Fiber Fool

Well, I had a very anti-climatic end of 2012/beginning of 2013. Due to sleep issues which have rendered me awake at 2:50am on the button most mornings and unable to fall back to sleep before my 5:30am alarm I was sound asleep at the stroke of midnight. Knit night did run a tad longer than normal and even included a short glasses of champagne for many of us. Thanks to DH we had hot from the oven Limpa (Swedish rye bread) and fresh churned butter along with all the other fabulous goodies provided by Sarah our host for the evening and many of the others.

I did cast on that yarn I showed in the last post, along with a contrast yarn into a project I think is going to shape up into something really great. In fact, I’m currently so excited about it (the first since starting to work outside the home full-time) that I may hold back on sharing it in hopes of publishing it somewhere. It is mostly simple with just a sprinkle of interest so it even works for watching TV or reading or any activity that may interrupt knitting time unexpectedly - just the kind of projects I require these days.

I’ve been waffling back and forth about resolutions. Should I or shouldn’t I? The more I think about it the more I like the approaches to set an intention or choose a singple word to define the next year. 2013 is likely to be another year of a lot of fluctuations in many ways. I think the key to weathering those (while I’m no fan of monotony in my daily tasks I’m not very good with changes) is going to be self-care. So for 2013 I’m going to focus on caring for myself - physically and mentally.

Physical Self-Care

• I need to get back into some semi-regular fitness routine, cold weather and lack of gym membership aside!
• I would like to take at least 1 soak a week to detox and restore my muscles.
• If I can budget it, I would like to get a massage once a month to keep my chronic pain levels in check.
• I wish to continue learning about and creating more of my own beauty/health and home cleaning products.
• Continue to eat nutritiously, balanced and in proper portions with a focus on whole foods and a mindfulness of seasonality and origin.

Mental Self-Care
Through much of 2012 I struggled with having the energy (and in some cases physical stamina due chronic pain issues) to persue any of my creative interests after hours. So that will be the focus for this area as I think creative outlets and learning are cornerstones for my mental health.

• Weekly dates with my camera. I have no excuse for having hardly taken any photos in 2012 unless I was given a project. For one, I work in a beautiful area that is full of wildlife and other natural things so at worst (if you can call it that) I can get out on my lunch hour.
• More knitting *and* designing. I think the key to that will be to have something at the vanilla stage of knitting (loads of Stockinette stitch or garter stitch for example) and something a little saucier to occupy my brain if it is obsessing on something.
• Continue to learn more about sewing, including perhaps taking a class or two.
• Practice Yin Yoga, a very slow paced, mostly floor-bound style focused on letting go and releasing muscles rather than toning or building strength that due to its pace is extremely meditative and helpful for stress management and sleeping issues.
• Continue reading, hopefully averaging a bit more than a book a week. While I’d love to surpass this year’s 80 titles read that seems too high pressure so I’m aiming for 62 once again and will re-evaluate as the year progresses.
• Learn more about making fermented foods like Kombucha, Kefir, Water Kefir, sauerkraut and fermented pickles.

Likely those bullet points will evolve and change throughout the year and that is okay as long as I’m still aiming to care for myself.

How about you, do you have any goals, intentions or resolutions for 2013? Any tips for me on adhering to mine or suggestions of additions or alterations?

Just a couple weeks ago 10 on Tuesday was about summer goals. Perhaps it is the high temps, but I feel like checking in and seeing how they are progressing…

I really haven’t touched the creative goals much yet. Having worked creatively for so long I know sometimes you just have to fill the well and take things in and not worry about the creating. There are things stirring in my brain, but nothing solid enough to motivate me into action just yet.

For the fitness goals I’m doing so-so. On a positive note I’m regularly covering a 5K distance. Not running the full distance yet, which is my goal for actually entering one. But this morning’s was accomplished in 42 minutes and I climbed 500 ft too! I’m still uncertain on what a realistic time goal will be. But I would have never guessed I’d already be at 42 minutes without pushing too much. Maybe a 30 minute one is possible? And maybe I’ll have to sign up before the October Homecoming one? But exercise has been more like 3 or 4 times a week with the bike out of commission and issues with weather and air quality and allergies. Although, the days I do work out I really make it count and often clock 90 minutes or more so I probably shouldn’t beat myself up about it.

Nutritionally I’m doing pretty well. I have definitely amped up the general veggie intake, enjoying a good cup or more of fresh veggies with my sandwich at lunch. This week I added a yummy soy-wasabi spread/dip which I shared at knit night on Monday. So I’m eating more greens - sugar snap peas, broccoli, cucumber, edamame :-) But the not the greens I was talking about in my post, LOL!

On the fun side of things, DH is going to take a fun break from thesis work this weekend to go to Taste of Fort Collins with me at some point. It has been a few years since we’ve been so I’m looking forward to it. And, for sanity’s sake we’re planning on biking to/from instead of dealing with car traffic and parking issues. I don’t know at this point if anyone else we know is going and if we’ll meet up with them if they are. While it isn’t a movie date, it is a date and with his deadline looming I’ll take it!

Another upside to packing my lunch all the time is more reading time. I often read on my lunch break which helps pick up the slack from my running on the treadmill (I can walk and read, but running and reading is beyond me). And my book choices have been pretty decent so I’m actually bummed if I need to run an errand or that over my break instead. It is nice to have a “reward” for being thriftier and healthier! So I’m actually really close to having finished two ficiton books this month. To be fair one was started in May, but I’m averaging about 1 cozy murder mystery a week. I’ll probably do a post on books I’ve read lately before too long.

How about you? Have you done anything towards your summer goals yet? Read any good escapist fiction? Had any fun dates with your loved ones?

As I connect with people through Twitter and Facebook and read blogs I often run into things that catch my eye, but I don’t often take the time to share such things. So I’m going to try on a semi-regular basis to share links to things that I’ve found inspiring, helpful and even just pretty. The links are likely to be in the categories of craft, cooking and photography but I won’t intentionally limit myself to those.

Of Crafting (with a bit of a 4th of July theme in most cases):

• I love the idea of making my own decorated lights for our patio!
• I could always use another apron, but the ones that have been catching my eye lately are either too light weight to do any good and/or are too much for my budget. I may just have to make one myself!
• This review of Debra’s Garden needle and hook sizers I think has convinced me to finally purchase one (I’ve eyed them since before they were actually available, but never took the leap).

On Cooking:

• Finally, something a little more unusual to use my sage for!
• Or common flavors using sage in an unusual format!
• Raspberries are going to be at the market before too long (and are inexpensive at the markets right now) and I’m gonna have to give these muffins a try!
• I’m excited to see what Coconut & Lime’s Change for Feta blog is going to contain!
• I’m going to have to give Ree’s spinach recipe a try as we got yet another large bunch of spinach in our CSA this week!

On Photography:

• I’m not up to this point yet, but I would have no idea what to look for in studio lights.
• An example of shooting in bright sunlight that may be handy for this Independence Day weekend.
• Not to mention it is a good time to refresh on how to shoot Fireworks! And here too!

Getting Stitched on the Farm has had a great series of posts about the lambing season which is starting to slow. There are some very heart touching stories, not to mention some fantastic photos. The series begins here.

For a chance to be inside the gray matter of someone working on a sweater design, head over to Deb Robson’s newish blog and read about her adventures in designing a nordic sweater. Be sure to go back through some of the archives to read earlier installments in how she puzzled out details in the design. I can’t wait to see the finished product and I sure hope she models it for us SnB gals when it is done!

If you’ve admired the knee high socks popping up all over blogland and want some guidance on how to size them for your own leg, check out Theresa’s three part series which starts here.

I should technically have an FO for you. In fact, it was an FO by last Friday. However, I’m at a loss on how to photo style it :-/ I also took some photos of the Christmas decorations, but I used the new camera and I do not have a macro lens for it so I wasn’t getting what I was aiming for.

So, let me point you to a great place for all kinds of yarn eye candy… The Yarn Museum! You can even see some of my stuff there. If you are a spinner and haven’t submitted anything to the Yarn Museum yet you should!!