Finished Green Sweater Set

Here is a photo of my finished green sweaterset. I've worn it several times to work and out to dinner already. Please excuse the body, even if I HAVE lost 8 pounds so far! Woo hoo!!!!


Finished Green Sweater August 2005

Critique: Sleeves are too long, cardigan is too short. And it doesn't really fit very well, but I'm working on it! (by losing weight and studying how to choose patterns that will fit my body type AND knit them properly). I am not too picky about clothes, and I really like this because it extends my wardrobe. I put all of the stuff I've knit and can wear in one place and it almost filled up a whole drawer in my bureau!

I still have another 2 + pounds of this stuff, so I think I will make a tank top for a friend. But not anytime soon. The yarn, by the way, is Venesian from Newtons.

Now, on to the baby sweater and the pink suit for the wedding!

Your Linguistic Profile:

75% General American English

10% Dixie

10% Yankee

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

A Moment of Pleasure Leads to a Lifetime of Regret

At least, that was what my then future-sister-in-law told me, perhaps as a warning that I should not engage in pre-marital sex (well, I was ONLY 20 years old when I married!). Geez....even if I did marry her brother......

Now, today, this very minute, I realize the truth of that statement. My few moments of pleasure stuffing my face with fried chicken and lasagna yesterday and a whole bag of popcorn last night have yielded to true regret: I have gained 2 pounds. And I HATE IT!!!

Now tell me, was the fried chicken worth messing up 3 weeks of steady weight loss? NO! I hopped right back on the diet bandwagon today and have been good so far. AND I even woke up at 3:30 this morning to exercise. I did 20 minutes on the elliptical and 25 on the recumbent bike. Then I did lots and lots of back exercises (4 machines, 3 sets each, 15 - 20 reps per set, 30 - 60 pounds). And then I did 300 crunches on 2 machines. That's total, not each.

I was so depressed last night from being such a piglet over the food that I didn't even think about my knitting. I'll knit tonight! I promise! At least the back and the sleeves! After all, how hard can it be? It's just a baby sweater. I think I timed it once and I knit the whole sweater in about an hour and a half. Since this particular sweater is going to be a gift, I will probably take more care and not just crank it out. I want it to look good, especially if people are going to know that it was made by me! So, I estimate 2 knitting nights and 1 afternoon of putting it all together.

I Ate Off My Diet and Am Going to Knit a Baby Sweater

I got in trouble on Monday because my office is messy and because I come in late and have not really been doing any work. Sigh. So guess who is coming in to work right on time and is cranking out a lot of (long overdue) work? You get one guess.

Today was orientation day for the graduate students here and, since I am running very very low on the HMR food, I decided to join the students at their lunch because it was free and because it was THERE, after asking my friend who organized the day if it was okay. Well, let me tell you just how okay it was: three pieces of fried chicken, a slice of veggie lasagna, 2 pieces of garlic bread, salad, and slices of pineapple later, I am stuffed. Literally stuffed. And it has been 4.5 hours since I ate lunch. I don't think I am going to eat dinner tonight....maybe just have an HMR shake.....

There goes the pound I lost this week! I have so little willpower. Okay. I am jumping back on the diet bandwagon and starting over again. I HAVE to lose this weight! I MUST!!!!!

I could go to the gym and swim tonight, but I had a really great workout today: 25 minutes on the elliptical, and 20 minutes on the bike, and a full lower body weight workout: innees, outees, glutes, hams, and quads. Then 300 crunches.

ANNOUNCEMENT: MY BOSS SAID SHE COULD TELL I AM LOSING WEIGHT!!!! YIPPEEE!!!! Someone else has noticed that I am on my way to becoming svelte again!!! Woo-hoo!!!!!! But no, I will not post a picture yet because it's only my stomach that looks a little flatter. The rest of me is still humongous.

Okay. Now it is time to tie knitting into this post, since, after all, this IS a knitting blog!!! Hmmmm.....try and try as I might, I can't think of anything! I haven't knitted in awhile, I already told you that I have looked through my stacks of knitting magazines, and I haven't yet decided what I will knit next. Oh yes, I have: I am going to knit a baby sweater for someone at work. Her baby is already 8 months (oops!), so i guess I will knit a sweater for a one year old. I printed out the pattern and it is from Tricia's website, Knittersedge. I have some pretty lavender Four Seasons yarn. I like that yarn a lot because it is acrylic but looks and feels like cotton. Or should I say, it looks and feels like cotton but is really acrylic so it can be washed and dried in the dryer.

Okay. THAT is my knitting news: I will knit a baby sweater this week.

Knitting and Weight Loss

Knitting and weight loss. Hmmmm. Let me get the knitting part of this blog out of the way first. I haven't knit anything lately, but I have been browsing through all of my Vogue Knitting issues, Machine Knitting News, and the KnitKing magazines. I am looking for inspiration. I want to update my wardrobe with my knitwear, now that I seem to be getting the hang of of machine knitting. I have tons of venetian yarn and I want to de-stash by knitting wearable garments for work. Also, I have two big events coming up: the memorial for Dr. Roemer, and my niece's wedding.

Since the memorial will be on a Saturday, I am planning to wear something semi-casual. No jeans, but perhaps dress slacks with a KNITTED jacket. I kind of want to knit a plaid jacket, but at my current level of expertise, I think that is asking too much. Or, I might try a twinset in this really pretty shade of green (when I was younger, though, I thought of it as ick-green) in venetian. I spoke with Tricia Shafer a few weeks ago about one of her patterns, and she told me how to program the pattern into my 930. Here are a couple of pictures:




Isn't it pretty? These photos were taken from Tricia Shafer's www.knittersedge.com website. Since I have boobs, I will probably have to shortrow the front so that it will fit properly.

For my niece's wedding, I am still leaning towards a long jacket made with pale pink venetian and mohair. I don't know if I will make a dress (without the mohair, though) or a skirt. I already have a shell that I knit a long time ago. I put up a picture of part of it when I talked about my new necklaces. I plan to wear the brown suit to the rehearsal dinner.

Okay. Now it is time for weight loss talk! I have lost 7 pounds on the diet in the last 3 weeks! I am so excited. I still look the same, though my skirts are a tiny bit less tight on me. I am hoping to lose another 12 or 15 pounds by October 1st, which is the date of Dr. Roemer's memorial. I haven't seen my friends/colleagues/professors in 7 years and I do not want them to see me with the 20 pounds I have gained since graduation. I want to look, if not svelte, then thinner and smoother. No lumps around my waistline! (I've lost an inch on my waistline, by the way).

This diet is a breeze, by the way. No real hunger pangs, because HMR says when you are hungry, just eat! So I do! But I still lose weight! I love this diet!

I have been working out almost every day for the last 10 days. I am disappointed that I can't see much progress, but I do feel a lot better and, as I said above, my clothes fit better, too. I do 40-60 minutes of cardio (elliptical, recumbant bike, and sometimes the treadmill), and a good weight workout for my upper body (chest, back, arms, shoulders) and my lower body (inner and outer thigh, quads, hams, and glutes). I do at least 300 crunches every day. Usually, I break up the upper body workout because I only can spend 1 to 1.5 hours at the gym in the morning.

So why do I want to lose weight? Yeah,yeah, for my health, but the real reason is because I want to get married! And how can I meet anyone in the condition that I am in? So, my goal to lose is 25 pounds this year and another 25 pounds in 2006. Wish me luck!

When I've lost enough weight so people can tell, I will post a picture.

A Tribute to a Life Well-Lived

I was at the gym at 5 a.m. this morning reading a filched copy of the Los Angeles Times while I was riding the recumbant bike. I don't read the newspaper as often as I used to, mainly because I now get most of my news online. As I turned a page in the B section, I was saddened to see the photo and obituary of one of my favorite professors in grad school. Ruth Roemer was a giant--an icon--in the world of public health. She and her late husband, Milton Roemer, were leaders at UCLA's School of Public Health and focused their research and their advocacy on improving the public's health both from a legal and medical perspective. He (a medical doctor) focused his research on universal health insurance and HMOs, among other things. She (a lawyer) helped to organize abortion law reform in California, campaigned to add fluoride to public water supply systems, and worked on tobacco control issues and myriad other public health issues.

When Ruth Roemer found out I was a single mother with three young children trying to work and earn my master's degree at the same time, she became a mother figure to me. One Christmas, I had absolutely no money to buy a Christmas tree and was feeling kind of blue about that (you know how kids want to see a Christmas tree during the Christmas season!). This wonderful Jewish woman lent me a bamboo Christmas tree with ornaments already on it. It was something she had picked up during her travels. Since she didn't observe Christmas (of course!), she didn't mind my using it to celebrate Christmas with my children. She was such a sweetheart. Later, she nominated me for a fellowship that paid my tuition for 1 year and gave me a stipend of I think about $1000 a month, or something like that. Whatever it was, it made a BIG difference in my life, and in my children's lives as well.

And also, how could I forget her trusty typewriter? In the mid-90s, computers were well-established in academia, but Ruth Roemer clung, for some strange and inexplicable reason, to this ancient typewriter that had lots of quirks but no ink. Random letters that would skip or type out half a line higher. Faded or smeared or partial letters that one could hardly read. A friend who works in the department told me that Dr. Roemer's typewriter was so old the ribbon was no longer manufactured or sold, so someone in the department had to manually re-ink the existing ribbon so that Dr. Roemer could continue to use her trusty typewriter to write her many many letters of recommendation for her students.

One thing that really stood out: Ruth Roemer's devotion to her husband. She kept him going for many years, even when his health was failing.

One last anecdote: I remember a friend and I were looking at the schedule of classes trying to figure out what classes to take that quarter. We went down the list, class by class, teacher by teacher, debating the merits of taking each class that particular quarter. When we came to the name Milton Roemer, we both said THAT is the class to take! He's big! He's a giant! In almost all of the early health services articles we had to read that year, Dr. M. Roemer was cited. We wanted bragging rights, to be able to say we had had the privilege of having been taught by the great Milton Roemer. Unfortunately, the class time either conflicted with a required class or it was held at a ridiculous evening hour, so we couldn't take it, regrettably. But we (well, I did, I'm not sure about my friend!) did take Ruth Roemer's Public Health Law class, and Milton Roemer came in as a guest lecturer and I also heard his lectures on the Canadian healthcare system and international health in other classes, so I WAS a student of BOTH Roemers!

Ruth Roemer was almost as old as my grandmother, yet she was so youthful in outlook and so approachable! It tickled me that most of the faculty and staff in Health Services called her "Ruth". I could never bring myself to call her by her first name....she was just too iconic for me to do that. It was always "Dr." Roemer, even though she had a J.D., instead of an M.D. or a Ph.D. I always had such respect for her....I put her on a pedestal, though she would have pooh-poohed that notion.

I will always remember Ruth Roemer not only for her compassionate nature, but also for the twinkle in her eye that masked a sly wit. She wasn't laughing AT you, she was laughing WITH you! At least, that's what I kept telling myself......

Ruth Roemer, together with her husband, Dr. Milton Roemer, was a true blue activist who tried very hard to leave the world a better place than she had found it. I believe that she succeeded....the world IS a better place becaue of her efforts. I will truly miss her. May Ruth Roemer rest in peace.

Knit a Blouse to Match a Necklace?

Why not? I went to a street fair in Alhambra last weekend (oh, how I love that East L.A sound!) and bought two absolutely gorgeous necklaces.








I could wear the brown one with my brown suit (the one I plan one wearing to my niece's wedding parties in late October). And it goes with my $20 skirt from the Alley.



The other necklace--which stopped people in their tracks as I put it on. They were waiting for me to take it off so they could grab it for themselves! I didn't take it off!--has several shades of pink beads and pearls plus some grayish stones and is absolutely gorgeous. I was planning on knitting a pale pink rayon + mohair dress ensemble for me to wear to Carla's wedding. I thought I'd wear the necklace to go with that.



Then, I saw Sonja's (fusionknitting.com) v-neck tank and now that's what I want to make. I could make two blouse sweaters with all the rayon I have. One v-neck tank to wear under my suits and another round-neck tank mixed with baby mohair to go with my wedding ensemble. I was planning to make another skirt and a three-quarter length long-sleeve jacket with the rayon and mohair, if I have enough baby mohair. Hmmmm.....I have to think about this.

What is WRONG with Blogger????

Geez....it erased my new post of tonight, but also erased the last post I did a few days ago. Fortunately, I had it open on another screen, and copied and pasted it in blogger. What is going on? I am soooooo annoyed!

I JUST HATE BEING SO IGNORANT

I just spent 45 minutes writing a lovely blog posting, and then, in half a second, I pushed the wrong button and poof! it was gone. Now I am in a bad mood. I'll write again sometime this weekend or next week. That'll show this damn computer and blogspot! If I stay away for awhile, then maybe it will behave the next time I come back on!




A sad and tired and aggravated me, after losing one of the most profound posts I've ever written (well, maybe not). It was all about my new diet. And how happy I am to have lost 1 pound so far this week, bringing my weight loss to a grand total of 5 pounds. And how happy I am now that I weigh exactly what I weighed on the day my son was born....BEFORE HE WAS DELIVERED!!!! What? That is something to be happy about? Well, yes, it is, because 2 weeks ago, I weighed 5 pounds more than I did on the day that my full-term baby boy was born. Now THAT'S depressing!!!!!

The pictures on this blog with the bad lighting are taken with my cellphone camera, which has no flash.

Knitting and Weight Loss

Actually, neither one of them has anything to do with the other. Now, Knitting and Weight GAIN....that's another story!

I lost 4 pounds this week on the HMR diet. I love it. It is great, because everything is portion controlled and I don't have to do any cooking. I would say that this diet is kind of like Jenny Craig meets Optifast, but with much much better food and shakes. At about $600 for 6 weeks, it is kind of pricey, but desperate times call for desperate measures. And I am DESPERATE!!!!!

The website, if you are interested, is www.healthysuccessonline.com .

This weekend I finished the edging on the sleeves of the Black V-Neck. Yaaaay! Now I can wear it without first having to tuck in all the little strings that are hanging. I also worked on finishing the band on the apple green cardigan but am having a lot of difficulty because I goofed at one point while I was knitting. Instead of unraveling and doing over, I just shrugged and said, oh well, and continued on my merry way. I am paying for it now!

I also did some edge swatches. I think I will double half crochet the bottom edge and sleeves of the green cardigan. I can't find my digital camera, but when I do, I will post some pics!