Starting to Get Back to Normal

Well today made a start on getting my life back to boring.

Exercise:

Since I had to stay home for the delivery, I decided I could start the day with a run in the sunshine. I just did an easy three kilometers to the park and back, but it was tough! I did a Nourish Move Love stretching video this morning, my three minute plank routine and the ten minute beginner cardio workout this evening. I love days when I get all the exercise types in.

Oh and for those of you wondering where the Run to Rapid City update is, I just got a notification that my post last night didn’t publish, so I’ll say it again. I’m going to save my February mileage, what little there was of it and add it to my March mileage as I doubt I even made it out of Billings this month:(

House:

The delivery finally came at 12:30 and they hooked up my washer and dryer. It took a couple of hours but I finally got up the nerve and did a load of laundry. It was loud without doors on the closet, but the spin sure is fast. If anyone has any good ideas of what to do for closet doors, please let me know.

My cousin came this evening and checked the washer and dryer and started the process of hooking up the dishwasher. Unfortunately there’s some conversions that have to be gone so I’ll be washing dishes by hand for at least until Sunday. I did get everything organized and put back into the closet though so my living room is almost normal:)

Knitting:

Since I had to be home I spent most of the day knitting. Oh if yesterday’s post didn’t publish you didn’t get to see my latest hat:(

Musselburgh

This is the Musselburgh hat which is a paid for hat on Ravelry. I like this hat because it is double layered. I have done this one in Pascal Mohair in black for my coworker Sue for Christmas. It looked big so I made her try it on but it looked super elegant and stylish on her. I just need to get a pompom for it.

Today I worked on my Bonny sweater by TinCanKnits and the London socks by Mina Phillip. I am loving both and will hopefully be done soon.

Well that’s it for me.

Have fun!

AJ

Happy Friday Eve!

I can’t believe it’s already Thursday again! My kids have been getting crazier and crazier each day so it all made sense when I saw it was a full moon today.

Teaching:

We had a pretty productive day though I hear my kids got yelled at by other teachers at lunch when they were yelling in the bathroom:(

We got through printing m, music, adding practice, silent reading and our monthly stem challenge.

The kids were super engaged in the stem challenge where they had to create a sledding ramp and see how far their “sled” would go. They got a piece of card stock, a piece of tape and thirty pieces of tape. The sled was the top of my tea container. I think the best was twelve centimeters, but I loved how they just kept going. One little girl cried at the end and one of her classmates gave her an idea to solve the problem. It was great to see!

I finished prep after school, but was super happy to get out of there!

Reading:

I finally finished the third book in the Confectionary series I was reading by Sydney Jane Bailey. I had a bit of trouble getting through the third book, but only because I could see the trouble coming and I’m finding it tough to read angsty books right now. The whole series was fun and well written.

Knitting:

I actually finished my new mitts yesterday, but will share them now. They are the TinCanKnits pattern World’s Simplest Mittens which is free in Ravelry. This is the second time I have made this pattern and I still love it! This time they are made out of Tumble Mountain Fingering held doubled. They are soft and a gorgeous blue colour, though I’m sorry you can’t see that with the bad night photo.

Exercise;

I got to start a new exercise class tonight. A couple of years ago I took athletic yoga and really enjoyed it as it was a challenge. My friend and I wanted to go back but of course it wasn’t happening. It was finally offered again and while it is different, it was still a good class. It is much less aerobic and there are only eight people and it’s only allowed to be 45 minutes, but boy did I feel like I worked hard in those forty five minutes. You get into a yoga pose and then have to do weights or body weight movements. I think I’m going to feel my abs tomorrow!

Well I think that’s all my excitement today.

Have fun!

AJ

Monday

I had absolutely no ambition today, really wanted to just stay in bed with my book!

Teaching:

We got through a journal, music class, gym class of What Time is it Mr. Wolf?, an assessment of place value, and a lesson on hibernation.

The kids were best during the assessment and I actually got the entire class done in one go- unheard of!

At the end of the day we went outside as it was sunny when we went. It started hailing, but the kids didn’t appear to even notice. I was a frozen popsicle by the end though!

I headed out quickly after school as I had a massage.

Reading:

I finished the book The Toffee Heiress by Sydney Jane Bailey. This is the second in the series and I enjoyed it as much as the first and have started on the third book now. It is complete fluff, but happy and enjoyable!

Knitting:

I had started a toque out of the yarn I bought in Burn’s Lake last year, but it just wasn’t right, so I’ve ripped it out and have started on a pair of mitts for myself. For a long time I had a grey pair of the Simplest Mittens in the World by TinCanKnits that I loved, but they got holes in them, so now I am replacing them. I really need to get going as it’s cold outside right now!

Netflix:

I have finished the Canadian Baking Show and Emily in Paris so far and am almost done Virgin River. If anyone knows of any other good chick flick things on Netflix, please let me know.

Well that’s it for my Monday.

Have fun!

AJ

Day 10

I never knew my running buddy was so obsessed with coffee!

Exercise:

We went out further on the dyke today and did 8km. I was laughing inside as I was literally counting the meters when Dennis decided we should check out a side trail. I was cursing him at the time, but it was probably a good thing as otherwise we would have been short.

It was a gorgeous place to run and busier than I expected though that only amounted to meeting 8 people the whole time we were out there, and yes a wide distance was maintained!

This evening I did another short workout. I find I prefer these and are willing to do them more often than a longer workout, so hopefully they equal out. This evening o did my regular minute of jogging between each of these:

Burpees, froggers, skaters, squats with weights, plié squats with weights, reverse lunges with weights, curtsy lunges with weights, Bridges with weights, crunches, reverse crunches, static lunge with scissor legs, bicycle crunches, plank, pushups, dips, pullovers and rows.

I feel like I should do more arms! As I write this I just remembered the countdown workout I used to do regularly and maybe I’ll try that to change up my workout a bit.

Knitting:

I got a picture of my spindrift shawl finally this morning. I am hoping that all these cowls and shawls will help keep me warm as we move into a season where I would look weird wearing wool sweaters.

This is a pattern by Helen Stewart that you can get free if you sign up for her shawl workshop. It only amounts to a few emails so I’m glad I did it. The yarn is once again recycled yarn from my stash.

I have been working on the Meditate Cowl by Elizabeth Doherty today with the Anzula Squishy yarn. I picked this pattern up for free this week and was excited to make it as the Yarniacs talk about this designer. The yarn is amazing- so soft and I like the looks of the pattern a lot, but it is moving very slowly.

I have been making so many accessories lately that I really want to make a sweater so I am thinking that I will break my rule and cast on a sweater to knit at the same time. I am going to do the Love Note sweater by TinCanKnits as I love their patterns and I already own it. I just need to decide between a very light purple or a turquoise. I think it will be cast on tomorrow though.

Other than knitting I have read a bit, but haven’t finished the book yet, and I have worked on a puzzle. I love doing puzzles but dislike when I get to the end and disassemble it and have nothing to show for my time. 🙄

I have to apologize that I haven’t been visiting any blogs lately. I never realized how small a data package I really had until I have to do without my work WiFi. I am hoping to remedy this situation in the next few days and will be back to catching up on your lives. I hope everyone is well!

Have fun!

AJ

One of my favourite days of the year!

Well it finally got here!!! Knit city 2019 was super fun:)

After quickly dropping off some more sold items and returning a library book, I got picked up by Brenda and Patti to head to Knit City.

We didn’t want to stand in line when it wasn’t moving so we planned to arrive when the doors opened and it worked really well as we still got in within fifteen minutes.

I may not go into every single stall, but I have to go systematically so I know I haven’t missed anything.

One of the neatest things was seeing everyone wearing their knit items. I wore my Not a Boring Sweater and Brenda wore her latest shawl, but I sure did see a lot of sweaters I want to make!! I actually asked one woman what pattern it was and added it to my Ravelry queue.🤣

I tried to be good and follow my rules of no single skeins and no yarn that wasn’t on sale and looking for accessories and patterns predominantly, but I still came home with quite a bit.

I will describe what I got starting at the top right corner. I got a really cute stitch marker/progress keeper that is a cup of tea from Firefly Notes. I always find something there and I thought this was perfect as I usually have tea at the end of rounds, however I also bought a marker that says BOR🤣. Maybe I’ll just use both! I also got markers that say RS and WS for right and wrong side because sometimes I have the worst time remembering! These cane from Julie Adeline Yarn. Finally I also got a shawl cuff from Knox Mountain Knit Co. This is the one purchase I slightly regret as I should have held out until I found the perfect one, but instead I just bought a plain black one that is hopefully skinny enough not to look weird on me. In this category, I also wanted to buy sock blanks for blocking my socks, but it was her first year making my size and she didn’t have any of the really cute patterns in them yet so I decided to hold off until next year.

You then see the beautiful red DK yarn I bought from Kensington Farms that I think I’m going to make a sweater like Gramps sweater by TinCanKnits. I am trying to break out of only buying blue, black and gray so this was my attempt. It’s super soft and was a great price, though I have to admit it wasn’t on sale.

The variegated blue I bought from Baad Anna’s because it was 50% off so it counted for sale yarn, even though it is blue. I have enough to make a sweater and it is fine enough I’ll be able to use it for one of the projects out of Knit So Fine (the book I want to work through).

The project bag also came from Firefly Notes. I had bought three from them last year and really liked them. They have deep enough handles to go over my shoulder, but are also super lightweight so they scrunch up into nothing when not in use. It was also a fabulous deal at $12 as most of the other bags I saw started at $45 and went up from there 😳. Obviously making project bags should be my new side job!

Beside the project bag are the five patterns I bought from TinCanKnits. I love TinCanKnits and have made most of their free patterns on Ravelry. Their patterns are always well written and I love how they come in multiple sizes so you don’t have to buy multiple patterns to get all the sizes you want! I know my mom isn’t going to love some of them, but I plan to buy more next year. Well it might be before next year as I just realized I didn’t get the Gramps Sweater one.

Finally the bottom three yarns are all lace weight yarns from Isis Fibre Arts. She is no longer dyeing lace weight yarn and so had her lace weight on sale. I thought getting almost 900 yards for $20 was a good deal since that will do a sweater for me:). I bought a turquoise, a variegated teal and a variegated purple. There were so many more I could have gotten!!!

I once again eyed the yarn bowls and a couple of skeins by Maidenhair and a few off dyes by other companies, but managed to resist them all. I also looked at Sweet Georgia Yarns for some neutral tone of Tough Love Sock so I can make the Life Savers cardigan, but there was no way I wanted to spend over $80 on that today. I think I’ll just look in my stash for some neutral sock weight to go with the remnants of the mini skein set I have from Sweet Georgia.

We also eyed all the advent calendars, but the cheapest one was $170 for only 12 days and all the 24 day ones were over $200. We all want to do one so we’re going to need to figure something out for next year!

We were there a lot longer this year, but I think it’s because we took a break for an early lunch at the Rolling Cashew foodtruck. I was super excited that they were going to be there and thoroughly enjoyed my cauliflower wings. Brenda and Patti had them too and also liked them!

Knitting:

Of course after being surrounded by all this yarn and loveliness I came home to knit all the rest of the day, rather than cleaning or cooking or anything useful.

This is the triple check scarf that I finished last night. It’s a little on the short side, but is super warm and cozy. Right now it’s in the charity bin, but it might become mine:)

I really wanted to cast on a sweater for me, but I have spent the day knitting a baby sweater for my RMT. It is very simple and is Zane’s Coming Home Sweater from 101 Designer one skein Wonders book. I am almost done and just have to finish the sleeves and edging, so you should see it tomorrow.

Eating:

I think I get to colour in today as I ate exactly as I had planned. I’ve had:

One rice cake with Pb & j

Cauliflower wings

Cucumber and cheese

Well I’m going back to finish my sweater and keep listening to podcasts.

Have fun!

AJ