Exercise

I’ve knitted Demeter up to the start of all the shaping for the armholes and neckline but I’m a bit stuck as I need to adjust the pattern this time.  Mimknits designed the Demeter pattern to have a racy low back but I’ve decided not to have that this time as it always shows my bra strap, and whilst Carrie from Sex And The City can get away with it, I don’t feel comfortable showing my bra off at work.  So I have to figure out how to do the front neckshaping at the same level as the back shaping and until my brain is ready to do that I’m paused with the knitting.  I have tried the tube on and it fits so I don’t really want to mess the top part up. 

So in the meantime I’ve been reading alot and have done a little bit of knitting on the blue lacy tofutsies.  I’m reading The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris which is a continuation of the story in Chocolat so it’s full of wonderful descriptions of chocolates AND fab shoes as the new character Zozie has lots of pairs. What more could a girl want? Shoes AND Chocolate, perfect!

Also since I last posted I’ve been cycling to get fit. On Sunday I went out for 1.5hrs and absolutely killed myself cycling up and down the hills in the Woodford Valley near Salisbury, that evening I realised I had hurt my knees due to my saddle being too low so I felt like an old lady all day Monday. I adjusted the saddle height and set up the bike computer I was given for my birthday and went out again on Monday evening. I was determined to get back on the “horse” so that the sore knee thing didn’t put me off completely. I only did a few miles but it proved that my saddle was now in the correct position and that my computer was working. Yay! I cycled 5 miles on Wednesday, a couple of miles more than Monday. And tomorrow I’m going to repeat the woodford valley route to see how far it is and in an attempt to cycle it a little faster than last week.
 

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Catch up

I have been knitting but I don’t have any pictures of my Wild Cherry Demeter progress because for some reason when I take any pictures the colours are all distorted and blurred.  It’s about 10 inches long at the moment and I’m about 15 rows off finishing the decreasing before I start doing all the shaping for the back/front bodice area. [I lied, I managed to get a picture – look!]

On the 8th June I did frog and restart the entire thing, I had done the increasing section to the waist and when I pinned it out flat I found that it was 40 inches wide instead of 37, oops. I must have measured my gauge wrong somehow so I started again.  I had originally cast on 250 stitches which was slightly stupid anyway as the lace pattern round the bottom is 10 rows long and that would mean that one side seam would fold a triangle in half – not good.  So I recalculated and cast on 220 stitches as that’s an even number of 10s round and would get rid of the extra inches I didn’t need.  I took it with me on my trip to Scotland and did some knitting whilst waiting for a train at Haymarket Station and on the train to Ladybank.  I got a little knitting time in on my visit to my friend but a lot of the time was taken up in getting to know her 8 month old baby.

I didn’t buy a dress in Edinburgh either so I adjusted the straps on a halter neck 50s style one that I already had and wore that.  My friend who got married looked wonderful and it was a lovely day.

Last Sunday I went to Thorpe Park with two friends and we went on loads of rides, got totally soaked twice on “Tidal Wave” and “Logger’s Leap” and felt quite queasy after going on “Samurai” a ride that turns you upside down whilst spinning you around over trees so I was both scared of falling and felt sick from the spinning.  The waffles and icecream I had afterwards helped settle my stomach believe it or not!!

Presents!!

Yesterday was my birthday and I did quite well on the present front. I got this book:

Crochet Me: Designs To Fuel The Crochet Revolution by Kim Werker, from my dad, which I’m hoping will inspire me to crochet more than just rectangles. I love the victorian shrug on the front especially as the pattern has two versions a shrug and a cardigan. There’s also a tunisian crochet vest/tunic with an asymmetric top that I really like as well.

I also got the first Lucy Neatby DVD from work as they asked me what I wanted so I thought it was a good opportunity to get knitting goodies.  My mum got me some fabric and threads for my machine embroidery playing and this book: 

Fusing Fabric by Margaret Beal which has loads of techniques in that I want to try out. I will need to get a soldering iron though!

I’m off work now for a week so I will be playing with my sewing machine and relaxing as work has been a real pig for about 5 weeks now.  Also next Tuesday I’m going to Scotland to visit my friend and her new baby (the one I made the little pixie coat for) and have planned to knit masses on all the public transport I’ll be going on and found a knitting shop in Edinburgh that I should have time to visit on Thursday before I come back home.  I also simply HAVE to buy a new dress as I am going to a wedding reception next weekend, the trouble is since watching Sex And The City I want a really wonderful dress and fabulous shoes.  My budget may not stretch to something Carrie would wear.  Shame really.