New Year, New Habits

Happy New Decade! So many things to think about. This is the year I turn 50, so of course it's a milestone year and makes you consider creating some new habits.

I have already created the habit of running, although for the last month I've really fallen off the wagon. I've had a cough, a cold, and earlier in the month the winds were kicking up the ashes of the Station fire and creating such an environment that I wasn't thrilled to be outside. But for Christmas I got a Wii Fit and now I can work out in the house. I did work out to DVDs before, but sometimes you just have to change things up. The Wii Fit has so many fun exercise games that it will be a long time before I get bored! I've heard that the hula hoop burns lots of calories! ;)

A habit I need to get back is gardening. I haven't taken it seriously for many years. This house doesn't inspire me to garden because there isn't much room. The back yard is mostly concrete with a small patch of grass. There are borders around the edges which are wild and overgrown now. That's where I will start. I think I will work on flowers and bulbs for spring.

I need to create a habit for practicing the guitar every day. I've bought a few programs and taken lessons, but I rarely think to pick it up like I do the knitting needles. I got a beautiful new guitar for Christmas from DH. It is much easier to play than his Takamine, and it has a beautiful tone. Playing guitar is something I have done on and off since I was 13 or so. Mostly off. I often think that if I had kept it up over the years I would be pretty good by now.

Scrapbooking is another thing that I need to create a habit for. I haven't done it for quite a while, but I keep collecting digital downloads from Gotta Pixel. I do love the digital scrapbooking. I take a long time to do it though. If I do a little bit a week, maybe I can learn what I like and create pages faster.

I definitely have the knitting habit down. ;) After Christmas I finished my Clandestine socks. I finally took a picture of the shopping bag before I gave it away as a gift. I finished Josie's Little Miss Greenjeans Sweater and gave it to her for Christmas.

I also need to create a habit for cleaning up after myself. After eating/cooking, working, knitting, dressing, etc. Yep, I'm a messy person. It's actually much better since the kids moved out. Now it's only my mess! I notice that in the weeks DH is gone, I tend to be a slob. So this year I resolve to clean up after myself.

While I'm at it I could get in the habit of organizing my time better. Calendars and timers might be good. I tend to rebel even against my own rules. What?!? I know... Pathetic.
So this year I resolve not to rebel and teach that rebellious kid in me to stay on track.

I've got lots of stuff there, not to mention choir/vocal practice and school homework - oh yeah - and blogging. ;)

Daily stuff to do would be Bible Study, exercise, guitar knitting, voice, homework, clean up after myself.

Weekly stuff could include cleaning house, gardening, blogging and scrapbooking. Not bad.

Now that I've got myself somewhat organized for the year and spent way more time blogging than I meant to, I'm off to practice guitar! See ya!

Programming Makes Me Fat

I'm convinced that programming is bad for the waistline. Besides sitting on your butt most of the day, it makes me want to eat.

I am in the second semester of Java programming, so I don't know a whole lot yet. It's really frustrating. It takes me a week or two to get through some of this homework. Especially when all the examples are for int arrays and we are working on String arrays. Besides the fact that I'm trying to make a object and the examples are shown in procedural programming. Have your eyes glazed over yet? Mine did. That's probably why it takes me so long to figure it out. If I don't have coffee before class I want to go to sleep. I've caught the guys next to me napping behind their screens too.

So, if this is so incredibly boring, why do I want to do it? Maybe I'm just weird. I like to figure things out. I like puzzles. I like a challenge. Maybe that's why I picked up knitting, why I'm currently into lace. I guess next it will be entrelac, but I'm not really crazy about the look of the finished product so it will have to be something really pretty.

Ehh, skip entrelac. I just got EZ's Opinionated Knitter and there are some gorgeous Fair Isle sweaters I'd like to try. I haven't attempted Fair Isle yet. I've dabbled in Intarsia. I really need to get into some color work.

Currently on the needles: 1 CounterPoint Scarf (Almost done, but it's taking forever because I only work on it once every two weeks during the video at Bible Study.)

2 Clandestine Socks. I have about 4 inches left to complete. I've made the leg and turned the heel. I'm currently working on the feet, two at a time on 3 needles. Three because for some reason I have one long needle and two short ones. It was easier to turn the heel with the short ones and keep the long one for the top of the foot. Hmm. These are taking a while too. Probably because of the Java homework. Sigh.

GaryVee in Pasadena

I just came back from the most inspiring talk. Gary Vaynerchuck of Wine Library TV is currently on a book signing tour for Crush It! Pardon all the links, but Gary's got what it takes in getting the word out, and I don't mind being a part of it. When we first started watching Wine Library we thought he was a little wacky. He talks about wine smelling like Twizzlers and tasting like sheet rock among other bizarre descriptions. The thing is though, he really nails it business-wise. He took his dad's liquor store and built it up into a multimillion dollar business. And he will tell you that it didn't happen overnight. He says, "You've got to work your face off." He also says, "Just be you. You are a snowflake." I like that. I asked a question specifically about this knitting blog and the fact that there are so many others out there. He said "Just do it. It will work because you love it." That's the truth. I haven't gotten in nearly enough knitting time this week. I've been studying for a midterm. (I think I got an A.) I've got another one next week, so things have been a little hectic around here. Plus, our daughter and granddaughter came over on Sunday for DD's birthday. We had the family over. DGD is getting big! 6 months now and so cute. I really need to start some baby things....

I was able to work on my illusion scarf today at Bible Study. I'm almost finished with it. The Clandestine socks that I started at HSB are still on the needles. I've done 3 repeats of the leg pattern. I need to get a picture of it. There is one part of the pattern that stumped me during the first go round. It's marked like a double decrease on the chart, but the key says, "sk2p" which I read as, "slip, knit 2, pass slipped stitch over." That leaves an extra stitch, though. I decided that it really should be slip, k2tog, pass. It works much better that way...

I will be blogging more about the knitting now that I got a kick in the pants from Gary V. I'll also be seeing a bunch of you guys on your blogs to see what you're up to and I promise not to lurk anymore! ;) Off to read the rest of Crush It! BTW, buy the book! It's great!

Cheryl :)

Our Hardly Strictly Adventure

I spotted this amazing jacket as we were leaving the airport on Friday to go to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco. I want to make it. The lady was kind enough to let me take pictures. She calls it her Sherpa Jacket. If I write the pattern I might just share....

Back to the weekend.

The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival is an amazing FREE concert. It is three days long with 6 different stages going all at the same time. Our wonderful benefactor is Warren Helman, who just does it for the love of the music. And it's crazy, but it is FREE to the public. He books these amazing acts every year. Of course we couldn't see them all, but those we did see were outstanding. We got a surprise guest appearance by Robert Plant. He played with Buddy Miller on Friday night at the Great American Concert Hall, so we were hoping he would show up at the festival. I heart Robert! sigh...

There was a sock monkey sighting right in front of us. Aren't they cute?!!!


The girl made them. They are only about 5 inches tall.They got to watch the concerts too. I think they are boyfriend and girlfriend.

Saturday evening we hopped on the party bus. I hope no one's mom was watching. I haven't laughed so hard in years. We did the wave on the bus. I think we scared some lady. She got off in a hurry.

 

My project for the weekend was Cookie A's Clandestine sock from Knitty's Fall 09 issue. Unfortunately I didn't see the link for the chart when I printed the pattern out, so I was stuck after the cuff. I had to wait until we got back to the hotel and I could get the link on DH's IPhone. Then I took a picture and used that for Sunday's knitting. Some lady behind us said, "Oh, you brought your crocheting?" I said, "No, it's knitting." "Oh, little baby knitting," she said. I said, "...Uhhhh....Yeah..." Never mind. She had already scored negative points with us when we were just setting up and she and her boyfriend come up behind us after we already had our place and she whines that shes not going to be able to see because our chairs are too tall and they have little bitty chairs. "Do you want to trade?" she says. DH says, "No." We kept hearing her complain about how she couldn't see. Then they left for half the time. When they came back their huge dog howled every time a certain pitch was hit. Uggghhhh. Thankfully they left early.

This is Emmy Lou Harris getting her honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music. Linda Ronstadt was there presenting as well. Unfortunately they didn't sing together and my camera battery went dead right before Emmy Lou performed. 

What a great, amazing weekend in a gorgeous setting. This is just the crowd at the Banjo Stage on Sunday, looking back from where we were sitting. I can only imagine how many people were there. Everyone was amazingly well behaved too.

Well, back to work....

Firmaments is Finished!

I am finally done with my tablecloth. I think it ties the room together. ;) Lebowski, anyone? I did choose the color because one of our pictures has a lot of this blue in it. The blocking took nearly all day. Apparently my gauge was off by a couple of inches. I tried to stretch it to the pattern's dimensions, but the pins kept popping. At first I had it on the bed, but couldn't get it to stretch enough, so then I laid it out on the floor. I bent my lace blocking wires all to heck by putting them around the edges, but I don't care. I think it looks beautiful. It seems to fit the table nicely too, and I think 4 more inches would have been too much for this table. I wonder how you are really supposed to block a circular knitted piece?