HNW - K and L

Of course, for me the K has to be knitting. And I currently am working on a LACE project. Just a small scarf, really shouldn't be a big deal at all, right? But it started out just terribly. Here is a portion of the pattern:

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The empty boxes are regular knit stitches and the other symbols are various special stitches. Three times in a row I got a chunk of the way into the project and realized my stitch count was off. Usually when that happens you can "read" your stitches and find the spot where you messed up, but it's almost impossible with this pattern. And also it's pretty challenging to "un-knit" it (TINK in knitter lingo) to try to fix. So three different times I ended up ripping it out completely and starting over.

Finally I realized I needed to be putting in some lifelines. That's where you periodically weave a piece of scrap yarn through your stitches. Say you're 120 rows into the project and your lifeline is 20 rows back - you can take the project off the needles and rip it back to the lifeline and only have to re-knit 20 rows instead of 120 rows.

In the way of these things, now that I'm using lifelines I'm finally not making mistakes (knock on wood). I'm exactly half done right now, here's a picture of the scarf by itself so you can make out the pretty stitch pattern.

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Here's the sample project from the pattern designer - this gives you an idea of the stitch design once the scarf's been washed and blocked.

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OK OK, I know what you're all here for.

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I've been doing some of the senior group exercise classes at my gym. I felt like I needed a change in routine. I'm still doing yoga but it didn't feel like it was quite enough. And the area of our club with cardio equipment is being remodeled, so it seemed like a good time to try something else. I had a bad experience a couple of years ago with one of these classes, with a teacher who I felt was picking on me (my form wasn't perfect because I was new to the class, but believe me I was trying and doing the best that I could). So I was hesitant to go back, but the teacher on the other days is great. The other day a lot of people weren't getting their form right on the moves she had demoed. Instead of picking on them individually, she stopped the entire class and had everybody watch her again and go through it in slow motion. Then when we got started again, she said "YES, MUCH BETTER!"

One of the classes is called Total Body and is supposed to be a mix of strength and cardio and "neuroplasticity" (making the old peoples' brains work). The other one is supposed to be a straight strength class but I find my heart rate still goes up. Make me do lunges and I'm going to start sweating.

Today was something different - instead of using dumbbells we used these things called body bars. Basically they're just heavy bars in different weights, so it's like using a very light barbell.

We were doing things like squats, deadlifts, upright rows. Since I hadn't used them before I picked the two lightest weights - I actually think I could have gone heavier, woohoo! Anyway, I liked the class today and it was the first time I didn't walk out feeling absolutely spent. Progress!