I had a fabulous physical therapy appointment yesterday. I have many areas of pain, and they all seem to move around a bit, but the last two visits, my main discomfort has been in the same place, and yesterday, he nailed it. I’m so happy! So I have yet another exercise to add to my routines, but I don’t mind. It feels wonderful. Sometimes my visits with him are like having a personal trainer with a Masters Degree. I love it.

This week, unfortunately, was not the most active for me. Monday, I didn’t get any exercise in.
Tuesday, I did my physical therapy routines.
Wednesday, I did physical therapy and weights.
Thursday, I did all three. (PT, weights, and a 2 mile walk).
Friday, I ashamedly did nothing. (It was a very busy day).
But today, I’ve already gone for a walk, with a few spots of jogging tucked in for good measure!!!!! :-). Happy me! And I intend to do both upper and lower weights later on.

I seem to be cursed on Fridays. Yesterday morning, I woke up weighing 223.5! I was so excited. I figured (once again) that if I ate well all day yesterday and had a light dinner, I should be able to officially declare the 20 pounds lost this morning. Not so. One of my sisters-in-law are moving, and last night, the women of the family all went to Olive Garden for a “good-bye, we’ll miss you” dinner. Without kids. Many yummy appetizers were ordered, and the salad, and the breadsticks…… I hardly even ate any of my whole wheat pasta and meatballs. STILL, I came away overly and painfully full. I cannot remember the last time I ate that much food. So you can imagine how I was definitely not 225 or lower this morning. Pout.

Still plugging along. It doesn’t make much sense to me why I’m hanging out at a pretty constant 226 pounds, in light of all the work I’m putting in, but I can tell I’m getting healthier, feeling better, building more and more muscles….. OOH, THAT REMINDS ME!!! Hehe. I’m starting to be able to see the muscles in my upper arms! Can you believe that??? You probably can, considering none of you have lived with my upper arms for the last 29 years. I can’t believe it. Even before I freakishly gained all this weight 10 1/2 years ago, my upper arms were yucky and undefined. I never liked them. I still don’t. But, I’m starting to be able to see some definition in there. This is surprising, considering there is still an awful lot of fat on them, but nevertheless, I can see hints of muscle definition, and I can certainly feel it!

“Oh, what a beautiful mornin’,
Oh, what a beautiful day.
I got a beautiful feelin’
Ev’rything’s goin’ my way. ”

Bonus points if you know what that’s from. I still need to figure out how to get musical notes in my posts. I can’t find them anywhere.

Isn’t it interesting how a very simple math error can be just as horribly inconvenient, and make just as much of a mess, as a more complex error? Yes, well, welcome to my yesterday. Before realizing that I made such an error, I was cruising along quite nicely on Abigail’s backpack. See?

And then, spurred by a nagging feeling that had visited me before, I re-equated my equations. Again. Only this time, I remembered that last little step that had been forgot all the previous times, and I realized that by following the modified stripe pattern I had made, I was making my backpack twice as tall as I wanted it to be. This is both good news as well as bad news. The good news is that now I will most likely have enough yarn to finish, the bad news, obviously, is that I’m going to have to frog a bit. Not the whole thing, thankfully, but some of it.

To give my hands and my brain a little “cooling off” period, I turned my attention to a different project that really needs to be done, which is the recovering of my dining room chairs. I’ve had the fabric for a long time now, and a couple of days ago, I made it to the fabric store and picked up new foam padding and a heavy, clear vinyl. I am not a huge fan of plastic covered furniture, but at our current stage of parenthood, it is necessary. Particularly considering the type of fabric I used.

Here’s the “before” shot…

and here’s the “after”

Actually, it’s more like the “old chair” and the “new chair” because I only did two out of the four. I scrubbed them down, recovered them, and now they are all pretty. So, isn’t that fabric fabulous? It is crushed velvet that I bought off of eBay several months ago. It looks perfectly funky in my wildly colorful house. I love it!

In other creative news, the girls and I made a Lego christmas tree yesterday morning. Click the link if you’re interested.

I’ve got a lot of green knitting ahead of me. I have six rows done, and about 22 more to go before I get to switch colors again. Do any of you remember the nifty stripe pattern I’m working with? I can’t wait ’til I get to fuscia. I know I’m singing the same old song here, but I love this stitch!!! It is so pretty. It is neat, tidy, textured, and tailored looking. I love it.

Yesterday was quite a day. I took the girls to Golden Gardens park where we met my best friend from high school. We stayed there for a couple of hours and then headed back to her completely cool old house in the Ballard area of Seattle for a late lunch. We came home, quickly showered, and headed off to the slumber party my in-laws are having for all the grandkids. That is where my three little darlings are right now.

Last night, with our free from kids time, Nate and I had dinner with five of his siblings and then went to see the new Harry Potter at an IMAX theater in the Seattle Center by ourselves. Very, very cool. It was a good time. I was able to get a lot of knitting done both at the beach and at dinner. I also have a sunburn on the left side of my body everywhere that wasn’t covered by clothes. (You were right, Christine). I am really surprised. I was wearing cropped pants and a short sleeved shirt. It’s not like I had sun shy skin exposed. How aggravating.

Anyhow, here’s what I got done…..

This stitch is really pretty. I know I keep saying that, but it genuinely is. I’m so excited to start striping, which I get to do in a row or two. To answer a question from yesterday’s comments, the yarn is not doubled. I’m knitting into the front and back of each stitch, and then decreasing back down on the following row. I snaked the Right Twist feature from the Marsupial Tote pattern in the S’nB book to maintain the boxiness that I’m going for, and it is turning out beautifully. Hopefully tomorrow, you’ll get to see some stripes!

I asked Olivia yesterday if she liked her stripey backpack, and she did, and then I asked her how she would feel if Abigail got a store bought backpack? Like a Strawberry Shortcake backpack, for example. Would she still be happy with her stripey backpack? Or would she be sad and want a store bought backpack herself?

It is now quite apparent that I’m going to be spending the next two weeks making Abigail’s backpack.

I saw a neat stitch on my stitch calendar yesterday. I didn’t think much of it until Nate looked at how it was worked and said, “That looks like it would make a very thick fabric….” Bingo.

Behold, the Blanket Rib stitch. This stitch is thick and strong, and is going to take a long time to knit into a backpack. Not being particularly happy with the way Olivia’s backpack felted, I’m going to make Abigail’s differently. As in, I’m not going to felt it. This stitch is really nice. I’m excited to knit another backpack now, as opposed to the feeling of hopeless dread I held previously.

Yes it goes on and on my friend…..” Anyone know what song I’m trying to reference here? I wish my keyboard had little music notes. Here’s a hint.

I’m really surprised at how long this sweater is taking. I worked on it a lot over the weekend, and I’m still not done with the back piece yet. BUT, I am finally to the point where I put the center stitches on a holder and work the shoulder decreases, and eventually (get ready for it) BIND OFF!!!! That will be a happy day.

I think that once I’m finished with the back, I’m going to start a sleeve, just for something different.

In other news, Wendy is co-hosting a knit along for Lara, a beautiful sweater in the new Debbie Bliss book.

I really like this sweater. I could totally see myself in it, plus, it looks like it is fastened with a brooch. Cool. I like brooches, but have a difficult time finding good ways to use them. It starts October 1st, and I am thinking about it. I’m going to try to hunt myself down a copy of the book. I really like this one too.

The 20 pound mark continues to elude me. I’ve been 225 or lower many times throughout the last 2 weeks, but I only officially count Saturdays, and today I’m 225.5. One tiny little half pound.

So here’s my exercise accounting….

Monday, I did weights, physical therapy, and a 2 mile walk.
Tuesday, I did weights and physical therapy.
Wednesday, I went on another walk.
Thursday, I did all three again.
Friday, I didn’t do anything.
Today, I plan to do upper and lower body weights, and physical therapy. I’d like to get aerobics in as well, but the weights will come first, and we’ll see what happens from there.

I’m getting stronger. I love it. I’ve been feeling my quads for a long time, but now, I’m starting to see them. This is very exciting. I can feel the muscles in my arms, too. I can’t see them, but I can feel both my biceps and my triceps moving when I flex them. They may be buried, but they’re there, they’re strong, and someday I’ll be able to see them, too.

As far as food goes, I’m still doing very well. I should probably be eating more, but I think either the heat is suppressing my appetite, so I’m not going to force myself to eat, or I’ve been eating so healthily that my body doesn’t need more. I’ve been eating three healthy, moderate sized (for me) meals a day, with out snacking in between. I haven’t wanted more than that. I’m still drinking a ton of water. I keep forgetting to take my vitamins.

That’s where I’m at. How about you?

I signed up for Becky’s Bottom’s Up Bucket Hat knitalong awhile ago. (Have any of you noticed that when ever Becky is referred to on a blog, she is never just “Becky”, she’s always “the incredibly talented Becky”? It’s true.) I really want to do it (the knit along), but I need yarn help. I made one, if you recall, out of Cotton Classic, but I totally changed the pattern. Now I want something stiffer. Any suggestions? (And Becky, if you happen to read this, can I mess with the pattern again and still count it for the knit along? I love what diagonal ribs do to a bucket hat).

As far as mom’s sweater goes, I didn’t make much progress yesterday. Cotton is hard on the hands. My left hand in particular gets really sore. Abigail was throwing up yesterday morning, so she required some extra care, and I’m trying to “finish” (train) my very difficult dog such that he can be fully integrated into the house.

He was loose in the house all day yesterday, and he only ate about 20 small toys. That being said, he still did remarkably well for himself. I didn’t have much knitting time, can you tell?

Last night, Nate brought home the new issue of Vogue for me. He sat down and we both looked through it together. I’m not sure what my overall opinion is yet, but I do have an opinion about parts of it, and many other knitting magazines for that matter. WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH ALL THESE BREAST BARING PATTERNS? Do people actually wear these things? I’m having a hard time picturing them looking right with shirts underneath, and they certainly aren’t modeled that way…… I don’t get it. I love lace knitting, but a lace pattern across the chest that is going to expose more than it should is just tacky. You can’t wear it to work, I can’t imagine wearing it walking down the street, you don’t wear a big, long sleeved sweater in nightclubs. Where do people wear them? It’s ridiculous. To me it seems like a waste of space in a magazine. If I’m missing something then please, fill me in.

Deep breath.

OK, so I’m knitting last night on mom’s sweater

and Nate comes over, picks up Abigail’s scarf, and starts knitting himself. (He’s done this a time or two). It is a truly interesting feeling knitting along with the husband. He has turned Abby’s scarf into a bit of a sampler in that there’s a little bit of garter stitch, a little bit of stockinette, then back to garter stitch with no apparent pattern. It occurred to me last night that I should probably go and get a skein or two of a nice yarn, establish a simple check pattern or something, and hand it over to him. When I asked him if he’d be receptive, he make a strange face and said that he would, however don’t expect him to stick with the pattern. Now, he doesn’t knit often, and I really don’t expect that he will ever take it seriously himself, but it is super cute to see him do it. He enjoys the simple, repetitive movements. He agrees that it is relaxing, and he once said that he can see how addicting it can be. So there we were, together on the couch, quietly knitting. Cute, cute.