Thursday, March 25, 2010

randomness

I'm officially on Spring Break! Woo hoo! I love my job, but how nice is it to have a week and a day off?? Love it. I'll be taking Faith out to breakfast in the morning then dropping her at school.

Randomly on my mind this week:
:: I'm getting into knitting so much since I started knitting cotton washcloths. They are so fun! I do want to progress to other things too, though. I have the pattern and yarn for this shawl but am having trouble getting started. So tomorrow on my free day I'm heading down to the yarn store to ask for some help or to book another lesson. I'm determined to make that shawl! (It has a lot of purling and I think that is my problem . . .)
:: I've been dieting for the last couple weeks and the weight is not melting off as magically as I'd hoped! I do feel good and healthy, though, so I'm pressing on. Maybe now that I'm older it's just going to be harder (they say the metabolism slows down as we age . . . so sad). Here's my best dieting tip: healthy, homemade soup for lunch, followed by some cut-up fresh pineapple for "dessert." So simple, satisfying, and low-cal.
:: Faith and I "played hooky" Sunday night from the usual end-of-the-weekend chores to drive down to Ventura and check out the Liberty of London for Target line. It's hard to find convenient pockets of time for her and I to do such things (especially since I commute to my job so we're not in close proximity after school) so we just decided to make a time. We had fun, we liked the prints, and we bought a few things. Rainer went along too, and was very funny the way he crossed his arms and scowled in the cart (but did not throw a tantrum). He was not impressed by Liberty of London one bit!
:: Took Jacob out for a smoothie today, just as I did with him on Thursday afternoons all through his high school years. Afterwards, we browsed at Barnes and Noble. I noticed some interesting cookbooks. I wonder if I had this one and this one if I could part with my stacks and stacks of Everyday Food magazines. It would certainly reduce some of my paper clutter! I might put those on my wishlist for future.

Some awesome thoughts here on A Friend to Knit With. Good stuff.

Happy Spring Break!

8 comments:

FrontierDreams said...

That shawl is beautiful. I, too, am trying to lose some weight, and it just isn't coming off as quickly as it used to :(

Rain said...

I like the look of that shawl, especially as it looks like it only uses one skein. : )
I just finished knitting my first "real" project (i.e. not a scarf or washcloth) and have caught the knitting bug for real. But the price of nice yarn-yikes! The next project I want to knit is a vest for my hubby but it needs many skeins...and so I cast on for another cotton washcloth. Enjoy your spring break!

Mary Beth said...

Nicole--I'm glad you can identify!
Rain--yes, it's not an inexpensive hobby, for sure. Although I guess it depends on how fast you knit! Congrats on your first "real" knitting accomplishment!

Anonymous said...

enjoy your spring break!!

Andrea said...

I just finished that same shawl a couple of weeks ago (I started it in September). It was my first time working with such small yarn/needles so it took some getting used to (and it took me about six inches of knitting to figure out I was working from the top down rather than the bottom up! Duh.). But once I got into the rhythm I loved knitting it so much I didn't want to put it down (except about a two month break while I made Christmas presents instead). Now I'm starting a second one! You might consider starting out with a garter stitch section instead of a stockinette section (just switch the order) so you don't have to do any purling until you've gotten used to the yarn, needles, yarnovers, etc. Here's my finished product: http://remainsofday.blogspot.com/2010/03/finished.html

Mary Beth said...

Thank you, Andrea! I'm checking out your link right now!

Anonymous said...

It's so much fun picking out yarn, and I'd love to make something as colorful as that shawl!

I was thinking of you yesterday because I so enjoyed your sewing tips for beginners, so I'm posting about my experience so far as a beginning knitter.

And, I just adore pineapple as a treat--it always tastes decadent to me.

Mary Beth said...

learningasigo--a fellow pineapple lover--hooray!