Felt Me, Baby
Betwixt cooking, housework avoidance, and general merriment over the long holiday weekend, I worked on this:

Looks Kinda Like Roadkill, Doesn't It?


It's a pre-felted, Bucket-O-Chic hat for my 6yo niece. I made it in Lamb's Pride, Amethyst shade. The Lamb's Pride has that touch o' mohair in it, which makes it very nice to work with.

I just couldn't bring myself to seam up LoTech Sangria this weekend. Just felt like too much work. I have to be in a certain Zen state to tackle a bunch of mattress stitching, and I just wasn't feelin' it. So it's simmering gently in the WIP pile for now. I did find one of the reasons that the hood is too big -- silly me, I knitted an extra 4" onto the length of the hood. Yup, that'll do it. So we have a semi-frog situation on our hands, which will be dealt with in due time.

Meanwhile, I needed a "car knitting" project to work on while RockStar is at his weekly guitar lesson. So I started the Aran Poncho from Lopi #21:

From Little Seeds Grow Big Ponchos


The Lite Lopi is definitely scratchier than the Lamb's Pride, but since it'll be outerwear it won't be a problem. The poncho design is by Nora Gaughan. I love her work -- no errors (so far) and a classic take on a funky clothing item.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like "Less-Mass"
Yeah, I'm probably nuts to be doing this during holiday season, but I've started a serious diet. I'm on the Medifast plan for at least the next few months. I tossed around a lot of ideas (Weight Watchers, SlimFast, Atkins, etc.) and decided that this plan would be the safest, most effective way to shed the excess weight. Plus, it's not cheap, so I'm motivated by not wasting the money I've invested in the Medifast products. I started on Saturday, November 29th, so I was able to enjoy Thanksgiving. I don't have any entertaining plans for Christmas, so it seemed like a good time to start this project.

I'm doing the Full Fast for the first 2 weeks, then will consider going to the Modified Fast for the duration. Full Fast is pretty austere -- 1 Medifast Oatmeal (breakfast), 2 Medifast protein shakes during the day, Medifast Chili for dinner, and a 3rd shake at 8pm. Plus a big handful of vitamins, and gallons of water. The Modified Fast substitutes a sensible dinner of 4oz of protein (chicken breast), salad w/fatfree dressing, and non-starchy veggie. Look for a meter of some sort on the side of the page to track my progress.

Happy Monday, everyone.