Another week has come and gone!

Man, where does the time go? Just yesterday it was Christmas, wasn't it? Now it's almost May and I've got so much knitting to do that have deadlines that won't be met.

The TASK project for our traveling afghan squares is kicking my butt! Who'da thought that knitting up twelve 12x12 squares would be so freakin hard. I never knew I was such a prefectionist, but I really want the squares to be perfect. They are going out to people who really don't know me, except for the me on Ravelry. The squares are representing who I am. I am an outgoing fun happy person on the outside, always looking for a good time, loves to hang with friends and family, but on the inside I'm not happy with myself and I guess that's what I don't want my TASK friends to see - my imperfections.

I've got to do something

I'm sure you've noticed the title to my blog, If you knit, you can't eat. Well that's not exactly true. I've been doing alot of knitting and apparently, according to the scales alot of eating. This blog is supposed to be about knitting, friends and family and my journey towards a healthier lifestyle and losing some weight. Instead of losing weight I'm gaining - to the turn of 20 lbs since October.

Yesterday morning I woke up and decided I was going to drink at least 8 glasses of water everyday. No more diet pop!!!! Healthy lunches like Subway, lean meats and lots of fruit and veggies. I did very good all day at work and when I came home someone had bought pizza for dinner. I ended up eating 3 slices of pizza (it was thin crust) but still, what the heck I totally screwed up.

I woke up this morning not feeling very good, probably the stupid pizza. Today will be a much better day. I've already started drinking my water and I'm having a cup of kashi cereal for breakfast. I'll be at a job fair during the luch hour and lunch will be provided. Usually they provide sandwiches, hopefully they are from Subway, and not something full of mayo. For tonights dinner, I'm planning on having a big salad with tuna fish sprinkled over the top and lite italian dressing. Lots and lots of water today.

On a brighter note - tomorrow is the Sheryl Crow concert!!! Yeah, I'm so excited.

Now for knitting stuff - I finished knitting the cardi for my daughter. It was a very fast knit, started on Saturday and finished Sunday. Now I just have to sew it together and I think I'm going to add a rib stitch all the way around. I was going to sew it up yesterday, but for some reason I can't find any of my tapestry needles. Where'd they all go???

I've got to get to work so I'll chat with you later!

Reading, Scarves and Squares - Oh my!

As you saw in my last post, the book reading homework assignment I have been given is getting in the way of my knitting.

I've made a deal with myself, that if I read 1 chapter (approx 15 pages) I get to knit for 15 minutes. Sounded fair to me, except for some reason that 15 minutes of reading lasts alot longer than 15 minutes of knitting. The knitting time just flies by and then I have to pick the book back up.

I have a scheduled personal day today and when I left work yesterday I "accidentally" left the book on my desk. Ooops! I guess I'll just have to knit without reading this weekend. (isn't that ashame.

I finally finshed my 1st square for the TASK (Traveling Afghan Squares for Knitters) project and I'll get that mailed off today. I got SueChicago's scarf in the mail yesterday and had the perfect yarn to add to it. I don't know if this stitch pattern is real and has a name or not, I actually was planning on a k3, p3 rib but I didn't have enough stitches and ended with a k2, when I turned to start the next row I didn't take into account that I only had 2 stitches on that end and when ahead and k3, p3, to the end and ended with k2 again. I could have fixed it but it was doing something cool and I wanted to see how it played out. It really turned out very nice, 1 knit stitch in each section stayed the same, so it is a rib pattern, just not the one I intended on making. I'm sure that's how most of the stitch patterns came to be, someone was planning on knitting one thing and screwed up and instead of frogging it and starting over they named the stitch pattern. I'll have to do a little research and see if I can actually find this pattern on the net or in a book. If not, I'll have to think up a cool name for it.

I've got pics but I can't find my cable to download, so I'll have to show you my stuff later.

TASK

Wow, it's been 10 days since I've written about anything. My lazy knitting project is being lazy and hasn't progressed any since my last blog. Mainly because I've taken on a new task, as in TASK - Traveling Afghan Squares for Knitters. It's a spin off our traveling scarf group and I took the lead on this project. Collecting personal info from each knitter, preferences, etc and compiled a spreadsheet for each knitter to keep track of their squares.

Sunday, I decided to visit my LYS (Loops in Tulsa, OK) and pick out my yarn for my first square, (I actually could have just gone to my closet and picked out a yarn, but it was a good excuse to visit Loops). I picked out a really pretty color of Samoa (cotton blend). After, showing off my "Not your normal baby blanket" to the girls at Loops. I headed home to axiously get started on my square.

I chose my needles, got my yarn, the remote control, glass of iced tea and settled down in the recliner to watch BigBrother After Dark (I tivo'd it) and start my beautiful square. What stitch was I going to do, something simple like seed stitch, or something with a cable? Cabel it is! I love the X and O cable and thought it would be perfect ya know (hugs and kisses) for this labor of love. I started (without doing a swatch first) cast on 64 stitches and began. After knitting about 3 inches I slipped my stitches onto a circular needle to messure. I'm supposed to be making a 12x12" square. It's not! My gauge should be 16 stitchs = 4". 64 stitches should be 12". It was only 10". I've started, frogged and restarted my first square 4 times already. Then I decided maybe it's the cable stitch pulling my gauge in too tight. After the 4th frogging, I've chosen a new pattern, it's sorta like a moss stitch, but I've improvised a little bit. It's simple, but it will be very pretty.

The 2nd thing that has taken up some of my knitting time is reading. I've got to read this book for work, and I'm not good about reading if it's not something I really want to read. The book is titled It's Okay to Be The Boss by Bruce Tulgan. It's interesting enough, but if I'm gonna read, I'd rather be reading a knitting mystery by Maggie Sefton.

Here's a picture of my 5th attempt at making my square for TASK and the book that is getting in the way of my knitting.