Weekend Update

It's Sunday evening at the end of a busy weekend. Windows are open, sun is setting, and we're winding down, getting ready for another busy week.

I spent some time on Saturday working on Todd's hat. The colorwork is finally done.



I've got to take some measurements to see if I'm ready to start decreasing for the crown.

We biked 25 miles today! It was good, and my legs are still a little tight. I'm getting to the point  where I just feel overall better. I've also started doing "wall push-ups" as well. My boss recommended them-- you stand an arm length away from a wall, and place your palms against the wall. Then you slowly lean your upper body to the wall, and then slowly push back, just like doing a push-up. It's less difficult than doing regular push-ups but is still going for the upper arms and chest. I'm just doing a couple 10 rep sets each day, but I'll work my way up.

Yesterday I baked these cupcakes, which I consider to be EPIC. I didn't take any photos, as I didn't finish baking them until 10:30 p.m. on Saturday night. I saw the photo in my google reader, and printed it, but if I hadn't seen the photo every time I looked at my pinterest board I doubt I would have made them so soon. I will advise, these cupcakes dirty a LOT of dishes. If you don't want to worry about clean-up I don't think this recipe would be advisable. I will make them again and again though; they were that worth it to me. Also, I have some of the cherry filling left over that I stuck in the freezer, so one less step to worry about next time!

I'm also experimenting with smoothies. I made strawberry yogurt ones tonight. Pretty good, but they need something. Maybe a slug of chocolate sauce? Chocolate makes everything better!

The best part of my weekend? The concrete guys came out and framed in our soon to be patio! I cannot wait to sit out there with a cold Oberon (or Paulaner Hefe! found at Costco!) and just enjoy being outside.

Progress on Todd’s Hat

Finished the ribbing and have started on the colorwork portion of the hat. I never realized what a pain it is to work with black yarn. It makes it difficult to count rows, and photography is difficult against a white background. I’m going to have to play with using different colors of fabric (Jo Ann’s and Hobby Lobby here I come!) to see what gives the best contrast and lighting. In my picture in the last post, the white in the image appears to be exposed properly; however you can’t really see the detail of the black yarn. It’s just a black blob when I look at it.  I’m going to have to work with the mister to create a backdrop “holder”.

My current set up is a full magazine storage box (Flyt from Ikea) with some fabric draped over, a tripod for my camera, and a white plastic lid clamped to the side of my table. I’ll have to try to take a picture of it the next time I set it up. It’s in this style from Photojojo. My table has fold-down leaves on the sides, so I fold down the one side and use one of Mr. TEK’s woodworking clamps to hold my makeshift reflector in place. Granted it was a first try, and since I took the photo with sunlight streaming in the window I had to use another piece of white fabric, held to the existing window shade with binder clips to further diffuse the light. But I think it worked out fairly well. It’s something I am definitely going to play with as I work on my object photography.

The most difficult part of object photography is keeping The Baron out of the way so I can get my photos. Sometimes you just have to give up and use him as your subject. (this is my old set up, it didn’t work quite the way I wanted it to.

WIP Report

Knitting: I just started back up Saturday, by just casting on 100 stitches in black yarn for Todd's Hat. I didn't touch it on Sunday, but knit 4 or 5 rows of the 2x2 ribbing on Monday, and I got another row or two done today at lunch time.



Sewing: I'm working on some curtains for my kitchen, as well as having a set of curtains that need to be shortened. I probably won't get to finish these projects for a couple of weeks anyway.

Biking: DH and I have set a goal of 850 miles to bike this season. We've been working at it since March, and we've got nearly 250 miles down. We would have had more, however the early rains kept us inside. This week, we've ridden 35 miles, and should ride another 20 before the week is out.

Photography: Downloaded GIMP on my laptop, as well as the desktop, and now I'm learning how to convert RAW files (.nef since I'm on Nikon) to jpeg. Hopefully I can learn this quickly!

The Baron approves.

Welcome, I'm trying again

After a short knitting hiatus, I'm back. I thought the best way to get back into knitting is to reinvent my online knitting personality. On the knittyboards I'm keeping my nickname, however, I'm creating a new Ravelry account, and this new blog. Starting over from scratch so it would seem.

Part of the reason I stopped knitting, blogging, and otherwise being crafty is because I got caught up on the Facebook game cycle of time wasting. A week ago I decided that I was done. I cancelled and blocked any Facebook game I played that required daily (or multiple times per day) maintenance. I want to focus my time and energy, not on things that waste time, but on the things that matter- bicycling, knitting, sewing, baking, photography, reading, etc. And in comes the blog. Forcing me to take pictures to share, writing up my progress, plans, thoughts, and failures.

I am a 31 year old woman, married, with a cat. Duke- aka Baron von Fuzzytoes, likes to watch me knit. I'm an intermediate knitter who prefers smaller interesting projects, cables, colorwork, stuffed animals, etc. I'm also a lazy knitter, I hate seaming in particular. I have a day job, so look for evening and weekend posts. My initials are not "TEK" in real life, that stands for "The Enforcer Knits". I am a complete novice when it comes to sewing, and I classify my photography skills as "hobbyist" as best (I see that as less than novice/amateur), but I'm a hell of a baker.

Let's do this. And wish me luck.