Monday, April 12, 2010

Road bumps all the way!

I had the opportunity to go to the DFWFiber Fest this weekend. It was a great joy to get to go away for a few days with my Michael. We visited Bubba and Patti while we were there, too. We left Friday morning and arrived in Dallas at about 4:00 that afternoon.
I would NEVER recommend going on a trip on your second week on Weight Watchers. My dining out guide that I purchased did not have any of the places that we ate at and the ones that were in there were obsolete. It was very frustrating and I was weary from trying to be diligent all weekend long. No one said that it would be easy. It is not easy when I am home and cooking the meals for myself. I can monitor every ingredient, unless Ben is helping me cook. I have to not turn my back on him while he is helping me. The lad does love to drown every thing in olive oil and butter.
I mostly stayed with salad with no dressing or dressing on the side. I had no desserts. I even got up early Sat morning and worked out at the Hotel gym. I stayed away from the free breakfast and carried carrot sicks and light Activia with me.
My second day looked like it was going to be a train wreck at lunch time, but I avoided too much damage. Bubba took us to a greasy burger joint named Del's. My heart sank when I looked at the menu board. Every thing on it looked as if it took a weeks worth of points! Then Patti noticed a veggie burger. I like veggie burgers and this one was one of the best that I have ever had. It had corn, okra and edema beans (I think that is what they are called). I did not feel deprived at all. Train wreck avoided. Sat night, I was very careful and diligent in my choices. Sunday morning another Activia and then lunch at Chilis with soup and salad. Last night a veggie plate at Bryce's in Texarkana on the way home. When I weighed this morning, I was back up to the very weight that I had begun at 2 weeks ago. Talking about wanting to cry. I just picked myself up, dusted myself off and went for my daily walk. I can't undo this weekend, but I have to keep my courage for the battle ahead.
On to happier thoughts. I met up with some fellow Ravelry girls from TX. Here are the Knitting Rock Stars!I enjoyed getting to meet them. The one in the middle is Tasha. She is testing one of my lace patterns for me. She found me through her knitting my Autumn Leaf Pi for her MIL.
The one in the front is TxPurlGurl/Dawn. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the other one. Note to self....write down names!
We took a class given by Galina A. Khmeleva, owner of Skaska Designs and author of Gossamer Webs, The History and Techniques of Orenburg Lace Shawls and Gossamer Webs, The Design Collection. The class was called "Introduction to the basic elements & pattern designs of Orenburg Lace - Mouseprint, cat’s paw, honeycomb … these are but three of the ten basic elements that form the basis of Orenburg’s knitted lace, combinations of which result in the near-mystical pattern designs that evolve into Orenburg lace shawls and scarves. In this class, Galina will introduce students to the basic elements, border and corner preparation, grafting method(s)…all in preparation to render each student capable of knitting their own heirloom shawl.
My brain did not take to this way of knitting. It is basically garter stitch lace knitting. My first problem was that I brought only one size of needles, size 3. It was too big for the lace weight that Galina provided, so I borrowed some METAL size 1 needles. I just cannot knit with metal needles. They have no tooth to them. My stitches were too slick on the needles. I kept dropping sts and not finding out until several rows past. I felt like a newbie knitter!
Regretfully, I was disappointed in the class. We did not cover how to turn corners for the edging. I am hoping to Google the technique and learn it on my own. It was mostly a class heavy on the history of Orenburg Lace. I love, love, love history and I would have loved to just listen to all of it, but I had signed up for only this class and I was disappointed in not getting to learn more how-to on the Orenburg Lace shawls. To me the description of the class and the actual class were not the same. I am not saying that I did not enjoy the class. Galina was very interesting. She has a really thick accent and it took me awhile to grasp the cadence of her words.
I loved watching her spin her wool. Here are some photos of the class. I enjoyed the yarn market at the fiber fest. I bought a skein of bamboo finger weight yarn, enough for two shawls. I bought a couple of patterns at the Madelinetosh booth, the Tea Leaves Cardigan and the Creature Comforts Cardi.
I, also, found a few adorable baby sweater patterns. It looks like Gracelynn Sontag is going to get a new sweater soon.
What did I knit on this weekend? I finally cast on this sweater. This is Patrice. She has really lovely taste in sweaters. I have almost completed a sleeve and am 10" on the body of the sweater. It is worked at a tiny gauge and I am having to knit with size 3 needles to get the 6 sts and 9 rows = 1". It is a very lovely cardigan and I look forward to getting to the cable part on the yoke.
Tomorrow, I will post my weight or lack of weight loss.

2 comments:

Delighted Hands said...

Sympathy on the weight loss or lack thereof. I am stuck here and not happy about it but not doing anything to make it better...
Sorry the class wasn't up to your expectations-it was good to have you meet your Ravelry friends and stretch yourself tho!

Tasha said...

It was great to meet you too! The other chick there is Betty / bethoff.