Done One!

It was a great day, even though I ended up having to go out.

I have binge watched all the podcast episodes of The Crazy Sock Lady and one thing she mentioned was doing her household chores first thing in the morning so this morning I got the dishwasher going and the microwave cleaned while I was in the kitchen making my oatmeal breakfast and tea. I felt pretty accomplished all day because of this🤣

By the way, I preferred the sock lady before this year. She is still fine, but it seems like the focus has definitely moved to commercialism. She seems to now knit mostly just her own patterns and to hype the products of her friends. I’ll still watch her and enjoy seeing products and patterns, but it’s not a love anymore:(

I had to run to the store as I was out of milk so I took the garbage and recycling out and tried to make the trip as short as possible. Of course I also came home with crackers and cookies. I wonder what’s with all the carbs? The cookies weren’t even that good:(

I spent the morning working on my crochet blanket and got to the point where I have to decide if I’m going to switch to white again so that the two yellow sections are the same size or just work until I run out of yellow. I could put a white stripe in but it would probably use up my white so I’d end up ending on a larger yellow anyways. Any ideas?

After recess of banana slices with pb&j I worked on my stitching. It looked like I had very little left to do, but I told myself just to work on it until lunchtime. I had crab on cucumber.

However, I have been binge watching the XStitchMD since finishing the Crazy Sock Lady podcast and she inspired me to keep going. Oh by the way, I really like this podcast so far:) At 2pm a miraculous thing happened- I finished the first page of the cross stitch pattern. I was so excited, especially when my mom pointed out the pattern is only two pages so technically I’m halfway done. I thought about making myself do the backstitching on the first page before moving on, but I think I’ll take advantage of whatever Monentum I have and just keep moving forward with the stitching.

After my afternoon snack of a rice cake with pb&j and tea cookies ( I know, too much pb&j and unhealthy cookies), I moved onto working on my Bentley cardigan. I messed up the ribbing at first but did manage to get it done and get the body bound off. I will move onto the button bands next so that I will do the sleeves last and be able to make them as long as possible!

I did make myself put down the cardigan long enough to do my FitOn workout this evening. It was an upper body toner which is always a good thing:)

Well that is my day. Have fun!

AJ

My One

I am known for my list making- even my students know this about me. I have a list of places I would like to run and my running buddy said I could pick one to do over my Spring Break. Well today was the day:). He even picked me up so I didn’t have to drive!

We headed out to a dyke that is about an hour away and did a ten kilometer run. There is a marathon run on this dyke so I know we did kilometer 2-7 and then turned round. My running buddy obviously knows me well as we started right at the fence at one end of the dyke. Next time we’ll start at kilometer six where there is another parking lot and go from there. This area is well known for bird life and it didn’t disappoint today. I saw twelve different eagles up close and a mallard duck. I’m sure there was lots more that I just didn’t notice.

This was a gorgeous morning and I’m sure it will be a highlight of my vacation.

When I got home I had lunch as I was starving. A baked potato that I did in the slow cooker the other day (worked great) became fried potato with spinach. It was really good.

I then tackled my taxes as that has been weighing on my mind and imm sisterly did my FitOn workout after that so that I could sit down and knit for the rest of the day, guilt free.

That is exactly what I did! I worked on my crochet granny stripe blanket a bit and on my Bentley cardigan. I think I am ready for the bottom ribbing on my cardigan. I also knitted on the way to the run this morning and have about half of another Musselburgh hat done.

Oh I also have now watched every video of the Crazy Sock Lady. I think I liked her better before she became so commercialized, but oh well.

I’m heading to bed to read.

Have fun!

AJ

A Fine Day

I have been looking forward to this day as it has become a school break tradition. Does twice make it a tradition?

My teaching buddy and one of my two identified people picked me up at 9:30 this morning for a bookstore crawl. We had picked five bookstores nearby to check out.

Stop 1: Renaissance Books

This is a stereotypical used bookstore. The lady at the counter ignored us as we came in, there were books stacked everywhere, though there was some minimal organization. I didn’t buy anything, but my friend snagged two Nancy Drew and one Little House books she was looking for.

Stop 2: Companion Books

A lovely bookstore that is bright, airy and well organized. The clerk greeted us and offered assistance immediately. The shelves go very high, but there are stools everywhere. The books are not only organized by subject, but also by author last name. It was great! I’m pretty sure I still have credit here, but they didn’t have any knitting or cookbooks. My friend got five more Little House books here.

Stop 3: Browns Books

We walked to this store as Google maps said it was only 550 meters from the last store. It’s unfortunate they are so close because they are like night and day. The clerk had forgotten to unlock the front door at the start of business time and he managed to ignore us on his doorstep for a good five minutes:(. This bookstore just keeps going with tiny rooms. That sounds great until you realize those rooms are stacked with books haphazardly and with zero organization. There were some places you couldn’t even get into the room. Get me out of here!! Neither of us bought anything.

Stop 4: IronDog Books

This bookstore is clean, bright, spacious and well organized. The owner was very personable and remembered me from when I was in a few weeks ago! The shelves are all low so the store feels spacious too. There are also some cute little gift items including tshirts that were awesome. I was hoping they’d have the Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy in my brother’s size, but alas they didn’t. We found that some prices were great and some were a little higher, but overall a nice experience. My friend found another Nancy Drew for her collection and I found two knitting books.

Even better this bookstore is located right beside a knitting store. The clerk here wasn’t as friendly as the one from a few weeks ago, but I still managed to find two half skeins of yarn, and a scissor and tape measure set. I bought the pink set over the green just for my mom🤣

We were going to go to Tacofina for lunch but then realized they were take out only. There was quite the lineup and we couldn’t figure out how we were going to balance Mexican food, eat it and not spill it all over ourselves. We ended up driving to our fifth and last store location and going to Nuba for lunch. The good was awesome!

Stop 5: The Paper Hound

This store was very cute with exposed brick walls and a cool layout. It had a lot of very old books which were cool, but most of the books seemed like the type you put on the coffee table in the hopes people will think you’re reading them and that you’re really smart to be reading that. It was pretentious! I should have guessed as it is in a trendy area, but the name and decor was the best part.

We did end up stopping at The Gourmet Warehouse on the way home. I was surprised my friend wanted to stop as she’s not really into cooking, but I definitely enjoyed myself and got myself a cookbook holder as I’ve been unable to find mine:(. I can’t wait to use it!

Exercise:

I did my FitOn workout today and it was a grounding yoga class so that was perfect. I didn’t want to tire out my body before my run tomorrow as I’m hoping that will help my run be longer and better. My data woes are still driving me crazy with these classes, but I can persevere.

Knitting:

I am making progress on my Bentley cardigan and on the granny stripe blanket. I had also gotten a new Musselburgh hat started last night so I could knit on that since I wasn’t driving today. I actually got quite a bit done:)

Well, I’m off to bed to read.

Have fun!

AJ

Oh My!

How did it get to be so many days without a blog post??!! I tell you my holiday days speed along twice as fast as work days!

This weekend has been mainly knitting. Saturday I had no plans to go out until I got a Starbucks BOGO coupon. I treated Brenda to coffee and we talked knitting for a half hour. I hit the grocery store for milk, but then spent the rest of the day knitting.

I had messed up the pattern on one side of my cardigan and while my mom and Brenda both said it wasn’t noticeable, I decided not to be lazy and to rip back and fix the mistake. I then spent Saturday and Sunday getting caught back up. I have separated for sleeves and have made progress on the body. I don’t think this sweater project is going to last until May 31st. I’ll be lucky if it lasts past this holiday! I am loving how the yarn is knitting up and with being a product knitter, I want it done so I can start on the next project. It doesn’t help that I transferred my knitting to do list into a cute little notebook yesterday so now I know exactly what I want to get going on!

This morning I did 8.1km in the rain with Dennis. I ran slower than usual, but it’s the first run where I haven’t felt dead halfway through. I’m not positive it wasn’t just the slower pace, but let’s hope it’s also improvement in my recovery! Kathy, I’m running as fast as I can to you and I’ll have an update later this week. I can’t wait to see where I’ve gotten to on my run to South Dakota!

I did exercise both days, though the FitOn workouts are still very annoying with my slow data. I did a kickboxing workout yesterday and Barre Core today. Hopefully one of these days, this working out thing will show on my body!

Today I did some crochet on the baby blanket I’m making solely to use up yellow acrylic that I will never knit with. It’s been cool to learn that I still remember how to crochet!

I have started another Musselburgh hat to use up a skein of yarn and to allow for mindless knitting in the car tomorrow. I will need to figure out tomorrow what yarn to put with this one as I definitely don’t have enough.

And I worked on my Bentley cardigan. I am at row 96:). I’m proud of myself for stopping🤣

Well I’m going to go crawl into bed and read my book for a while.

Have fun!

AJ

A Little Busy of Good Things

I was definitely busier today but it was all nice things so that’s okay with me. It’s like my week is breaking me in gently and every day gets a little busier.

I went and had my eyebrows and eyelashes died. The esthetician wanted to test a new lash lift product on me, but it didn’t arrive in time. She’ll let me know when it comes in and I’ll go back for her. She says I have the longest eyelashes she’s seen so they make a good testing ground.

I spent a few minutes stitching in the sunshine before lunch and it’s getting exciting as I’m getting closer and closer to being done the first page. I’m not sure I’ll get any done tomorrow, but I figure these two days have definitely helped the progress!

I then met up with my friend Em after lunch for a walk in a new park. This park is cool because a guy created natural sculptures and it’s like a scavenger hunt to find them. We agreed it would be nice if they had given a general direction as we walked up and down the hill many times before finding them. We found five of the six sculptures and managed not to fall in the mud, so a success! it was an awesome two hours in the sunshine with a good friend. I didn’t let the ton of other people searching bother me:)

I got home to a package at my door. It is once again for the A version of my apartment number. I’ve delivered all of his other packages but haven’t even gotten a thank you so I’ve decided to leave this one right where it is and see how long it takes him to figure out where his package is. Maybe it will inspire him to talk to Amazon about their delivery of his packages!

When I got home I quickly made some nut butter muffins I have been thinking of making all week. This is actually a recipe I found on the FitOn app, but I have to admit I won’t be making it again. They taste fine, but with no flour they are too light and airy. I like my muffins to be more dense than that, plus they use stevia and I really don’t like the after taste of that stuff. I have a big bag of it that I should probably just throw out.

I also made myself do my FitOn workout before I sat down with any yarn. I did a Total Body Sweat and I just sat and knitted every time it needed to buffer. The last two days I have done other moves during this time, but I have a run tomorrow and wanted to take it a little easier on my legs to see if I could take less walk breaks tomorrow. We shall see and it still got done:)

Finally I got to do more knitting. This morning before my appointment I had taken out the crochet I had started yesterday as I realized I remembered enough to do a prettier pattern than what I had started. I had gotten three repeats of a granny stripe done but will rip it out and do the cast on with a bigger hook.

That meant this evening I could go back to working on my Bentley Cardigan by Marie Greene. I have to admit I am not overjoyed with this pattern so far. I feel like there is a lack of balance. Every single row is written out for the first 50 rows or so and then suddenly it says to fit the pattern in as can do and to continue in this manner. I paid for the pattern, I expect the work to be done for me. Put less into the first 50 rows and don’t become lazy!😖

I have gotten once again to the sleeve separation and about five rows beyond it. Unfortunately it is now time to put it away as I get to go read in bed now:)

Have fun!

AJ

Quiet

I know that the next two days will probably be busy, so I was quite happy to enjoy a quiet day.

Knitting:

I spent the majority of the day knitting on my Bentley cardigan. I am back up to row 50 and so have 16 rows left before I separate for the sleeves again. Let’s hope for better sizing this time!

I also started a crochet blanket this evening. I’ve been feeling bad that I had no projects that used stash on the go. I had yellow acrylic that I know I will never use so I decided to see if I remembered how to crochet. It seems I do have some muscle memory. I chose a very simple pattern and so should be done in no time. I will probably just pass it along to my running buddy’s friend who crafts for the homeless. I’m sure someone could use it.

Shopping:

I did go out as I needed a longer 3mm needle for my sweater. There was no way I was doing the whole thing on a 16” needle! The yarn store was busy so I didn’t linger, but just grabbed the needles. I did look at the Laine 52 weeks of Socks book. It is a gorgeous book, but I will have to look more closely because it’s $70!

While I was out I tried the two new flavours of vegan ice cream at my favorite store. The apple pie and cherry cheesecake were wonderful, but this afternoon my stomach put in its request to go back to my usual healthy fare.

I did eat my ice cream at the park. My grandma used to take us to the park and we’d sit facing the water and have car picnics so that’s what I did today. It’s odd sometimes to think how much of my life is dictated by what my grandma did, it’s definitely the best part though!

Exercise:

I have tried to take it easy today to see if that contributes to the bottom of my left foot feeling better. I did do my FitOn workout though. I got smart and every time it buffered, I knit.🤣. At least my thirty minute workout only took 45 this time.

After working out I realized I hadn’t stitched at lunch time so I quickly sat down and did a little bit. I wish the same technique worked on my taxes as I need to get them done too. Usually I make my mom sit with me while I do them, but this year I’m on my own and am procrastinating big time!

Someone knocked on my door tonight. I hate when this happens, which thankfully it doesn’t happen often!

Well, I’m going to go crawl into bed and enjoy my book.

Have fun!

AJ

My First

Today was a much calmer, more organized day which I appreciated!

Exercise:

I picked up Dennis and we headed out to a local dyke for a run. It wasn’t a great run as my heart rate was high way too soon. This is something I’ve been noticing since having Covid. For now I’m assuming it’s just part of the recovery process as everything I read says that even a mild case takes 3-6 months to get over. I had in my mind that I wanted to get 8km in today as that is what we ran on Sunday. Imagine my surprise when I surpassed that and got 9km in! Yay, I may make it to South Dakota after all:)

I stopped at the gluten free bakery on the way to coffee and Dennis and I split the cherry bar. It wasn’t that good. I also tried their small sausage roll for lunch and a strawberry turnover (good thing I ran long and did a workout) and haven’t been super excited about any of them. I have one scone left to try, but I think the hit may have been the fact they had gluten free and dairy free puff pastry. Now I just have to decide what I want to make!!! No I don’t normally eat like this, but when I try a new place I like to try a variety of goods so I know what I need to return for:)

This afternoon I also did a FitOn workout, but it’s very painful right now. My data is so slow that it takes over an hour to do a 25 minute workout. I add in my own moves for the buffering times, but at 54 minutes I was done. I don’t like how this app won’t let you download a workout unless you pay:(

House:

I managed to get all my new clothes into my app, got a load of laundry done, got my exercise journal up to date and that’s it. Not as good as I thought, though I did scrub the tub while I was in the shower:)

Crafts:

I took Kathy’s advice and did fifteen minutes of cross stitch at lunchtime. That was the length of the Crazy sock lady podcast I was watching, so it seemed perfect. Even with spending some of the time looking for my needle as I didn’t want to find it with my foot, I got more done than I was expecting:)

I also did two swatches today for the Bentley cardigan again. I tried a 2.75 and a 3mm needle and though I’m still a little big with the 3mm, I’m going with that size because I like the fabric better. I will just need to measure regularly and stop the raglan increases a little earlier than the 66th row.

I have casted on and done 14 rows and hopefully this time will be more successful!

I also promised you my socks.

These are the London socks by Knitting Expat. They are done in Cascade Strawberries and Cream. I meant to do the pattern all the way around the leg, but forgot when I got to that point until I was on the third row and I just didn’t feel like ripping back. I am fine with the one sided pattern only. The pattern was easy to follow and quick to knit. These are actually my very first toe up socks and I really liked doing them that way! I will definitely do this technique again, though I still have many other techniques to try as well:)

So my question for all you knitters out there is can you recommend a one skein (400 yard) shawl pattern that is not too Lacey. Thank you.

Have fun!

AJ

Very Short

This is going to be short because I’m tired and I have an early run, but my mon hates it when I don’t post.

Today was very mixed up. The ant people were supposed to be here around 9, but then I was told 11, then 12 and they finally showed up at 1:20 because I texted the strata president🙄

I did get my sweater ripped out and had bonus knitting time which was nice.

I thought I had a massage at 3.15, but that was cancelled so I went and met up with my teaching buddy for a little retail therapy.

The pile of stuff I bought. This is what happens when you don’t shop often.

I got home and was starving and craving cookies so I made myself a mug cake- figured that was better than having a dozen cookies in the house, but it was nothing to write home about.

My friend texted that she was across the street so we had a quick outdoor visit with her cute new puppy too:)

I spent the rest of the night knitting on my London socks and I am happy to say that they are done!

Tomorrow I will try to restart the Bentley cardigan. I will swatch again with smaller needles, though I’m bot sure that’s going to make enough of a difference as I was 5” too big!

I also got happy mail today. My stitch markers from whimsy and sassy came in. At first I was mad at myself for getting some of them as progress keepers, but I’ve actually already used one today to tell me the front of my sock when I was doing the toe. It made me smile every time I saw it. I will get a picture of my sock tomorrow and give more details.

I did do my FitOn workout but the 22 minute workout took me 54 minutes because of my lack of high speed Internet 🙄😖

Have fun!

AJ

SAL Update

I am so glad this update landed at the start of my holiday so that I will have a clear picture of how much stitching I get done over the holiday:)

When I was a teenager I loved the work of Paula Vaughn and my grandma very kindly bought me the Paula Vaughn cross stitch book “A Quilt for All Seasons”. I immediately started on the January one. I’m not sure when exactly this was, but the project then languished on a shelf in my spare room for twelve years after I moved into my condo. Last year I heard about this SAL and decided it may help me actually get this project finished.

Here is where I was three weeks ago:

Here is where I am now:

I know it doesn’t look like much but with getting all the white at the bottom filled in, it felt like a lot. I think it’s because it finished off a whole area, but unfortunately not the whole first page

My goal is to finish the first page before the next update. I have holidays, I have an OTT light now and I have motivation because I am quite close. Let’s hope all goes according to plan!

Make sure you check out everyone’s projects as there are some truly outstanding projects being done and a very wide variety!

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen

I’m Free!!!

Well it finally got here- Spring Break:)🎊🎉

Teaching:

My students were upset that I didn’t change the shape of the day so we worked off a list on the board. They said I was crazy like this before Christmas break too. I’m just trying to leave with everything done so we come back to a fresh start.

We did manage to get everything done:). This morning the children wrote about what they want to be when they grow up. I didn’t help and it was great to see what they could do on their own. It did make me lower my assessment of one boy’s writing. We also did our scheduled instructional writing. I didn’t get to see many of them as I was helping my lowest boy, but he didn’t do too badly today when I was there to say words slowly.

We got through a lesson on counting back for subtracting. The kids also cleaned their desks a bit when they were done.

I was a little crazy and tried to order skip the dishes as this was all happening. Note to self, only order in on Tuesday’s when I have a prep before lunch and can give it my full attention!

This afternoon we had flashlight friday reading and I finally got to my Friday reading group. They’ve been so upset that we’ve missed reading group! They did a great job today though:)

We finished the day by getting our community put up on the wall. Each child did a video explaining what they had built.

We will probably get in trouble and have to take this down, but I love how kid art looks! Some are better than others, but they all have character.

The nicest thing was at the end of the day when a parent gave me a copy of TinCanknit’s Great North pattern book as she had two copies. It’s so awesome! It definitely has done patterns I’ll be making!

Exercise:

I met up with Dennis for a run. My left foot is still sore so we came straight back, but missed the shoe store by just moments. I’ll have to stop in there tomorrow I guess. 6km later, I got a lovely cup of tea.

I then made myself come home and do my FitOn workout right away which was the Tabata Torch. My legs were definitely talking by the end of that!

Socializing:

I met up with my friend Em for ice cream to start our holiday off right. I very much enjoyed my salted caramel, but will need to behave myself tomorrow!

I grabbed my prescription and a couple of groceries and got myself tucked in at home.

Knitting:

I had gotten my KAL package in the mail today but had made myself finish all my have to do’s before I was allowed to open it. I love the stitch markers and the tea sounds good and the Avonlea Twilight yarn is gorgeous, but I’ll have to reserve judgement on the other two mini skeins until I see them in daylight.

I did a little more on my London socks and I want to make it’s priority to get these done this weekend. I also finished a second Musselburgh hat. I will hopefully get pictures of all of these things tomorrow.

For now, it’s bedtime. Have fun!

AJ