My New Weight Loss Lifestyle

I joined SparkPeople a couple weeks ago with the goal of being able to track what I'm actually eating and to find a place where I can find other people to help me be accountable to. Sigh.

I have been doing the Spark People thing for over two weeks now. I have cut my calories by an average of 400 a day. I have had 3 glasses of mountain dew during that time when normally I had 3 glassses a day, and I excercised 10 of those days, where normally I would have excercised 2 days. I have worn a path from my desk at work to the bathroom from all the water I drink. I started out at 156.6 pounds. This morning I weighed 156.6 pounds. That is what I call depressing. I'm giving up a lot of things I enjoy and doing things I don't enjoy with nothing to show for it. It's enough to make a girl cry. Sure, I know some of the meds I'm on make it difficult to lose weight, and I wasn't expecting to drop 2 pounds a week, but maybe a half pound a week? Please? I'll go cry now. Then I'll go do some fabric retail therapy and then hit the gym on the way home.

Silks, Needles & More Report

The event was excellent!

We had 19 classes on all types of fibery goodness, from spinning, to period knitted stockings, to goldwork to bobbin lace. What an incredibly fun and educational day!

Those who were between classes sat in the common room and worked on projects while chatting.

The A&S competition was marvellous. So many entries in such a diverse range of techniques! The over all winner was Baroness Saraidh with her wonderful hand woven velvet and a close second was Lady Isobel with the intricately embroidered collar and cuffs. Her Highess Princess Elizabeth also selected an entry to honor. I just kept going over to the A&S tables to drool over the entries. They were all so good!



A gentle of our Shire hand crafted a card weaving loom to be raffled off. All proceeds will be donated to the Kingdom Endowment Fund. I'm not sure of the exact amount raised, but I believe it was a little over $30.00. We also had a jar at Troll for anyone who wanted to donate to the Fund.

Lunch was yummy. Chicken and barley soup was perfect for a cold wet day.

All in all, I think it was a great event. We'll probably do it again in 2011.

Silks, Needles & More

The event is just a couple days away! 19 classes on knitting, spinning, embroidery and weaving will be held in Fargo on Saturday. I had intended to put together a local sort of event on embroidery with maybe 5-6 classes for two or three SCA groups in the area to get together for. It's such a specialized sort of thing that I thought we'd have maybe 30 people tops. Just to be polite I did make an announcement on the Kingdom listserv. Next thing I know, I've got respected experts offering to drive 500 miles to teach at the event. Wow! It's gonna be lots of fun. The hard thing is we'll have 5 classes going at a time, so I won't get to go to all the classes I want. Go to the shire website and click on the Silks, Needles & More graphic to see the class list and schedule.

More Sad News

I found out this morning that a long time co-worker named Harlan Kulland passed away last night. It was crazy. Apparently he mowed his lawn last night, put the mower away and died on the way back to his house. A passerby found him dead on the sidewalk. Even tho Harlan and I no longer worked in the same department we still emailed jokes back and forth and ran into each other from time to time. In fact he had called yesterday about a work related question and we got to chat for a couple minutes. We talked about seeing each other at the baseball game this weekend.

It's been a tough week. I was going to blog about the great time I had last night at my new friend Athena's place. Athena helped Camille and I wash our fleece. While that was going on she opened her bags of dyed fleece and told us to help ourselves. She carded up a batt on her marvelous drum carder (makes me hate my antique drum carder) and showed Camille how to roll it up in a bamboo window blind to felt it. It was a great evening and I was really glad to have a chance to spend more time with Athena.

When I got home I was really tired, so I was dragging at work already when the news about Harlan came. It has upset me quite a bit. It stayed in the back of my mind all day, and I was overly snappish at my team mates. Tomorrow I'll have to take time to apologize.

Sad News

I was told that Darcy, a friend from Brandon Manitoba, passed a away early this morning. He had been ill for some time, but still managed to travel long distances to SCA events, where he maintained a cheerful attitude and flirted with all the girs. I just saw him 10 days ago at Crown. I didn't know him that well, but when I read Isobel's (his wife) post I started to cry. I was always so glad to see him at events. He always smiled. When I asked how he was doing he always said, "Oh, pretty good." If I pressed he might admit to being a bit tired. The picture is of me and Darcy up at Castel Rouge's 12th Night four months ago. I like imagine Darcy in heaven, not worrying about new treatments or being tired anymore, totally happy and relaxed.

My Kromski Minstrel

I have a new frind at my house: Zoja the Minstrel. I really love the double treadle. I have to work on the tension to figure it out, but I did manage to spin some yarn with it over the weekend. See? Purple and dark pink with flecks of glitter in it. I was planning to knit a shawl with it, but there's not enough yardage so it will probably be a scarf.

I am currently spinning some nice light weight sock yarn in blue and lavender.

YAY! I love Zoja!

Blizzard Day means Knitting Day!

Today North Dakota, South Dakota and western Minnesota are experiencing the first blizzard of the year. Quite a few businesses in Fargo are closed, which considering that it is prime christmas shopping time, really says something about the weather. My church was cancelled this morning, which was kind of a relief, since I didn't want to drive in this mess.The view outside my window (a limited view, admittedly, since I live in an apartment with only eastern facing windows) is very hazy due to blowing snow. The garages only 15 feet away are shadowy and after that it's just a wall of white. You can believe that I am going nowhere today. I've even turned my heat on for the first time this year. Normally my apartment is pretty warm without the heat on. But I guess those 40 mile an hour gusts of cold wind are... well, cold. So on goes the heat.

It's a perfect day to stay home and eat soup, and read or knit or watch movies. I dread going to work tomorrow, but for now I'm going to stay home, read a sappy Christmas romance by Grace Livingston Hill and knit. On www.Ravelry.com the Nodak Knitters group has been planning a Blizzard Knit/Crochet Along for a month now. Each participant chose their yarn and pattern a week or more ago and put them away from when the first blizzard hit. The pattern was encouraged to be a hat, mittens, scarf or other cold weather gear item. I was going to do a hat for myself, but the blizzard came before Christmas so I cast on the hat I need to make for my nephew for Christmas. I was going to do a cloche style hat like the one Angelina Jolie wears in the movie Changeling. I've already made one for my friend Astrid.

Here's a pic of the 1920's cloche hat that I knitted and felted for her. I like the slit in the back. I think I'll have to make another one for myself after the blizzard.