07.23.08
Posted in odds 'n ends, Crochet, knitting, wls at 3:55 pm by Shari
…. by 117 lbs.
Yep, I finally got a chance to stop by Dr. D’s office today to check it out. What a relief! The scales at home aren’t very reliable and haven’t done much shifting, so I was a little anxious about checking it out. I guess I felt it SHOULD be down some, because I found this week that I can wear the jumpers I bought just before surgery, and and am THIS CLOSE to wearing the denim jumpers I got in the stash from Mary. I’m so glad about the black jumpers because it gives me a little more variety for wearing to work. The bad thing is that the pair of jeans that I got out of the stash that was already big is WAY big now… gotta retire them already (I think it was almost 3 wks ago that I got them out).
The family picnic is coming soon. It will be a year since I saw most of the family except for Mom and Brian and his family. I was officially down 20 when I saw them at Christmas (I had lost some between mid-August and mid-October too, but we aren’t counting that). Don and family, Randy and family and Debby and Mike haven’t seen me, though, since before I made the decision to go for the surgery. Having had several people this week not recognize me, it’ll be interesting to see what their reactions are. 
I wish I’d be seeing Shaun at the same time, but I have to wait a little longer for that.
Speaking of Shaun - I’ve been kinda pre-occupied with what the weather is like down there. She assured me this morning that she’s far from the hurricane, but I know how wide the area of effect can be, so I’m not totally believing her. Between seeing radar maps online and remembering this is the child that assured me she’d be fine in France because “Everybody there speaks English” and later found herself lost for a full day in rural towns in northeast France where nearly nobody spoke or admitted to speaking English. Hopeful thinking? Trying to convince herself all is fine? I’ll keep my eye on the weather channel just the same.
One of the groups of gals that I sometimes spin with are getting together this evening. I guess they haven’t been meeting as often lately, and even when they do, it’s usually on an evening I work (oh, wait… isn’t that every evening?) During the summer, though, I don’t teach many Wednesdays, so I am free this time and I get to go. It’s been so long since I did any spinning that I’m going to take some crochet and/or knitting with me instead. Besides, it’s raining and I’d rather not drag my wheel in the rain to and from the car and houses.
I did get that purple and aqua spiral crochet headband started last night. Debated about what size hook to use and did 2 sample spirals. After consulting w/ Louise and Robin, we settled on the one done w/ the smaller hook so now it’s time to make the motifs. They look really nice so I can’t wait to have that headband done.
I also played with the spiral pattern in 3 colors of Vanna’s Choice and turned it into this water bottle cover (like I needed another one of those ) I did learn a bit about how much to increase as you move out from the center, and some of my motifs will need to be a little bigger than others, so that was a worthwhile exercise anyway.
So I guess it’s time to grab a quick bite to eat (how weird is it to have to remind myself that I have to eat rather than trying to hold back from eating all the time) and then head over to S’s house for some knitting/crochet/spinning fun.
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07.22.08
Posted in knitting at 5:21 pm by Shari
Not the greatest shots, but here’s some images of the headband I just finished up. FWIW, we’re going to teach this technique (the I-cord edging as well as adding beads) at the Skein Gang at the store on Friday evening.
The pattern starts w/ a length of E-cord to form a buttonhole. Stitches are picked up at the cast-on edge and then it’s worked as 2 side-by-side I-cords for a bit and increases done, adding beads as there are enough stitches for them to be added. At the half-way point, the patterning is reversed, ending with the side-by-side I-cord. A button is attached and finis.
As usual, I didn’t allow for the amount of stretch in the yarn/knitting, so I’ll need to adjust where the button is fixed soon to allow for that, but it’s been a hit so far with everyone that’s seen it.
Details:
Yarn: Lion Brand Microspun in purple - a fairly small amount
Beads - Cobalt Blue, 6/0, silver lined, square hole beads from Fire Mountain Gems approximately 205 if I counted and multiplied right.
I’ve used this concept many times before - it works great for purse/bag straps, bracelets and belts.
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07.17.08
Posted in daily life stuff, knitting, wls at 7:06 pm by Shari
I rode my bike again tonight. Chuck got the seat replaced a few days ago and I finally got out. My butt definitely doesn’t feel as bad as it did before
When he was putting on the seat, he also spent some time (as in a couple of hours) adjusting the derailleurs since it wasn’t adjusting gears right. Yeah, as if I have ever been able to do anything with gears. Sure, I understand the physics of the gears - ratios are something I use in spinning, afterall…. But applying that to knowing which way to shift which lever in which situations - not so much. Since I don’t know what I’m doing w/ the gears, even the little inclines on our road kill me. Apparently I was supposed to wait for him to get himself together before I actually rode the bike tonight, but impatient me, I went out right away. So, I managed to get about a mile in before I parked it again in front of the house. Another day I’ll get him on his bike while I’m on mine and ride side by side telling me what to switch when and maybe it’ll start to sink in.
Last night was a support group meeting which was pretty well attended. We had a speaker taking about exercise. I definitely didn’t do as he said tonight - that mile was less than 10 minutes for sure. I guess I should go out w/ the puppy and get some more steps for the day.
My purple Microspun and blue silver lined beads headband is nearly done. I had plans to finish that off today (and do the gauge swatch for the Vine Lace vest and maybe even a little knitting on the Matinee Swing jacket I started last February). Thanks to me screwing up a schedule of classes at work, though, I ended up running to work to teach while Chuck went alone to the doctor’s. I was looking forward to that knitting time too. Dr. Smith runs incredibly late all the time, so you can count on having time then to do stuff. Last time I took my computer and did most of the work for a website I was creating.
I saw the cutest polymer sheep today. Check it out near the bottom of the 7/17 post on the Mason-Dixon Knitting blog.
Time to go walking…. hey Amber…
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07.10.08
Posted in odds 'n ends at 8:17 am by Shari
I woke up today to an email from my hosting provider asking for my blog admin password - they thought there was a plug-in installed that was causing problems. I had a panic, opened another browser that I never blog from and attempted to figure it out. Fortunately I was able to guess it pretty quickly and dutifully sent it along. Then it occurred to me that *I* could probably check what *they* were checking, so I did. there were 3 activated and none were familiar to me - I could see WHY I’d want them activated, but didn’t recall doing it. Anyway - they are deactivated and voila, comments now work! Yippee!
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07.09.08
Posted in odds 'n ends, knitting, wls at 8:27 pm by Shari
From
to 
in just over a year
Seeing this picture is what really drove home to me a few weeks ago that I really have lost some weight
If you’ve visited before, you may notice that I’ve done a little tidying of the page. I am using a template from Wordpress, but I updated it to make it a little wider and made some of the images not overlap like they did. Still need to work on the comments/individual post pages and I called tech support tonight to find out why nobody can leave a comment on the blog. Hopefully that’ll get worked out soon.
And, I’m on a roll making headbands. The first one was quickly crocheted and you can almost see it above (along with the yarn tail I didn’t work in and is trailing over my left shoulder). Since then I knitted this one from leftover Moda Dea Sassy stripes yarn and did another one from some leftover Regia sock yarn from this sock. The first 2 are joined with elastic, not caring that it shows since it’s hidden by my hair. The next one is purple Microspun and blue glass beads, and is started with a knitted I-cord buttonhole so that it will be more “finished” in the end. The next one in my queue is will hopefully be purple and turquoise Microspun, crocheted in spirals in graduated styles - a motif from 201 Crochet Motifs, Blocks Patterns and Ideas (look at the cover - it’s done in black and white at the top)
I’m way overdue on going to bed. I had a very short night last night and promised myself I’d get to bed early tonight… and now it’s very nearly midnight - UGH!
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07.04.08
Posted in daily life stuff at 10:09 pm by Shari
We went on a nature hike today at Mendon Ponds. It was supposed to be a 2 mile walk, but we took an “unnamed trail” at one point, ie, we missed a turn, and it took us a bit further.
Part of the walk was around the edges of this meadow, and the one on the other side of the hedges from there… and another on the hill coming down toward these meadows.
Along the way we saw lots of flowers and butterflies… LOTS of butterflies and some of them seemed to be making more butterflies We couldn’t understand why they were staying so still with 2 people and a dog right there…. they were otherwise occupied.
We also saw a number of deer. Strangely enough, Amber, who sees EVERYTHING in the dark at home, didn’t see them even when one was right on the trail ahead. She was SO tired - poor puppy. At one point, there was one maybe 20 yds away, and she was just as docile as could be. The coonhound in her didn’t seem to pick up their scent either - even when we walked inches from several recently occupied deer beds.
I’m not much into all the gear, but Chuck, inveterate backpacker, had to bring along the lumbar pack, daypack and walking stick. Apparently he had switched up the belt buckles on the lumbar pack, so he ended up wearing the daypack (and finding the buckles IN one of the packs when we got home).
We made sure to bring along refreshment for Amber too, but her preference was to find shade at EVERY opportunity and relax.
The whole thing was great. It was a lot more work walking through the thigh high grasses, and “gently rolling” was a little steeper than I expected, but not bad. I dreaded the last hill we had to walk up, but then a deer jumped out in front of me, I handed the leash to Chuck and I was off up the hill to try to get some more pics. All in all - not a bad day.
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07.02.08
Posted in daily life stuff, Crochet at 8:23 pm by Shari
but I thought I’d break down and send a pic out to my daughter so she can see a little of what I’m looking like.
So here it is! I started, just this evening, to try to pull my hair back. I mentioned in my last post that I crocheted a little headband and finally got some elastic to finish it off and test the plan. It definitely seems to be working so far, so now I will play with making a few different ones for some variety. I’m barely giving people a chance to get used to the idea that I’m putting on makeup, and now a change in the hair too. I think this is a little less drastic (and cheaper) than a perm, which was another option that I was considering.
We went out for a walk tonight - Chuck included… about 3 miles - the longest walk so far. Amber and I got to show off to daddy how well she’s trained now to come to me when I say “Amber, car”. Daddy still needs some practice at making it work for him, but he did pretty well. Amber and I just have a lot more practice.
Once I got home and google mapped the walk, I found out that we were less than 1/2 mile from the lake. It’s definitely in the very near future to walk to the lake, let Amber splash a bit, find a place to sit for a few and then head back home. And on the heels of that, walking the 5 mile block will be another few steps away. We also found that there’s a farm up there with a fruit stand that is a possibility for getting fresh from the farm fruit. I can’t wait til part of my walks is bringing produce home with us
I haven’t given up on the bike - I got a new seat that I need to have Chuck install for me. I’m not quite ready to sit on it for another day or two though.
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