Saturday, February 20, 2010

One way to tell that Spring is coming is to watch for the crocuses to start breaking the soil.  Another way (for me) is to notice that it's not dark in the morning when I leave for work.  This was Wednesday morning and you can see the sunlight just starting to show.  It was beautiful and I stood outside just watching the sky.  It's less depressing to go to work when it's not dark.   Unfortunately, this will only last until March 14 when Daylight Savings Time hits the east coast here again.  I keep hoping we'll give it up and just leave time alone but not this year.
I am inordinately proud of this.  It's the beginning of my Evenstar shawl.  It's only the center and I haven't even started the actual pattern.  It took me about 10 tries to get the circular cast on and keep the stitches on the needles and not get them all twisted and to not leave extra large holes.  I was determined last night to do this.   After 3 additional tries, I finally got it using Emily Ocher's crochet cast on.  It makes beginning stitches that are more stable and easier to manage.  This is the thinnest yarn I've ever used and it's like thread.  I just managed to get it onto the smallest circular needles in the options set.  As I look at the photo, I can see it's not perfect but it looks good to me.  I don't know if I have the heart to start again and blocking will help even out the center (I hope).

We spent our hour at the gym after work.  I'm getting used to walking around slightly sore all the time.  I look forward to the day when I can get up from a chair and not feel the soreness, though.  It's not bad at all, just a gentle reminder that my muscles would rather I leave them alone.  I sat in the whirlpool yesterday.  It is set to 101 degrees F.  (38 C)  I felt a little like I was being parboiled for some soup!  If I had seen some carrots float by, I would not have been surprised.  The chlorine level is so high that it made my eyes water but the warmth felt good.  I am going to have to find a bathing cap if I want to swim in the pool.  Chlorine levels this high will play havoc with my hair color.   (image borrowed from Wikipedia) 

As I came back to the locker room yesterday, I could hear the sound of a hairdryer.  There was a woman standing in front of the mirrors drying her hair.  Naked.  Now, I am not a prude and have no real problem undressing in the locker room or have any problem with other women undressing but it seems a little strange to stand naked in a semi-public place and dry your hair.  I'd have to put on my clothes (at least my underwear) first.  Or am I hopelessly old fashioned and this is normal gym behavior?  It's been many years since I was using a gym on a regular basis.  This woman was my age or older and was a little loose-fleshed, not a young, taut body showing off.  She was totally un-selfconscious and complimented my hair color.  It was weird. I don't think I'll get to the point where I'm that easy with my body but who knows?  I kinda admire that.

The snow is shrinking a little bit every day.  The temps today are supposed to be above freezing so we'll see some more shrinkage.  The grass is starting to show at the edges of the lawn.  As long as it continues to melt slowly, we're ok.  In December when we got all that snow, it was all gone within 12 hours in a warm rain.  Talk about flooding......

This is a long weekend for us.  Pk's birthday is Tuesday and we took off Monday and Tuesday to give ourselves this weekend.  No plans, just time.  I'll get the laundry going and start the pattern on the shawl and spin some more of the lovely roving I have on the wheel.  I have an angel food cake to bake and some ice cream to buy (I'd make some if I could find the dasher for the ice cream maker) but otherwise, my time is my own.  What a luxury that is.


10 comments:

Alwen said...

I love it when the sky is finally pink when I'm first up and about, rather than a couple of hours later!

Anonymous said...

Hooray! Well done on evenstar! I know that feeling - it's good.

As for nude hair drying, I think that's a bit odd. No reason she SHOULD get dressed by it's just, well, why not get dressed? At least to the point of underwear....?

Happy birthday for Tuesday PK!

roxie said...

Oh happy birthday PK!

Hooray for light before work! I am so with you on that crappy daylight savings time. It's all a plot by politicians who don't have the intelligence just to get up earlier.

The shawl looks splendid!

Nude hairdrying. Sometimes, if I've had a really stiff workout, it takes more than a quick shower for my body temp to come down. Rather than sweat into my clothes,I suppose I might take the time to dry my hair in the buff. Or she might be wearing a silk blouse that day and doesn't want to water-spot it. though why no undies? I'm flabby and un-selfconscious, but I realize that other people would rather not see the big picture, so I try to behave modestly. But I will NOT close the shower curtain! It always wants to waft over and cling to my tender parts and I hate that!

Bezzie said...

It feels like Cadbury Creme Egg Weather to me. That kinda warm--but not too warm weather. It comes in late March in Alaska--which is when we'd walk three miles to the grocery store to buy Cadbury Creme eggs with our allowances. Mmmm!

Jeanne said...

I love the way evenstar looks - so pretty!

Happy Birthday PK - enjoy the long weekend!

Dianne said...

The Evenstar looks GREAT! Happy birthday to PK. Nude hairdrying? In a public place? Not good. Not good at all...

Geek Knitter said...

I noticed the pink streaks in the sky on the way to work this morning. It's heartening to me.

Amy Lane said...

LOL-- loved the bugs bunny pic-- it's EXACTLY how I feel when I'm in a hot tub! And as for the naked woman? Yeah-- know how you feel. I'm a BIG girl--and I see women my size out at the beach in bikinis, and I'm like, "Go sweetheart...I'll be right behind you in my one piece with the supersized T-shirt sunblock."

DPUTiger said...

There's a woman at my gym who will be wearing her gigantic purple bath sheet when I go into the locker room to change shoes. She'll be chatting away with someone. When I come back 45 minutes later, after my workout, she's still there, still wearing only her towel.

I don't get it. I wouldn't want to hang around in a towel for an hour at home, let alone at the gym.

Oh, and that's totally normal men's locker room behaviour, but it's a fairly odd in the world of women's locker rooms. The boys, they don't care who sees when they're nekkid. ;-)

Anonymous said...

The shawl looks fine to me!

I used to swim at a JCC. In the locker room, many of the older ladies were very uninhibited. After a while, I got used to it and found it to be quite the refreshing attitude; it was good to be around women who, even though they weren't young and sexy, seemed comfortable in their bodies. It was also fun to laugh at the teenagers who were totally weirded out!

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