A couple of weeks ago, I decided it was time for a change. I wasn’t feeling great about myself, hadn’t exercised in weeks, and was just feeling generally blah.

So, I joined a gym, hired a personal trainer, and decided to completely change my diet and my lifestyle. I spent an entire Saturday cleaning out my pantry, fridge, and freezer, and tossing all of the unhealthy food. I was truly amazed at how much junk we had. Lots of bad carbs (not whole grains) and lots of things with processed sugars. Yuck. [I had no idea that corn syrup was the second ingredient in ketchup. Or the third ingredient in Prego spaghetti sauce. The things you learn when you actually read labels!]

Since that day, I’ve taken my lunch to work every day (spinach or mixed greens with grilled chicken or shrimp, lowfat cottage cheese, and fruit), have been drinking lots of water (no soda!), and have been exercising at least 6 times a week, either weights or cardio. Quite a change for someone used to eating out for lunch every day, and whose idea of exercise is getting work after 8:30 am and having to walk all the way from the far reaches of the parking lot.

Even though I’ve yet to see any results, I’m feeling a lot better about myself already. Instead of just being miserable because none of my summer clothes fit me anymore, I’m doing something about it. Hopefully it will work, because, damn I want a hot fudge sundae already!

I’m also going to try to find some more health & fitness oriented blogs to read to keep me on track. (Not that I won’t still read knitting blogs, but those of you who post frequently about cooking - I’ll be skipping those posts!) Christine started a great blog about how she lost 30 pounds. Lolly has also posted occassionally about her quest to get in shape. Anyone know of any other good health & fitness blogs or other resources that you’d like to share?

The recipient of the baby quilt is due to arrive soon, so last weekend I decided to hunt for a darning foot for my sewing machine so I could finish up my first quilt project.

I’m not familiar with many sewing machine shops in the area, and I’m positive there are none that carry my specific machine (an ancient, er, vintage Necchi). So, before I left home, I did some research on the internet, took some measurements on my machine, and figured out exactly what I needed - a straight, low shank darning foot. I then headed to the shop where I’ve taken my machine to be serviced before… a shop that just happens to be next to an Ann Taylor Loft, a Nordstrom Rack, and across from a mall. Convenient, eh?

When I got to the shop, I asked the woman for “a straight, low shank darning foot.” She insisted that in order to find a foot that fit my machine properly, I’d need to bring it in to the shop. Oh, no I don’t! I asked to see all the feet that they carried in the store, and she dumped an entire bucket of unlabeled feet out onto the countertop. She had pretty much every type of sewing machine foot I’ve ever seen, and a few that I haven’t. I dug through the pile, pulled out the three darning feet that she had, and asked for a tape measure. I’m pretty sure she thought I was nuts. I started measuring the feet, and found one that fit my requirements. It was straight (the foot was directly below the screw hole), and it was a low shank foot (a half inch from the screw hole to the bottom of the foot- high shank feet have a 1 inch measurement). Perfect! But, she still didn’t want to sell it to me, because she wasn’t sure it would fit my machine and the store didn’t take returns on feet. I had to spend fifteen minutes explaining everything I knew about sewing machine feet in order to convince her that it was going to work. At that point, she practically offered me a job in the store! I guess if this lawyer thing doesn’t work out, I’ve got something to fall back on. I’d totally make an awesome sewing machine foot salesperson. Ha!

I got home and put the foot on my machine… and it was perfect!

I attempted some free motion quilting on one of my class squares. Not terrible for my first attempt. Not great either.

The back is easier to see…

I definitely need more practice before I try this on the real quilt.

And here’s a question for the quilters out there… the quilt filling: for a baby quilt would you use cotton or polyester batting? I was leaning towards cotton, but at the quilt shop they said that polyester batting can be better for babies because it won’t hold allergens. Thoughts?

It’s been an odd couple of weeks, and I haven’t felt like doing much knitting or blogging for various reasons. I did finish up a couple of quick dishcloths last weekend though.

I made these using the free Textured Slip Stitch pattern from the Dishcloth Boutique. Looks a lot like the Mason-Dixon Warshrag pattern, no? I’m pretty sure it is the exact same pattern.

I knit these after Amy told me about how much she loves using the linen dishcloth that she knit.  So, I picked up some Louet Euroflax linen to make a couple dishcloths for myself.  Hopefully they’ll be a good replacement for my kitchen sponges.  I’m not a big fan of the sponge.

Let me tell you, the linen yarn is not much fun to knit at all. It’s like knitting with twine or wire.  There’s no stretch whatsoever. But it knits up into a lovely fabric - much softer than I expected, but still rough enough to take on kitchen messes. I’ve got at least one more dishcloth worth of yarn to knit up from the skein, and after that it’s back to my regularly scheduled knitting - socks, Salina, and Sahara.