Lace, Weight

The lace valance is now off of the needles. It needs to be blocked and hemmed, which I will eventually get around to doing. The pattern suggests blocking by soaking it and pinning. This is Knitpicks Shine so I'm wondering why it says to do it that way. Is it because it's not 100% cotton? I've always just used a steam iron on cotton before. If I decide to do the soaking, I'll probably wait until after xmas to see if I get these Blocking Blocks They are on my xmas list. Here is a pic of it in it's before blocking bunchy glory. I only needed 4 skeins to do 4 repeats.



Speaking of cotton, enabler Hesira did it again. She pointed me in the direction of this sale. She is either an enabler or psychic. What she wasn't aware of, that I know, is that right before she sent that to me I was contemplating a few things. I was looking ahead to when I plan to quit my job (YAY!!) and thinking I will have no yarn budget for a while. I was thinking I have plenty of lace and fingering weight yarn to last me a very long time. I was thinking I should get some thicker yarn because knitting only with tiny yarn is not optimal. I was thinking I should decide on a yarn to use for the Dickinson Pullover. The organic cotton seems to be exactly what I needed. I just ordered 25 skeins of the forest color.

As a note to myself mostly, I hit a different goal. I've lost 10 lbs without feeling deprived at all. It's all about lifestyle changes. I was thinking losing about a pound a month may be the way to do it and keep it off. I don't dwell on it, I just occasionally weigh myself to see what's happening. What I have done is mostly eliminate fast food french fries (except for the once a month craving that must not be denied). Those things are evil and dangerous. I know if I eat them any other time, I will once again have to go through fry withdrawal, but now I don't miss them and don't feel deprived. Husband went through a nutrition program at work and has started thinking healthier. Don't get me started on how he was able to lose about 5 lbs in 2 weeks just doing that. Another thing, if I want a cookie, I wait until I want it bad enough to go to the trouble to bake some. If I want ice cream, I go and get a dose of the good stuff, and I want it less often. And finally, getting a bit more active, which was pretty easy to do when you start from zero :) Anyway, I figure in 2 more years, I will have achieved my goal. If it's this easy, I can wait.