Yesterday I decided to do something novel and amazing–exercise.

Yes, I know. Me. Exercise.

After much pondering, I decided to try swimming. I have a few reasons for this–the first and foremost being that I really, really love the water. Once of the most maddening things about living in San Francisco, at least for me, is that I’m so very close to the ocean but I can’t go into it. At least, not without a wetsuit and/or a case of hypothermia.

The other reason being that I wanted to do something that was a little less punishing. I have a habit with exercise–I’ll try for a while, to lift weights or run/walk, but then I start to have a lot of pain and I stop. For a long time. My knees, in particular, give me a lot of trouble. My kneecaps shift to the side when I bend my knees, and while it’s not an unusual problem, it’s pretty frustrating. I’ve done varying forms of physical therapy with no luck; the goal is always to strengthen my muscles without hurting my knees, but I haven’t found any way to do that.

I’d thought about swimming before, but the Y here was so expensive I’d given up hope. Then I discovered the Temescal pool. It’s outdoors, but heated so you don’t freeze (although come winter, I may find that I’m eying the burkini with a new sense of appreciation–it looks warm, at least) and it’s pretty cheap.

So, I dragged a friend with me and off we went. Well. It’s been about ten years since I last went swimming, and it shows. I managed about 3 laps (I’m counting up and back as a lap) before I was done. I’ll definitely chalk this up as one of the more humiliating experiences in life–anything that involves me being out of shape, in a swimsuit, and doing physical activity is the type of thing I avoid, on account of I like people to respect me and not laugh at me–but at least I didn’t drown. My technique is horrible and sloppy, and I’m definitely struggling.

But, it’s still progress. It’s a 100 foot pool, so that’s 600 feet of swimming and while that may not be great, it’s 600 feet more than I have swum in a long time. Plus, amazingly enough, I’m not sore today. So perhaps worth keeping at it, at least until I erase the memory of me being slow and getting passed by old ladies in their ruffly swimsuits.

Maybe I’ll even buy a better swimsuit. (Or at least one dig out the bikini bottoms that aren’t in danger of falling off. That would be good.)

Or the victim of any other tragic demise. I’ve just been a bad, bad blogger.

This week has swooped down upon me in a rush of busy. Aside from work being busier than usual, and thus leaving me more exhuasted, I’ve been working on frantically finishing up knitting projects, doing lots of behind the scenes organization for the Off the Needles pinup calendar that I’m producing with the Gray Lady Artists Collective–you’ve still got time to reserve your copy on the Kickstarter site!–and planning what I hope will be the first in a series of Cupcake and Conversation gatherings featuring a tasting menu of mini cupcakes and my fascinating and witty friends.

(You all have to be fascinating and witty now. I’ve told the internet you are, so that makes it true.)

Aside from that, I’ve also been cleaning! For those of you that may not know me well, this is best classified as a minor miracle. I have a really difficult time motivating myself to clean; aside from aforementioned exhuastion, I’m easily distracted and have a high mess tolerance. I’ll never have a home that looks like the centerfold in Organized Living–too much neatness and organization makes me twitchy–but I know I could be doing a lot better than I am.

I think I may have found the secret weapon, though–Chore Wars. It’s super nerdy, but it basically turns cleaning into a game, where your earn experience points and fake gold for your cleaning adventures, and compete. It’s designed for use by a household or office, but I got some friends who were also looking for motivation and are nerdy enough to appreciate this and a bunch of us have signed up. It’s actually really working! Competing to see who is ahead in points is actually making me look for things to clean–and getting the points makes me go ahead and do those little daily tasks that I put off until they become overwhelming. I’m going to write more on this later, I’m sure, but it’s definitely given me a bit of a push.

It’s confusing the cats, though. I think they think it means we’re moving again, poor things. (And, yes, that should tell you something about my housekeeping skills.)

Although we don’t really have seasons here–at least not consistenly, though we may experience all four in one week, such as they are–I still can’t let go of changing my wardrobe around the seasons. As we creep closer to fall, I find myself drawn towards autumn palates with warm browns, golds, reds, and cozy sweaters and interesting textures.

As I’m in the process of re-vamping my wardrobe, I’ve started to think about the colors I wear. The thing is, I love all colors, and on any given day I may go into raptures over any particular hue. That makes it difficult to narrow things down. But as I look for gaps, in the hopes of knitting and eventually sewing with some sort of goal in mind, I do keep running across some trends.

Neutrals: I like white and ivory (for sweaters only, sometimes dress–NOT pants), brown, tan, black, and gray. I do NOT like navy blue, and pretty much refuse to wear it unless I’m deliberately going for a sailor outfit look.

Colors: Purple, pink, red, green, and yellow. Occassionally I’ll venture into some orange-y hues or blue, but rarely. Within those colors, it tends to cover the entire spectrum.

It’s a bit overwhelming, but eventually I would like to have several sweaters in each of these colors. They are consistenly the things I wear, and one of my goals is to not have any storebought sweaters.

So far, I have a bit of progress. I have one long-sleeve, pale purple cardigan, one long-sleeve, dark green cardigan, and one short-sleeved, pink cardigan that I wear regularly, plus one tan pullover in need of repair. I also have a couple of other pullovers that I wear less frequently, for various reasons.

At least it’s a direction, I suppose….

This weekend, I got to go to the very first Oakland Fiber Festival! I was so excited to hear this was happening–there seems to be a definite lack of fiber festivals out this way. (Someday, I will make it to Rhinebeck, I swear.) We even had warm weather for the occasion! (Though that sadly limited the opportunites for knitwear.)

There were lots of knitters. I hung around for several hours and it was buzzing the whole time. I saw lots of people I knew, plus a few I knew from Ravelry but hadn’t met. And lots of amazing new people too.

There were spinners too, of course, as well as quilters and felters. There was even a booth with a bicycle powered drum carder. (I want one of those, someday after I get a wheel of my own. It’s probably the only way you’ll ever see me exercise.)

I drooled over some of the fiber–this is from Wonderland Dyeworks–and I really, really want a wheel. Even more than before. There was gorgeous yarn, too. Beautiful colors, and I may or may not have obtained the location of an alpaca farm about an hour a way that has a little store selling their luscious yarn. Just sayin’.

There was even Oakland’s own knitting novelist, Rachel aka Yarnagogo, signing copies of How to Knit a Love Song.

Overall, it was a great way to spend a Sunday. The only thing I would change is setting up an area to sit and knit–there weren’t many shady places, and it would have been nice to be able to pull up a chair and chat. Like I said, I ran into a lot of people I hadn’t seen in a bit–since the knitting group I had been going to dissovled, I’ve been feeling out of touch with the local knitters. There are a couple of other groups I mean to check out–one is near my house, on Tuesdays, and there’s one in Berkeley on Sunday morning. There’s also an Alameda group on Thursdays I might swing by. I’d really like to find a Saturday group that meets late morning/afternoon. A couple of other people seemed interested, and I said I wasn’t going to organize it but…well. Here I go. My only trouble is thinking of a place to meet on a Saturday that would be okay with a herd of knitters hanging out for several hours. Preferably in Oakland and relatively public transit accessible. (I know, I don’t ask for much, right?) I’ll have to think about that.

So, among the many things I’ve got simmering away in my mind, one that’s been there for a while is a knitting pinup calendar. Look–let’s face it, kniting hasn’t always been the hobby with the most exciting reputation. Yet I’ve always met some pretty amazing knitters.

I started tossing this idea around a couple of years ago and this year I finally got it together early enogh to actually make it happen. I’m funding the project via Kickstarter, which is a crowdsourced funding for creative projects. It works like this–if you think this sounds like a fun project, sign up to back it. You won’t get charged until the end, and that’s only if we get enough support. If we don’t, nobody gets charged and I move to figuring out plan B.

Here’s the deal:

I’m super excited about this, and if you think it sounds interesting, I’d love it if you’d back the project and share it with your friends. All of the models are real knitters–and real people–of all sizes, and it’s shaping up to be pretty amazing.

This past weekend, I had the lovely experience of taking a trip to the Oakland Rose Garden with some friends. The garden was beautiful in full bloom, and we did Tai Chi in the midst of the flowers. I also managed to get a wicked sunburn, but I think the photos I took make up for it.

There are so many that it’s hard for me to choose which ones I like best. You can see the entire Flickr set if you’re interested; I do admit to going  a little crazy with the mosaic making and editing tools.I do  have a few favorites.

They all turned out so well–I really can’t choose! I wish I could include everyone, but then this post would go on for ages. It’s definitely a spot I want to go back to, especially  if I have a new finished object photoshoot! Love the roses!

I’ve been a bit of a sporadic blogger lately, and I’d like to apologize. I’m in the process of adjusting to a new schedule at work, and I’m still getting used to it–I’m working an early shift from home 2-3 days a week, and it’s definitely taking some getting used to! I don’t always have the mornings to do my usual routine on those days, so I’ll need to get better about writing more of my posts and things in advance.

On the upside, it does mean that on those days I’m finished by 1 pm, so I have the afternoons free to do things! That part is very nice indeed, and I’m sure that I’ll figure out how to make my schedule work eventually.

Since yesterday was an early day, I went to tea with my friends. I also seemed to be channeling the 1950s.

I actually love that outfit, and should really wear it more. (Especially when I get my new sandals in the mail; actual spring and summer shoes! So exciting!) Tea was wonderful–we went to Alameda and had some very yummy food and tea. Unfortunately, I stayed out longer than I meant to–as usual–and that meant I didn’t get as much knitting done as I wanted.

I did, however, do something amazing. I actually took a swatch and bound off, then tossed it in the wash to wash and dry–it’s washable, don’t worry–with my sheets before I checked gauge. (Oh, all right, that’s two things amazing. Laundry is the bane of my existance.) I usually do half-assed, non-washed swatches. We shall see if this makes any difference.

There’s nothing like a good three day weekend to help you relax! I was surprisingly social this week–a fact which is sadly apparent by the state of my apartment–and managed to squeeze in a shopping trip, coffee and dinner with friends, and a picnic with some more friends at the Berkeley Marina.

The picnic was last minute, but so much fun. I just wanted to stay outside in the sun for ages.

We also befriended a gopher! He popped up out of his little gopher hole only a few feet away from where we were sitting. He seemed a little freaked out when he saw people at first, but then he calmed down and kept working.

He was quite the industrious gopher. We watched him shove a bunch of dirt out of his hole, then what looked like the remains of his nest, until he covered the hole entirely.

I’m still not sure if that was intentional on his part or not.

We also saw a Sun Dog! It’s not the greatest picture, as I was trying to use my iPhone and take a photo of the rainbow ring around the sun, without looking directly at the sun and blinding myself. Which I mostly succeeded at it. (I did look a little too closely and see some interesting spots. Oops?)

Unfortunately, now it’s back to work….and cleaning….but I have all sorts of plans up my sleeve, and I think the weekend refreshed me enough to get started on them!

Spoiler Alert! If you haven’t seen the finale of Lost, and you have any plans to, please stop reading now and go about your business. Come back when you’re done.

So. Lost. The End.

Wow.

You can tell where I was watching this, because there are about a million mistakes in a what really was a very simple shawl pattern. Note to self: don’t knit while so distracted.

I loved the finale. I really did. I cried buckets at the very end, but I loved it. I know that a lot of fans don’t–in a way, it makes me think of the Battlestar, Galactica finale. Both shows were science fiction with a heavy mystical component, which played a major role in the finale. Yet, there are always fans who get frustrated at not having everything tied up neatly, all the questions answered, and solid scientific explanations for all mytical occurances. (Perhaps a reflection of the increasingly aggressive opposition to any belief system?)

But how often do we get those answers? The source–how can any of us really know what that is? How can we know what the meaning is? But what we do know are the people who are here with us. Maybe it’s just me, but there are people I’ve met that I do feel I am meant to know. People that, in some ways, it feels like I’ve known before. I like to think that no matter what happens in this life, I’ll see these people again. So on that level, the ending really felt emotionally right to me.

Of course, I cried. And then it brought up all sorts of issues I kind of knew were lurking under the surface of my psyche, and I cried some more. But it was good, and satisfying, and I’m going to miss having that quality of TV to watch but I’m satisfied with the ending.

Also? For the record? I totally called Juliet as Jack’s ex-wife in the flash-sideways. There was just something in that weird Jack/Kate/Sawyer/Juliet mess that it couldn’t have been anyone else. So, I at least feel vindicated in that.

Okay, last vacation post, I promise! One of the things my Mom has been dying to do since I moved here is visit Children’s Fairyland in Oakland. It’s so close to my apartment, and we both love children’s books and stories. But there was just one little catch….you need a child to get in.

Mom suggested we try pointing out that I am her child, but I figured they might consider 27 to be a bit over the age limit. Luckily, I happen to have friends with kids, who are happy to help gain our admission to the park!

We took my friend and her son to visit. It was a lot of fun, and my Mom even managed to get a picture of me holding a baby (which is on her camera, so not here).

The whole park was SO CUTE. I wanted to shrink myself down and move in.

My favorites included Peter Rabbit’s village. Look at the wee tiny houses!

I also loved Mary, Mary Quite Contrary and her garden. It’s hard to see in the picture, but there are silver bells and cockleshells! In addition to the exhibits, they also had beautiful gardens all over the park. Totally worth visiting if you have kids, or if you’re just a big children’s book junkie–though if you’re the latter, you may have to find a child to borrow.