Random Filler Thoughts

I haven't yet done any knitting today, so no photos of progress, but I expect to get some done this evening. Tonight's movie/TV fare won't have subtitles, though I enjoyed La Vie en Rose last night and now want to knit berets. My hand feels fine. However, I want to try to get to sleep earlier tonight, as on Thursday and Friday I need to be up by seven. My current schedule of sleeping from 3 or 4 AM until eleven or twelve won't work so well, then. So I have to move my usual posting time up.

I've always been a night owl, but my schedule has become even more random and later over the last few years. Some of this comes from my having better concentration on things such as knitting, reading and blogging late at night and just enjoying them more then. Some is hormonal, or lack thereof.

Speaking of hormones, I may have reached that mythical place on the other side of perimenopause where the excess weight starts to pack up and leave as mysteriously as it arrived. Despite celebrating Thanksgiving twice in the last week and a half and not getting in a workout for longer, I'm within a pound of my lowest weight in the last twelve years.

Correction, I did do a light workout on Sunday, and a longer one today. I started working out regularly, including practicing Pilates, about eight years ago. Life activities just no longer provided enough exercise as they did when I was a hospital nurse and an avid gardener. Knitting builds biceps but can not count as aerobic, no matter how fast you do it.

I'm fitter than ten years ago - also more flexible and have better posture. I have noticed over the same time frame that now when I spend an entire day on the computer or sitting and knitting, I feel  much more stiffness than before. IMO, only part of this relates to my age - 53, for those who want to know. If I don't stretch out my legs after sitting a lot, they'll wake me up at night.

The benefits of a good range of motion and the pleasure of stretching out tight muscles outweigh the annoyance of the need to keep up with it. So I try to incorporate both leg and back stretches as well as my hand stretches into my knitting routine. I do feel less creaky than some knitters I know. Repetitive motion and bad posture catch up with you.

I worked out tonight to a video set near Sedona. I lived in Sedona for a few years back in the late 50s when I was in kindergarten and younger and it was a small town in the middle of nowhere.  In February, the week before The Madrona Winter Retreat, Spousal Unit and I take a trip to Tucson for the  pre-official-show Gem and Mineral show and a couple days in Sedona.

As I was doing my video I thought I should get recommendations on yarn stores in the area. I'd like to get something different from what I can find in Seattle, though I have great access to wonderful stuff. I should get on Ravelry and poke around the Arizona groups; ask for some tips.

The fact that I'll be at Madrona a week later shouldn't have any effect on yarn store visits in Arizona. After all, I don't plan on going to Stitches West the week after Madrona. Except those classes on knitting back backwards and conquering collars still have openings.

I need to spend more time learning the resources on Ravelry. Last night I finally entered an avatar. This is a close up of my Mountain Colors 4/8s wool in Silverbow knit up. The real thing looks a bit bluer - blues just don't cooperate with my point and shoot photography - but the muted grayed tones are right on.

I just get caught up in blogs and don't get to Ravelry. This afternoon I followed a link on Weebug's blog through Rebecca's to a search for Cupcake Royale in Seattle. From there I ended up going through a series of links that led to an order for a vegan cupcake and a vegan baking book. I'm allergic to milk and my sister has an intolerance. Her 50th birthday party is at my place on Sunday, so I hope to find a birthday cake possibility in one of them.

So, there we are; a bunch of random thoughts that seem to prove everything in my life does relate back to knitting.