Spinning epiphany

Just wanted to share the fun I had spinning over the weekend.  I have been working on spinning a pound of mill end roving that I had ordered to practice with.  I haven't had time to spin for going on 3 weeks so I had to work out some initial rust.  I also thought I'd try out a couple of new techniques I had read about.  What I ended up with was a disappointing thick/thin yarn and a feeling that maybe I would never progress in my spinning.  I went back to drafting the roving the way I had been doing and my yarn improved but I was still disappointed in my inability to master a short forward draw which is supposed to be a beginner's drafting technique.

I was really getting tired of the mill end roving that it seemed I had been spinning forever and decided to just go ahead and try something new.  I pulled out the half a bag of alpaca I had left from what we bought when we went to the fiber festival in Virginia and thought I'd give that another try.

It was all the fiber I had when I went to my first spinning guild meeting in November.  The ladies in the guild told me it was not a good beginner fiber so I bought some corriedale from one of the guild members who is also a vendor and put the alpaca up for later when I was a better spinner.  I took the corriedale home and spun it all up while waiting for the mill end roving I had ordered to practice on to arrive.  

I pulled out that alpaca on Friday and thought I'd give it another shot.  I was (and still am) amazed at how easily that alpaca spun up.  I finally got to experience what people mean when they say a fiber spins like butter.  I was spinning a very fine yarn using the short forward draw with no problems.  I felt like I could probably have spun with a long draw if I had wanted.  It was spinning up that easily.

I worked through what I had left of the alpaca way too quickly.  What a difference!  I understand now that it wasn't me, it was the fiber.  I understand what people mean when they say the fiber just wanted to be spun thin (or thick).  I feel so much better about all things spinning.  I went back to spinning the mill end roving with the understanding that the mill end roving was meant to be spun at a medium thickness using my version of the short backward draw.  The mill end roving needed to be split about 4 times and pre-drafted once or twice while the alpaca needed no prep whatsoever.  

I'm using the mill end roving to finish filling the bobbin that is currently on my wheel and I need to ply what I've got left on another bobbin with this bobbin.  I've got to do this to free up a bobbin for more spinning since I only have three.  I need to order another woolee winder bobbin and some more alpaca to spin.  I've got some superwash bfl and merino to work on and of course my mill end roving.  I'm really looking forward to trying out the merino and see how I do with that.  If I can spin that well, then maybe I can spin up that merino my mother picked out at the fiber festival and send her some beautiful handspun yarn.

The day after Christmas

Well, all in all Christmas went pretty smooth.  Everybody got along and there were no fights (only one of the usual main instigators was there).  The worst thing that happened was Mike dropping William's new tv and busting the plasma screen.  He's out now taking it back to Best Buy to get another one.

I think everyone was happy with their gifts.  I got a spinning wheel from my parents and a woolee winder from Mike.  I love them both and only wish for time to spin.  I am determined to get some time in with my wheel (Miss Lilly Ann) today.

Ugh!  My laptop is giving me fits.  I need to take it in for a good cleaning and get some memory added.  I don't know why the thing runs so slow except that it is old in computer years.

Mike just called and he's on his way home with a Sony tv for William.  He's going to get it set up and hook up the gamecube then go get William.

I got a little device from my parents that monitors not just your steps but your activity.  It's pretty cool. It calculates your activity level, the calories you've burned and for how long you have been active.  This is a good weight loss device and I definitely need to lose weight.  My dad said he'd pay for a membership to weight watchers but I think I may check out some other weight loss sites and see if there is something out there that I might could join that would make use of this new little device I have.  I was a member at ishape for awhile and they have a good program.  There's also ediet which is supposed to be good.

The Redskins finish up their season this Sunday.  It's hard to believe football season has come and gone.  The Redskins started out so promising and I guess all things considered are fortunate to be assured of at least a .500 season.  I hope they bring back Jim Zorn for another season.  It just wouldn't be fair to fire him after just one season.  He needs to have the benefit of a full offseason and to be allowed to show what he has learned from this past season and how he can move forward and build on it.  I'm undecided on Jason Campbell.  I think he deserves another year and then if there's no definite improvement...well let's see what CB5 can do.  (I'm also aware he will be a free agent after this next year.  That's a tricky one and I'm glad it's Vinny and not me making those decisions.)

I think it's time for me to do some spinning.  I need to practice spinning from the fold and my short forward draw.

I tried to crochet with the yarn I had navajo plied and it's some pretty rough yarn.  I was going to make Mike a hat but I don't have enough yarn and I also messed up somewhere and the hat was way too small even for my head.  I frogged the whole thing and re-wrapped it into a center pull ball.  Maybe I'll navajo ply what I'm working on now and then have enough for a hat.

Wow...I just read back through this and what a random stream of consciousness.  Oh well, blogs are what you want them to be...right?

One week in

We're one week into the new school year and DS's assessment is "Fifth grade rocks". He has done his homework without a fuss everyday this week and has been getting his work done at school as well. I don't know how long this will last but so far so good.

I'm sitting here blogging instead of crocheting or cleaning and I desperately need to be doing both. I am down to an arm and a half and the bonnet on my doll but then I have the rr to go. It would be very good to finish the weekend with a completed doll. I don't think the rr will take me long at all since it only has to be big enough to fit the doll.

My ww isn't going as well as I'd like. I gained a lb last week even though I thought I did pretty well. Oh well, a new week begins today so I'll just keep on keeping on as the saying goes.

Mike's first painting

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Originally uploaded by PogoJr

Take a look at Mike's first painting. Didn't he do a great job? I always knew he had the talent. He did this following along with a Bob Ross DVD but he did some things different to make the picture his own. I am amazed. I could never in a million years do this and this is what he got with his first attempt.

Weight Watchers

Well, I signed up for ww again today. I'm going to do a few days eating as I normally do just to see how many points I eat a day. I don't know when I'll start for real, maybe next weekend.

The Crochetville 2008 Crochet games are underway and I have been having the worst luck getting started. I think I now have everything and am ready to get going. Maybe I can get a lot done during the Skins game tonight (yeah, right!).

Congratulations to Art and Darrell, my new tote bag, etc.

Redskins

Well today is the big day for Darrell Green and Art Monk. They will be inducted into the NFL HOF and for Art it's about time. I would say I'm excited about watching the induction ceremony but DH has decided we're going shopping and out to eat for my birthday tonight. I'm sure Redskins.com will have video of their speeches which is all I'm really interested in anyway.

Oh, and did you know the Skins play their first preseason game tomorrow night? I can't wait even though there are going to be very few starters playing. I'm just excited to see my boys in burgundy and gold back on the field and playing some football. Go Skins!!!

Crochet

DH called me earlier as he was leaving to go haul hay to tell me we had a package in the mailbox. I was hoping it might be from a C'ville elf and took off out the door in my scrubs and flip flops in 90 something degree weather. It was a trip worth making (we have a looong driveway) because the package was indeed from a C'ville elf. Inside was a beautiful handmade tote bag! It was done in a variegated yarn the incorporated some of my favorite colors. To my eyes anyway the burgundy and gold really stands out. Isn't it beautiful?

A week from tomorrow...

Redskins
Can you believe it??? It's almost here!!! Football season!!! I didn't think we'd ever make it back and so much has happened in the offseason. We have a new head coach, a new defensive coordinator and a new offensive coordinator. Thankfully we didn't make any big free agency splash although we traded this week for Jason Taylor after Philip Daniels went down with a torn ACL and is out for the season. Getting JT seems to have energized the team and the fans. I'm anxiously awaiting the ES write up of today's scrimmage.

Crochet
My current crochet project is a name filet I'm working on for my now ex-manager. She was a wonderful manager, probably the best I've ever had. I'm really going to miss her and it scares me to think who they may get to replace her. I'm working on the solid border, then have to add the fan border and I'll be done. I'm ready to be done too. I want to work on something else. I bought some I Love This Cotton yarn at HL yesterday. It is so soft!! It must be new because I have not seen or heard of it before. I bought 2 skeins each of aubergine, buttercup and white. I'm thinking seraphina.

Orioles
My baby birds aren't doing so well right now. We've lost 4 straight. We're playing the angels right now who have the best record in baseball, then go to play the yankees who are doing their second half surge thing, then out to the west coast to play the angels again. This is going to be a rough stretch that's going to test DT and the team like never before. Our starting pitching is in shambles and there's no one in the minors ready to come up and play. One positive though is our offense. We're hitting like nobody's business and that's good to see and keeps us within stiking distance in most of our games.

What I'm reading
I just finished Odd Thomas for the second time and it was just as good and just as sad. I have started Forever Odd (also for the second time) but am only on the first chapter. I'm rereading the Odd Thomas series so everything will be fresh in my mind when I finally get to read Odd Hours. Then I want to read the Christopher Snow books as I hear his hat is worn by Odd in Odd Hours. So many books, so little time....

It's been over a month...sorry...

I guess I've been busy. We're leaving to go to Virginia tomorrow to spend a week with my parents. DS is there already and is pretty homesick. I can't wait to see him and give him a big hug. The weight loss thing has gone totally out the window. I can't seem to stick with any plan.

DH and I bought swimsuits yesterday and I was mortified of how I looked and that was in basically a tank top and shorts. I'm going to talk to my mom while I'm home and see if I can get some pointers. I've joined a cal on Crochetville that has you put all your WIPs on their own index card and then pick one to work on for the day.

You have to get at least one row or round done before you can spin the wheel and move on to the next one. I was a little shocked to find out I had 29 WIPs. Actually, I think it's 30 now since I went out and bought the yarn for 2 more seraphinas. My project for today is to start my winter seraphina.

I got some lovely merino wool from the LYS in a dark pink, burgundy variegated colorway. I just know it's going to work up beautifully. I can't wait to get started but I have other things to take of first (like packing for the trip and other chores to be done before I leave).

I also have some work to do before I can play but what better motivation to get it done and out of the way, right?

Weight management

I just wanted to update my weight management progress. I don't own a scale that works so I don't know what my weight is but I've been doing fairly well falling under my calorie limit for the day.

Here's what I'm doing: I can have 1500 calories a day and that can be supplemented by activity calories and flex calories. The activity calories are based on what my pedometer says I've burned for the day and the flex calories are 1500 extra calories that renew each week that I can use however and whenever I want.

This has been working except when I see that I have a lot of extra unused calories at the end of the day, I am tempted to have a high calorie item just to "use them up". I thinking about banking them somehow so I will be encouraged to save them instead.

I don't know exactly how I'm going to do this yet but I'm thinking about reducing the number of weekly flex calories and letting my unused calories flow into that bank. We'll see how it goes.

Mike's surgery, my diet, etc

Mike had his surgery today and everything seemed to go well. The doctor said he removed 2 large bone spurs and cleaned out a lot of arthritis and inflammation. He's hoping that will reduce Mike's pain and give him a better range of motion. My diet has been kinda on again/off again here lately. I'm getting to where I really have to force myself to write in my food log.

It's getting to be a pain and I'm starting to come up with reasons not to do it. I've decided to take more of a weight watchers approach. I'm going to shoot for 1500 calories a day, I'm giving myself 1500 anytime calories (I can use these throughout the week as needed) and then for every 2000 steps I walk I get 100 activity calories.

Does that make sense? It's actually going to create a little more bookkeeping work for me but we'll see how it goes. I'm trying to eat more fruits and vegetables because they are "free". At the weight management class I took last year, the dietician told us she'd never heard of anyone getting fat off fruits and vegetables so we could eat all of those we wanted.

My Baby Birds continue to surprise and the Redskins had an interesting draft. I was proud of them for not trading away a single draft pick. We don't need Chad Johnson! I'm still working on William's Spiderman round ripple. I also started a Seraphina shawl a couple of weeks ago.

I'm using random yarn from my stash and am just making sure I'm comfortable with and understand the pattern. Then I'm going to go to my LYS and buy some yummy yarn to make a really nice seraphina with. We also drew for our little secret pals last Sunday. I was excited to draw the name of a precious 4-yr old little girl.

I've already found a pattern of a crochet doll to make for her. I want to make a small seraphina shawl for the doll and a matching one for the little girl. This will have to be part of the last gift because it will take me awhile with my schedule to get these done. I've finished my coffee and need to get up and do some housework since I'm home today.

My parents will be here before I know it and the house is still a wreck. Did I mention I won a Jimbo hook? It is beautiful and so smooth. I love it!!

It's been a week

It's actually been quite a week. I had to take my daughter to the doctor because she wrecked on my son's dirtbike (she's going to be ok). Work was rough (don't even want to go there) and the yesterday I had to pick my son up from school early because he was sick (feeling much better today). To update...first my Baby Birds...we spanked the yankees last night 8-2. That 7 run inning sure was sweet. I just love Dave Trembley and I hope they re-sign him to a nice long contract.

We need his kind of enthusiasm and knowledge of the game if we're going to get where we're going especially with the young 'uns we've got playing for us. I was watching Nick Markakis and Adam Jones run off the field together last night and I told my husband "There goes our future right there." His response was "what?" (He doesn't pay any attention to baseball.) Our future is definitely bright with those two to build around. Now if they'll just keep BRob.

I've also completed my food log for the week and have set my goals for the coming week. My calorie goal is 2100 and my step goal is 6400 per day. I didn't realize how many calories I was putting away in a day. No wonder I'm gaining 20 lbs a year. I'm going to see if I can't slowly bring that number down. Did I mention I got one of Jimbo's chophooks and I also won one of his hooks off his auction this week? I can't wait to get it. I'll use it to work on my son's Spiderman rr. I'm using the chophook to start a Seraphina shawl. Something I've been meaning to do for a long time.

This is going to be a practice shawl made from scrap yarn from my stash. I figure this way I can learn the pattern and then find some really nice yarn to make another Seraphina shawl.

My son wants to learn to crochet!!!

I got so excited tonight when my 10 year old son asked if I'd teach him to crochet. I've been working on a Spiderman rr for him and I had been working on it while waiting for church to start. I put it up once church started but he pulled it back out. I thought he just wanted to look at it and see what I'd done but then he got my hook out and put it in the loop and started trying to "crochet". He whispered and asked if he could crochet and I told him to go ahead thinking he was just playing but then he asked me to show him how.

That's too much to talk about in church but I told him I'd let him pick some yarn out of my stash when we got home and I'd teach him. So now he's got his yarn picked out and I'm going to start working with him tomorrow. He gets easily frustrated when something he thinks is going to be easy turns out to be harder than he thought so I hope he doesn't give up when the yarn doesn't flow right through his fingers like it does mine.

He wants to make an afghan and asked me before he went to bed how to change colors. I told him to let me teach him some basic stitches first and after he practices on something small we might could try a simple afghan pattern. This may go nowhere but at least for tonight, I'm a proud momma.

My poor Baby Birds, UVa spring game

After getting off to a hot start and a 6 game winning streak, my Baby Birds have lost 3 in a row. It's a scary throwback to what happened last year. Daniel Cabrera pitches tonight and he's supposedly been working on something new that will be a surprise. Whatever it is, I hope it results in him throwing more strikes and issuing fewer walks.

UVa is playing their spring game today. So far it sounds like they are focusing on the passing game. Presumed starting QB Peter Lalich has thrown 3 interceptions so far. We've got a lot of work to do before we open with USC this fall.

The time has come...

for me to try (again) to lose weight. I went to the doctor yesterday and I knew he would fuss about my weight but I wasn't expecting the talking to I got. He spent quite a bit of time talking to me about it and when I was checking out, I heard other patients complaining, wanting to know why they were having to wait so long. He asked me to promise him to do something about my weight and I promised that I would try and I am bound as a Christian to keep my promises.

So, here is my plan. I took a weight management course last summer and learned a lot of things I never put into practice. I hate measuring my food and keeping a food log but like my doctor told me, I don't need a diet, I need a lifestyle change. That's how I'm going to have to look at this, as a lifestyle change. I hoping that after doing this for awhile some of it will become second nature and won't require as much thought.

My doctor recommended Weight Watchers but I can't afford the montly payments so I am going to go with what I learned last summer. I am going to keep a food log for a week and continue to eat as I normally would. At the end of the week, I'm going to see how my calories I consume a day on average. I'm then going to subtract 100 from that number and that will be my goal calories per day for the next week.

I'll continue averaging my weekly calories and subtracting 100 until I get down to the recommended amount of calories for my height and age. It will be a gradual that hopefully won't be hard to do. That was the lesson from the weight management class and what my doctor told me yesterday. I need to make small changes that I can live with and not feel deprived. That's what's always killed me in the past, the more I tell myself I can't have the Reeses Cup, the more I want it.

I'm also going to try to drink more water. I bought a water bottle that I can take to work and keep on my desk. If I can just keep it full, I will sip on it all day. The other thing is exercise. I used to go to the gym regularly and loved it. I don't have time to spend 30 minutes to an hour in the gym anymore so I'm going to do the same thing with my steps that I'm doing with my calories only going the other direction.

I'm going to track and average up the number of steps I take in a week and then add 100 and make that my goal. Hopefully, I can find a way to get up to the recommended 10,000 steps a day. I'm going to try to post my progress and thoughts on this blog as a way to keep myself motivated. Hopefully, by putting my struggles into words, I can work through them instead of letting them get the best of me.

O's win 4 in a row, etc

Congratulations to my Baby Birds! I know we haven't even played a week yet but my Orioles are 4-1 and sitting atop the AL East. I know it won't last so I've got to enjoy it while I can. Dave Trembley has them playing together as a team and really hustling. After what we went last year, it's nice to see.

Things didn't go as well for Jr at Texas today. He had the pole and I thought a pretty fast race car but he complained of being loose all day and Tony Jr just couldn't get the car handling right. Congratulations to Carl Edwards...better him than jerkwad jimmie.

I need to finish up my last 8" square. Once that's done, I think I'll start on my son's Spiderman round ripple. He's been very patient while I worked on squares so now it's his turn.

My first blog a tribute to Mrs. Hazel

Well, I always intended to do this so here's my chance. I guess I'll use this blog to publish any thoughts I have that I think are worth writing about. I think my first blog will be a tribute to Mrs. Hazel. She was a very sweet lady that I went to church with that died this past Thursday after suffering from her second stroke. She loved my son just like he was her own grandson. She brought him candy and ceramic pieces she had made. She was one of these cute little ladies that everyone loved and I want to be like her when I get old. She was strong and independent and always thinking of others. It's hard to believe she's gone. She was one of those people that you just never think will die. She recovered well from her first stroke and even though you could tell she a little more feeble, I thought she seemed back to her old self. It's a sad weekend for those she left behind but I know without a doubt that she is safe and happy, resting in Abraham's bosom. RIP Mrs. Hazel. You are loved and will be missed.