A Treadmill

Today, I really have no new progress made. Last night was also a busy one with an appointment, going to Super Supplements for a small shopping trip and taking some time to walk on the treadmill we received yesterday. My in laws bought a treadmill about 5 years ago. After less than a year, my MIL found out that she had cancer in her knee and should not be putting the extra strain on it. It’s too bad, too, because she was finally starting to get a little stronger and have more endurance. Since that time, the treadmill has been sitting unused. They have so much stuff in their house that she would lay out an old towel on it and then put the cats’ food on it like a table! I asked my husband if he thought they would be willing to “loan” it to us. He has been forgetting to ask for a while. Then, I called him, yesterday, while he was over at their house. His dad pretty much said, “Yes, can we take it to your house now?” So, when I arrived home last night, there it was. My neighborhood is not all that well lit and it has been dark by the time I can go out for a walk or jog, so this will be a great help to me. I still prefer to be outside, even if it is windy or cold, so I’ll go outside when my husband is willing to go with me. However, having the flexibility to get a good cardio work out at home is wonderful!
My doctor suggested that I might get my good cholesterol up by getting more cardio. She (and I) are concerned that my good is way too low and my bad is too high. Put that together and it’s a disaster waiting to happen.
Last night, he was too tired to go, so I put on a DVD (episodes of Mork & Mindy) and walked through one episode plus a little more. It felt great and the machine still works well. However, it no longer allows me to change the incline. If I find that I use it often, I may try to convince him to buy a new one that would have everything working better and quieter. :)

Cables and Os Progress

I have been diligently working on my Cables & Os Cardigan from No Sheep for You. It is growing! I have completed around 15 percent more of the project, which is almost doubling the progress I had from last year! I started it last May, and worked for a couple of weeks on it. When it did not seem to be growing fast enough and my wrist was starting to hurt, I moved on to something easier. This is a cotton/linen yarn knitted at a rather tight gauge, so it does bother me some if I forget to stretch. I was noticing that it was bothering me a little last night, so I started taking a few more stretch breaks and that enabled me to continue working until I needed another skein of yarn. I forgot to put one in my bag before leaving the house, so I stopped at that point.
Yesterday, I was working on it at a staff meeting and had several people comment on how nice it looks! (I keep eye contact with the speaker most of the time, so no one has ever said that I shouldn’t be knitting at these events. There are around 70 of us at these things and there is only 1 person speaking at a time, so no employee participation, other than listening, is expected.) In that hour, I finished almost one pattern repeat, of 8 rows on 374 stitches. That felt really good and I was quite impressed with myself.
After work, I went to my women’s group at church. During the discussions, I often knit, too. While there, for 2 hours, I finished another repeat. When I am talking, I sometimes stop knitting because I am concentrating on getting the right words so that I am understandable, so I get less done that when I only need to listen.

Weekend Knitting

This past weekend, I did tire of the same sweater pattern, and pulled out my nearly half done Civil War Shawl. I completed several rows, which at around 1400 stitches on the needles, is quite an accomplishment! I'm now only about 6 rows from starting the edging. That point is about half done. I still love it, but it is not a good van pool project as I am needing to look at the chart too often. Maybe I'll pull it out again next weekend. The wool/silk blend yarn I'm using has a beautiful shine to it and I really would like to get the finished before the end of the year. (If you notice on the side bar, it was started almost a year and a half ago. I think this may be my oldest UFO.)

Cables and Os is coming along, nicely, too. It still takes quite some time to finish a row, but I have the pattern memorized, so its not that big of a deal. I had forgotten what it was like to knit a sweater in the round, because I've been knitting them in pieces, lately. It seems to take a long, long time to get to the row where the division happens for the arms, but what a sense of accomplishment! I'm just biding my time right now. :)

Cables and Os

I've working away on my latest project, Cables and Os, from No Sheep for You. Its a lovely pattern and I'm enjoying it immensely. However, when working a complicated, but easily memorized, stitch pattern over 352 stitches, it takes forever!! I knit and knit, but seem to have little to show for it. I'm using Elann's Camila in Sunset Rose, which is lovely but not so stretchy. I machine washed and dried my swatch and the fabric does not (surprisingly) shrink and is softer, but the cables still pop. What an amazing fiber! I'm just plodding away and hope to get near the arm holes, where I'll be working fewer stitches at a time, before I tire of the project and cast on something else. Those that knit with me often laugh at how quickly I move on to something new and at how many, many projects I cast on at once! (Along this note, I have to say that I am laughing right with them, as I can hardly believe it myself!)