Alternating exercises and the effect of reading.

I am getting into a routine of doing the weight circuit at the community center gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with long walks on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and yoga on Saturday.  This keeps me moving with different forms of exercise and I feel better than I have in a number of months.  If I go to the gym in the morning I see a few regulars and a couple of the older men (OK, almost everybody is older than I) helped me with form and we're getting to the chat-a-bit level.  If the weather is good I walk there and back, but if it's not (rainy, HOT) or if I have an early meeting and cannot afford the time, I walk both ways.  A couple days when I did that I added a short walk on a treadmill, both times when I had to wait for machines in the weight circuit to be available.  Sometimes I'm busy and go in the evening, and around suppertime the place is pretty much deserted.

I finished a book this morning, which makes fourteen for the year, so I am ahead of schedule for my stated goal of eighteen.  Three were very short children's books that I read before donating them to a friend's Little Free Library, as I think we should vet the items before they are available to the community.  I know that she will also do, but I can tell her I previewed the books.  I have another one to read while I wait for this month's SciFi Book Club selection to arrive.  I am not sure whether it will be the hold, something from Inter-Library Loan, or a secondhand copy I purchased that has a different name but seems to be the same book - I'll find out.  I did NOT want to spend $40 for a new copy, or (sometimes, much) more as it seems to be in demand.

Something interesting happened on two different nights as I was reading in bed: my fitness tracker sent a warning, because my heart rate (pulse) had dropped to 47 beats per minute.  Maybe fewer.  I guess that's a sign of how calming reading is for me!  When I had my annual checkup recently my PCP commented that my heart rate is nice and low, but she is not concerned.  Neither is my cardiologist.

Three months done.

The third of my month puzzles:

My mother would be pleased to see the puzzle is of daffodils, her favourite sign of spring.

Mine have come and gone, and now various trees are showing their spring colours:

Bits of Autumn

Just a handful of photos from various of my walks.

I love sunlight filtering through some of the leaves, and also clouds!

A peek at spring.

I was finally able to take a proper walk - between weather, travel, and work, I haven't had much time to do so.  I did walk over 14,000 steps more last week than in previous weeks, no surprise given the walking I did at the North Texas Irish Fest!

Spring is starting to appear hereabouts:

Yesterday I took a class to learn how to make fused glass items.  It is in a local gallery and there are many items for sale, and the teacher said that some of their students have graduated to being artists in the gallery.  In this class, after learning how to cut the glass, and the different types of glass to use, we were set free to make our own designs:

My initial setup.  I took a photo before moving the items off the
base glass, because everything has to be cleaned before you can
stick it together for the firing, and I wasn't sure I would remember
the way I envisioned the pieces working together.

These are all the pieces students made, plus one by
a student from a previous class who wanted it fused
further.  You can "tack" which leaves texture, or you
can "full fuse" which melts anything into a smooth
piece.  I chose full fuse for my piece.

The final piece going into the kiln.  My vision is sun and sky;
we'll see how much it resembles this after it is fired.

I will go back in two weeks to pick up my piece, and I probably will sign up for open studio sessions to make more.  The instructor is there on Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons for classes or open studio time.  Since my parents don't need quite as much of my time, now that the main part of the books have been cleared (Mom delivered eight or nine cartons of books in German and about Germany to a university programme this week), I can pop out for a session once or twice a month, and still keep Sundays free for my own activities.

Today that involved a lot of cleaning and organizing, some vacuuming, un-gunking a drain, and putting out the trash and recycling bins.  So exiting!  I also watched my congregation's Purim Spiel online, and have been working on the hat I am trying to finish so I can enter it at the Carolina Fiber Fest.  Deadline to register something is Tuesday and they have to be delivered Thursday night or Friday morning; it will have to be the former, given my work schedule right now.

As I mean to go on.

Yes, same title as last year's, but that's what setting intentions and resolutions are all about, yes?  Or as a friend put it, "as you start so you will go on".

So today involved:

• Baking bread
• A yoga class
• A long walk
• Reading
• Drinking Diet Dr. Pepper®
• Crocheting (a charity item, probably no surprise to anybody)
• Knitting (somebody suggested starting a new project with the new year, so I did)
• Chatting and emailing with friends
• Watching videos by some of my favourite YouTubers
• Eating homebaked cookies
• And ice-cream

I also took a nap.

I know many people are feeling this way as the year begins:

Sandra Boynton posted this a few days ago.

Resolutions - Or Goals

Reading:  I set my goal as 18 books to read in 2025, and have a good start because I read three this morning.  Goodreads wouldn't let me count Making Space again (I thought it is wise to start with some guidance for the new year) and then I 'read' two cartoon anthologies:

I'm not really sure that counts as 'reading' but they have words and are officially my first two books of 2025.  I am back to the proper books next.  Additional Goal:  Finish at least two (and ideally all five - I found another one!) of the partly-read books, and finish the other two of the Annette Funicello books.  And I may try to complete this challenge:

Several of these are on my "always" list, so it may
be easy to get about halfway through the challenge.

It's possible some books will count in more than one category.  At least two of the unfinished books qualify, one as #2 (plus possibly #11) and one as #9, and nothing says I have to read the whole book in the year.  My believe is that finishing will count.

Cooking:  I will try to remember to document cooking from historical sources, and to do so at least six months of the year.  Maybe all twelve, if I get inspired.  I will definitely keep cooking; I made hoppin' john to eat today, and had it for breakfast.  And I want to try one new-to-me technique or category of food, so I might have to take a cooking class.

Knitting/Crocheting/Crafting:  I have several goals for this year, most of which are versions of ones from previous years:

• Finish at least two UFOs, and try to keep the Advent Office Shawl from becoming a UFO.  Up to Day 14 and it appears the shawl will be big enough after Day 25, so I am considering what to do for the "Hannukah Advent" part.
• Make at least three items for me, not counting the Advent Office Shawl, preferably at least one cardigan.
• To answer the above two items, I pulled out the 2023 Channukah set I received from Olive and Two Ewes and finally decided on a pattern (not the one I thought of originally for the set), wound yarn and cast on.
• I also looked at shawl patterns for a Paris colourways set I purchased with the goal of having a shawl made before I go there at the beginning of May.  I have a couple additional shawl patterns in mind for my on-trip project.
• I think I have settled on a cardigan pattern for some of the Knitting Buddha yarn I have, if it's the correct weight.  I may adjust if it is not.
• Finish at least one blanket for Warm Up, America!
• Make at least twenty-five items for charity - a fairly low bar for me, but I don't want to get overambitious because I know where that ends.  Plus one is a blanket.
• "Dry January" means no yarn shopping!  The items currently in my Etsy basket don't count.  😉
• I am planning to attend three festivals this year: Carolina Fiber Fest, Maryland Sheep & Wool, and DFW Fiber Fest.  I want to minimize yarn shopping except for those.
• I want to get my application to enter the North Carolina State Fair competitions in on time!  I missed the deadline for 2024, so three items I had planned to enter are now disqualified as everything has to be made in the year since the last NCSF.  I want to enter at least one item in both the Carolina Fiber Fest and the North Carolina State Fair, the former mostly to get feedback.  I'd planned to enter the item from this year in the State Fair competitions, but oh well!
• Finish a bunch of the holiday kits I bought and try to sell them in the local arts & crafts group's holiday sale.  I was out of the country this year so didn't participate.

Much more detail for this year's fiber arts resolutions than in pas years!

And in other subjects, I plan to get three rooms repainted (one is mostly touch-up, but it may look better with a full repainting and I am OK with that) and shelves installed in two of them, then get my books and records unpacked, and make progress towards having a working studio and a working media and guest room.  Part of those require hiring people to do the painting and the shelf-building and -installation, and I keep procrastinating.

Stay tuned.

The final reckoning of 2024.

A friend posted this on social media, and it so, so encapsulates the year:

Looking back at this year's plans, it's amazing how much I didn't do.  And yet, how much I did.

Reading:  After upping my goal to 18 books, I ended up reading 24.  Not as many as some people I know, but enough.  And I have at least four in various stages of being read.

Goodreads sent this around midmonth,
so it doesn't include my final book report.

My shortest book was 92 pages and my longest one was 714 pages.

Cooking:  I forgot about this resolution and didn't cook as many historical things as I wished.  But I did a bunch of cooking, most recently a "smothered pheasant" dish from a 1953 cookbook.  This is just browned bird (I substituted chicken, easier to find) braised under a blanket of onions.  It counts as historical if the recipe is older than I am!  I also made a vegetables dish of roasted onion, butternut squash, brussels sprouts, and after about twenty minutes added fresh cranberries and some pecan halves.  Plus the almost-weekly cheese soufflés for my parents; some weeks I was away on the weekend, or once in a great while we did something different.

Knitting/Crocheting/Crafting:

• I have not finished the shawl from my 2023 list, but I think I saw it when I moved.
• Spinning wheel still needs repair.
• I did not make six things for myself, and the sweater I started with such anticipation has been stalled because the colourway started pooling and I didn't like it.
• Maybe I did make six things?  The "Age of Brass and Steam" shawl, mittens and (much later) a hat of Knitting Buddha's handspun, a "Palmer House" shawl from yarn I purchased at the Carolina Fiber Fest, and a bucket hat.  I think the test-crocheted cardigan was the year before, but I need to find my notes.
• I found the Olive & Two Ewe 2024 yarn challenge, which I'd forgotten about, and did complete a few of the items on it:  adult sweater, scarf, mittens, more scarves, hat, shawls, baby/toddler sweater.  I did not make a bag, slippers, a tea cozy, or a blanket, although I did put together a blanket from pieces made by others.

I made a total of 74 items this year, many of them being hats or scarves for charity.  Those are easy to carry around and work on and often don't take much attention.

I didn't have a resolution about travel, but I did travel, including twice to Europe.  Also a number of places around the country.  I am already making plans for 2025.

Walking:  No resolution about it, but I have done a lot of walking.  I participated in the local library's "Route 66 Challenge" where they had us record walking certain distances, such as "Chicago to St. Louis: 15 miles" or "Needles to Santa Monica: 11 miles".  Of course, the real distances are much longer, but this is for fun.  Since on a normal day I would walk a couple-three kilometers easily, and usually more, I converted those to miles and just entered defaults.  Normal walk? 1.5 miles.  Long weekend walk?  2-3 miles.  Yes, I probably walked more.

At the end of the contest, you could turn in your sheet and try to win a prize.  I almost forgot but wasn't the only person to turn in the sheet on the last day.  To my amazement, I did win a prize!  And speaking of prizes, I've continued to participate in the online theater performances, and they just announced the winners of prizes for this season:

A dozen stripes.

While out walking during the last few weeks, I found that somebody has been decorating a few of the baby trees in a Charlie Brown manner:

 

And some of the bushes are looking festive:

Today was my last long walk of the year, managed between the overnight storms and the incoming storms.  Sun came out and I was quite warm.

I stopped at my parents' house to pick up leftovers of the vegetables I made to accompany yesterday's soufflé.  I riffed on a holiday recipe I'd seen; since I didn't have rosemary I left it out as well as the maple syrup, since I thought they would balance each other and just maple syrup would make this too sweet:

Butternut squash, brussels sprouts, and onion.
After roasting for 20 minutes or so (stirring halfway)
I added fresh cranberries and pecan halves.

The soufflé was at the top of the dish but of course was deflating by the time it reached the table.  It still tastes quite good.  The vegetables reheated nicely.

I am up to Day 12 of the Advent-Plus-Channukah Shawl I am making up as I go.  I am now doing the stripes for the full half ball, instead of stopping at about two inches, so the stripes are uneven and taking longer than if I cut the yarn after about 2.5 inches:

It will be an "office shawl" so I don't entirely care.  Of course, I've now seen a blanket pattern that I could have done, one strand at a time, but I am not going to pull this apart and start over!  Maybe next year.

As you can see, I finished one of the "pocket hats" or "Zoom hats", and the other is now into the second leftover bit of yarn.  I am going to try to focus on finishing items as the year finishes.

Wrapping it up.

Last day of June, so a look back at the month isn't a bad topic.  I've also been wrapping DNiece#1's birthday gift because I will be out of town, and want to give it to her father (my brother) today so it's waiting for her.  He's coming over to my parents' house so we can help them put back all the things moved out of two rooms where they had carpeting replaced with flooring in the last week.

I was at a conference in Denver for three days.  I'd been asked to co-present a session on negotiations, and then was asked to fill-in on another session, plus I wanted to attend a few of the other topics.  However, it was not just end-of-month but end-of-quarter and work was crazily busy.  I was pulled out of a couple sessions and look forward to viewing the recordings so I can learn what I missed.

Even though it was hot, the mornings were nice enough for walks:

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

The little park across from our hotel turned out to be a historical site:

  

Progress on Things:  Not much accomplished in terms of reading, because I am working on an anthology and it is long and slow.  I like Ellery Queen's short stories, but these novels read as if he is still writing to get paid by the word.  It's his style, not my favourite, but not so bad that I am ditching the book.  As of today I am mostly through the fourth novel and the final one looks shorter.

Just before going to Denver I finished these bags:

A lady posted to our neighborhood e-list that she wanted help to make something.  She has very basic crocheting skills, and didn't want to learn how to do these, it turned out she wanted somebody else to make them for her.  A granddaughter made some and gave her the pattern, but was going overseas for the summer and wouldn't be able to make them.  I thought it was an interesting pattern and said I would help.  The bottom is a double thickness with an opening so the bag can tuck inside.

The lady purchased the yarn/string and a hook (wrong size) and dropped them off.  I took these to St. Louis and it was perfect not-pay-attention crocheting.  I told her that I have some green so she didn't need to get a big ball for the few yards the leaves would take, and I found some cute blue strawberry buttons in one of my button jars that were perfect for these.  As you can see, the pattern is supposed to make a citrus fruit result but she liked blue better, so received giant blueberries.  I didn't tell her that there was enough string to make two bags, deciding to surprise her, and when she called to see how I was coming along I just said that it was almost ready.  I dropped them off at her house during one of my morning walks before going to Denver and she was quite thrilled.  I returned the pattern but have it memorized in case I want to make more.

I took a super-simple hat of wild yarn to work on at the conference and traveling, plus a surprise project for a friend, and am finally back to this:

I took the photo after my yoga teacher said that we should find something to look at during balancing poses that makes us happy and isn't moving.  I love rainbows, I love knitting, and this made me happy despite the struggles.  A friend who makes socks gave me a bunch of leftovers to share with another friend who makes a lot of hats and things for charity.  While waiting to deliver the box (to which I am adding some of my own leftovers) I decided to use some of the yarns to make things.  I thought about how to use striping yarn in a way that highlights the stripes, instead of muddles them.  Often a yarn made for socks will have stripes calculated based upon foot-width, not head-width, so you lose the effect or it's just very skinny stripes.  Plus since these are leftovers there isn't enough of one to make a hat, so I have to combine things.

The first part, shown above, was to knit what I call a "vertical ribbing" which is done on a narrow width in repeats of knit a row, purl a row, knit a row.  I started and ended with orange.  Next is to pick up around the edge, which I started and stalled and then did the blueberry bags.  So now it is back to this hat - I thought knitting a rainbow hat during Pride Month makes a lot of sense.