The benefits of SABLE

SABLE, among knitters, stands for Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy.

Guilty.

Even though earlier this year I unloaded about 30 trash bags of yarn I'll never use, I still have, um, a lot of fiber waiting to be knitted into something.

My theory about stuff is that it will eventually take over the space you have available for it. You can prove it by clearing off a countertop. That pristine space will have something parked on it before you can turn around and click your heels.

Prior to the yarn purge I had trouble finding what I needed when I wanted to make something new. But while I was looking for yarn to make YET ANOTHER PAIR OF CLOGS, guess what I found?

My old pattern for them.

As I knit along following the revised instructions I downloaded a couple days ago, I knew something was different. I've made so many pairs of these clogs over the years … this new pattern had changed, and when the clogs came out of the washer they didn't fit the way the old ones had.

So I went rummaging for wool among the SABLE and, in the bag marked Felted Bags and Clogs, saw the familiar turquoise-blue paper, tucked in a page protector, waiting for me to find it.

I'm well on my way to finishing the first of the pair. As soon as I wrap this post up and put up the photo post, I'm closing the lid on the laptop and heading to my little nest to knit the morning away.

I'll let my daughter-in-law choose the pair that fits her best. I'm thinking it will be the current, unfinished pair. The other ones will most likely fit my sister. If they don't, she can donate them.

There's plenty more yarn for another pair for the sister. And her birthday isn't until March.

Wrapping up the work week

Today's my last day to transport the little Amish girls to and from their school. It's been a lot of fun for me and yesterday they told me I'm more interesting than their regular driver, who "doesn't talk much." Heehee.

Each afternoon I ask what the best part of their day was. They're preparing for a Christmas program, and each day they've said, "Practicing for the program!" Each child in the school will sing one or more songs and recite a poem and a Bible verse. The entire Amish community attends the presentation, which is held the day before Christmas.

The children get Christmas Day off from school, but go back the very next day. No extended winter break for these kids. But their school year is shorter, ending in April, than the public school schedule  around here.

Thanks to those of you who weighed in on my minimum-wage post. I appreciate your thoughts. I also meant to add that many, many, MANY minimum-wage (or less) workers I see are definitely not teen-agers. In fact, many times they are much older than I am. Maybe they're working just to keep busy, but I doubt it.

HOPEFULLY today is the last day we'll have a work crew here trying to fix our water issue. Thanks to everyone who commented yesterday. It's always good to know I'm not alone in my despair. Misery loves company – an excellent reason to blog!

But life is not all misery.

Lately life has been almost all knitting. I got the Pretty Comfy knee socks done, wrapped and shipped yesterday. I had to print out blocking instructions and tuck them into the package, because hand-knit socks really need blocking before they're presented. But blocking means soaking in water. And water, AS YOU KNOW, is kind of a premium item around the Middle of Nowhere these days. Also, I wouldn't have had time to block AND dry them, so they got sent as is, right off the needles.

My granddaughter wears the same shoe size I do, but she's quite petite. The socks fit me with a bit of stretching over the calves, so I think they'll be perfect for her. I hope she likes them, but as I learned with the sister gift, it's best not to have high expectations. Especially when it's a teen and a hand-knit gift.

(My sister lives more in the Middle of Nowhere than I do – no Indian markets nearby. No internet access either. OH WELL. I gave her suggestions and she knows how to cook. End of that story.)

I started a pair of Felted Clogs for my daughter-in-law last night. I lost my pattern, but was more than willing to shell out for a replacement which is now available as a download that I can store forever in Dropbox. It takes about six knitting hours to complete these, plus felting and drying time. I'm visiting with my son and his family after Christmas, so – depending on the water situation – I should have plenty of time to felt and dry them.

And more not-misery: President Obama is commuting the sentences of eight inmates who have served way too much time for minor roles in crack-cocaine cases. One is Clarence Aaron, who was the subject of a PBS Frontline piece in 1999. He received three life sentences for introducing a dealer to a buyer. Here's his story.

Through my volunteer work at a federal prison camp I've met many women who are serving time imposed under the unfair mandatory minimum sentencing laws. Those laws are being reformed and even being made retroactive, but the wheels of justice turn slowly. I'm so very happy for the eight whose sentences are being commuted. According to Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), however, there are several thousand still waiting.

FAMM rightly points out that while President Obama has the power to pardon or commute sentences, only Congress can change the laws. There are SO MANY reasons to vote for candidates who believe in upholding human rights instead of restricting them.

The next election cycle has already begun here in West Virginia. We're being bombarded with a mixture of holiday shopping and negative campaign ads on television. We Democrats could win big – it's possible we could take all three seats in Congress and the open Senate seat. I hope all this early campaigning doesn't lead to apathetic voters next November.

I guess it's up to me – and you, if you live in West Virginia – to make sure that doesn't happen.

T-minus two hours (give or take) before the work crew arrives. Water by the end of the day is the goal. Film at eleven.

April 29 - I wore this today

The umpteenth pair of Fiber Trends felted clogs I've made.

A third of the way through Month One

If beginning my health-and-fitness plan the day after Christmas puts me ahead of everyone who started this week, then SO BE IT. Heh.

Making December 26 my Day One of Month One might have been the smartest thing I did last year. I'm feeling very in the groove as I begin the 10th day of the umpteenth diet-and-exercise makeover. Today is a walk-and-yoga day, and I did indeed find a beginner routine for the sun salutation. I haven't tried it yet, so can't personally recommend it. This is one of many on YouTube; if it's not what I need, I'll certainly keep looking.

I haven't mentioned knitting around these parts lately. I'm still working on the endless blue-and-white garter stitch scarf. Pretty soon it'll be spring and I won't need a scarf.

My husband found a piece of paper with an outline of the five-year-old granddaughter's foot, which I thought I'd lost. She and I made the outline so I could make her a pair of slippers that actually fit. So next in the queue is a pair of child-sized Duffers.

(Mine, which I've been wearing since November 21, are already beginning to show some wear. There's a tiny hole developing in the toe of the right one. I'll probably do a quick mend until I have time to make another pair. Or until I make a pair of felted clogs, which last a very long time.)

What else, what else … I backed up my hard drive yesterday, something I hadn't done since July, according to Time Machine. Tsk, tsk. This was in preparation for purging some space-hogging tunes from said hard drive. What's stopping me from ditching all the music (since it's backed up on the external drive) is this: How would I go about loading the iPod again? I'm not done buying music or audiobooks. My laptop (a MacBook Air) only has one USB port, so I'd have to download music from the external back to the computer and then hook the iPod up to load anything new onto it.

I don't dare mention this dilemma to my husband. He would simply tell me to listen to the radio. My solution, as I mentioned a few days ago, is to delete those free-songs-I'll-never-listen-to. That should free up plenty of space. But if any of you have other ideas …

Finally, check out the new widget over in the right sidebar. DailyMile keeps a running mileage total for you, as long as you remember to log your activity. DM doesn't have an Android app, but there's an app called Daily Distance that simply and easily uploads your stats to the website. I use an Android app called Skimble to track my time-and-distance when I walk. (Skimble can track just about any fitness activity you can think of, actually, I just now looked and I can also record elliptical sessions. Yay!)

I just wish downloading and using apps burned calories like walking and yoga do.  (I'm a geek and I know it.) Maybe someone is working on that.

Two, two, two posts in one!

How very serendipitous that today's photo prompt – "what you wore" – coincides with my new slippers being knit, sewn, felted, dried and worn!

Duffers. Done.

See? (Finally! An Instagram photo of my footwear, which seems to be a very popular subject.)

These were knit using the Duffers Revisited pattern, which is probably four times more pattern than I needed. Google found the British designer's blog, where I learned that the plain old Duffers pattern (for one pound) as opposed to the Revisited pattern (for 3.75 pounds) would have sufficed.

But it's the holiday season, and it feels good to support boutique designers. Plus the money in my PayPal account is burning a hole in my virtual pocket.

(I'm going to be adding more yarn for sale on eBay very soon. Because PayPal is hungry. And I have more yarn than I'll ever knit in my ever-diminishing lifetime.)

For the Duffers I used two strands of Lite Lopi for the grey sole and one strand of a bulky wool (the label is upstairs in the garage and it's dark outside and I'm not going over there to check the brand, but maybe I'll update this later) for the upper pink part.

The only other adult slippers I've ever worn (and worn and worn and worn) are Fiber Trends Felted Clogs. I can't count how many pairs of those I've made over the years. Everyone who sees them wants a pair. (Which means family members, because who else sees you in your slippers?) I'll probably make another pair for myself soon, because, frankly, the soles on the Duffers aren't going to hold up very long.

The clog pattern has a double sole which doesn't start showing any wear for a couple of years. That accounts for the extra hour of knitting time per slipper vs. the Duffers.

Yes, that's right: Two hours per Duffer, three hours per Felted Clog. In the knitting world, that's known as instant gratification.

Finis!

Remember those clogs I was working on throughout the college football bowl season? The first half of the first and littlest pair was done less than a month ago. And while my original goal was to make four pairs and then felt them all at once, I stopped after three:

The blue ones are for my daughter-in-law and granddaughter, leaving the
brown/green ones for my husband.

I'm still going to make the fourth pair (they're for me) and, in fact, have already started the project. But my husband kept asking when his would be finished and I wanted to send the mother-daughter set off before summer.

My husband has never worn slippers, because he used to go outside every hour on the hour (I might be exaggerating a bit) to smoke. Now that he's a former smoker for almost a year(!), he can slip his cold feet into toasty warm wool clogs and relax every evening. Just like an old man.

He kind of makes fun of the old-man-ness of them, but he truly appreciates the warmth of wool. He only has two pairs of handknit wool socks (I should probably work on his sock drawer) and he loves wearing those during cold weather. Which we haven't had much of this winter, but he's managed to pull them out of that drawer a few times.

Okay! That's the knitting part of the post. Thanks for paying attention and letting me brag about a Finished Object or six.

Moving on to the weight-losing part, it appears my attention span for journaling lasted exactly three weeks this time. I thought 21 days was what it took to form a new habit! For me, 21 days was the signal to quit.

And I'll be honest with you: While I'm not chowing down on forbidden fruits, I'm certainly eating more than I did when I was writing everything down. Go figure.

The first day of non-journaling coincided with the decision to join the gym. Am I so busy that I can't journal and go to a gym three times a week? Does my brain only have the capacity to handle a minimum number of successful weight-loss strategies at a time? And if that's true, why would I toss out the number-one predictor of weight loss?

I have no answers, only questions. And a firm resolve to begin journaling again. It's not hard. I love this web-based application that also has a syncable BlackBerry app, but if you read the article I linked to in the previous paragraph, there are many others that do the same thing.

To sum up: In addition to working out regularly and following South Beach Phase 1, I will attempt to create a journaling habit again. Starting today. (Adding one carby food per day the last two days – a serving of Shredded Wheat Wednesday and a low-carb whole-wheat tortilla yesterday – has completely wiped out the stellar two-pound loss from Tuesday's weigh-in)

I'm heading out of town for the weekend. My little Hershey girl, whom you met here yesterday, will be in the hands of my very capable neighbor/housesitter while my husband and I meet some friends to explore Asheville, NC. We won't be meeting them until Friday night, so my husband and I are planning to have a mid-day meal at 12 Bones, a lunch-only rib place that appears to be SB-friendly. (And, really, what restaurant isn't? The grilled-chicken salad is ubiquitous, isn't it? Chez KnitRunRepeat served it last night, as a matter of fact.)

Also, if 12 Bones is good enough for my President, it's good enough for me. I'll do my best to throw up a daily post while I'm gone, since I've committed to doing January NaBloPoMo. Might just be photos; I imagine after this wordy post some of you would enjoy that!

Just clogging along

The first pair (child-sized) is done!

The little ghost is my granddaughter's footprint.
I love how unfelted clogs look like clown shoes
right off the needles!

There are four games today. Theoretically that's enough time to make the two adult pairs on my list. HOWEVER, I don't think I'll be knitting non-stop from noon 'til midnight. (And I won't be felting them until all three pairs are done.) A girl's gotta eat. And walk. Because it's going to be nice again today – light winds, mid-50s, sunny. I'm not turning my back on an opportunity like that. And, frankly, a girl's gotta sleep. I haven't seen one complete night game yet, although I hear the Baylor-Washington game last night was an Instant Classic!

I hit the elliptical day before yesterday but got back outside yesterday. FIVE DAYS IN A ROW, people. Woo hoo!

I thought of a new reason to get back in shape in 2012:

I want to feel as comfortable in my street clothes I do in my pajamas.

~ Debbi McNeer

Whatever it takes, right?

To wrap up this randomness, I'll leave you with sunset at dinnertime, December 29, 2011.

A stunning image to remember when I start missing bookstores and coffeeshops
and shopping opportunities, oh my. I truly have a wonderful life.

KNITTING!

Yes, some real knitting happened here yesterday, and more is lined up for today. And tomorrow. And the rest of the college football bowl season.

My son's wife loves, loves, loves the felted clogs (note: this is an updated version of the pattern) I've been making her since the original design was published way back in the 20th century. Her daughter wants a pair "just like Mommy's." I seriously thought she'd want pink ones with purple soles. Yes, she's four, how'd you guess. Heh. But shades of blue were what she requested. I cast on last night around 7 p.m. By 9 p.m. I'd finished the sole and upper portion of the first little clog.

I'm going to make her mother a new pair and am also going to make myself a new pair, after inspecting mine and finding a hole in the sole of one of them.

Back when I was cranking out clogs for everyone I knew, I could knit one adult pair in six hours. (The only reason I know that is I had to have some kind of lab test done at which I had to wait three hours between needle sticks and I finished one clog while I waited.) I'll be done in five games. Heh.

I've written here previously the suggestion that if you're not hungry enough to eat an apple (you – I'm lookin' at YOU – could insert any boring food of your choice), then you're not really hungry. When you want to eat for entertainment – the crunch of Cheez-its or the creaminess of ice cream, for instance – that's a craving, not hunger.

I was up later than usual last night and started feeling a little hungry about four hours after dinner. Normally I don't eat after dinner. I would have enjoyed a leftover Christmas cookie or a little plate of cheese and crackers, but instead I had an orange. And it hit the spot. Another theory proven to be true.

It comes down to mind over matter, right? It almost always does. Which is why my laptop wallpaper now looks like this:

I've snagged several other motivating images from the Fitness boards at Pinterest, and will be swapping them out when I get tired of the current one. Or when it stops working, whichever comes first.

As for activity, I've walked two miles every day beginning Christmas afternoon. (Two miles isn't much, but it's a beginning. Again.) It's going to be pretty cold today, so I'll either dress for sub-40 temps or hit the elliptical with an episode of Glee.

So nice to have options.

How are you handling the week between holidays? Is it still all-party, all-the-time? Do you make resolutions? If you're blogging about them, leave a link in the comments.