drink 8 -8 oz glasses of water a day, go for a walk, and write in a journal

Longer term:

Lose 40 lbs by my birthday  (9/16/07)

consume between 1200 and 1550 calories a day

burn 650 calories a day

Sounds reasonable eh?

In knitting news, I’m nearly 1/2 through the final border on the Flowing River shawl, I finished one Monkey sock and started the second one, I am 3 balls of yarn into a Tempting (from knitty) sweater for myself, and I’m 1/2 done with the foot of my stocking. I’ll see if I can get the camera to work and post some photos later this week.

 ”Gloom, despair and agony on me
Deep, dark depression
Excessive misery
If it weren’t for bad luck
I’d have no luck at all
Gloom, despair and agony on me”*

So… BikerChick and I went to the spinning day yesterday at Rosepath Weaving in Lindale. We headed west about 9:30 am and when we were about 1/2 way there I saw some small white flecks hitting the windshield. I thought…NOO…can’t be snow. We went a bit further and it became obvious that it was snowing. SNOWING…. IN APRIL…IN TEXAS. Yes..we were quite incredulous about the whole thing, but since it was above freezing and nothing was sticking we went on. We got to Lindale and arrived at the shop and were greeted warmly as usual. We visit for a bit and I go outside to the truck to get my wheel. I’m carrying my wheel and I step up over the curb and all of a sudden I feel myself falling. I really don’t know what happened, but I know I tried to toss my wheel out of the way so that I wouldn’t fall on it and maybe it would land safely in the soft bushes to my right. No such luck. I was tangled up in my wheel and my bag of fiber and stuff that I was also carrying.

I land..I hear some crunching sounds. I hit my chin on something and hit my head on the sidewalk. I rolled over onto my back so I didn’t have to look at my wheel. Apparently no one in the store saw me fall (thank the Gods…how embarassing), but someone looked out and saw me laying on my back. They came outside and I said “I’m ok..I’m just not looking at my wheel.” Michelle, the wonderful woman I bought my wheel from, snatched up my broken baby from the sidewalk and whisked it away into the shop and hid it in a closet. I’ve yet to see the damage. She told me she’d be wheel doctor and fix it for me. Others that were there told me that the wheel part wasn’t broken, but other parts were. I just hope it can be fixed. I left the wheel in Michelle’s capable hands and told her to call me and let me know what she needed to order to fix it and I’d bring her a check.

*sigh*

I think maybe I did hit my head, because I was all out of sorts the rest of the afternoon and I was a bit anti-social. Angela and Regina (from the LSSK mailing list – do you have a blog?) was there along with some other people and I am sorry that I wasn’t more sociable.

One good note..I got to spin on the new Kromski Sonata and that was fun, but not the same as my wonderful Prelude. The shop had goody bags for those that were present and I won a free Rosepath T-shirt! Woot! We had good food and chocolate cake since it was the owner’s birthday as well.

Check BikerChick’s blog later for photos of the snow and the many assrags she’s been making as well as details of her yarn purchases yesterday.

Maybe my luck will change soon.

*Yes..I grew up watching HeeHaw

So here is more stuff.  When I went to Gulf War over spring break, I took a class on bobbin lace. I had a blast and now I want to do more. Here are my two (very feeble) attempts at bobbin lace. Be Kind.

This is two patterns (whole cloth and I forget the other) done in pearle cotton.

This is a really bad pattern done with linen thread. I was getting tired by the time we got to this piece and then I ran out of time, so it’s not so great. The lady that taught the class has a website, Lacemaker and I hope she comes back to teach again next year. I can sure use A LOT more hands on instruction.

I did a bit of weaving while I was gone also.

Since I’ve been knitting stockings, I figured I needed garters too, so these are two garters (one for each leg). So far I’ve been tying them around my leg, but I think I want to find some small buckles and sew them on the end, maybe something like a watch buckle.

And finally, Wednesday my history class went on a field trip to Oakwood Cemetery in Tyler, Texas. We did tombstone rubbings and some investigation and we’ll summarize our findings next week when we meet again.

I took quite a few pictures, but here’s a couple of my favorites.

There’s a bunch more photos here for those that are curious.

In other news, BOTH of my computers (laptop and PC) are now dead so I’m only able to get online at my moms or at school so postings may be slow, and if I don’t get to check my email as much as I’d like. Hopefully things will be remedied before too long and I’ll be back in working order.

I have actually been knitting some.

Go figure..a sock from tofutsies yarn…ILOVE LOVE LOVE IT. I will use this yarn more in the future. This is another sock, kind of. Its a stocking made from THIS pattern. I started this pattern the day before I left for spring break and knit all the way there and some while I was there. At the point the photo was taken I was to the point where I would be starting the clocks at the ankles. I’m now done with the decreases and I’m almost ready to start the heel. I’m using mercerized cotton yarn to test the pattern, but I’m going to be on the look out for some silk to make another pair once I’m done with these.

We spent the weekend down near Canyon Lake at an SCA event. I had to stop on the way back and take photos of the boys with the bluebonnets. (they look thrilled don’t they??) You can see a couple more photos here.

Where we were staying this weekend was near the Guadalupe River, there was a creek that ran through the camping area and I wandered down before we left yesterday to take a couple of photos.

You want to know what’s sad? The owners have sold this land to developers and they are going to be building condos on it. What a shame. It’s really pretty down there. (more photos here)

I’d better get to hopping and get some laundry done. More later including the bobbin lace I learned at Gulf War.

(ps..more photos from my weekend can be viewed here and theres a couple of videos here.)