You Spin Me Right Round, Baby, Right Round!

As you might imagine, I was excited to collect my spinning wheel on Sunday. We met the seller at the Hartshead Moor services on the M62 – about an hour from my house.
After we dropped off another wheel for another knitter, we headed directly home so that I could get set up and spinning!

Ashford Traveller, rather nice!

After a short while, I was merrily spinning!

I must sit up straight - that explains why my back aches

Despite creating some waste from my practice…

A bit of a mess...

I managed to create 80g of this chunky-ish yarn-like stuff.

"Yarn"!

looking back, it’s not that much worse than my first spindle spun yarn, so I have hope!

My first spindle spun yarn, also very thick and thin, and a lot less of it! (about 15g)

I’ve started on some yellow fluff now; I had a total of five plain coloured Corriedale tops to begin on. I’m thinking about spinning a bobbin each of the yellow and green and then plying them together.

I’m enjoying my wheel, and I’m looking forward to the experimentation that I plan to do. However, since I spun about 100g of fibre in about 3 hours (I don’t know if that’s fast or not, but I’m not worried about that) then I reckon I might need to buy more fibre!
Ok, maybe I’ll use what I have first.
Maybe.

Things I did last night

1. Eat - done! We had a lovely spaghetti bolognaise, and I also made a garlic-mussel-pasta for lunch today.
2. Build Shelf - done! Though I had to enlist my fiancé’s help – it was a 2 person job.
3. Make Invitations – done! Though FH made most of them, I just helped with the last bit of sticking.
4. Clean up – done! Well, mostly.
5. Reorganise craft items – done! I now know where everything is, and what’s what. My yarn stash is nicely organised into my three-drawer chest, my fabric is in boxes under the desk, my spinning stuff is now available including a nice tidy box downstairs, and the books are shelved!

So, I thought that as part of this process it might be fun to flash my stash! I’ve put the partial balls and items to be frogged in a separate location, they will return to the stash when they have been dealt with. What you see here is everything else. The far left is laceweight, then sock / 4ply, then DK, then Aran, then a bit of chunky on the far right.

 

My Stash in all its glory!

 

I think it’s a good idea to get all the stash out every once in a while. It has several benefits. One of them is that you can check for nasties – things that you wouldn’t want to find lurking in your yarn, but that would like to be lurking in your yarn given the chance. You can see that all the yarn shown here is in plastic freezer bags. I know these aren’t 100% moth proof (or airtight) but they do make it hard for moth larvae migration, reducing the chances of losing everything.

 

Another good reason for getting out the stash like this is to prevent you from forgetting what you have! I have quite a lot of yarn (though by some comparisons it’s a small stash!) and I have been known to buy yarn for a project which I already had yarn for, or not to buy bargain yarn because I thought I already had some yarn of that sort. Always check!

 

I’ve put the chunky and aran/worsted yarn in the bottom of the chest, the DK and Lace in the middle drawer, and the sock/4ply has a drawer all to itself.

 

I’m pretty pleased with the new shelf too. As predicted it is a different colour, and it’s also a different size! However, the new boxes fit on the shelves, and I’ve been able to fit all my craft books, all the DIY books and all the fitness books onto the shelves, as well as a whole bunch of now-tidy craft stuff!

 

Nice and Tidy

 

 

 

 

Things I intend to do tonight

Isn’t it always handy to have a checklist? And I do like lists…

1. Eat
2. Build Shelf
3. Make Invitations
4. Clean up
5. Reorganise craft items

I actually started with an 18 item list, but I realised that wasn’t very interesting, so I’ve kept that separate and I’ll use that for myself!

 

I’ve bought a new shelf for the craft room. It’s the same as the shelf I already own (and although I bought the same colour, I bet it isn’t) which I use to store my craft books and some crafty items like cardstock. It’s been a very useful shelf, and surprisingly sturdy for a cheap shelf.

 

This desire to tidy up is in part driven by the prospect of the spinning wheel. While the wheel itself will probably be downstairs (certainly while I’m using it) I can’t take over the whole house with the fluff that goes with it! (Well…)

 

I’m hopeful that the lovely fibre I bought earlier in the week will have arrived at my house today. I’m torn between the desire to practice spinning and not “waste” nice fibre and the desire to produce something I could use to make something. In any case, the fibre needs a home while I’m spinning the other fibre (or knitting, crocheting, dying, sewing…)

 

Also, I want to find the books on spinning that I have already bought, so that I can be prepared when I settle in with the wheel at home.

 

I might take the opportunity to flash my stash, and my craft room – though I suspect that the camera might be flat!

Whoops!

I have agreed to buy a spinning wheel.


Perhaps I should start at the beginning?

Back in December I was able to visit the Cottenham Spinners to talk to some of the folks there about their wheels. I got some nice advice and even got to have a go on a couple of wheels.
Of all the wheels that I tried in my price range my hands-down favourite was an Ashford Traveller, preferably double treadle.

Since then I have been occasionally looking on ebay, but since we’re getting married in April I was not planning on buying a wheel prior to that. In fact, the plan was for me to save up and buy one at Woolfest when we go.

On Monday we were talking about wheels and such, and the girls at knitting reminded me to check the UK Spinners forum occasionally. So, on Tuesday I thought I’d have a quick look, not expecting to find anything – my ebay searches over the past months have got me nowhere.

Lo, there was an Ashford Traveller on the list.

I thought to myself, it’s probably sold. Still, I talked to my fiancé about it, in case it was still available. He told me to go for it, and I needed no more encouragement!

Well, the wheel was still available, and on Sunday it will be mine.

In the meantime I haven’t been able to resist ordering some lovely fluffy fibre to spin on it when it comes! I’ve not ordered a lot though, and I’ve kept to the stuff which is more suitable for beginners. I do have quite a stash of fibre already, ranging from single colour Corriedale to handpainted bamboo-merino and BFL, and everything in between. I even have some of my own hand-dyed alpaca roving to have a go with. (It is only 50g though, I’m not sure what I’ll be able to make out of that, even spun really fine!)

I’m currently planning to sort out my craft room. I know, I only moved in September, how bad can it be, right?
Wrong.
It’s been a bit of a dumping ground, there is an air bed in there and some other crud. The place is awash with card-making supplies from making all of the invitations (and I still have a couple more to make) and I don’t really have enough places to put my card making things now. There’s a big bag of yarn (I was looking for all my pink yarn, turns out there’s a lot of it!) and several boxes and bags of yarn, fibre and stuff that need to be properly sorted out.

Basically, the things I should have done when we moved in? Doing them now.

I reckon I should be able to sort it in one evening. This evening we’re going to look at some frames (wedding related) and I’ll probably try to convince the fiancé that some more storage for stuff would be useful. I could really use another bookshelf actually, maybe I should be on the look out for that. If Ikea wasn’t such a time-suck I’d consider going there after I collect my wheel, but I really want to start using it (Sunday afternoon is already planned for spinning) so it might have to be an Argos special!

Lacking in Inspiration for a title

Well, I’m continuing to be rather busy!

I’ve been for my first dress fitting. There is a photo but I’m afraid that’s secret for now. The dress is amazing, I really do like it, and it feels very me. It’s not a fussy design, nor is it bling or lacy, it is beautiful material put together carefully with a funky twist.

I’m having a reasonable amount of success with losing weight too – not losing masses but then I don’t want to end up looking emaciated! (I know, I’m a way from that!)

And knitting; I’m still knitting the Après Surf hoodie. It’s going pretty well, I have to wind a new skein into a ball soon, and I’ll soon be in a position to start the bust increases. I had a bit of a ‘mare with the lace to begin with and I had to frog back to the stocking stitch section, but it’s going more smoothly now – I’ve used some waste yarn as stitch markers and marked every repeat.

I’m picking a crochet pattern for on the plane!
Why crochet?
Of course, knitting on an aeroplane is still forbidden. I believe that the UK has a blanket ban on knitting needles to make it easier for the security staff. After all, most non-knitters don’t realise that there are so many different types of knitting needle, in so many different thicknesses, lengths and straight/double pointed/circular. I agree that a 12 inch long metal 4.5mm (UK no 7) needle could “have someone’s eye out” or worse, that a strong 24 inch circular could be used as a garrotte or that 2.5mm wooden dpns could, er, give you a nasty splinter?
Anyway, crochet hooks are allowed (as long as they are not too big, and not made of metal), so I’ve decided that I’m going to crochet a shawl on the plane. The shawl I’ve currently got at the top of my list is called “Elise Shawl” by Evan Plevinski. It seems to be a shell-pattern type shawl, so I’m hopeful I’ll be adequate enough to make it. I will have to hunt down some non-metal hooks though. I have a full set, but they’re all nice shiny metal. I do have some others in wood and plastic, so I should be fine.
Why a shawl?
The benefit of this particular shawl is that it requires 400yds of 4ply / sock yarn. I have several[1] skeins of sock yarn available for the purpose. This means that one 100g ball of yarn should be enough to keep me entertained on the plane(s) for a good long time. And at the airport(s) too.

I will also be taking some knitting with me, more for the Maldives than for Sri Lanka. I’m hopeful that I’ll be busy enough in Sri Lanka with the touring and such! But it will be nice to have a sock available for those quiet moments. Just a plain vanilla sock. In fact, I’m going to take a leaf out of the Yarn Harlot’s book blog, and knit them as tubes with afterthought heels! In case I’m knitting while doing something interestingish.



[1] Ok, I admit it, I have more than several. I actually have several skeins of sock yarn with enough yardage and in suitable colours!

Busy?

I might not be blogging much but that's because I'm so busy!

Things I've been doing recently include:

• Makeup test runs for the wedding. I try to do one of these each weekend with a different combination of foundation, highlighter, mascara etc. So far it looks like my new Rimmel foundation is winning - no flakes, no grease and lasted well the day I wore it. Anyway, I've been taking photos of each trial so that I can compare, contrast and hopefully recreate the best bits.
• Ordering more shoes! haha. Nice flat flip-flops for late in the evening when my feet hurt. I'd like to say that my wedding shoes are so comfortable that I will not need to change, but there are only so many hours that you can wear 5 inch heels, and I suspect that 10 hours might be pushing it! My flip flops are also turquoise so that's great - and what an excuse for another funky pair of shoes!
• Invitations for both the main event and the evening. I've made my own. I love them. They reflect us and the venue really well.
• Dieting! Check out my progress on my diet blog here.
• Knitting (but not a lot)

I've started knitting the Apres Surf Hoodie that I've been meaning to knit for a very long time. I hope that I can have it done by the time we go on honeymoon. It will be nice and light for chilly evenings (or being up mountains!). If I don't manage it then I'll have other sweaters I can take, and I'll take some shawls with me too because they're so versatile. That will include my wedding shawl, which is more of a shawlette, but will be lovely!

But back to the Apres Surf Hoodie.
I had knitted almost a full repeat of the lace pattern, but it all went horribly wrong. I don't know what exactly I did, but there was a mess that I couldn't fix. I did try, but to no avail. So, I've frogged back to the top of the stocking stitch section (only about 8 rows) where I intend to insert a lifeline, use lots of markers, and maybe take some post-its home for the chart. (I wish I knew where my magnetic chart holder went! I last used it on a shawl...)

Recently I did complete a lovely chunky shrug...

Ribbon Shrug by Louisa Harding knitted in Rowan RYC Cashsoft Chunky

Pattern: Ribbon by Louisa Harding

Yarn: Rowan RYC Cashsoft Chunky 8.5 balls of "Merlot"
Needles: 6mm and 6.5mm straights
Modifications: the 6.5mm straights should have been 7mm but I didn't have any, otherwise none.
Verdict: The pattern is great, easy enough to knit the lace and cables but not dull. If I were to make it again I would probably knit longer sleeves, or perhaps the short sleeve version. I fancy trying it in a lighter weight yarn too. I'd also recommend using circulars rather than straights, too many stitches on one needle!

99

It's 99 days until I get married!

Good to be back?

Yes, it's another New Year!
One I have high hopes for, I must say.

The blog, well - I'm trying to keep it up, but given how busy a year it's shaping up to be, I promise nothing.

So, goodbye to 2010, it's been a corker...

I got engaged to my boyfriend of 9 years


I started scrapbooking


Our two hamsters, Rowan and Aran both died :(


We redecorated the old house


I designed some knitted garments


I bought quite a lot of yarn


I also did a fair amount of knitting


And finally we moved into our lovely new home


What does 2011 have in store for me?

Well, there's my own wedding, plus at least two other weddings to attend.
The holiday of a lifetime for our honeymoon. (Excited!)
Chickens, and maybe rabbits.
More yarn, and more knitting, and all being well a spinning wheel.
A gym in the Garage!
Joining Zumba (the first class of the New Year is a week today!)
And a lot of hopes:
I hope that I'll stick to my Slimming World classes, and get a bit more weight shifted.
I hope that I'll be able to move roles at work.
I hope that we will have an excellent year, me and my soon-to-be-husband.

When did that happen?

Folks, it’s only 16 (plus the rest of today) days until Christmas.
Crikey!

And although I have done most of my shopping, there’s a catch. I’ve done it online, and then this slight cold snap that we’ve had appears to have upset the postal system a little bit.

I wouldn’t normally worry about that, but I’m off to my parents’ place at the weekend, at which time I intend to leave all the gifts for my sister and her fiancé, and my parents, with my parents. Clearly I can not do this if said gifts are still sitting in some stranded lorry somewhere. Boo.

Well, I do have some things for each of them so far. I’ve had to return one item already, and so I’ve decided to buy the replacement item in person in an actual shop. I may have to pick up some backup gifts for my sister as 95% of her gift is still in the post.

(Well, I guess there’s a chance that some of it is waiting for me at home, if the post has arrived today.)

Somehow this makes me want to go out and madly buy more stuff! And then I feel a bit materialistic!

I’m only doing a little bit of Christmas knitting. One item is almost finished and will go in the post this weekend all being well. The other is for my fiancé, and he knows he’s getting a knitted thing, but he knows not what. I need to get cracking on that! I feel some in-car knitting will be required (we have a 20-30 minute commute, he drives…)

Well, I’ll cross my fingers about the parcels. They’ll understand if there are more to come! (The other year an item I pre-ordered didn’t arrive until the following February!)

Here’s hoping!

At Last!

Finally, I’ve got round to taking and uploading some photos of what I have been up to in the past month or so!

We’ve been in the new house for about 7 weeks.

The back bedroom, which still needs photographing, has been given a new look with a fresh coat of paint on all the walls. I’m sorry to say we didn’t strip the wallpaper, that will have to wait until we get round to doing it again one day. However, I’ve painted over the floral pattern (I’m sure it’s lovely to some, but to my taste? Not so much) and the places where the previous owners’ cats scratched up the wallpaper. It’s not perfect, but it’s much more “us”. We have a nice new wooden curtain pole which needs to go up, and some rather nice curtains too. The new bed comes a week on Saturday, and once that’s in I’ll share photos. we must buy a lampshade!

The shed, which also needs photographing, has been given a couple of coats of Cuprinol Ducksback and is now reddish brown rather than grey. I’m pleased with it, and it’s hopefully not going to let water in any more. Though having moved the massive log pile from the side of it and cleared all of the brambles and mud will have helped. (I didn’t do that, Fiancé did.)

Anyway, this is the house.

There are lots of rose bushes in the front garden – they’re still flowering (in November!) but once they’re done flowering I will cut them back hard to try to get them into more even shapes and sizes. They are lovely though, lots of pretty colours!

The big window there in the garage is over a second sink with cupboards and drainer. This will, when I get it tidy and clean (and spider free), be my dying area. I’ll put the steamer out there (there’s power and water!) and the washer and dryer are both there, so I can do felting out there too! I’ll probably see about getting Fiancé to build me a bench to work on too at some point, and we’re going to put more shelves and hooks and a washing line up there too.

At the moment that area is also home to my new wormery.

I love worms. They’re one of the most amazing creatures ever. These worms are specially selected for wormeries. I’ve settled them in with the starter worm bedding, some treats (yes, you can get worm treats, how amazing is that) and some anti-acid pellets (too much acid upsets them!)
Anyway, they’re not trying to escape so I hope that’s a good sign.
We also have two large compost bins. We got the sort with bases because next door tell us that there might be rats (I figure; we’re in the country – there probably are rats, so we’ll try not to attract them)

This morning I saw some sort of hawk in the back garden! It was about the size of a pigeon, but dark brown with almost black wings, head and back. It was beautiful. I didn’t get the camera in time to take a photo I’m afraid.
There’s so much wildlife around here though, it’s fantastic!

I like my new home a lot, and I know I’m going to be happy here

New Sweater

So, After almost 3 years of having the yarn, I’ve finally finished my green sweater! It was originally going to be but I didn’t like the finished item – I think it was the wrong yarn choice, as well as pilot error (PEBNAY – Problem Exists Between Needle and Yarn).

So I decided on a simple raglan cardigan, trying on as I went. And here’s the result:




Before weaving in the ends!


Pattern: My Own Design (I might publish it as I’ve kept notes, but it needs test-knitting first!)
Yarn: Noro Cash Iroha (40% Silk, 30% Wool, 20% Cashmere, 10% Nylon) in Emerald (105)
Needles: 4.5mm circs & dpns
Modifications: N/A
Verdict: The yarn is lush, lovely to knit with. It’s a bit slubby but that adds to the charm I think. The cables pop really nicely in this yarn and colour. I’m quite pleased with it. It’s very warm so I haven’t had chance to wear it.

Almost Settled

So, we're settling in to the new house still.

I love it!

Sunrise over Bugthorpe

The photo is not our garden, I'll show you that some time!

Well, we're in the middle of decorating our main bedroom, the one which has this view. I've put a coat of paint on all the walls now, so they need another coat this week. Then we should be getting the new bed soon too. We've ordered a massive bed - super king size! It's as wide as it is long! The mattress arrived already, and is stored in the garage. (We have a garage!) We've also picked up some bed linens. Curtains are next up - though the windows are big.

Otherwise things are steady here. We're getting used to the house, and the quiet. 

P.S I'll try to remember to take some photos of the needle felting I've been doing, it's great fun!

Apres

 

Apres Surf Hoodie

I've been thinking about making the Apres Surf Hoodie for a long time.

In fact, it's probably since that issue of Interweave Knits came out back in Summer 2008.
I even bought the yarn I needed for it.

Well, today I photocopied the pattern so I could write on it. (Like books, I can't bring myself to actually write in my magazines. It's weird. Most (not all) of my magazines are in as-new condition.)
I've decided to make the 3rd size, which I'm calling "medium" in my head (like, XS, S, M - right?)

It's got a 39.5" bust, assuming I get gauge, so it will have some positive ease (about 1.5") - the next size down is 35.5" and so would have 2.5" negative ease. I hope that this is the right choice. I would want to wear a t-shirt or something under this hoodie as it's lace and thus see-through.
According to the magazine, the one in the picture has "minimal" positive ease and it's the Small.
While that's not so helpful since I don't know the model's measurements, I think it should be okay.
Who knows if I'll even get gauge?

I am considering knitting a gauge swatch.
Despite being a hater of swatching, this is an awful lot of stitches to knit, and frankly I don't like ripping out and reknitting things.

Whether I'll be able to get gauge in the stst and lace sections... well, we'll see!

I can haz teh internetz?

(Sorry for the I can haz cheezburger title; it had to be done)

Yes indeed we're back online, in the new house! Woot!
I really like the new house, which is a surprise to me really because I wasn't sure about it when we initially put the offer in.
Now that we're in, I like almost everything about it. We have a greenhouse (with tomatoes and aubergines left in it, thanks to the previous owner!) and a shed (with power!) along with a lovely garden which with a little TLC, a shovel and some planning should be capable of holding chickens, veggies and maybe a "bee garden" (I like bees)

I'll be back with some photos once we get into some semblance of order, we're still living with rather more boxes than I would like. 

Actually moving

It’s been a while, I know. There’s been no news that hasn’t been too depressing to blog about. However, the move is now happening, we’re actually being packed as I type (how much does that rock?)

We have a bit of recycling to do on the way home, and a little more to put out in the morning, but otherwise we’re all good. The packers have their instructions on what to pack and what not to pack, hopefully they’re not going to accidentally pack things they shouldn’t. I don’t mind so much if they leave unpacked things I’d rather they did pack, that’s easier to solve!

So yeah, we’re moving out to the countryside; I am very excited!

Also, I’ve a hectic schedule for the next month now. So we’re moving house tomorrow, then I’m off to a hen party on Saturday. The following Friday is the wedding (to go with the hen party) followed by a weekend off, then my folks are visiting, then both my bridesmaids and their partners are visiting, and then? Then I think we can relax!

Somewhere in there I need to fit in painting the bedroom, moving all the furniture into the right places, unpacking all the stuff, setting up my new craft room, starting to sort out the garden and planting some stuff (hopefully) and maybe looking into chicken runs, rabbit runs, and the like.

So it’s all good. Or it will be, tomorrow, when we get the keys!

Thunderbirds are... um... waiting until Thursday

So, we're not moving today. Hence blogging is happening.

We might not have a phone line after today, we're not sure.

We're still moving though, it's all (currently) still on, but we have to wait until our buyers get their mortgage sorted out (Yes, I agree, they should have done that well before they did, but sometimes people don't realise these things and I'm trying to stay positive!)

So, I've cast on something new, to help take the edge off still not having my stash: a scarf for the "Knit the York Walls" campaign (Ravelry Link to Ramshambles Group) in lovely pink yarn provided by "Wannabe18". It's Rowan Pure Wool DK (same stuff I made fiancé his jumper from)
I'm doing a simple garter and drop stitch pattern, which is actually growing reasonably quickly. Though knitting at home while off work sick has helped!

Fan girl

So, I cast on for some socks about a week ago. I fancied something a bit different, so I was making up a wavy pattern using short rows. It looked quite nice for the first two repeats, but after that there was some unpleasant pooling, and the sock was also a little loose. On top of these things there were some little holes where the short row turns were, and I decided that these weren’t the socks I wanted. So, I frogged the socks and put the yarn in my bag.

We took a trip to Edinburgh on Saturday, so on the train in the morning I cast on for both socks at once. I’m making the same socks that Yarn Harlot just made which are her vanilla sock with some ribs continued down the leg. It looks like she’s done a short row heel, but I’m currently undecided about that. If I do short row heels I usually do them over more than half of the stitches, which would mess up the pattern. So, I will probably stick to my usual heel flap and turn.

Edinburgh was a full on day – I’m afraid I can’t recommend travelling to and from Edinburgh in a day on the train, and fitting two shows, lunch, the Scott monument and the K1 yarn shop. It’s too much! The main reason we were going up was to see some plays that Fiancé’s brother (FBIL) was in or wrote. He’s part of a group called Gomito. (Google them, go see their work, they’re good!) Those two plays book-ended the day.

After lunch we went to the Scott monument. I went up the first set of stairs, but those of you who know me will know that I’m not a fan of twisty staircases, and I’m not a fan of heights, and – well – I didn’t go any higher.

 

We also called into K1 yarn shop. It was a tiny crafty bubble of calm in the throng that is the Edinburgh festival. I could have spent hours in there. I bought some linen and cotton laceweight, and some Zitron Trekking hand-painted sock yarn.

The linen/cotton lace is a nice pinky colour, quite delicate. With 700m it’s not massively long for lace, but I’m sure I can make something nice from it. (I have a lacey shrug in my mind, or bolero). I want to do something exciting with the sock yarn too – it’s a lovely red-orange-black fiery combination of colours. Perhaps it will become a hat, or hat and gloves (depending on how much yarn the hat takes!) I need to think about it.

And, of course, when we move on Friday I will (all being well, subject to meeting the removal man tomorrow) be getting my yarn back.

All Go (hopefully)

So, we’re due to exchange and complete on our new house on Friday next week.

Exchanging and completing on the same day is making me nervous, I’ll admit. I’m one of those people who like to know what’s happening for certain, and plans stuff. I find I’m not very spontaneous these days (I like to think I used to be, but it could just have been circumstance)

Well, anyway, we’re making plans based on the exchange and completion happening together on the Friday. Everyone involved is keen for this to happen, so it should be fine.

That means we’ve been booking the movers. This has turned out to be more taxing than I expected. The movers we were going to use are fully booked. So my fiancé has had to ring round to find someone. We decided to go with the people who answered the phone, who could fit us in, and who don’t cost an arm and a leg (though I suspect that the cost element might be the one we have the least control over!)

Now we just have to explain that we have a bunch of stuff stored at some friends’ house and we’d like that to be picked up too. We’ll see what he says when he comes to look at our stuff on Tuesday.

I guess we’d better tidy the house some more!

In knitting news, the socks I have been designing have been frogged. I liked the way they were looking, until I got onto the 4th repeat when the colours started to do weird things. So I’ve decided that they’re just going to be plain old vanilla socks. Yarn Harlot’s recent pair where two of the ribs continued down the leg were nice, perhaps I’ll do that (I’m such a fangirl)

Another workout today:
dead lift – front squat – push press, 20kg, (20, 10, 5; 20, 10, 4; 20, 10, 3) (that’s an improvement!)
bench press – sit ups, 20kg/bodyweight (12, 20; 8, 20; 7, 15)
kettlebell swings – kettlebell rows – kettlebell curls, 12kg/12kg/8kg (10, 8/8, 8/8; 10, 10/10, 10/10)
I didn’t do the jammer press, I think I’m going to ask for an alternative when I see my PT on Wednesday. I have been shown how to do a hamstring stretch on the “power plate” which is cool. (if you’ve never seen one, a power plate looks like those really old fashioned scales, but the floor plate is wobbly and vibrates. It’s odd)
I did do the X-Trainer again, 3 mins between each superset.

I reckon, if I keep improving on the dead/squat/press I should be able to manage the full 5 push presses with 20kg for all three sets soon, and then I get to put the weight up! Woo!

It could be 10 days...

...Until we move in to our new house.
Or it might not.

We will not have a firm date until our solicitor organises the exchange of contracts.

Despite this, we’ve gone ahead and ordered a fridge (we can always push the date back if needs be, we’re thinking positive!) and after getting a call from BT asking about our buyers taking over the line we’re now signed up for a BT line in the new house. (This is a bit of a sore point, actually. We’re going to be writing a letter to customer services at BT.)

Otherwise it’s still a bit limbo-ish.

I did finish the shawl I’ve been knitting, though I still don’t have any action shot photos of it!

Here’s the knit down:

Pattern: Citron by Hilary Smith Callis
Yarn: Abstract Cat Merino/silk laceweight in the Dragonfly colourway
Needles: 4mm circular
Modifications:Knit to pattern except for a slight amendment to the cast on (which I can’t remember) and knitting the last 4 rows in garter stitch rather than stocking stitch. That’s both prevented curl and also made the ruffle more ruffley as garter is fatter than stocking stitch!
Verdict (New!): I mostly enjoyed knitting this, and the end result is very good looking. The main problem with it is that as it’s a semi-circular shawl the number of stitches on the needles increases quite drastically per repeat. By the end there were over 500 stitches per row, which is a lot!

the shawl while blocking

Oh, I should mention my brand spanking new workout program! Since I last wrote about the program I’ve continued my “diet” which is working reasonably well for me (except today, I had a bacon sandwich. It happens. I’ll be better tomorrow)

Anyway, I spoke to my PT, explained the issues I was having, that I’d recently changed the way I was eating, and that I wanted a program I found more fun.

He’s sorted out a much more weights based program for me. There’s still a bit of (low impact) cardio for me in the form of the cross trainer, which is okay I guess. But the weights! Oh, they’re fun. Not mega-super heavy, but y’know, good.

Here’s today’s lifts:
dead lift – front squat – push-press, 20kg, (20, 10, 5; 20, 10, 3; 20, 8, 3)
bench press – sit ups, 20kg/bodyweight (8, 20; 8, 15; 4, 15)
kettlebell swings – kettlebell rows – kettlebell curls, 12kg/12kg/8kg (3;8e/s;8e/s) (Had a hamstring issue here, so stopped. Will do better next time)
jammer press – straight leg sit ups, 13kg/bodyweight (5, 15; 10, 15; 4, 16)
with 3 mins on the X Trainer between each set.

It’s so much more fun than the previous programme! Okay, it’s new, and I was enthusiastic (well, a little sceptical too) about the last one. But this one – I was looking forward to going to the gym on Monday and today. That is a result.

We’re going to start going every morning again, and swimming on the off days. Worst case, if the swimming isn’t happening (tight muscles, just too tired, whatever) I can sit in the Jacuzzi or the sauna for 20 minutes instead!

Edit: I just wanted to add that I’ve been having an issue with something called an IT Band (nothing to do with the computer, everything to do with my thigh) which has been causing me pain. My PT has got me doing foam rolling (which was in my Fit Female bible too) which is very painful to do but seems to help. I'm considering getting a foam roller for at home and also thinking about getting myself back to the Tuina guys for a pummelling!

RIP: Aran

Our hamster, Aran, died in the night.

He was about 2 years old, which is good going for a dwarf Russian hamster.  He outlivd his brother (Rowan) for some months. Since Rowan died, we've been giving Aran extra treats, but not handling him as much (he liked to bite) so as not to stress him too much.
We've really enjoyed having Aran as our pet and he will be missed.