I have a living room again!

It's all so exciting. It's amazing what picking up 14 pillows and vacuuming will do to a room. There was more to it than that but not much more. I moved Spike's yoga mat and found three kitty treats which excited him just as much as when he realized I had moved his mat which makes it new and exciting again. He hasn't gotten off it since.
Spike wonders why I am not giving him treats right now.

So I've been working a lot at the coffee shop and working out like a demon. I really like yoga. And I think I might be able to keep this up. I enjoy the classes more and more and actually kinda missed the gym today. I just feel like my body is more relaxed and can move easier. I've known for a long time that I needed to do something but just couldn't get started. And while yoga is so hard and sometimes you think you will die if the instructor says to hold the pose for two more breathes it's also just so awesome sometimes. The stretches and twists are very... I'm looking for a word that relates to being able to breathe that would apply to the previous statement... I dunno. I lost my vocabulary in July. But whatever that word is, that is yoga to me.

I went hiking. This is the bridge that I started to cry on and freaked out and my friends had to lead me across. Those are them waaaay ahead of me. I took the photo to convince myself I was fine. Then I stopped breathing. Why do I go across suspension bridges?

I took lots of pictures. Pretty rivers (I do fine on other bridges... it's those bloody suspension bridges) and pretty rocks. Than I had to go downhill and found out my shoes did not grip and that sucked. I fell right at the end and ended up tearing some muscle filaments in my left foot. Stupid shoes.


Meg came back from sock summit with my yarn. She keeps on insisting it's hers but I'm like... 'it loves ME!!!'



That's true love if I've ever seen it (thanks Janelle for the photo). I also like how Meg is in the background here~ completely unaware that in an hour I will sneak that yarn out of her bag and contemplate leaving the cafe with it since she *so* did not see me take it. I hit her with it instead (thanks Janelle for the suggestion).

This was also the night I spent 90 minutes doing the kitchener stitch for my cardigan. I've always enjoyed kitchener stitch but now I need to clarify. I enjoy kitchener stitch for socks. A looser large gauge over 70 stitches? Hell. My cardigan has hit a few bumps. The darts are too far down to be effective so as Rachel noted~ they look like boobs (or sassy eggs). So I'm going to pull them into this little pocket detail in the back which has some people concerned but don't worry! I'm pretty sure I think I know what I'm doing! Here's some progress photos. Still need to block it again and do some more fiddling.

My tool kit for this cardigan. See the post its with the sheep clips? That's my pattern.

post-kitchener hell

A clip I'm thinking about for the back.

The seed stitch border was stupidly difficult and un-neccessarily hard but I like it.


And I decided to name it by random wiki article and it (I am DEAD serious here) came up with Jan Baas. I know. So what do you think? Can I call it the J. Baas cardigan?

Do I win prizes for the most random blog entries?

What are Sundays again?

oh yeah... Sanguineness. Which isn't hard when you've been in the apartment for four days without leaving. My only hope is to GET OUT!!! Which I will, tomorrow, so that's good.

Now that that's out of the way let's check up with the 30 by 30 shall we?

Completed:
#7: Get another tattoo: Whoo!
#22:Participate in a charity marathon even if I just briskly stroll the whole thing: done. Please see original 30 by 30 post for details. Nearly died. (not really)

In the Works:
#1:Design and knit my perfect cardigan out of hand-spun hand-dyed yarn- the J.Baas cardigan was the prototype for this (scroll allll the way to the bottom). Now I just need to spin the hoardes of fleece from Chrissy so I can dye it and get started!
#4:Crochet a bedspread with one of my Grandmother Hazel's crochet hooks and laceweight thread: got the thread and the pattern and have temporarily lost the motifs somewhere in my living room but no worries. Hopefully I'll find them this Wednesday.
#11: Publish one of my poems (and not self-published)- started writing again! Wooo!
#13: Keep my blog- look at me go!
#14: Pick up some kind of activity or sport thingie- yoga is well on it's way to accomplishing this goal for me.
#17: Use my 5' by 7' canvas for a painting- the pencil has been laid down and I'm still working on the smaller one for practice first.
18: Get another family portrait with all the new people in our family- what do you think... this December? I think so!
#19 & #20: Organize a serious charity knitting project & Get involved with a Feminist organization- have started looking at different organizations in Vancouver and nothing serious yet but wheels are turning. Hoping to get into this one after Xmas.
#27: Write and illustrate a picture book- again, started writing and painting again so I'm pretty pleased.
#30: Design and sew a dress that is spectacular- Got the materials but haven't done much with them. Maybe Project Runway will inspire me (not this season though, this season sucked).

Haven't the Foggiest:
#2:Get a spinning wheel- whatever. They are too much money. I don't have the time. I like my spindle. This one may be something like a gift to myself for my 30th birthday or something. I do want one but I'm discouraged.
#3:Make a really awesome bookshelf- have talked to my Dad about this one. If I really stick to it it may happen this summer.
#5:Go on a real vacation: what's that?
#6:Bike around one of the islands: not in this weather. Get back to you in the summer.
#8: Pay off bank student loan: Aaaaaahahahahaha
#9: Visit my friends in Gimli- have started up communication again so maybe next summer?
#12:Become an Aunt again- I'm crossing my fingers but besides that.
#16:Be a bridesmaid again cause it is fun- let's get on that people!
#21:Go swimming in the Atlantic Ocean with my friends on the East coast- double sigh.
#23:Do the European coastline trip with Julia- oh yeah.. getting right on that one.
#25:Scuba or snorkel- I know where the vancouver school of scuba is now! Yeah.
#26: Garden- no matter how small- I figure I'll have to get involved with a community garden in case I don't move. We'll check them out in the spring.
#28: Adopt another kitten- nearly did the last week of August but going to hold out till I a) get a vet and b)get Spike all his shots again and c) have three weeks off at least to make sure Spike doesn't eat the kitten.

In risk of being changed:
#10: Get really good at the violin- like stellar- this may be changed too... get considerably better at the violin so you can play independently without relying on someone else to tune or have the cat run away and hide. True story. When Alyria came over and house sat for me when she played my violin Spike CURLED UP IN HER LAP AND PURRED. He runs when he sees me open my violin.
#15:Learn how to be awesome at chess and play a game with those really serious russians downtown- again, may just be changed to learn how to play chess in a way that isn't pathetic. Still want to challenge myself to play with the scary serious dudes downtown but we'll see.
#24: Hike the West Coast Trail- I'm getting a lot of varied reports about the West Coast Trail so I don't know. This may just become 'do a day long hike' but let's be clear... I don't 'scale' things, I don't do rickety bridges or unreliable ladders, and I don't do freaky ass heights either.
#29: Make a life list- I started to do this but it seemed really lame. I didn't like any of the life lists I found and I wasn't inspired at. all. I think I'll turn this into a book list of 100 books to read. More about that later.

So there you have it. Is this a boring post? Are you at all interested in updates? I feel like I'm babbling about things I've babbled before. I guess for me the coolest thing about this list is the way it's making me look at time and my life so I don't know how that translates on to the blog. Hm.

Anyhoo, see you tomorrow! For... Maniac Monday!