another step closer... & finished socks!

I'm down another 3lbs this week - which tallys me up to approx 15.4 lbs lost since I started! (yay!)

I also finished these socks - knit from the toe up. I found two skeins of Patons Kroy Stripes in matching colourway, and knit almost an entire skein for each. Now I've got a pair of nice warm socks ready for Halloween!

yay!

I know that typically, on a diet one should comfortably lose 1-2lbs. That should be healthy and typical. But this past week, even though I followed my points - and even hit the max # of points on most days and went to the movies last tuesday & went a little crazy with movie snacks - I lost 3.4 lbs this week!!! So, after a total of 5 weeks dieting so far, I'm up to 12.4lbs lost! Awesome!

So, I've surpassed my initial immediate goal of losing 10 pounds. That is not only awesome, but encouraging. I'm in a new lower points range as of today, and my new goal is to get up to 25lbs lost, which shouldn't be a problem because I'm practically half way there!

knitting history

I love knitting geekery. Especially anything to do with history. This article details a bit of history on Latvian mittens.

I've admired Latvian mittens for a while now, I've been meaning to work up the courage to knit at least one pair for myself... the colour & pattern work on these are amazing - if only I can get past all the fair isle that needs to be done! But they do look fantastic nonetheless.

One day... hopefully this winter!

... more progress!

When I started this diet a month ago, my short term goal was to lose 10 pounds... well, I'm nearly there. I've lost 2.2lbs since last week, so that makes it a total of 9lbs so far. Considering there was a 'glitch' during the end of the first week which resulted in my gaining a bit of weight, I've technically lost the 9lbs within 3 weeks, really. Which is awesome.

Thank goodness for frozen fruit - I can have a cup and a half of raspberries or strawberries which is only 1 point, and I've gone back to snacking on cottage cheese, which I love! Also, Thinsation chocolate covered pretzels are awesome miracle workers to take care of that sweet or salty craving! I just love them!

That's all the update for now... back to knitting! New handknit item to be posted soon...

idle hands are the devil's playground

Growing up Catholic, one is bound to hear this at least once in their upbringing. I've never been particularily religious, but I've heard this often muttered by my teachers when going to Catholic grade school, not fully knowing what that ever meant.

It is, though, something that I often think about while knitting or crocheting. I've always been, by nature, fidgety - so knitting & crocheting was just naturally a hobby that I'd fall in love with. There's a certain satisfaction in accomplishing the large projects like afghans or sweaters, but the small portable projects are great too.

The top I'm working on to wear this summer is still in progress, I'll post photos of that later. What is keeping me busy on the weekends are the itty bitty projects. For example, I finished four duduza dolls (queuable here on ravelry) that were mailed after the weekend was over. This past Easter weekend, I worked on some toe-up socks that I want to finish before Halloween, since they're in Halloween colours.

I weighed myself this morning - despite the holiday over the weekend, celebrated twice - once on Friday with my DB & SiL, and again on Saturday with DH's family - I still lost 1.2lbs. A great accomplishment, despite the weight being minimal!

The unfortuante thing with holidays is that there are sweets everywhere - and I had my fair shair of cheesecake and chocolates! I was sure I wasn't going to lose anything, but the fact that I did was awesome. I wasn't about to bring that big top to knit when DH & I went up north to visit the inlaws, but having my toe-up socks came in handy to keep my mind occupied enough. My hands were busy knitting stripe after self-stripping stripe in my socks to avoid having that third peice of chocolate or that extra handful of chips.

Having some kind of mindless knitting that's easy and small enough to carry around - like socks - are a handy thing to help keep the excess snacking at bay!

ok, I have to brag...

A few days ago I finished spinning this whole skein of yarn. Yes, I've spun a bunch before, but I have to admit, this is my best and favourite one to date. My future-SiL loves Chanel designs, and also crochets, so I thought I'd make her a skein of handspun inspired by Chanel colours.

It's all wool, but I did incorporate a little black fun fur in it just for fun. I absolutely LOVED this wool, it was so soft and easy to work with, I had no problem spinning it! Plus, since I knew I was going to make this a two ply yarn, what I've done in the past is spin 2 skeins in a Z twist, respun one so it'll become an S twist when I spin both together. (Does that make sense?!?) Well, not this time - for the first time I've managed to create an S twist skein, so there wasn't any need to reball the yarn before twisting the two skeins together.

Total size: 5.9 oz (168g), approx 235 yards (215 meters). Also my largest skein to date! It's approximately worsted weight, although there are some thick-&-thin fragments in it.

PROGRESS!

I've lost four pounds. Four! Well, 4.2 actually. So, this past week I've completely undone the two pounds I've gained from the week before, and lost a little extra.

Yea, I know that most of what is lost initially is pretty much water weight, but it still counts.

Short post for today... more to come later!