Sunday, July 27, 2008

A little Farther Down

The Slippery Slope.
I spent Sunday with 28 alpaca....
so of course I came home with

The fleece of the brown and white one in the center "John". Because afterall I have so much space in my car and so much free time. Do you think TAO will believe "but it followed me home honey"?

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Burning Rubber ~ Spinning Tires


The other - busy - day I started a blog post that went like this:

"I just keep knitting on UFOs and getting no where - it's like those "lost time" stories people tell after being sucked up. I Need to Finish Something, ANYthing, just to relight the joy candle in knitting." I ended going to workout instead of finishing a post. Exercise is time consuming when you start this far out of shape.

Back in May I started the above socks, from Nancy Bush's
Knitting on the Road Whitby pattern. This pattern has been on my list "to do" for more than a year. I finally bumped them up the queue and cast on with Claudia Hand Paint in Chocolate and Chocolate Cherry. A lovely yarn to knit, although I've heard rumours of wear issues. Then I started the 100 days of change. I decided to knit these socks in pure Continental style instead of my usual Eastern Uncrossed. There were gauge issues, habit issues, training issues, patience issues. Goodbye May, June, and here's July.

Of course, the socks weren't the only thing to languish in the knitting basket, there's...well...lets not go down that list, I do need to sleep tonight.

Change is time consuming as well. First you have to decide what to change, then how to change it, then try it out, evaluate it for success, weigh if it's a workable change, and move on. To that end I am currently "studying" diet choices and deciding which would be the most workable for me, then I am mapping out the menus, shopping lists, etc necessary to stay on it for a full assignment, figuring that advance thought will make it easier to implement at the next place. Add to that the cyclical re-evaluation of what goes home for good and what gets back in the car, and there is plenty'o'change going on.


A snappy instance of change is my recent purchase of pink workout gear. I loathe pink. Pink is so...well...pink. But I figure, add some pink. You're going to sweat in it, they are cute hip hop capris in XL. So my fat hiney is attempting some serious shaking in pink bottoms. I feel like a kid forced to eat fried liver.
People, of course, comment on them. My mind says "they're cute, people say they're cute." My little voice says "they're outrageously Pink, and people comment because you look like a pink Barney". Change is a noisy place.


And the joy candle? Look right here!

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Chewing the ?Fat?

As I mentioned last week, I spend the weekend in a microcosm of High School Girl Cliques. It was Debate Club Nerd trapped at a Cheerleading Convention nightmare. Loehmann's dressing room in a golf dome.

Still, it was an amazing time. And I lost ~not a darned ounce~. Which brings me to the other topic I pondered this week- Size.

Recently on Ravelry there has been a "heated discussion" about size, healthy weight portrayal in the media, and the rest of us.

Back in the early 90s I read a book by Gloria Steinem which made me very aware of how media influences our images of ourselves, it really changed how I look at women's magazines and their ads. Because of that awareness, some of that advertising lost it's power to make me feel inadequate without whatever it was selling.

As a result it was interesting to read the Ravelry discussion and hear other people's frustrations about clothing. The upshot seemed to be that No One is happy with off the rack sizing. Yet, we're the consumer.

For instance, I am that weird size that is not Misses, but too small for Womens. Small but 40s postergirl curvy. It's difficult to find a 34D/36C bra for athletic or everyday wear, that cup size is generally reserved for bigger band sizes. And I buy pants based on hips, not for the waist that is 8 inches smaller. And I like a waist in those pants, my belly button is not for public consumption thank you.

On the flip side, I have been shopping for workout wear. In part because I came here in the winter and packed winter sweats. In part because only having 2 changes of gear doesn't work when you have to go to the laundromat to wash. In part because I wanted to Buy new things, and workout gear doesn't seem as decadent as other options.

When I was at the convention, they had Zumba gear. Very cute. Except that I take the XXL, and even then most was too small. It was all cut for androgynous tiny people. With only a 3/4 inch difference between XS and XL. So it was interesting to me that a company selling chiefly to "healthy" women had stocked such bias clothing. The majority of people there were 30 or older, and teaching a class that encourages "shaking what your mama gave you" It was strange to see women that I considered "small" buying "large". And it made me feel fat.

By the same token, I have been frustrated buying gear because of I am not an A cup. I've resorted to buying Men's shirts. Several companies have nicely fitted tees with a conglomeration of seams meeting under the arms or across the breast - maximizing the chafing factor. I bought a pair of Puma capri's in XL that fit nicely unless I have to sit, then they pull tightly across the thighs. Dang! Fat!

Speaking of "shaking what your mama gave you." Imagine my surprise when I checked a workout DVD out of the library and then discovered that a portion of it was done by a woman in full makeup, high heels, a blue sequin G string, elbow length gloves, and tassels. Did you know that you can control the direction the girls circle in by how you hold your arms? I didn't actually want to know it. After the first shock I watched it again and laughed so hard I had to sit down.

In between cursing the manufacturers and designers of clothing I did treat myself (at full retail) to "The world's healthiest foods" by George Mateljan. This book is about the size of a major metropolitan yellow pages. It starts with healthy cooking techniques-maximizing the nutrition in the food. Then goes through 100 foods, telling what they are, how to cook them, how to select them, store them, prepare them, health benefits of them, and gives 500 recipes. It also covers what to add to your diet for particular health concerns: heart, fatigue, inflammatory disease, etc. I'm reading it in drabs, using it as part of my "additions" to my diet plan. There are several foods I would eat more often if I knew How/What/Why. But not sardines.