Sunday, July 21, 2013

Fiber vs Gym

The weather here in Portland has been absolutely amazing.  Of course, this is why we put up the wet winters.  Currently, we are having perfect blue skies with temperatures in the upper 70s and a lovely breeze coming in off the Pacific.  I mean really, this is one of the most beautiful places to live.
While I did not take this photo, this is exactly what it is like now.  Isn't Mt. St. Helens pretty? I consider this to be our volcano and not Washington's.  They can have Mt. Rainier but St. Helens is ours.  Anyway, it's during these beautiful times that the universe likes to poke a little fun at you.

This is what the has been put in front of me to shake up my day.
They look sweet don't they.  Look at them, all smiles and such.  You can almost see them going home and baking you cookies can't you.   Don't Buy Into It!  Trust me; little, old ladies at the gym are a whole different type of creature.  Really, I'm just as surprised as you but I wouldn't lie about this.  I would have never thought them to be so awful but I have witnessed it first hand.  Here, let me try to explain.

I have been a very good boy in that I have made it to the gym each day of summer break.  Not just going there and hanging out, I mean actually going there and working out, sweating, panting.  Yup, I'm buffing up.  Anyway, this past week, I was starting off my workout with pushups.  I love pushups.  Seriously, they are such a great exercise and you feel so manly after doing a bunch of them.  I especially love it when some other guy thinks he can do them better than me and then poops out after ten.  Oops, digressing again.  Stay on topic...Stay on topic...  So, at my gym there is a big open area where people stretch, do pushups, situps, etc.  That's where I'm at and I'm on about pushup 12 or so when the old ladies next to me start talking VERY loudly about their dermatological issues.  It went something like this.
"You know those skin flaps that you get?  You know, the kind that bleed when you scratch them off."
"Oh, yeah.  They are called skin tags."
"Yeah, that's it.  Well, I have them on the inside of my thighs.  But these don't scratch off."
"Maybe you should see your doctor."
"Yeah."
"Remember that time that I had all those warts on my foot.  It was so amazing when they got rid of the big one on my heel, all the baby ones went away."

I hope you didn't just throw up in your mouth like I did.  It was far worse than what I wrote here because it went on and on.  Who knew that you could have so many gross things go wrong with your skin.  Now, imagine that you are trying to be a good, healthy person exercising up a storm and you have to listen to that.  Really, doing pushups while retching is not pleasant nor is it a skill that I would like to hone for later use in life.  Also, I don't see it as something that would increase my earning potential.  ACK!

At this point, you have to agree with me that only universe, with a sense of humour,  would put cute grandmas in my midst, the kind that might be enamoured with my knitting skills, and have them turn out to be sadistic, hags out to make decent people vomit whilst exercising.  Seriously, this is the kind of stuff that an older sibling does to the younger ones.  I guess the one silver lining here is that the conversation didn't end up with them discussing their gynecological problems.  Shudder!

Well, after that horrifying event, I had to go home and work on some sort of fiber related task.  It's just amazing how spinning wool into yarn can calm a grown man's stomach. 

As I remember from my last post, I promised to show some knitting fun.  While several of my projects are still very secret, this one is not.

This is my latest sweater fun.  Ain't it Purty?  I'm really getting into stranded/fair isle knitting and especially sweaters.  This was done all in one piece.  There is not one of those EVIL seams in this bad boy.  God, I hate piece work and seaming.  Knitting is NOT tailoring!  Oops....sorry, soapbox slipped in there.


It is bottom up construction knit in the round.  It has gussets under the arms.  You can see the gusset pattern here.  It doesn't stand out as well as I would like but it's still pretty cool.

Of course, with stranded knitting you need steeks!  I love steeks.  I really don't see what people have against them.  They are one of the most useful knitting techniques around.   So don't be afraid world, steek away!!!
 
I joined the front and back with a shoulder strap knit at a right angle to the body.  I have done this on all of my sweaters to date.  I really like the look, kinda sexy.  The shoulder strap pattern was continued down the arm adding even more sexiness.  Yes, I tingle all over when I think about sexy knitting.



Since the sleeves are worked from the shoulder down, I hid the sleeve decreases in the contrasting colour for a bit of subtle sexiness....


 ...and then topped it all off with a nifty pattern in the cuff and collar.

I'm very happy with the way this guy turned out.  I'm actually writing up the pattern and should have it out in a few days. 

Well, that's about it for this post.  Jeff's birthday is tomorrow and I have a ton of things planned.  Should be a lot of fun.  I'll give you a little preview.  I'm baking him lemon blueberry sweet rolls in the morning.  I just finished the dough and it's resting in the fridge. 

Until next time.

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