Yopping Update - Week 18

This week it was all about the sweater and I am almost finished the back. I am happy that I will definitely have enough yarn as I am not quite finished the fourth ball and I had nine to start. This sweater is knit side to side - I am almost ready to put in the second armhole.


I came home from my sister's with the yarn I needed to finish my sock yarn blanket.



I got two and a half squares done last night while catching up on the Survivor and Blacklist episodes that I missed while I was away. Fifteen more squares and it is done!

I finished my sampler shawl - I am leaving it unblocked because it seems cozier and more old-fashioned that way. Homespun all the way.



I made six pints of pickled onions.



My Hoya is in full bloom now.




And to finish off my week I got this lovely package from the leader of my Spinzilla group - all the way from Hawaii



I LOVE the little spinning wheel charm. I am going to turn it into a stitch marker.


I am off to check out the progress of other Yoppers. You can too if you click here.

Yopping Week 17 Update

Well, the week started off with this yummy gluten free cake make by my daughter and her husband.





Which lasted until Thursday for morning cake and coffee.

I wound my homespun I created during Spinzilla.



and then I added ten more squares to my blanket using above said homespun.



I realized that October was almost at an end and I had to take a couple of hours away from knitting to do this:



19 pints of mustard pickles.

Friday night as I headed to bed I was surprised and thrilled to see my Hoya was blooming. My Mum always had a hoya blooming in the dining room window of my childhood home. I bought this plant at a Cortes Island yard sale two years ago. I think it had three leaves when I bought it. I never thought I could get it to bloom. But hope does, in fact, spring eternal:



I knit another ten rows of my sampler stitch shawl using my homespun. Only ten rows to go until it is finished.





and I got a bit further on my wayside sweater - first armhole complete and now I am working on the back.




A couple of swims thrown in for good measure.

An art class with a dear friend (finished product to be shown at a later date).

And a few errands to boot.

That was my week.

If you want to check out other Yoppers then go here.

That is what I will be doing today after yoga and a swim.

Swimming uphill

You have all heard the story that someone of the older generation tells when the younger generation is kvetching about how hard life is.

"When I was a child I had to walk uphill to school. Both ways."

I think it is possible they were telling the truth.

I discovered something similar recently at my community pool.

I like to swim in the smaller seventeen metre pool if it is available. There are various reasons for this.

It is warmer.

It is shallow at both ends.

It is beside a huge floor to ceiling window so there is lots of natural light.

Because of the current from the nearby river feature in the adjoining pool area, when I swim west to east in the lane it is easier than swimming east to west. This gives me a good workout as I swim against the current.

Usually this smaller pool is roped off so you can only swim in the lane closest to the window.

The other day the whole pool was available and I decided to swim in a big circle rather that just an immediate turn around at the end of each lane.

And you know what?

If I swim west to east on the far side it is against the current, and when I come up the lane near the window from east to west it is also against the current.

One day while swimming another swimmer stopped me and commented that swimming against the current was like swimming uphill.

And it is. I count my strokes when I swim and with the current I complete the length in 14 strokes. Against the current it takes me 22 strokes. The current works against my glide.

When I swim with the current I feel like I am flying through the water, but when I swim against the current I feel all my muscles working to propel me through the water.

Swimming with the current feels great. It is swimming with ease, gliding with speed, breathing easily, feeling free.

But, lately, I prefer swimming against the current.

It allows me to feel all my muscles. It allows me to experience the hard pumping of my heart, and heavier breathing in my lungs. It makes me pay attention to my balance in the water and the position of my head when I breath on the right side. How is it different than when I breath on the left side? How does using a six beat kick change my forward progress versus my usual two beat kick?

I learn a lot swimming against the current.

But, then again, I already knew that.

I have been swimming against the current most of my life.

I learn the most about my self in this life through the challenges I have faced.

It is hard being human.

But we knew that before we incarnated here.

Hard is how we learn the lessons we came here to learn.

So, I will continue to swim against the current.

And build muscle.

For what is still before me.

Yop Update - Week 16 - October 16 - 23

Whew, after spinning all the previous week it was nice to get back to my knitting.

I pulled my wayside sweater out of hibernation and it took me a while to remember where I was and how to work the lace and cable pattern. Once I was on track I spent the week knitting and got this far:



Five full repeats of the twelve row pattern on 171 stitches.

I did get all my skeins from Spinzilla washed and dried, and I will start adding them to my sampler shawl and sock yarn blanket this coming week.

I will visit my sister very soon, because look what she found for me at the Free Store on her little island...



For sure this is enough to finish my blanket to 800 squares. I got two more squares done this week so my total is 772!


And.... I turn 61 tomorrow.

61!

How the hell did that happen?

Honestly, I still feel nineteen inside.

I am spending this weekend in a little town of 29 people with a dear friend of ours. It is quiet, and peaceful here and we have already met at least a quarter of the town's residents.

So that is my week.

Yours?

Yop (Week 15) and Spinzilla update

Spinzilla is over as of 11:59pm Sunday night and I was able to spin seven one ounce skeins.



I spun one single, and the others are two plies.

I have had the BFL fibre for two years, waiting until I felt I was a better spinner before using it. It spins like butter - and is so soft to work with.

Now that the Thanksgiving weekend is almost over I can get the skeins washed and then start adding them to my sock yarn blanket.

Speaking of the sock yarn blanket I did get a few more squares done this week as well. Total: 770/800!

I worked last week subbing for the Handwork teacher so I got to help students from Grade One to Eight - knit, crochet, cross-stitch, and sew (both hand stitching and machine). I did get a bit of knitting done during lunch breaks on my charity knit socks.



I am determined to pick up and get going on my sideways sweater this week....but I fear the sock yarn blanket will lure me into its cozy, almost finished, light at the end of the tunnel, I have handspun to add, web of knitting euphoria.


Oh, and I did finish my mosaic socks and I have worn them ALL week. I love the fit and the colour.

Yopping Week 14 - and SPINZILLA

Well this has been a busy week, with lots of knitting, but since it was mostly the mosaic socks I only have one picture to show. The heel is turned



and I hope to finish it today, because......

drum-roll please......

SPINZILLA starts at 12:01am October 3rd!

So, for the upcoming week, ALL I will be doing is spinning.

Spinzilla is a Ravelry event where Teams of twenty spinners try to spin the most yardage in one seven day period. My local team was full so I joined the Hawaii Team, because HAWAII PEOPLE. I can live vicariously with my team-mates - sun, surf, volcanoes!

I am all ready to go - I have my Sweet Georgia fibre, my New Zealand fibre, and yesterday I bought some hemp fibre.




So knitting will be on hold as I try to help my team win this thing!

I did get 8 squares knit on my sock yarn blanket, but it is now hibernating because I need to spin more yarn for it now that I need an extra 20 squares to make it symmetrical.

Yesterday was Knit City in Vancouver which is a fantastic two day Knitting event held every October.

I bought a book of hat patterns, a set of Flip Stix dpns, two sock project holders, and some brown hemp to finish a couple of double-knit zodiac pot-holders.



That is my hemp fibre in the bottom left corner.



It was a great day with my knitting friends, PLUS, I got to hear the Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, IN PERSON.

I know this post seems to have a lot of shouting but really people the YARN HARLOT, and SPINZILLA - I am pretty stoked.

Yesterday I did start a boot sock for myself because I had to have a simple knit for KnitCity knitting and the mosaic socks, what with their four charts, and being in the middle of the heel turn, in pattern, wasn't going to cut it.


So yes, it was a good week.

I also did one of those facebook thingeys and it was a collage of the words I use most in my status and pictures and comments.

It seemed to be so perfect for my new blog header.

What do you think?