Mistr lays the foundation

[Mistr]

I want to take this challenge to set up improved habits for the year. The world is going to change a lot this year, and I want to be in a good place to adapt to those changes.

 

I was thinking I was coming up with new goals, but here is what I wrote in January last year:

My goals for this year are more for fine tuning and continuous improvement rather than major changes. I want to improve in aikido and zen. I’m always going to want to keep moving up along those paths. I want to include more strength training and cardio in my exercise program because I’m at the age where decline is a real concern. My biggest challenges are dealing with the tedious and unpleasant tasks at home and at work.

 

Goal 1: Stay on top of the tedious task at work. It is not so bad if I do a little a couple times a week. I just got caught up this week and want to keep it that way.

 

Goal 2: Stay on top of our financial situation at home. Dumbledore and I are going to meet quarterly to look at how we are doing and what we need to modify. I need to have the data together for those meetings. He takes care of the daily bills, I take care of the long term data analysis (at least I should be doing that). Schedule a two-hour block every weekend to get the info together and keep it going. Doing this will eliminate my stress about not knowing where we are at.

 

Bonus goal: Read I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi. I bought the book months ago and started it, but felt too guilt about my financial situation to read advice on how to fix it. Stupid, but true. Things have gotten better recently and I could use some tips.

 

Exercise

A. Alternate yoga and strength training. Last challenge I alternated kettlebells and a NF pushup challenge. I missed the yoga. I like turkish get-ups (TGUs) and part of the push-up routine. I will make up my own plan with a rotation of exercises. I just got a set of resistance bands so I can expand the range of things I can do. The NF Journey app uses an A/B workout plan with a rest day in between. Yoga will be on rest days.

 

B. Cardio one day a week. In the before times, I got a lot of cardio taking falls and getting up in aikido. That is not happening now. It is rare for me to do something that gets my heart rate up. We have a treadmill. Dumbledore walks on it a lot. Treadmills make me nervous and I've never used it. Time for me to get past that. It is snowy winter here, I can look forward to outside cardio in the spring. I will do walking interval training every weekend. One day a week is not much, but it is better than I have been doing.

 

Zen

Sit every day, even just 5 minutes. The ideal is to sit 30 minutes before work. Some days I manage that and other days I say I'll do it later. My follow-through on doing it later is lousy. Keep using the NF Journey app to remind me. Every day is more important than a long time, with the understanding that more is better.

 

Better food choices

I have put on 15 pounds over the last year. My reasons are probably the same as everyone else's. I am going to eat more veggies and fruit and cut back on snacks and sweets. The thought of eliminating sweets makes me want to rebel and eat all the treats, so I'm not going to set a limit. Substituting an orange for a cookie is a win. I've done well before on limiting myself to treats that I cook. I might try that as soon as we get the holiday sweets out of the house.

 

continued from last challenge

Just One Thing

My ongoing challenge is having too many things I want or need to do, and not enough time to do them. This is not new. The pandemic has not even made it worse. My work goes through cycles of good times when we are fully staffed and busy times when we are short-handed. Early this fall things were getting better as a new person was trained in, then someone else left. So it goes. The major change for me is that I'm now working from home and not practicing aikido. Aikido is a full-contact martial art and zoom classes are not working for me. I also miss the group strength training classes I did at work. I don't have any commuting time but my stress relief is not there either. You would think that I'd have more time with no commute and no classes, but it has not worked out that way. I often feel overwhelmed by all the things I need to do.

 

My goal for this challenge is to pick one thing and do it.

• If something more important comes up I can put down the thing. Otherwise, keep working on that without distraction until it is at a resting place.
• I can pick whatever I like on the moment to do. Sometimes that will be a high priority task, sometimes it will be a task that has been waiting, sometimes it will be a fun recharging activity. No judgement.
• I acknowledge that not everything can possibly fit in the time I have. I need to step back and take a hard look at the things I want to do - do I really want to spend time cooking that thing? Which house project will make the most difference to get done this weekend? Can I ask my family for help or should I really do this myself?
• Give myself permission to take down time and do fun things. I am not going to get "caught up" and have free time. I just have time. I can choose what to do. Sometimes staring at the ceiling and not doing anything is the right choice.
• Perspective instead of guilt. In a perfect world I would exercise, sit zen, eat lots of vegetables, be productive and get enough sleep every day. I need to work on making good choices and owning them rather than feeling guilty when I can't do what I "should".
• I get credit for each thing I get done.

[sarakingdom]

We will do things this challenge. We will do tedious and unpleasant things, and we will do zen things, and we will do aikido mindset off the mat things, and we will do resting and ti e management things. I do not know what they are yet, but it is time to randori some pandemic ass.

[RES]

Following of course, because you're one of the most inspirational people I know

[Xena]

3 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

it is time to randori some pandemic ass.

 

So yes!  (I've probably said this before, but I'm so happy to have learned about randori from Mistr's threads)

[Kishi]

I feel you in terms of missing out on full-contact martial arts. It if it helps, I've found that drilling and studying film scratches the itch somewhat. I've heard this is a good way to train if you can't be on the mats. Maybe something like this could be integrated for you too?

[Harriet]

I hope you find some breathing space amongst the many tasks and things. And that the strength/cardio and food choices go smoothly with no setbacks.

[iatetheyeti]

Following along, of course. I very much like the 'just one thing' aspect you've got going on as well.

 

[Mistr]

12 hours ago, Kishi said:

I feel you in terms of missing out on full-contact martial arts. It if it helps, I've found that drilling and studying film scratches the itch somewhat. I've heard this is a good way to train if you can't be on the mats. Maybe something like this could be integrated for you too?

 

Funny you should say that. I'm in an aikido book group with some people from my dojo. So far we have been watching videos, not reading books. We have watched videos of various different senior instructors who studied directly with the founder of aikido. Also a senior old-school judo instructor. The family resemblance between judo and aikido shows clearly in the old films. I have enjoyed seeing how all the uchideshi (live-in students) learned the same skills, but teach them a bit differently.

 

*** Rant warning ***

One of the criticisms that I've heard about aikido is that the range of techniques is limited. What people miss is that aikido is not about doing techniques. The named techniques are really katas, teaching tools to let students practice body movements in well-defined ways. That is why a student has to be competent at all the basic techniques to get a shodan (first degree black belt). Some students and many people outside the martial arts think that having a shodan means a person is skilled at aikido. That is total hogwash. Having a shodan means a person can progress from learning basics to applying those skills to actually learning the art.

 

One of the videos we watched was Saotome sensei (the senior instructor in my dojo's lineage) demonstrating intermediate level practice. This covers a practice he calls Oyo Henka, constructive use of resistance.  In basic training we stick to simple attacks and single responses. Obviously, this is not realistic for a combat situation. Simplifying is a teaching tool so that the student can work on one thing at a time. In the intermediate training video, Saotome sensei demonstrates how to train where the attacker (uke) resists the technique that the receiver (nage) tries to do. Nage feels the direction of the resistance and changes technique to match the new circumstance. This is still a practice situation - each person has a defined role and are working together to train. Uke is not trying to "get" nage, she is giving enough resistance that nage has to work for the resolution of the situation.

 

The aspect that concerns me is that I never saw this intermediate level training in a class or seminar at my first dojo. I was not a black belt then, but I was going to the advanced classes. There were not other more advanced classes for black belts only. I think there were some advanced classes at some of the seminars in Chicago, so I may be being unfair in my judgement. What I saw was senior instructors teaching basic techniques in slow motion, because most of the students were beginners. I was at a huge seminar celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Chicago dojo with Doshu (the world head of aikido and son of the founder) as the featured teacher. Of course all the senior instructors in North America and their students attended. Doshu taught basic techniques. I remember talking with other people from my dojo. We were all hoping to see something more, faster or different. I suspect that the senior instructors wanted to reinforce the common ground for all their students.

 

Back in the 80s, aikido was still a new art in North America. My dojo was led by a nidan (2nd degree blackbelt) with several shodans and brown belts sharing the teaching. There wasn't anyone senior to help them. The same was true at all the scattered dojos in smaller cities and towns. It was all intermediate students teaching beginners. Our senior instructor, Aikira Tohei, requested that 1st kyu and 2nd kyu students wear brown belts so that he would know who could take falls when he did demonstrations at seminars at our dojos. The normal practice in aikido is not to have colored belts, just white and black. Back then, there were not enough black belts around. I remember one time we went to a smaller seminar in Chicago. We got there early and were warming up on the mat. Tohei sensei called my chief instructor to practice with him. Tohei sensei threw my instructor around at a speed I'd never seen before, with a big grin on his face the whole time. I got the feeling that Tohei had missed being able to do aikido at speed, working with all the beginners all the time. Apparently he did not have many students who could take full speed ukemi.

 

I think that lack of senior practice partners has stifled aikido training at a lot of dojos. Some local instructors go to a lot of seminars and make an effort to work with people who can test their skills and help them learn. Too many others just keep teaching the same things for years. Their students don't even know that intermediate and advanced aikido exist.

 

I have been a nidan for several years, and I am just starting to work on advanced training. At the advanced level, the roles go away. One person starts by attacking, but neither person knows what is going to happen next. The attacker follows the movement and will exploit any opening. Who is nage and uke can change back and forth several times before one person finally takes the other's balance and throws or pins them. I've seen two 4th dans do this and it is amazing. And extremely fast. It looks nothing at all like slow-motion basic technique. I see this level of movement is some of the videos of the uchi deshi. Most of the time they are moving slowly so their students can follow what is happening. Sometimes they let loose and go full speed, usually in randori. I can see the principles at work in free application.

 

***End rant***

 

Practicing zen and yoga are probably my best choices right now.

 

Zen to work on non-attachment.  One cannot plan on doing anything in a real martial encounter. One has to stay in the moment and feel what is really happening. Any thinking will make you too slow. I've noticed that I get way too attached to my plans. Mental flexibility and clarity will help my aikido.

 

Yoga for the obvious reasons. Body control and mobility are essential.

[Treva]

20 hours ago, Mistr said:

I like turkish get-ups (TGUs) and part of the push-up routine

One of us!  one of us!  one of us!  (I love TGUs, which I have said too many times).

 

20 hours ago, Mistr said:

Keep using the NF Journey app to remind me.

I have perhaps been living in a hole; is there a place where I may learn of this app, and do you like it?

 

20 hours ago, Mistr said:

I might try that as soon as we get the holiday sweets out of the house.

 

This usually takes me until march.  I hope you have better success than me.   Getting things out of the house definitely makes it harder to eat them.  

 

20 hours ago, Mistr said:

Give myself permission to take down time and do fun things. I am not going to get "caught up" and have free time. I just have time. I can choose what to do. Sometimes staring at the ceiling and not doing anything is the right choice.

I love your just one thing, but I love this one the most.  

 

Following along for the mighty heck wisdom!  Hope you have a good start to your challenge!

[Mistr]

1 hour ago, Treva said:

I have perhaps been living in a hole; is there a place where I may learn of this app, and do you like it?

 

The NF Journey is still in beta. It is part of NF Prime and is described at https://www.nerdfitness.com/prime-overview-page/.  It is a mobile device app to help motivate you to do healthy activities. The adventures are divided into exercise, nutrition and mental challenges. Some are really easy, like the drink more water challenge. They have silly superhero stories. Your avatar is a superhero beating back villains. You get points for doing each task and rewards when you level up or complete a section of an adventure. They also do community challenges. I did a mobility challenge with Spezzy this fall, and am doing the push-up challenge now.

 

I like it as a reminder to do things I already have on my challenge here. Having the app cheer for me when I do things is sometimes the bit of help I need.

 

You do have to scale the activities to make sense for your fitness level. They have benchmark tests, but I didn't think the level of exercise really matched up with the test results. On the other hand, they are good about showing ways to make each exercise easier or harder.

 

I haven't used the aspects that tie into NF Prime. I get the feeling the NF folks would like us to move to the Prime community from the forums here. I like the conversations here and don't have time to keep up with another community. YMMV

[Scaly Freak]

21 hours ago, Mistr said:

Give myself permission to take down time and do fun things. I am not going to get "caught up" and have free time. I just have time. I can choose what to do. Sometimes staring at the ceiling and not doing anything is the right choice.

 

I struggled with this in the second half of 2020. Following in the hopes of getting away from the struggle...

[Xena]

23 minutes ago, Mistr said:

I get the feeling the NF folks would like us to move to the Prime community from the forums here.

 

Maybe yes, maybe no. I can say that they are very supportive of maintaining the forums for those of us who have embraced the community.

 

I liked reading your description of the state of aikido in the US (though it is a little sad). I learned a lot and what you have written makes a lot of sense.  It's parallel in some ways to what I see in the yoga community (though not quite the same). "Garden variety" yoga is fine, but when you find an instructor who really knows what they are doing (e.g., really understands the alignment, can understand the limitations each person is experiencing and can make meaningful adjustments) it's a whole different world. What you are describing is a little different because, among other things, it's a smaller and more bottlenecked community, and advancing can depend on critical mass.

 

 

[Scaly Freak]

3 hours ago, Mistr said:

I get the feeling the NF folks would like us to move to the Prime community from the forums here.

 

Well, Prime presumably makes a profit while the forum does not. 

[Kishi]

So, in other words, it sounds like there's a major knowledge gap that's leading to a skills gap, and it sounds like this is stunting the growth of practitioners past a certain point. That sounds terribly frustrating, especially if you're at that certain point.

 

Hopefully your studies help you so that you can bring something with you to the mats when things settle down. Who knows? It sounds like there's a lot of archived footage to go through and who knows what you might find?

[Mistr]

I'm pleased to report that I used our treadmill yesterday. I still find it unsettling in stride length and keeping my balance. Hopefully that will get better with practice so I can walk normally and get good cardio training from it.

 

I started off with a simple 20 minute interval program. The incline varied while the pace stayed the same. It seems to have the option of changing pace or incline, but not both together. I need to spend more time looking at the program options to figure it out. I was walking at a pretty relaxed pace, but even so, I broke a sweat by 15 minutes. More sign that I need to be doing cardio. I listened to French podcasts while I was walking, thus working on two goals at the same time.

 

I sat zen yesterday and this morning. I decided that when I have to chose between exercise and zen before work, I should do zen. I have a better track record of doing exercise at lunch. It still feels weird to go to my bedroom to change clothes, then go back to the family room (where I work) to exercise, but I can get past that.

 

Things accomplished:

• Dumbledore and I finally went through the top of the front hall closet and organized it. Many gloves found their mates. There are still four unmatched gloves - about what I expected. We also figured out which black gloves fit me and which ones fit Dumbledore. Several extra pairs are going to Elf. Hermes stopped by and disavowed ownership of everything except one Jane hat. That included a brand-new hiking hip pack. I am very pleased that when I open the closet I now see neatly stacked gloves, hats and scarves. There is a bag heading to the charity store with the extras.
• We sat down as a family and decided on cooking. Dumbledore had been feeling left out and not consulted. He still feels like Elf listens to me and not him, but that is a longer-term issue. For the next while Elf will cook Mondays, Dumbledore will cook Fridays and I will cook Saturdays. I think between main meal prep, soup and sandwiches that will cover us for the week. In addition to meals, I will make soup and Dumbledore will bake bread as needed.
• Dumbledore and I had another financial strategy discussion without dramatics. We spent some time beforehand talking about what we wanted to include on the agenda and how to approach it. Our history has enough fraught discussions that both of us are twitchy about financial discussions.  He wanted to look at our planned big ticket decisions again.  I thought we were going to talk budgets, and was relieved when that part of the discussion was set for two weeks from now. We even wrote a list of what information we would like to review. I can work with that.
• Finished plying the wool I bought in England. One more item from my fiber stash done. Next step is to wind it in a skein and wash it.
• Decided that my next spinning will be some of the Wensleydale fleece I bought myself for graduation (15 years ago). I got white and two shades of grey. I'm going to start with the white because that delays decisions on shading. I found some old wish lists and "spin Wensleydale" has been on them for years. It is now time.  
• Did laundry and dishes.
• Raveled back the glove I was knitting for the second time. It was still too loose with 53 stitches around for the hand. Now it has 50 stitches and feels better. The hard part of this is getting past the mental hurdle of admitting it was not okay and undoing work again. The actual knitting goes fast. I got half of it redone while Dumbledore read to me one evening. I am glad to have this glove as a fun project to work on again.

My weight is down below where it was the last two weeks. Finishing off the Buche de Noel and the homemade cookies helped. We still have commercial butter cookies, eggnog and chocolates. I am making a point of having vegetables and protein at meals so I can keep the sweets to a reasonable level. I was thinking that the temptation level would get better after the holidays, but both Elf and Dumbledore have birthdays coming up. Elf asked for orange chocolate cheesecake and Dumbledore wants chocolate turtle cake. Life is challenging here on the dark side.

 

 

[Xena]

On 1/4/2021 at 1:06 PM, Mistr said:

I was walking at a pretty relaxed pace, but even so, I broke a sweat by 15 minutes.

 

You might already know this, but a fan is a big help when you are doing any kind of cardio machine indoors! I sweat list a beast on the treadmill.

[Kishi]

On 1/4/2021 at 1:06 PM, Mistr said:

Dumbledore and I had another financial strategy discussion without dramatics. We spent some time beforehand talking about what we wanted to include on the agenda and how to approach it. Our history has enough fraught discussions that both of us are twitchy about financial discussions.  He wanted to look at our planned big ticket decisions again.  I thought we were going to talk budgets, and was relieved when that part of the discussion was set for two weeks from now. We even wrote a list of what information we would like to review. I can work with that.

 

Having a list to review sounds like a really wise thing to do. Gives you a bit of cognitive/emotional distance from the topic, so you can see the numbers and projections as dry data. I always feel better when I can achieve that kind of detachment from the subject.

[Harriet]

Did you have an okay week? How is the treadmilling going?

[Mistr]

Last week was pretty good. I finished the work week more caught up that I started, which is excellent.

 

I did some work on finances over the weekend. I always think I will get more done than I do. I need to face the fact that it takes more time.

 

I did a second 25 minute walk on the treadmill and felt more stable. I set it to do medium intervals which went from a 4% to 7% grade. I will try easy intervals with change in speed next time. I listened to Duolingo French podcasts while I was walking. Those kept me entertained and feeling like I was meeting more than one goal.

 

On Friday I decided to ravel back my glove for the third time. Once I got past being frustrated at it and made the decision, it was quick. The reknitting was also quick. I got more than an inch done that evening. I worked on it off and on all weekend and have the hand and three of the fingers done. For some reason the tightness of the stitches is better in the fingers than in the hand. I'm using a new set of short needles for the fingers. I checked with a needle gauge, and both sets of size 0 needles are the same diameter. Go figure. I am happy that this project is finally moving along.

 

The food side of life has been a mixed bag. I realized with a sense of relief that I didn't have to plan cooking all week. Elf and Dumbledore each cooked on their designated days. I did do extra cooking - making two birthday cakes. Both of them turned out really well. On top of that, my brother sent me a tin of homemade Christmas cookies that just arrived. Not a good week for me to resist sugary treats. On the plus side, I did dump all the remaining eggnog down the drain. Tonight I am making soup and then I am done until next weekend.

 

Exercise is going pretty well. I finished the NF Journey push-up challenge. I think it would have been better if it had spelled out how to progress. I also don't find planks or negative pushups at all helpful in getting closer to full pushups. My core is already pretty good, doing planks for two minutes is not going to make a difference. On the positive side, the bench level pushups were exactly what I needed. Harder than knee pushups but easier than full pushups. I am up to three sets of 14 bench pushups. Once I get to 20 reps I will move to a lower surface.

 

I am happy with my circuit for day A of strength training:

back rolls

bench pushups

1-leg bridge

renegade rows

wrist exercises

 

Day B will be kettlebells and maybe resistance bands. 

I can already tell that yoga every other day is making a difference. I'm not happy about how quickly I get stiff and unsteady when I don't do it, but that is not likely to change. I just have to make it a priority to exercise.

[Xena]

5 hours ago, Mistr said:

On Friday I decided to ravel back my glove for the third time. Once I got past being frustrated at it and made the decision, it was quick. The reknitting was also quick. I got more than an inch done that evening. I worked on it off and on all weekend and have the hand and three of the fingers done. For some reason the tightness of the stitches is better in the fingers than in the hand. I'm using a new set of short needles for the fingers. I checked with a needle gauge, and both sets of size 0 needles are the same diameter. Go figure. I am happy that this project is finally moving along.

 

You've convinced me not to ever try knitting gloves.

[Mistr]

18 hours ago, Xena said:

You've convinced me not to ever try knitting gloves.

 

The issue is that fit for gloves and socks is different than fit for sweaters. With a sweater you measure the torso and arms of the person and add in a little ease. Socks and gloves need to really fit. Snug but not too tight. A couple stitches makes the difference between too loose and okay. I used 60 stitches for the cuff and that was just fine. In sweater knitting one often increases after the ribbing, but for these I had to decrease 12 stitches. Go figure.

 

I measured my hand, counted the stitches per inch in my knitting and did the math. It just turned out to be too loose anyway. The nice thing about making gloves for myself is that I can try them on as I go. The fingers fit well.

 

In other fiber work, I flick carded some of my white Wensleydale. I wanted to use my wool combs but there is no good place to set them up in the family room. Dumbledore is using my sturdy coffee table for sorting papers in the dining room. I tried spinning from the locks and was not happy with the results. I am going to try setting up the fiber on a distaff. I did that for spinning mohair and it worked well.

[Kishi]

Can confirm that bench push ups are probably "The Truth" when it comes to getting better at push ups. They let you do full-body tension with all the requisite parts while also deloading your pressing muscles and letting you build gradually. The tricky part is that how easy they are is really dependent on what kinds of surfaces you have to push up off of, and you may have to get a little creative in making them, but they're a great way forward.

[Harriet]

On 1/11/2021 at 10:05 PM, Mistr said:

On Friday I decided to ravel back my glove for the third time. Once I got past being frustrated at it and made the decision, it was quick. The reknitting was also quick. I got more than an inch done that evening. I worked on it off and on all weekend and have the hand and three of the fingers done. For some reason the tightness of the stitches is better in the fingers than in the hand. I'm using a new set of short needles for the fingers. I checked with a needle gauge, and both sets of size 0 needles are the same diameter. Go figure. I am happy that this project is finally moving along.

 

Ha, yes, the hardest part is admitting the knitting you've put in thus far is a sunk cost, and letting it go. I haven't tried knitting gloves in ages... I tried them when I was less experienced and found them a bit difficult, but my knitting speed is so solid now that I could probably get some done without much trouble. Three tv show episodes, I reckon. What gauge of yarn do you use? I imagine lace wouldn't be warm enough, but you don't want anything to chunky because finger mobility. In fact, I guess fingering weight would be the best?

[Scaly Freak]

11 hours ago, Kishi said:

Can confirm that bench push ups are probably "The Truth" when it comes to getting better at push ups. They let you do full-body tension with all the requisite parts while also deloading your pressing muscles and letting you build gradually. The tricky part is that how easy they are is really dependent on what kinds of surfaces you have to push up off of, and you may have to get a little creative in making them, but they're a great way forward.

 

Unless you have access to a straight staircase... that's what I do, with liquid chalk to stop my hands from sliding on the step as I push.

 

Note that I strongly recommend against wearing socks if your feet are on a hardwood floor. Having your feet slide out from under you while pushing up can lead to unintentional face planting on the stairs. You get one guess how I know this...  

[Mistr]

Week in review

 

I got back on the wagon for zen, but exercise has been spotty. Yoga every other day plus one session on the treadmill. I tried letting the treadmill program vary speed for intervals. It went from painfully slow to jogging. I want it to go from a normal walk to a fast walk. For now it seems like the best option is to let it vary the incline and I can change the speed manually to go faster while it is steeper. I'm not going very fast yet. I expect that will change as I get more practice. I'm just happy that I can walk inside and don't hate it.

 

Today's NF Journey Daily Win was to set three goals for the day. One of mine was to pick a new Adventure to replace the push-up challenge I recently completed. I decided that the Bodyweight exercise level 3 would fit the bill. I plan on completely ignoring the exercises they have listed and doing my own strength routines. My routine A is solid. Routine B needs more thought. I like the TGUs. I think I need to include goblet squats. Maybe KB swings? That would give a fairly short and intense KB day.

 

My main goals are coming along okay. Yesterday Dumbledore and I had our scheduled financial discussion. I got together the numbers of what we spent in 2020 and how things look for a partial cash-flow for this year. We made a new list of questions we want answered and scheduled another talk in two weeks. We are both thrilled to be having productive discussions about money. I'm not going to comment on how many years it has taken us to get to this point.

 

Food has been less than great. Having two birthday cakes in the house is a problem for me. On the positive side, I cooked brussel sprouts, green beans, spaghetti squash and tomato sauce with meatballs. Dumbledore completely missed his cooking day on Friday. Elf cooked deep-fried cheese curds last week, which contributed to the tasty-but-rich food. I'm happy to be off the hook until next weekend.

 

On 1/16/2021 at 2:30 AM, Harriet said:

Ha, yes, the hardest part is admitting the knitting you've put in thus far is a sunk cost, and letting it go. I haven't tried knitting gloves in ages... I tried them when I was less experienced and found them a bit difficult, but my knitting speed is so solid now that I could probably get some done without much trouble. Three tv show episodes, I reckon. What gauge of yarn do you use? I imagine lace wouldn't be warm enough, but you don't want anything to chunky because finger mobility. In fact, I guess fingering weight would be the best?

 

The yarn I'm using is a three-ply I spun specifically for this project.  It is 442 yd/154g = 404m/154g, = 2.6m/g, or 262m to a 100g skein. It is finer than sock weight, but not quite as fine as lace weight. It is about 50% angora (rabbit) for warmth. The gauge is 25.5 stitches/10cm = 19 stitches/3 in on size 0 needles in stockinette. The last time I knit gloves, I used a slightly finer handspun three-ply yarn.

 

Gloves use small needles,  but knit up fast because they are small. I am nearly done with the cuff for glove number two.

 

On 1/16/2021 at 10:47 AM, Scaly Freak said:

Unless you have access to a straight staircase... that's what I do, with liquid chalk to stop my hands from sliding on the step as I push.

 

Note that I strongly recommend against wearing socks if your feet are on a hardwood floor. Having your feet slide out from under you while pushing up can lead to unintentional face planting on the stairs. You get one guess how I know this...  

 

Ouch, I can see exactly how that would happen.

 

I was going to say I don't have good stairs, but I do. The stairs by the front door are in the coldest part of the house. But the stairs down to the game room are carpeted. The only problem is that Dumbledore is responsible for vacuuming that area. I would not want to get up close and personal with those stairs at the moment.   I think I'll stay with my bench levels in the family room for now.