Paris - March 2004

Paris - March 2004

Techno Power

Here is my first try at adding a photo to a blog.
Techno Power

Weekend Update #2

Lot's of snow. Pot of split pea soup cooking on the stove. Almost done with second felted mohair ballet slipper. I reknit the Porcupine's felted slipper - started with 36, but it looked too small, so ended up with 40 stitches. It now looks almost as gigantic as the first try. Let's just hope it felts down to size because I can't bear to reknit it a third time.

Johnny Carson died today. I'm finally old enough that I know practically everyone who dies.

Last Sunday we went to see the movie "Kinsey". It ended with home movies of animals procreating. They even had a little porcupine love fest. How cute.

Weekend Update

We went to the symphony last night. It was pretty good. Otherwise, all we did was clean up the place all day. It was really messy here. We probably need to spend a few more days cleaning, but it's a start. I also made an incredibly high-fiber healthy dinner: Acorn squash, sweet potatoes, pilaf with wild rice, brown rice and bulgar wheat (very tasty) and some round steak.

I'm trying to get motivated to take the 1 pm spin class today. Maybe I'll also restart my weights program.

The pre-felted slipper I made for the porcupine turned out to be more gigantic than expected. Even though I suspect it might felt to the right side, I'm going to reknit it with 36 stitches instead of 44. He does have very skinny feet. He helped unravel and roll up the yarn last night after we got home from the symphony. I think he secretly wants to knit, but he won't admit it.

Stomach Flu

Came home early with stomach flu. I've been on the verge of it since after spin class on Monday. I hope I feel better tomorrow, although I may not go to work anyway. It is supposed to be awful weather tomorrow and maybe I should just stay home. Anyway, I had to skip spin class, which sucks. I don't think we'll be able to start our Friday night yoga class tomorrow because Jojo's school has a skating party and we told him we'd go to it. They have it every month and it is kind of fun. The little porcupine took Jojo to wrestling practice tonight. It started this week and he sounded really excited to do wrestling, so even though it conflicts with swimming lessons, we're going to let him do wrestling instead. It is only for about 6 weeks and I think it will be very good for him. He seems like a natural athlete and he has a good build for a wrestler.

Felted Swatching

I decided to make a felted gauge swatch for the red/black slippers. Three times through the washer and it never did felt all the way, you can still see the stitch definition. Oh well. Anyway, the gauge seems to work okay. I hope the finished slippers will fit my little porcupine and his skinny feet.

Felted Slippers

I finished the felted slippers for Kiki. They look very Dr. Seuss-ish. I definitely need to figure out how to post pictures. Now I'm going to make a pair for my little porcupine. I found a different pattern to use. The first pattern was good, but the slippers didn't felt as much as I wanted before I had to stop - otherwise, if I let them felt longer, they would be too small.

I'm going to make the porcupine's out of Cascade 220. I was going to do a cuff with 1 strand red and 1 strand black, then the body in two strands red, but he seems to like the red/black thing, so I'm going to do the whole slipper with both colors. This pattern looks WAY to big - I'm up to the heel turn. I might have to stop at the LYS and ask some questions. Also, I stopped at THREE LYS's to get size 13 DPN's and they were all sold out!!!

I'm a little sore in the back muscles from yoga, which is surprising, because the class seemed so gentle. But that is good.

Stitch N Bitch

Went to the LYS SnB and stitched a little and bitched a little. Topics included funny potluck experiences. One woman went to a cub scout potluck where a parent had brought a plate of bologne sandwiches. I think the cub scout was asked what he wanted to bring and he shouted out "Bologne Sandwiches!!!"

I looked at the felted slipper lady's slipper and it is huge, too, so maybe the gigantic slipper that I am knitting for my little porcupine will turn out okay. I finally worked some more on my gauge swatches for the Rogue and decided that I think I need an 8 addi turbo for circular gauge and a 7 addi for flat gauge. So I got the 8 and bought the yarn. 6 skeins of Cestari in blackberry. They have the cranberry on order, but who knows if it'll ever come in. They are both good colors.

Size 13 DPN

One of the LYS's said they were getting in the size 13 DPN's today and they did, so now I have them. In the meantime, I taught myself how to knit a sock on two circulars, using my Denise needles with the 13 needle point on the RHS of each circular and the 11 on the LHS.

I called the Saturday morning yoga teacher to see if we could bring Jojo to her class. She was very elitest. I totally wouldn't have minded if she said that she doesn't accept kids in the class, but she didn't. Instead, she said it wouldn't be fair to her other students to have a beginner like him in the class because she'd have to spend too much time with him and many of her current students have been with her a long time. I find this incredibly odd, since the class is a beginner class. What a snob. Anyway, we really liked the Friday night teacher, so we'll just sign up for her class instead. She was really nice and encouraged us to bring little Jojo to class.

Went to Spin class again. It is getting easier already.

Spin Class 2

Spin class number 2. Wanted to quit half-way through, but I stuck it out.

Spin Class

Attended first spin class 6:30 - 7:30. It wasn't too hard, even though I'm so out of shape. There is another one on Thursday night. I think I'll give that one a try. I hope I'm not too sore tomorrow.

First Slipper Done

I finished the first slipper for Kiki's birthday. Can't wait to felt it and see how it turns out, but I'll have to wait until I finish the mate. If I can figure out how to upload a picture, I'll try to add it later this week.

New Year's Ice Skating

Today we bought some used hockey skates for me and Jojo, then we went to the Depot ice rink and skated. I think I got in a good 40 minutes of aerobic ice skating. I also bought a new Sonicare toothbrush.