Still tryin' to get skinny.

I realize I haven't blogged in a while about my weight-loss journey...but that's just because there hasn't been much to say.  I am still going to the gym almost every day.  I quit drinking.  I've started drinking green tea to unwind in the evenings instead of wine.  I haven't lost any weight.  I don't have more energy; as a matter of fact I have less.  But I am getting stronger; I was able to carry a non-working 32-inch tv out to the curb last week, by myself.  And my jeans fit a little looser, but not loose enough to switch to a smaller size.  My face is a little thinner, and my chin is a little less...double.  So, although I am starting to look a little better, I'm frustrated that it's taking so long for so little results.

I started working out in December.  It's been over four months, and I still weigh 170 pounds.  I want to weigh 110.  I was 110 when I got married.  I was young and thin, but not strong.  So it might be a bit unrealistic for me to expect I could get back to that.  I would settle for 120 if I have to.  For right now, I'd be thrilled with just seeing any number lower than 170 on the scale.

Princess's shawl is done!

I spent most of today, working on the edging of this shawl, and now that it's bound-off and blocking, I don't think I like it. The edging, that is. Overall, I like the design, but I must have done something wrong on the edging.
Here's a closeup. I was expecting it to be more pointy, at the points, instead of just scallopy. And the bound-off edge is too tight, even though I went up two needle sizes for that. Oh, well. Princess loves it anyway. I'll continue to tweak the pattern, once I figure out just what I did wrong on the edging. Should I have switched to larger needles for the entire edging, not just the bind-off? I did add beads at the increase and decrease points of the edging, but I don't like how they won't stay exactly where I wanted them.

So, overall, I like the way this design came out, just not the edging. ☺

I am frustrated.

My hands have been hurting, a lot. I think I have tendonitis in my fingers. It's from too much knitting, but (of course) I still want to knit. Time is getting away from me. I have Christmas gifts and other things to knit. I want to knit, just for the serenity, the calmness, the joy it gives me. Yesterday I didn't knit a stitch. I did not like that, at all. My hands still hurt today. But I'll take at least the morning off, since it's library day anyway.

♥

Another reason I'm frustrated is that people are having difficulties downloading my patterns from my pattern blog. I didn't consider the fact that not everybody is using Microsoft Windows Vista when I saved my patterns as "xps" files (whatever the heck that means). So some people are able to access the files (I assume they are Vista users) while others are not. I need to save the files as another file type and see if that makes them accessible. If you are one of the people having trouble accessing the files, please bear with me as I attempt to solve this problem. I'm just relieved at this point that the mistake was mine, and I don't need to find another file storage site. I apologize for my shortsightedness. I just wanted to let you know that I am, in fact, working on it.

♥

Here's a sneak peek at what I'm working on...or at least what I want to be working on...

It's a top-down in-the-round poncho for Princess. I've only spent one evening and one full day working on it (which is partly why my hands hurt so much) to get it to this point. It's very easy...I started with my new favorite cast-on: the tubular cast-on(I love it because it's much stretchier than the traditional long-tail cast-on...did about an inch of ribbing, then began increasing, just like I would for a raglan sweater, with basic rope cables between the increases. I haven't decided yet whether I will continue increasing, because if I do, this thing is going to be huge; it will be a square if I lay it flat. But then, Princess is a very active little girl, and I think she might need that extra space to be able to play as hard as she'd like. So at this point I'm undecided. Anybody want to offer an opinion on the issue?