Monday, November 28, 2011

Oh me, of little faith!

Oh boy - I was a bit nervous about this yarn! I had three smallish pieces of roving with some blueish tones and some orangish tones in each. Not enough to do anything by themselves, really. I like to knit larger projects best of all.

So, I fractal spun them together onto two jumbo bobbins and then plied the bobbins together.

The result:




To be honest, I didn't think it would work, but I like these rather a lot! I'm going to call this North Gare.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Aftermath

We had quite a storm last night. The wind came from the west and was so strong, gusting onto the back of the house, that we wre very glad we'd taken down the eucalyptus tree in the garden this summer.

Our morning walk took us along the beach at Seaton Carew, this morning. The wind was still quite wild, blowing onto the sea.






The sand war eroded so far back by the storm that this section of rocks was exposed. We don't see these wooden piers very often.



These mature and barnacle-encrusted mussels were ripped from their mussel beds and devoured by herring gulls.


On the way home we stopped off at North Gare. It's a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Today it was festooned with plastic that escaped from the nearby landfill site.



This is where it came from:





It doesn't normally feature in my pictures of the area, but today it does in an attempt to shame the owners/authorities.


Bizarrely, we were reminded of the prayer flags and rubbish that are on Everest.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Reconnaissance

J and I went on a recce to Gibside, where I am planning a residential visit, this morning. The fog was thick and really unpleasant on the A1. It's unnerving how many idiots continue to drive around with no lights on. It's always idiots in silver/grey cars too. Impossible to see until you are almost on top of them.

Anyway. We got there safely and emerged from the gloom into a crisp, bright November morning, to be shown around by Melanie, who could not have been more helpful.

After we'd sussed everything out, we went for a wander. The grounds are lovely.










Back home again, this afternoon, I took the opportunity to do a bit of spinning. What with one thing and another, I haven't done any for ages.



I'm spinning three lots of top together to add to my collection of blue/brown/ginger yarns. Eventually I will have enough for the project I have in mind.


Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Hedonism

J and I went to The Sage at Gateshead last night to see Bellowhead.

Wonderful show! I love their sound.

Unfortunately, because we dithered about booking we left it so late that there were only seats left on the third level.

Eeek!

Another challenge to the heights/edges 'thing'.







Monday, November 14, 2011

Moving on

 I've been thinking a lot about the weight loss 'journey'. Ugghh. Sounds like I'm auditioning for the X factor! Nevermind. I can't think of a better way of expressing the process at the moment.

Anyway, I've finally realised that I'm ok. Honestly.

I actually feel like I'm moving into a new phase.
I'm not stressing about losing more weight, I'm not worrying about putting it back on. Over the past six months, my weight has hovered around the same mark. I may put a little on if I eat more carbs than are good for me and neglect my protein, but it comes straight back off when I work the programme.

Sometimes my 'fat head' rears up, but most of the time, I'm ok.

It's time to move on.

I'm leaving my surgery support groups, except the one on Ravelry, which has people at the same stage as me and seems healthy. While we have knitting, we're not all obsessing about the surgery and targets and outcomes. I need to be away from that.

I've stopped weighing myself so often. It's how I feel and how my clothes fit that guides me at the moment.


I'm also discontinuing my ticker/tracker. This is it. It marked my progress for a long time. ITo be honest, I stopped filling it in ages ago and I'm not even stressed that it doesn't show the last 3lbs I lost! For a mad moment I debated adding (subtracting?) the final amount before I deleted it, but sanity won out.
I don't think I need it any more, but I'm posting it, and the stats that sit behind it, here for posterity ;) It's not that I need to hang on to them, but just that they were important to me and it's ok to acknowledge that. It's like putting them in a memory box or time capsule, which I guess is what this blog is.







1
05/26/2011
143.0
2
05/18/2011
145.0
3
05/13/2011
146.0
4
05/06/2011
150.0
5
04/08/2011
152.0
6
03/25/2011
153.0
7
03/12/2011
154.0
8
03/03/2011
156.0
9
02/10/2011
157.0
10
02/03/2011
160.0
11
01/27/2011
162.0
12
01/20/2011
165.0
13
12/23/2010
172.0
14
12/17/2010
174.0
15
12/09/2010
175.0
16
12/02/2010
177.0
17
11/25/2010
178.0
18
11/17/2010
180.0
19
11/12/2010
182.0
20
11/05/2010
183.0
21
10/29/2010
184.0
22
10/14/2010
186.0
23
10/08/2010
189.0
24
10/01/2010
190.0
25
09/24/2010
191.0
26
09/17/2010
193.0
27
09/09/2010
195.0
28
09/03/2010
199.0
29
08/31/2010
200.0
30
08/27/2010
202.0
31
08/20/2010
205.0
32
08/13/2010
206.0
33
08/08/2010
208.0
34
07/22/2010
213.0
35
07/16/2010
216.0
36
07/09/2010
219.0
37
07/02/2010
221.0
38
06/25/2010
222.0
39
06/20/2010
224.0
40
06/18/2010
226.0
41
06/17/2010
227.0
42
06/11/2010
230.0
43
06/10/2010
231.0
44
06/04/2010
235.0
45
05/28/2010
236.0
46
05/14/2010
240.0
47
05/07/2010
243.0
48
05/05/2010
244.0
49
04/30/2010
246.0
50
04/23/2010
250.0
51
04/16/2010
253.0
52
04/09/2010
255.0
53
04/07/2010
256.0
54
03/28/2010
264.0
55
03/25/2010
265.0
56
03/23/2010
266.8
57
03/22/2010
269.8
58
02/18/2010
271.4
59
02/11/2010
273.4
60
02/06/2010
274.8
61
02/04/2010
275.8
62
01/27/2010
277.4
63
01/21/2010
280.0
64
01/16/2010
283.0
65
11/05/2009
279.0
66
10/17/2009
283.6
67
10/08/2009
284.2
68
09/26/2009
285.8
69
09/15/2009
286.4
70
09/11/2009
287.4
71
09/04/2009
290.2
72
08/30/2009
290.2
73
08/22/2009
292.4
74
08/15/2009
291.8
75
08/12/2009
294.0
76
08/03/2009
294.6
77
07/31/2009
295.6
78
07/25/2009
296.4
79
07/20/2009
297.2
80
07/11/2009
297.4
81
07/05/2009
299.0
82
07/04/2009
300.0
83
06/27/2009
300.8
84
06/26/2009
301.2
85
06/24/2009
303.0
86
06/20/2009
305.0
87
01/01/2009
325.0