A LOT Accomplished!

So, I know it's been a few days since I've been in the blogging world, but quite frankly I haven't had much time.  It's because I've been busy!  I even have some pictures to show for it!

I decided to join in on a Worldwide Shawl Exchange on Ravelry, where the goal was to create a shawl for someone else and send it by September 27, 2010.  You also receive a shawl from another person.  I have received my shawl, and it's gorgeous!! :)  And, this weekend, I finally finished the shawl for my partner and just blocked it tonight.  It will be on its way to New Zealand next week.  Here's a pic of the shawl I received, along with the goodies that came with it (yay, eye candy!!):

I decided to participate in the "Making Room SAL - Spin From the Bottom" Stash Down on the Spunky Club board on Ravelry.  The idea is to spin some of the oldest stuff in your stash and get it done before Rhinebeck.  I decided to finish whatever I have on the bobbins and choose a whole new pile of "older" fibers in my stash...one from just about every dyer.  So far, I've finished one skein, a 3-ply fingering/light sportweight spun from Hello Yarn.  It's Targhee wool in "Garland" colorway.  I'm soooo proud of this one!

And, here is the pile of the rest of the stuff I plan on spinning:

And probably the biggest accomplishment to date is that I started working with my personal trainer again.  She got me into these shakes called "Shakeology," where you replace 1 meal per day with shakes.  Along with that, you can do a 3-day cleanse, where basically you have 3 shakes per day and then a big salad for dinner with 4 oz. of lean meat.  I did that for the past 3 days, and I'm proud to say that in just 1 week, I have lost a total of 5.5 inches!!!!!! :-D  Hooray for jump-starting weight loss AND getting stronger all at the same time!  I'm excited to see the results continue and get back to the old me again! :)

Not quite daily

Well, 2 days into my self-imposed blog every day challenge, I miss one! Sheesh! Last night was too busy with the in-laws in town, and I couldn't post. Cest la vie! I'm posting today.

The good news is the in-laws are good, and we had fun visiting with them last night. Tonight the are making me a belated birthday dinner-crab legs, corn, some sort of salad, and German chocolate cake (my fave!!). Pretty excited! It won't be good for the diet, but one dinner won't be too bad.

More tomorrow...hopefully...

Something new

You are probably reading this going....2 blog posts in 2 days?  Is that even possible?  Melinda only updates her blog once every 6 months.  But, you are reading correctly, people!  It's another blog post.  I read on someone else's blog that they are challenging themselves to write a new blog post every day.  It happens to be a blog whose RSS feed I subscribe to.  So, I get an e-mail every day with the new blog post.  I really love reading a little snippet into her life, thoughts, whatever.  And, I have been totally inspired now to do it myself.  I can't promise I'll be able to blog every single day, but I'm going to try to most days of the week.  If you're curious who's blog I've been reading, it's The Harveyville Project by Nikol Lohr.  She is the creator of Yarn School, which I have had the great fortune of attending this past spring and will be attending again this fall!

A bit about said Yarn School...if you love to spin, knit, play with fiber, it is definitely your mecca!  Of course, you can read all the details on the Harveyville website, but here's a brief overview:  It's 4 days of nothing but fibery goodness...learning about different breeds of sheep and other animals that provide spinning fiber, how to wash/prepare a fleece for spinning, hand carding, drum carding, spinning (if you don't know how), dyeing wool, new spinning techniques you may not have considered (art yarns), etc., etc., etc.  It is set in an old rural school building, and you live right there at the school.  The classrooms have been converted into bedrooms.  Meals are served family style, and all the food is homemade with locally grown veggies, etc.  In a word, Yarn School is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  I'm super excited to get to go twice in one year, learn new techniques, meet new friends, and just have a grand time! :)

Other than that, I've been doing well with my food/exercise this week.  I'm proud to say that I'm keeping up!  My in-laws are coming in tomorrow, and on Friday, they plan on making me a belated "birthday dinner."  That will probably blow the calories for that day, but no matter...a girl is allowed a bit of freedom.  My husband also has plans of taking all of us to a fancy restaurant on Saturday that serves at least small portions but very rich food.  So, for a couple of dinners I probably won't be as on the ball as I have been, but believe you me, I will be jumping right back on that wagon.  Hopefully, I'll start seeing results sooner rather than later...I'm committed now! ;)

At any rate, I should get going for now...  Hubby just walked in the door with the healthy dinner for tonight...sushi!  More tomorrow (hopefully...if I can steal a moment away from the in-laws)...

And so it begins...

So, back in March, I started seeing an endocrinologist due to borderline thyroid issues.  After going through a lengthy process of being taken off of all medications, waiting, having more blood work done, etc., there is finally a diagnosis...5 months later.  A reason for being soooo tired for the last 2 years.  A reason for unexplained weight gain of over 50 lbs. in 2 1/2 years (yes, you read that correctly...5-0.  A reason why I didn't feel like me!  That reason is called Hashimoto's thyroiditis.  It is an autoimmune disease, where basically my immune system attacks my thyroid and causes hypothyroidism.  Hypothyroidism is when your thyroid doesn't produce enough thyroid hormone.  It causes (among other things):  fatigue, depression, weight gain, constipation, constantly being cold, and a whole host of other unpleasantness.

It came on very slowly for me.  I suspect that this has been going on for years now because it's always been difficult for me to lose weight, and I've always gained it back in lightening speed.  I got to the point where I felt like if I looked at a piece of cake, I'd gain 5 lbs.  Can you even imagine?

Hashimoto's is very treatable, although uncureable.  Basically, I will need to be on some sort of thyroid hormone replacement therapy for my entire life.  Unfortunately, identifying the best treatment can be a lengthy process (it's taken 2 yrs for me to get here!).  However, I'm proud to say that I think my endocrinologist has found what will work for me.  Now, we are to the tweaking the doseage stage to get me to a point where I can lose the weight I've gained relatively easily and feel like the vibrant 29 year old I should be.

I started my new thyroid treatment back in June, and I feel like a totally different person now!  I feel like the old me again!  The me I used to be in college.  I have energy to clean my house and spend time with my husband while I'm awake.  I have energy to write this blog post!  It's all really amazing!  As I mentioned, I went to the doctor last week, and he is now tweaking my dose because I still gained some weight.  Hopefully, the dose will get straightened out in the next 6 weeks.

The other thing I'm doing is proactively trying to lose weight.  I am working with a personal trainer/nutritionist to eat healthier and exercise.  She has given me a calendar of what to do each day for my workouts, so I don't have to think too much.  I also downloaded an app called "My Fitness Pal."  It's free on iTunes, and I can track my food, workouts, weight loss, and inches lost all from my phone!

I am well on my way to getting healthy and really feeling and looking like my old self again!  I will report back as this journey continues...

Olympic Sports I Could Do

Disclaimer:  After reading my friend Rhonda's blog, I've decided that I need to have more funny posts in my blog and also write about some of the things that cross my mind instead of purely fibery endeavors.  This is a first attempt.  I can't promise that it's funny, but I do promise that it's some thoughts ;)

So, I've been enjoying watching the Winter Olympics and all, but after watching them several times over the last week or so, I've decided that there are other things that should be considered Olympic sports. Since I'm not the most sports-oriented person, these are (I'm convinced) the only things I could win a gold medal in.  Here is my list:

1. Knitting - How would one judge this?  How fast?  Most finished objects?  Or my personal favorite...most Cast on objects :)  Most cast on objects...I'm pretty sure I could win at that ;)
2. Vacuuming - I hate doing it, but if someone were to offer to give me a gold medal for fastest vacuum time, I could be convinced that it's a lovely thing to do and do it faster.
3. Hauling Crap While Climbing Stairs - hands down, I would have the gold medal here.  Our TV is located in our loft upstairs.  We are non-traditional and don't usually sit down at the dining room table for meals...we prefer in front of the TV.  Therefore, we must haul plates of food, drinks, knitting bag, etc. upstairs.  I usually only want to make one trip.  Therefore, I haul all of the above-stated items at one time.  My husband and cat are usually awestruck by this feat of trying not to spill the drink or food or lose my fork.  Personally, I think it helps me burn off whatever calories I'm about to ingest by hauling more ;)
4. Hauling Groceries in the House - Right along with #3, I only want to make one trip from the car.  So...whenever I've gone grocery shopping, I try to take the entire load in one trip.  This means about 9 bags on each arm, the package of toilet paper being held only by my index finger in one hand (make a hole in the plastic for this and either a gallon of milk or case of Diet Coke in the other hand.  You think I'm exaggerating....actually, I'm not!

Umm..that's probably about it.  Signing out...your Hauling Crap While Climbing Stairs Gold Medalist...

It's been awhile!

I'm so bad about keeping up with my blog!  Ahhh well...what has happened since April??  I'll give the condensed version with some pics:

Spinning and knitting have over-taken our house, and hubby fed the frenzy by buying me a loom for my birthday in August.  So, I'm learning to weave too!

Here are some knitting/crocheting finished objects (FOs) over the last several months:

Baby Surprise Jacket for my brother and his wife (due Feb 2010), complete with Lego buttons

Beret in hobbledehoy handspun

Handspun socks, fiber from FLUFF Fibers, superwash merino, Tico

Koolhaas hat in Twisted Fiber Art Lotus, Warlock Evolution

Textured Shawl in Twisted Fiber Art Catnip, Netherfield Evolution

Kiila socks in Twisted Fiber Art Kabaam, Valkyrie Lightening

Handspun Mittens, fiber from Southern Cross Fibre, Polwarth, Hay Sunrise

And, of course, the pièce de résistance, a Girasole shawl for my mom for Christmas, made out of my handspun, fiber from Spunky Eclectic, superwash merino/tencel, Sherwood

Other than that, I have several projects on the needles, including a stocking, a sweater (or 2), socks, a scarf, and soon to be another large shawl.  I'm spinning away, as ever....learning new techniques and really enjoying all things fibery.

Life-wise, work is going well, and hubby is doing great.  We bought a new corvette in June and have been having fun with it ever since (well not now with the snow, but you get the point).  It's cyber metallic gray, and it's very fast and powerful!

Vacations in 2009 consisted of going to New England (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire) in May and Las Vegas in October.  Both were awesome in their own right, and we loved every minute of each vacation.  During the New England trip, I was especially excited about meeting Amy King (of Spunky Eclectic) and Adrian Bizilia (of Hello Yarn), arguably two of the most inspirational spinners/knitters out there.  In Vegas, we lived it up seeing shows and eating well, and I even came away with 2 pairs of Jimmy Choos and a pair of Stuart Weitzmans! :)  Yay shoes!

So, what kinds of resolutions have I made for 2010?

1. I'd like to give all of my lonely 1 sock pairs their mate this year by actually getting over second sock syndrome and finishing those.  I think I have 3-4 that need to be done.
2. I also want to make this afghan of my handspun yarn, which is going to be on its way soon...I already have the fiber!
3. At home, I'd like to get all of the closets in our house organized and simplify things by getting rid of that which we don't need.  I know there are things that we haven't looked at in 5 years in those closets.  No need to keep them!
4. I'm going to get a closet organizer system for our master closet as well.  We went to The Container Store over Christmas, and yeah, I'm pretty sure we need something like this, except a little smaller to fit our walk-in.  This means that I need to get honest with myself about clothing and shoes and what I actually need/wear (see #3).

Anyway, that's it for today.  Maybe I should add #5 to my list of keeping my blog better up-to-date.  Sometimes, I feel like no one is reading it, though! ;)

Off the needles, wheel, and body

This has been a highly productive couple of weeks in terms of knitting & spinning! First, I'll post some knitting projects, since I haven't really done that.


I finally finished the Fetching Mitts and Scarf for Rita at work. They came out beautiful, and she loved them, but I had no motivation for this project after the first couple of weeks. The mitts were easy and fast, but the scarf was slow, slow, slow! It was mostly 4x2 ribbing with a little bit of cabling at the ends. Rita is 6 feet tall, so yeah...that was a LONG scarf, and ribbing is SLOW. Ahh well, it's done! And, I can do my little foray into selfish knitting for the rest of 2009. Yippee!!

I finished these cute and funky socks (Opal Yarn) finally. I have second sock syndrome in the worst way. I make one sock and feel like I'm done with the project. Then, I have to wait until I'm no longer bored with the pattern to start the second one. There was at least 6 months between the 1st and 2nd socks here. Oh well...they're cute and fun!

I wasn't able to really get a great picture of this scarf, but here it is anyway. This is a scarf I made back in January but just got around to blocking this week. It's long and fat with fat yarn, lots of fringe and was made with US Size 19 needles. I felt like I was playing with the big crayons when I knit using those needles. I love how long and big and squishy this scarf is, and I can't wait to wear it this coming winter for some cozy warmth. The yarn is from Tochay's Farm Fibers and Yarn Emporium, but I bought it at a yarn store in Indianapolis after falling madly in love with it. It's a hand-dyed, handspun, super bulky yarn. Normally, I wouldn't pay what I did for 1 skein of yarn to make a scarf, but I just couldn't pass it up. I'm already thinking of getting another skein of this yarn next time I'm in Indianapolis.

And on to what's off the wheel! I have been busy spinning the fibers up for my handspun shawl. These are all Funky Carolina fibers and they are either merino/silk or merino. They are lovely! The first picture shows all of the fibers together, and the next three are the skeins I've already spun. After all of the skeins are spun, I will take another picture of all of them together and post it prior to knitting.
And now onto what's off the body. I have been on a weight loss kick since February. From the start, I had just under 45 lbs. to lose. I am happy to report that this week I hit a new milestone. I have a very large cat named Moose. He weighs 15 lbs. And, I can now officially say that I've lost a Moose! Only 2 Mooses to go! :) When I phrase it like that, it doesn't seem like the goal is that far away. And, it took me about 10 weeks to do it. I seem to be hitting my stride with weight loss though in the last couple of weeks, so I'm hoping the second 2 Mooses go a little faster. Yay! :)

Ok, off to work on dinner and start on some new socks!!