Knit Saturday

If you don’t like knitting you may want to stop reading now as that’s all I’ve done today.

Exercise:

20 minutes of yoga and some ab exercises. I slept for twelve hours straight so by the time I woke up, it was just too late to go.

Eating:

I have been very good today since I was out yesterday and will be out again tomorrow. I’m trying to think of that 80/20 ratio for the week as a whole, which means only four meals a week can be out of the ordinary.

Today I had: a sausage patty, blueberries, cucumbers with cheese.

Knitting:

I have had enough of this blanket and so just want to get it done. I have literally spent most of the day on my deck knitting away. It was too hot in the house with the blanket over me, but being in the shade with a nice breeze on my balcony made it the perfect temperature to have the blanket on me as I knit away. I have one more pattern to go and then bind off, so I should be able to show it off tomorrow.

For something interesting though, I’ll tell you about some of my favourite knitting items.

1) Addi Turbo needles.

I inherited a lot of knitting needles so really don’t need to buy any very often, however when I do, they are always Addi Turbo. I love how smooth and light they are and the ends are not so pointy that my fingers start hurting!

2) interesting stitch markers

I bought myself a set of stitch markers at the last Knit City that had a Hogwarts theme. I use the largest one as a start of round marker and it makes me smile every time. I also like the stitch markers that are made out of silicon as they are pliable and don’t hurt when I end up holding them in my hand.

3) Ravelry

I love being able to keep track of all of my projects in one place and being able to search so many patterns! I do wish you could make the projects you’ve already done exempt from the search though as I always seem drawn to the same ones. I suppose that’s why I made it in the first place.

I also keep meaning to put all my needles onto ravelry so that when I see some on sale, I can tell whether I need them, though I probably don’t.

I also like that I’ve started putting my stash on Ravelry. It makes it easy to see what I already have when I’m at the store.

4) Knitty

I love this online knitting magazine. I always seem to find at least one pattern that I want to make and as I write this, I’m thinking I should make that a goal one year- make all the Knitty patterns I like!

5) Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup (HPKCHC)

This is a group on Ravelry that I belong to. Each month there are about eight “classes” that you have homework for. I mostly do a project and then figure out which class it will work for. I love this group not so much for earning points or getting the house cup, but for the fact it gives me some ideas and guidelines for what to make each month. I just love being busy and this helps me decide what to knit next:)

6) Project/ Supply Bags

I am always on the lookout for cute bags to hold my supplies and projects. Lately I picked up a cute little bag for my needles in Alert Bay. I have a super cute bag for my stitch markers that says “I’ve got 99 Stitch Markers and I can’t Find One.” It definitely makes me smile! My favourite project bag right now says “It’s all fun and games until the yarn runs out”- so true!

I know that I could go on forever about knitting items, but I’ll stop before I bore anyone to sleep. If you have a favourite knitting item, I’d love to hear about it!

Have fun!

AJ

Quiet at Home

The day didn’t go as I had planned, but was quite lovely.

Exercise:

I was supposed to run for an hour today, but I was super overwhelmed by that thought this morning, so just headed out on the inlet trail. I ended up doing 32 minutes. It was extremely wet, but at least it was something.

Family:

After getting dry and having breakfast, my cousin dropped off his truck and it was time to get my mom. We dropped off a few bags at the second hand store. It was raining so hard that my mom and I decided to have a day in. We didn’t do anything huge, but got a few small things done- my shoes sorted, my rug straightened and some outfits put together. I have discovered that I own nothing but solids and stripes:(. We are definitely going to have to do some shopping!

Knitting:

After taking my mom home, I have spent the evening knitting. One of the HPKCHC classes this month requires a quick project that takes less than an hour. I have managed to make a headband out do the leftovers from my scarf! That’s another skein gone:)

Clean November Challenge:

I so need to go grocery shopping tomorrow and get some fruits and vegetables. I got exercise in, no alcohol, drank two water bottles and didn’t do too badly on my eating. I think I’m going to have to plan my weekend eating too. I’ve decided that if I don’t plan then the goal will be to have three hours between my meals.

It has been a quiet day, but still nice!

Have fun!

AJ

A Very AJ Day!

It was a day filled with things I love, but boy am I tired now!!

Knitting:

Well this was the second best knitting day this year! We only seem to have two yarn events a year in Vancouver and this was the second one- Knit City 2018.

I grabbed coffees for Brenda and I (on a side note- the tall at Starbucks seems to be getting smaller!) and off we went to Knit City. We were shocked when we got close and saw how long the line was to get in. It turned out it wasn’t the line we had to stand in, but there was easily triple the number of people than last year!

It was great fun looking through all the booths though some you couldn’t get near. Sweet Fibres seemed to be constantly lined up all day. I wonder what is so special about them? We went through the whole place twice. You should be very proud of me, I managed to only spend $160! Way less than I was expecting to spend! I was disappointed that there weren’t as many sales as there were last year ☹️. I guess they’ve determined they sell enough to not need a sale bin. I did wonder why people would pay the price for some of the skeins, though I almost bought a hand spun skein for $224!

This is what I ended up buying! I loved the stitch markers as they are the first I have seen in colours other than green and purple that are soft and flexible so I bought a variety of sizes. I also bought the scale as I looked at it last year and have determined I don’t like having to clean my kitchen scale every time I want to weigh my yarn!

I bought the bag as I like having project bags and my oldest brother always says, “sucks to be you”, so this reminded me of him!

The pattern is gorgeous and I like how the lace is on the front and the back! Brenda bought another simple sweater pattern that I will use the blue yarn I bought for.

The last skein of yarn is my favourite colour and the same colour as the $224 skein that I couldn’t bring myself to buy. I was going to make a triangle scarf out of it, but think I’ll use it to make the other sweater pattern my friend bought.

I am extremely happy with what I bought and have no buyer’s remorse:)

One of the neatest parts of the show was seeing all the knit goods everyone was wearing! It just made me want to get home and knit!

This evening I am working on the boat Afghan for my parents as the new month for HPKCHC doesn’t start until Monday. Oh, it was so cool that the first person I saw, actually the woman who sold me my ticket was Mel who is the lady I met last year at Knit City who told me about HPKCHC. Maybe next year I should volunteer to help at Knit City. That might be fun:)

I have decided that I want a scarf/shawl to wear with t Shirts. If anyone knows of a good pattern, please let me know!

Eating:

We had planned to eat at the food trucks at the show, but they only had five (I don’t think they were expecting the number of people the got) and they were horribly lined up. We ended up going to Pasta Polo so my friend could have the carbonara that she has been craving. I did try something slightly new this time. I had the shrimp and scallops marinara:)

I also ended up going out for Pho today as well. I feel like I don’t need to eat for a week!!

Running:

The fun wasn’t over with the knitting show as I met up with my friend Sarah and her dog Kula for a trail run. We did 1.5 loops and it was so awesome to be out in this gorgeous fall day! Of course, I saw a student right at the start, but that was fine, just a quick hello. Sarah fell, but was fine and I managed to stay on my feet:)

We also had a quick look through chapters and the grocery store, but I managed to come home with nothing:)

Now I’m tucked up on my couch and I’m hoping everyone else had as good a Saturday as I did:)

Have fun!

AJ

Getting There

September is a tough month as its school startup and I want everything in my classroom to be ready and great immediately! Unfortunately it doesn’t happen that way:(

Knitting:

I started my day off great by sewing the headband I finished last night before bed.

I used the free Ravelry pattern Mobius Headband. The only change I made was to only use 12 stitches as it looked too wide to me when I tried 20 and 16 stitches. It’s done, it fulfilled the Herbology class this month on HPKCHC, used another skein remnant and will be donated to the Christmas market at school. A win win:)

Teaching:

We wrote about our expectations for grade one and two this morning. I regularly do a piece of writing where I do not provide any support other than a brainstorming session. These works are then posted in the hall under the child’s picture with a bull clip. At the end of the year they are made into a Book and it is very cool to see the progress the students made. From these, I would say my students are a little higher this year.

We also worked on our math printing numbers booklets and our bubble letter art.

It looks like so little when I write it out, but it took us six hours to accomplish🤣

After school, I finally managed to finish off labeling all of the children’s books for the year. They are put away and it feels good to finish this big job! Now onto the next one.

Movies:

I have to admit I watched a movie on my laptop while I worked on these books during my prep and lunch. I managed to find the movie Yes I Do. This movie was nice to watch as it had the very handsome Marcus Rosner in it. I also enjoyed it because it seemed different from the usual Hallmark movie. She is having to win him over:)

Exercise:

My squad runner mission was a 45 minute run. I just didn’t have it in me, as for the second day in a row, my feet were sore. I took my walk home from work and another half hour and did a 55 minute walk to get the mission. I do feel very guilty for not running though:(

I got the bad news that my running shoe is no longer being made in my size:( I was ready to cry as I don’t have a ton of options in my size. What am I going to do if I can’t find a running shoe that works for me???😢

Well, that’s another work day done and now I shall collapse into bed! I really need to become more exciting or you all will stop reading. I’ll try to come up with something soon:)

Have fun!

AJ

Unimportant Finishes

A quiet day, but I did get some stuff done, though nothing important.

Blogging:

I obviously need to figure out which titles I have used before. Does anyone have a good system for keeping track?

Exercise:

My walk today went much more smoothly. I tried running and that still hurt, so I was smart for a change and just walked. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to get back to running. Squad Runner drove me nuts again as it didn’t give me any points so yet again I have had to email the support team. It’s enough to put me off running for this team!!!

I was going a little nuts with wanting to work out, but figured I probably shouldn’t as I’m supposed to work out with L tomorrow. I don’t want to hurt myself before then! I came up with a good compromise though and did an ab workout.

10 crunches

20 double foot drops

30 toe touches

40 bicycles

50 I don’t remember:(

60 butterfly crunches

70 heel touches

80 reverse crunches

90 static crunch with scissor feet

100 twisted mountain climbers

I should probably be doing this workout a lot more often!!!

Knitting:

I spent much of today knitting and finishing off my headband. I really didn’t want to face another day of those charts and also I wanted it to count for the Charms class in HPKCHC on Ravelry.

My mom had the good idea that I should have photocopied the pattern and colour coded it. I was actually eleven rows from the end when I finally remembered what one of the symbols meant🤦🏼‍♀️😫

It worked out fine though I’m not completely happy that the edging is not even on both sides so the headband doesn’t look symmetrical. Since it’s just for me running in the winter, I won’t take it apart, but if I make another I would be sure to make the edging equal! I would also use a heavier weight of yarn if I make it again, but it did do what I wanted (used up the end of the ball of yarn).

This pattern was from my 60 Quick Knits using Cascade yarn. Since I used my book, it means I don’t have to feel guilty buying knitting books because I obviously use them🤣

Reading:

I have thankfully finished another book today, Chasing Christmas Eve by Jill Shalvis. I was starting to get worried that I had lost my reading mojo.

It took me a bit to get into this book but that may be due to the fact I had read the rest of the series a while ago.

Once again, I really liked the supporting cast of friends. Shalvis does a great job of incorporating a variety of characters and making them realistic and believable. She does such a good job that I disliked Elle for most of this book!

I also liked how the main characters changed realistically. Colbie learns to not do everything for others and Spence learns balance. It isn’t instantaneous which just makes these lessons more believable.

The Christmas theme isn’t so grand that you can’t enjoy this book at other times of the year thankfully.

I would recommend the book for anyone who is looking for a strong series or who enjoys reading about the artistic type.

Crafting:

Well I’m going to start my next rug square and watch a movie.

Have fun!

AJ

Homecoming

My mom came home for a day🎉🎊

Exercise:

I got up this morning knowing I needed to get my 6km run in right away before it got any hotter! It is nice now that I know a 6.3km route in my neighborhood as I didn’t have to plan or measure it really think, just plod. It wasn’t too bad though I really should have still taken some water with me!

Unfortunately that was my only exercise of the day:(

Knitting:

I have a better picture to show you of my sweater that I finished yesterday:)

I normally don’t like to have multiple projects on the go, but I’m going to do a headband out of the tiny bit of yarn I have left over so that I can delete the skein from my stash:). My mom thinks this headband will be good for me as it requires me to read a chart which I normally avoid like the plague. I just like that it is from one of the knitting books that I own so now I have reason to buy more as I obviously use them🤪🤣

I also started an entrelac purple scarf for my friend K that I hope to have finished by the September long weekend when I will see her again. One of my HPKCHC classes asks me to do something scary and entrelac definitely is scary for me!

My mom also helped me pick out the bag I will knit from my newest knitting book. I got given handles so I obviously need to make a bag🤣

Hopefully some of these things will be done soon!

Family:

I met up with my mom about 2pm today as she came into town for an appointment. It was so great to get a mom hug- nothing beats it!

We stopped at Michaels so I could grab needles, but they didn’t have them and now it turns out I don’t need them! We also had a quick look through Pier 1. I always live just wandering with my mom- nice to have someone to say, “oo look at that” to!

We ended up going from there to visit my nephew. We didn’t think anyone was home so were sitting in the front yard when lo and behold my nephew opened the door. He was happy to see us as it meant he could go swimming. We spent about an hour sitting around their beautiful backyard! Ugh I should have picked up a new swimsuit right away!!!

It was so cute watching this one play with my nephew! Nephew love!!!!

Eating:

We ended up going out for dinner with my nephew and sister in law. I always love spending time with her – I am VERY lucky in the SIL department!! We hit Red Robin and I had a lettuce wrapped burger. It was very yummy, but gone before I remembered to take a picture of it?

Movie:

Last night I watched Love Blossoms. A Hallmark movie about a daughter trying to reinvent the perfume her father created and she uses the help of a botanist to do it. They of course, fall in love. It was entertaining, but definitely not my favorite movie.

I’m not sure where today went! I’m off to watch another movie and get my rug rows done for today.

Have fun!

AJ

More Social

I was much more social today which was probably a good thing:)

Exercise:

I got out for my run first thing this morning, but my legs were still tired from the speedwork last night. I was mad at myself that I had to walk during a thirty minute run! Then I made myself remember where I used to be and figured it was good I went out!

I also didn’t much feel like doing a workout, so I told myself I just had to do one set of each exercise, I got them done but nothing extra. It’s a shame because I liked the workout- three circuits with four exercises each- one for legs, one for arms and one for abs. You do each circuit three times and then a cardio blast and a plank before moving onto the next circuit. Maybe I’ll give it another try tomorrow.

This evening I went for a bike ride with my co teacher. When I visited my brother in early June I came home with my niece’s bike that she had outgrown and I finally used it tonight. We just went along the river and I slowly got used to riding again. I’ve never been a great bike rider and it’s been about twenty years, so this could be interesting! We have plans to go again though on the 16th:)

Socializing:

I managed to go meet up with a high school friend and enjoyed a nice Starbucks and walk with her and her two sons. The little guy had a good long nap, but despite walking in many circles we never did get the older one to go off for a nap. It’s always so wonderful meeting up with her. First it’s like no time has past and secondly it’s nice to just spend time with her, we do t even have to be talking. We met up at my old university and boy has it changed! They have added some beautiful paths with wildflowers growing. Maybe it was too beautiful and that’s why we couldn’t get big brother off to sleep!

Crafting:

I actually got more than hour done on the rug today because I was watching a new Hallmark movie!

Movie:

I watched The Perfect Bride: Wedding Bells. I had watched the first movie last night so that I could watch this one today. I really like the main actors they seem very realistic and he’s funny! They have good chemistry and it sounds as though they are on another show together too.

Knitting:

My mom came through with the idea of knitting a dishcloth for a repeat project. I got that done today and it used up another skein! I’m doing pretty good and have used up fourteen skeins lately, though yes many of them are just partial ones, but to make it easy I had counted every ball of yarn,no matter it’s size, as one skein. I’m happy with the dishcloth and I got it entered into the Ravelry HPKCHC Muggle Studies class. That is two classes completed so far, so I think I can start a sweater:)

Baking:

I knew that I was going out tonight and my co-teacher’s sons will gobble up anything so I took another try at scones, but using blueberries. The taste was awesome, but there must have been too much liquid this time in comparison to dry ingredients as they turned out too cakey. I ate two so I quickly packaged them up and got them out of the house!

Reading:

I also finished a book today! It was This is Our Song by Samantha Chase. It is part of her Shaughnessy Brothers series and tells the story of Riley and his relationship with Savannah. I have been loving this series and really enjoy Samantha Chase books generally, but I have to admit I had s hard time getting g into this book. It might be because, while I like music, I don’t follow it closely so a whole book about a singer didn’t really pull me in. I did continue to really enjoy the family dynamic and the ending was very sweet and satisfying:)Well that’s it for me tonight!

Have fun!

AJ

The First Real Day

Well I think of this as my first day of holidays as it’s the first day I would have had to go to work. It was a nice day:)

Exercise:

I have definitely gotten into the mode of sleeping more and lounging in bed a bit in the morning. I did finally get myself out for a 7.6km walk though. It was nice in the trails. I had actually planned to go further and for that reason went the reverse of what I usually do. For some reason, I find it more difficult to go further one way than the other. The plan was thwarted however when I got by the mill and looked ahead to see the two coyotes hanging out. I turned around and figured 7.6 was just as good as 8+🤣

I had switched my run and walk today as Dennis had said he wanted to run tonight. We met up at Hyde Creek again and did the first 1.5km together. I then did six speed repeats of 500m and then just ran back and forth waiting for him to return. I couldn’t believe how tired my legs were just from so few speed repeats!!! I was happy I had stayed there when I heard how hot it was the rest of the way. I have to say I was pleased with myself when we were running back. I had it in my head that I only had to push my tired legs until I hit the start of the fence, but instead of going down to a walk, I just slowed my pace:)

I did a little bit of P90X Yoga X when I got home, but I think the 1.5 hour time at the bottom scared me off. Maybe I will do better tomorrow:)

Crafting:

I did get my hour done on the rug today:) Hopefully this will lead to me getting ahead:)

Knitting:

I also managed to get a photo of the simple preemie cap I made yesterday.

I will be spending some time tonight watching a Hallmark movie and knitting something I have knit before (another class requirement for HPKCHC). Mom if you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them. I am trying to get a couple of classes done so then I can work on a sweater for me:)

Reading:

A few days ago I panicked when I realized I had two NetGalley books that needed to be reviewed by July 10th. Bring me, I sat down and figured out I would give each five days and then I determined how much I had to read each day to finish in that time. Yes I know my nerdy side is showing:)

Well the first book is, How to Keep a Secret by Sarah Morgan. I suppose the fact I finished two days ahead of schedule should give you a clue how good this book is.

Wow! When I started this book it was very quickly obvious that it was different from the other Sarah Morgan books I have enjoyed. I wasn’t sure that I would enjoy this new direction she was taking.

This is the story of the Stewart women- and how one summer sees everything in their lives change.

I have to say that this book gives you all the feels- you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll gasp and you’ll sigh:)

I loved how the people and the situations were realistic and interesting. It wasn’t one drama to another, but just life during big changes.

There isn’t just one secret, but several and I didn’t see them coming! It was great to be surprised!

The pacing of the book was great! There were no instantaneous situations, but it didn’t drag either.

I also liked how the author evenly split the book between the four Stewart women.

If you love family, sisterhood or just want an excellent read, this book should be on your TBR.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author and publisher for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Movies/

I have watched All For Love today. I enjoyed Scott Bacic in this movie:). Now I’m starting on The Perfect Bride so I can watch the sequel:). I have to admit, the lead lady’s hair flapping around when exercising drives me crazy!

Have a great night!

Have fun!

AJ

Quiet

It was the first day of my holiday that didn’t have commitments, but it didn’t really feel like holidays yet as I’d have this day off even if I was working.

Exercise:

I got up this morning and decided to run around a local lake. My knee is still a little sore and this lake has a mulch path so I thought the soft surface would be good:) The lake is 1.2km around so I pushed myself for the first two reps and then slowed down to a steady run for the remainder of the forty five minutes I needed to do for the mission. I thought this was a good idea today as I’ve been worried that I’m losing my thirty minute base because when I do longer runs I take walk breaks. I was really happy I could do more than thirty and maintained a decent pace:)

Mid day I decided to tackle a short workout. I had to do goblet squats, burpees and up/downs and then skip for 1 minute, do them again and skip for 45 seconds and a third time and skip for 30 seconds. The second set of exercises of jump lunges, froggers and upright rows followed the same pattern. To finish I had to do all six exercises with no skipping. I used ten pound weights so I was feeling some by the end, though I admit I should get myself some 12 pound weights.

This evening it was so pretty I went for a nice steady 7km walk:)

Another day of all three fitness activities done, so I’m happy😀

Crafting:

I got my one hour on the new rug square done first thing and actually managed to do just over 11 rows in that amount of time:) I may just get caught up on this rug! Here’s a picture for those of you asking for one. I live in fear that I’ll mess up which way the stripes go and have to redo a square!

Knitting:

I got a cute little preemie hat done in lilac for one of the HPKCHC classes on Ravelry. It is super easy and I could do this in my sleep! Cast on 54 stitches, join in the round, knit for six inches, decrease. It also used up another small skein out of my stash so it’s a win-win!

Sorry I just realized I don’t have a picture of it. I’ll rectify that tomorrow.

Blogging:

I also spent a good deal of today getting caught up on blog reading. Now the tough part will be staying caught up!

Movies:

The only other thing I’ve managed to do today is watch two very cute Hallmark movies. Eat, Play, Love and Love at First Bark. They were both super cute and I enjoyed the animals in them:)

Well I’m off to bed and maybe tomorrow will be more exciting:)

Have fun!

AJ

Holiday Day 1

Don’t worry I won’t call every day in sequence!!!

Exercise:

After sleeping for 11 hours, I got up and out the door for my run. It was raining and my legs were still tired from yesterday’s workout, but I got 5.91km done, enough to complete the mission:). I say it was a bad run, but the fact that I ran 5.91km and didn’t think twice about it shows that it couldn’t have been that bad!

I am quite happy that I also got a workout in as one of my goals this summer is to get back to weight training more. I am definitely noticing the lack of muscle I have right now! I did 8 circuits of two exercises each and did each twice. It was a good whole body workout as it included: high knees, mountain climbers, single leg bench squats, shuffles, dips, plank jacks, skipping, woodchops, up/downs, cross country skiing, butterfly crunches, oblique crunches, squat pulses, push-ups, burpees and v sits.

Amazingly, I also kind of got a walk in this evening, though it was more of a stroll than a “walk”. I’ll take it for the first day of holidays though!

Knitting:

My first priority after my run today was to finish the baby tee in time to get it entered for the potions class in HPKCHC. I ended up calling it Sunflower and Sunshine and I’m super happy with it! It also used up another random skein of yarn out of my stash🎉🎊

I followed the free Composite pattern off of Ravelry, although I did the whole sweater on size 4mm circular needles rather than switching needles for the edging. It was super quick and easy and I love how cheerful and cute it is!

Crafting:

I have been working on my rug square, but haven’t quite managed to finish it yet. Hopefully by tomorrow night.

Reading:

I’ve been working on the same book for a while which is odd for me, but I’ve also been listening to Great Expectations by Charles Dickens on LibriVox . It’s good so far:)

Blogging:

I’ve been trying to catch up on my blog reading as I’m currently three days behind. I apologize! One of my goals for summer is to catch up and stay caught up!!!

Socializing:

Lyndsay texted earlier tonight to see if I wanted to join her at the Local Canada Day celebrations. We walked over with her son and it was pretty cool. There were some booths set up and we checked out the paint balling one (you have to be ten) and some clothing ones. Her son got ice cream and Lyndsay got a delicious looking baked potato topped with chicken and avocado. It looked really good! We played bean bag toss which was fun

and listened to a live band- Famous Players out of Vancouver. It was cool because one of the band members is the brother of a parent at my school.

Product Review:

The last thing I have to say for tonight is that I’ve been really enjoying this dairy free, gluten free tzatziki alternative!!

It tastes just like tzatziki and is super yummy. It has the consistency of cream cheese which worked great to spread on sandwiches, put in celery and for dipping chicken into. It was delicious in all three instances!

Well I’m off to work on my rug a bit:)

Have fun!

AJ