Thursday, October 20, 2011

Seriously?!?!

Another night with me waking up at 1:30 in the morning and not being able to fall back asleep. This stinks! I only tossed and turned an hour in bed before I gave up and got up.

I know there are several factors causing my sleeplessness.
1) The last week of my cycle is almost always when I have insomnia.
2) I didn't eat enough calories yesterday and my stomach was growling when I went to sleep. (too much food and not enough food are factors for me.)
3) I woke up overheated. I assume this is from my work-outs since I can't blame the food.
4) Stress. I am having a pile of stress lately and it's causing me to wake up in mid dialog. (Often yelling at a co-worker or a family member in my dream....) And there is nothing like middle of the night sleeplessness for ramping up negative thoughts - let me tell you. Depressing.

And normally I would subscribe to the "Knowledge is Power!" motto, but sadly in this case it's not actualization. So instead I just have to roll with the punches here and make the best of a pile of lemons.

Starbucks opens in two hours.

In other news....



I started my Kal last night! I finished the initial ribbing section and will start the cables next. This is the first time I have worked with this yarn. It's the Vicky Howell yarn from Caron called Sheep(ish) in the color Gun Metal(ish). I am loving on this yarn! It's cheap. It's pretty. And it feels like soy yarn or maybe even approaching Malabrigo for softness. You get 167yd/152.7m per skein of yarn, and each skein was under $4.00 US at JoAnn's Craft and Fabrics. My only question now is how well this yarn will wear. I love malabrigo and other soft yarns - but they pill and wear rather poorly - so we will have to see how this looks after a Minnesota winter!

I am really enjoying the KAL. I was a bit nervous about it to be honest - which sounds silly - but I didn't know how the vibe would be or how much pressure there would be to get knitting done, etc... Man - if we could let go the fear of being stupid (or the perception of looking stupid?) we could accomplish so much more. So I found the schedule for the KAL yesterday morning and printed it out and placed it in my magazine I am working out of. And then I didn't read it right and thought I needed to work through the entire rib section on night one. (Up at 4:45, To work by 6:30, Home from work at 3:30, finish work-outs at 5:30, Shower and dinner, then knit on cowl. It was a busy day!) Apparently though it was divided into two nights - so I really could have knocked out the days schedule in a lazy hour of knitting rather than two hours. So the pace is really easy and there is no pressure. There is of course people way ahead of the herd and there are people who are struggling to find the pattern and the supplies. Vicky is being very receptive and warm and a great hostess of the Kal. I think it was perhaps a mistake to host a KAL where you can't offer the pattern up for free or even to purchase other than through the magazine - but I don't think that was thought of until after people started saying that they could not find the magazine and there was no other way to join the knit-a-long other than to purchase the magazine. Vicky pretty much told people to "Help each other out" with the pattern - ie: pattern share. You got to love someone who says that!  So yeah - this is going really well and I think I will get a bit addicted to KAL's. It's fun to be a part of a community knitting the same project and I am picking up wonderful tips and ideas on the Forums. (All of this stuff is on Ravelry btw. I just assume everyone knows that - and you know what happens when you ASSume! ;)

Notice my pretty Knit Picks needles? I really love their Harmony Wood needles. They hold up well to my really tight grip. I bend my wood Takumi needles all the time. One day I will loosen up my grip - but it's been years and years and I still knit tight as the dickens.

OK - think I will pay a few bills, feed my critters and get ready for work. Happy Thursday everyone! :)

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