Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Any suggestions for a title would be welcome

Where to begin, where to begin...

Well, I guess I could begin with the Dr. Fish pedicure I got this weekend. More and more, spas are getting away from "shaving" your feet and instead they scrub at them with a pumice. Now, I don't know about your feet, but even if they spent the entire day scrubbing away, they ain't gonna make a dent on mine. I've been going barefoot at every opportunity since I came out of the womb and my feet are living proof of that lifestyle. So, if I can't find a place that shaves the calluses off, well then...I'll just have to get some fish to nibble the calluses off. Electric

Yes - it's very weird. Yes - it tickles like hell. But my feet were pretty smooth at the end of the appointment. But if you think I'm weird - apparently when the fish get too mature, it's too uncomfortable for the average person to sit there while they dine on your piggies - so the owner of the spa takes the more mature fish home, puts them in a tub - and - you guessed it - immerses her entire body in the tub. Puts a whole new spin on "I'll have the fish, please" doesn't it?

In addition to feeding the fish, I've been very productive lately. Not only am I sticking to my self-enforced yarn diet, I've decided I won't start anything new until I've finished at least 4 UFO's.

The first thing I finished is the Jester Sweater made with Fiesta Ballet in Onyx colorway. It was a LOT of stockinette stitch (yawn), but at least that's easy to knit while watching TV.

In fact, the only interesting part was the edging.I'm pretty pleased with it. The neck is a little higher than I'm used to and the sleeves have some seaming flaws, but otherwise, it seamed up easily and fits nicely.

The next thing I FINALLY seamed up is the Sideways Striped Pullover - knit in various colors of Filatura Di Crosa Print.

I wan't in a huge hurry to seam this up since I deliberately made it a size too small in order to try to force myself to lose weight to get into it - and I still haven't lost enough. At least I'm on a downward pattern now - instead of the steady plateau I've been on for the past year, but I digress. I did try this on, and it definitely needs to wait til I've lost 10lbs, but other than the neck, which I would have made deeper, I'm really happy with the way this turned out - and the sleeves went in great - in fact, the entire seaming went well.

So, now I'm trying to finish up the Berocco Suede jacket - a process slowed by the fact that I completely ripped it and started it again. In this blog post, I mentioned that I was a little worried about how this would look finished, since it knits up striped - and sure enough, I realized very shortly after I started the right front panel that it was going to look crappy. So, I ripped out the back and changed the pattern so that I could at least knit the body all in one piece. I'm at the sleeve opening right now - which means working three balls of yarn at once - and trying to keep them somewhat on the same color - but the sleeve will disrupt that ever so slightly anyway. It will be interesting to see how this jacket finishes. It may go to charity shortly after setting in the sleeves.

That just leaves the Beachcomber Tunic as my fourth UFO - I've crocheted about two inches and then set it aside - I have to pay attention too much when I crochet - which is hard to do while watching Lost - or whatever. And the yarn is very splitty -not the best kind of yarn to learn a new technique on.

So, yeah, I'm doing really well at this whole "finish 4 UFO's" resolution...for now. I just got my Socks That Rock sock of the month yarn (No, that DOESN'T count as breaking the yarn diet, thank you very much!) and it's a beaded sock project - how am I supposed to resist starting that right away, I ask you?!

So, that's how I've been spending my time lately.

A few more fun notes - it's snowing right now! Woo Hoo!! We've already got about an inch and it's still coming down. I'm voting for 12" and no relief so we can chill in the house all week long.


And finally, the SigO saw this while out running errands and thought we'd all get a kick out of it.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Happy New Year

Here's hoping everyone had a wonderful holiday and reveled in the New Year's celebrations.

The SigO and I celebrated the holidays in the Adirondacks, in Chestertown, NY . We stayed in a nice little place called Friends Lake Inn, which had nice rooms, friendly people, good food and great drinks. We arrived Tue, 12/30 at about 3PM and immediately strapped on our snow shoes and went out to check out the trails.
We mostly stayed on groomed trails that first day, since our daylight was limited, but the next day we headed out on some unexplored trails and had a great time trekking through the trackless snow.
Even still, our time was limited, since we were actually up in the mountains for a XC ski trip and we had a lesson scheduled at 1:30. We were pretty surprised when Paul, our waiter from the night before, showed up to give us lessons.
Everyone in that Inn wore multiple hats. Turns out, Paul is a huge telemark skier, marathon runner, off-road biker, all round super-athlete. He really enjoyed teaching the SigO - no surprise -the SigO doesn't spring a gasket if he doesn't perfect a new move on the very first try. Not that anyone you know is like that. Suffice it to say, he picked it up much faster than I did the first time I went XC skiing.

So, to recap, it's 12/31/2008 and we went snow shoeing for about 2.5hrs first thing in the morning, then skiing for another 2.5hrs in the afternoon. But of course, we're in great shape, and had no problems partying the New Year in. Yeah, I'm lying. We went to dinner, had a five-course meal with wine pairings, then went upstairs and went to bed - at 8:30. We were so tired we didn't even go skiing the next day either. We hung out and I let the SigO beat me at Billiards and then Backgammon a few times. In our defense, it was 10 degrees outside and he didn't really have good clothes for such severe cold, so we also went to an Eddie Bauer outlet and got him some warm clothes.
Bundled up in layers the next day, we got out for one last excursion, but the snow had iced up and it just wasn't as much fun skiing as the first day, so we called it quits and headed home, where we sat, holed up in front of the TV for the rest of the weekend.
For the record, I didn't pick up my knitting once the whole time we were in the mountains. Which is pretty funny, since, as usual, I was 100% under the whole "time will stand still while I'm on vacation and I'll be able to work on all three of these projects I brought" delusion.
I have finished all the knitting to be done on the Jester sweater and it is now in the same place as the sideways stripe sweater - waiting for finishing. Seriously - someone needs to start a business finishing people's knitting. They have people to quilt your quilt tops for you - it's not like this is a new idea!
Maybe that can be my New Year's resolution - to finish all the knitting I start.
Belly Laugh
LMAO just thinking about it!