Not so sweet sixteen

Did I give into the allure of the elann Linus? Oh yeah. I've justified the shift from the rayon that must be frogged to the linen that has yet to be cast on in several ways. To begin with Maka Hupo (aka my boy cat who died earlier this year), was cool, easy going and fluffy -- a bit like the linen. His surviving littermate sister Kali'ko'opo (she who turned 16 today) is much more like the rayon -- sleek, beautiful, evil and prone to snagging.

So Maka's gone and he deserves a mourning shawl in his honour. Kali's being her own strange self so her rayon homage can wait.

Then there's the lifestyle change bribery trick. In the Spring of last year I was within 15 pounds of my preferred weight. Then life (and death) intervened and I fell into a routine/rut with the end result of my being within 5 pounds of my heaviest ever and that's just a few ticks away from an BMI that spells obesity and the companion complication of type 2 diabetes. I do not need that I do not want that and I will not have that. I've already lost two people to that disease and I don't plan to join them by allowing my weight to define my fate.

So my strategy is to combine increasing healthy activities, decreasing the unhealthy activities and "banking" the money I'd been spending on products inconsistent with my weight loss goals and using that fund to fund yarn purchases and the like. Only a couple, three days into the process I'm already seeing some very minor improvements but minor improvements are really all it takes to stay on the right path.

Based on my swatch with the elann sample, I may be working on a US 4 or alternating between a US and 4 to make the lace motifs a bit less loose-y-goose-y and I'm on the fence about how I want to work the increase and/or selvedge stitches.

Next entry I hope to have a flattering picture of the birthday popoki, a bit more on the pentagon sleeves (one of which got frogged due to a serious gauge change), and maybe something on the progress of the blooming bikini top project. I'm also working on a posting about knitting with wire that expands on my wire pointe shoe projects.