theyarnlover

So after a couple of very hot days in Southern Cali both Kieran and I have colds. Lovely huh? I know there is probably no scientific evidence that extreme temperature changes cause the common cold, but it sure feels like it right now.

It's the last day of September and I can't believe it. Time is flying away so very quickly lately. When I'm not trying to get in some sleep, working, or playing with the boy, I'm knitting or daydreaming about possible projects. More specifically, trying to imagine my own designs. I haven't gotten a scretch book out yet, but my goal is to actually create a pattern for a Regency Jacket. I haven't decided if it will be crochet or knit. I'm leaning toward crochet for the ease of the process. I feel a lot more confident with my crochet skills than my knitting in terms of construction. Is it a bad thing to state, out loud, my goal. Does it make it more likely or less likely that it will actually happen. I've attempted this before and didn't make it that far in the process. Try and try again I guess.

So where to get help with this process? There is a new book, Knitwear Design Workshop by Shirley Payden-Bernstein, that I've ordered for some help/inspiration.

This week has been a big week, teeth, crawling, bike riding, and then his 9 month check up. Last night is also probably the first night that his immunizations have really bothered him. Up every two hours and GRUMPY! So now when he is usually up by at the lastest 8 am, he is still sleeping. It was probably the flu shot and not his immunization. Anyway he is resting peacefully now and I'm checking on him almost every ten minutes.

We made the ride to work today . We got a late start and left the house around 8:15 when I intended to actually leave by 7:30. Yes a very late start. That said the ride felt like it was a lot easier than the first time and my average mph was better. It took about an hour to get to the child care and then another 30 minutes to get to work. So I arrived extremely late to work. Ugh! Next time will be better and I'll manage to actually leave when I intend to.

The ride felt great! Why do I forget how much I like to ride my bike. Sometimes I go for months and month without the desire to get on the bike and then, like now, I can wait to get on the bike. What's with that? It would be much much more healthy if I kept the exercise up, right? Ah well, I should just accept my foibles and enjoy it when I can.

Kieran seems to really like it! He babbles during the whole ride and is consistently looking to the side, out the windows on the Chariot. On the way home today we stopped on the beach for a little bit of play time in the sand. Here's a picture. He was just swimming in the sand with a big smile on his face and then planted he face in the sand and took a big mouth full. ACK! All up his nose too. Didn't seem to faze him though.

Today didn't seem that unusual given that yesterday was such an adventure, but it's not just hum drum. Today I discovered, don't ask me how, that Kieran has a tooth! Yay! That's not all either. The boy is CRAWLING!

 

5:30 am wakeup, get myself ready, get the baby ready, and then off to the Blue Butterfly (the local coffee shope) to meet Tippi for our adventure. We started off from the Blue Butterfly at about 7:05am and headed for the beach.

To get to Santa Monica College's Bundy campus we rode along the beach to just south of Marina Del Rey then headed inland along the Ballona Wetlands. The ride all the way to McConnell Avenue is on a bike trail. The rest of the ride we decided on a route through back neighborhoods avoiding the main roads. All-in-all its a mere 11 miles to Bundy Campus and the ride felt like it was relatively short because Tippi, Kieran, and I were babbling the whole way. Now let's talk some facts. Tippi probably could have made it in much better time if she had left me in the dust. I was peddling at about 5 miles an hour the whole way, except that is for the downhill portions. So this 11 mile ride took us approximately 1 1/2 hours. Can we say slow? That said I think it was a good start and feel great about actually doing it. Once I get my beeeehind into shape I'm sure it won't always take me that long.

So the major question that most folks in Los Angeles say when I tell them I want to start riding my bike to work is, "Where do you live?" I then say, "El Segundo" and they then say, "You're nutz." Surprisingly in Los Angeles, a city that sees more sunny days per year than most other major cties in the US, it is not the general practice to walk or bike anywhere. Everyone drives. I must admit that for sometime now I've also been guilty of taking the car instead of biking or walking too, but I'm turning over an "old" leaf and going back to my former days.

The total mileage for yesterdays ride was 24 miles. I ended up having lunch with a friend a short distance from the campus and then headed home. Kieran was a happy little guy the entire time. Before we got home we stopped on the beach to play for a little while and for Kieran to nurse and then we were on our way.

This morning my legs are a little "heavy" but not nearly as bad as I thought they'd be. Yesterday when I got on the bike to ride home, I learned what it means to "feel the burn." I don't know if I've ever felt my leg muscles burn like that, but I made it home fine and now I'm not feeling too bad. Hallelujah!

My goal is to do the ride once a week. Kieran's childcare is a very easy stop off on the bike route and he seemed happy for the ride. Just think what great shape I'll be in after a few months. Yay!

So tomorrow I'll be getting up at the crack of dawn and loading up the boy into the new Chariot Carrier we bought during the Labor Day weekend sale at REI and heading to Santa Monica on my bike with boy in tow. One of the ladies from work, Tippi, will be joining me and we're probably going to be "beat" when we get there.

I used to ride to work pretty often before I bought my VW Bug, but that has been around 3 years or more and well I'm terribly out of shape.

Wish us luck! I'll have a report tomorrow on if I can still move my legs.

So I lucked out! Eight hours of waiting/knitting in a room full of other potential jurors without being called to a trial and now I'm done. I was thanked for my...well...I guess "service" and then sent on my merry way. I guess I shouldn't feel this way, but THANK GOODNESS! What a hassle it would have been to have to go back for even just one more day let alone to have to sit on a jury trial.

 

I've been a registered voter for over sixteen years and I've finally been called for Jury Duty. Now for about fourteen years I've been thinking, "cool, one of these days I'll get to learn how this is done." Well now that I have an eight month old baby and am struggling to manage my job, childcare, and a life not to mention getting enough sleep at night, I finally get called for Jury Duty. So the logistics of Jury Duty have become the biggiest pain in the #^$*%$. I guess I should say that I don't even know yet whether I will be serving on a Jury. Today I go to wait to see if I will be called for actual service. Knitting in hand I will be waiting to see if I'll have to find childcare and put everything on hold at work. Doing my civic duty! Joy!

So some time ago I bought some funky novelty yarn with fluffy bobbles all over it in my favorite color combinations. The yarn was great! The problem though was that there wasn't much of it and I couldn't think of anything to make with it. So the yarn ended up in my stash...hmmm sounds like a very common story with me. Oh well, I finally decided to just start something with it, a baby sweater. Got most of the way through the sweater and then decided I hated it...hmmm continues to sound familiar. Anyway I frogged the sweater and put the yarn back into my stash.

About two months ago I was sucked into the Slipt Stitch (LYS) and found yarn that was almost the exact same yarn. Close enough, I should say. So out with the stash and I decided to just knit up a couch throw. Straight knitting and that's it. That's pretty much all I can handle right now with Kieran being just 8 months old and about ready to crawl.

Seems a little silly to me when I think of all the waiting and the frustration with not liking the baby sweater that now I'm just knitting a big rectangle. Oh well, its a very fluffy, orange, rectangle.

Here's a pic and a detail of the funky yarn.