Yarn Along & STATurday: Finished Objects and Perfectionism

I'm a bit late to the Yarn Along party this week, but I just finished up my Ramona cardigan yesterday, and wanted to be able to show off something finished this week!  (I know, I didn't even blog about *starting* the Ramona cardigan.  Things have been kind of nuts here)

I'll start with STATurday, however, since it has been a while since I checked in about my weight loss progress.

First is the good news: I'm down 19 pounds since mid-July.  I'm actually shrinking out of clothing that was too tight in the spring.  I spent last Saturday taking in two skirts (and one of them is going to need to be taken in again soon), including the corduroy skirt I made less than two weeks ago.  I had to take both in about 2" on the side seams and I took in the waist of the cord skirt almost 4"!  I bought a wool Pendleton skirt on ebay that is two sizes smaller than my usual size.  It is slightly snug in the hips, but I think a few more pounds gone and it will fit just fine.

I've not actually taken my measurements for a while, but I think my clothing is a good metric of my losses.  I will be curious to see where I am when I do get out the measuring tape, however.

I can't really speak to my food life right now because the mess with my throat hit crisis proportions over the weekend, and I had to have another endoscopy (#3!) with dilation on Wednesday.  I have to have another one in about a month for the second stage of the dilation; until then, food is going down slowly, but at least I'm not having an impaction every other meal.  I'm still eating cautiously, however, and sticking to soft foods.  Needless to say, my appetite has taken a hit.  (Not a bad thing, just hard on my psyche--I worry about feeding tubes in my future)

As for my exercise, things have stalled out a bit.  I was getting into a good groove of running 6.0 mph every other lap for 3 miles, for a total of 38 minutes (I'm gunning for an 11 minute mile!), but this week, things just came to a standstill. Birdie has been sick for a while now, and she hit crisis over the weekend too, and ended up being home three days this week.  I was up all night with her on Sunday, and sleep deprivation really messes me up.  I didn't make it to the gym at all this week because I just couldn't drag myself out of bed before 5:00 a.m.  I did keep up walking the boys to school each day (2 miles round trip, plus an additional round trip on Wednesday because I couldn't drive after the dilation), so I felt that I was burning some calories anyway.  I'm trying not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good, but that is really hard for me.

Plus: a non-scale victory!  My actual wedding ring fits again.  I have a slender band in a bigger size that I bought when I was pregnant and have been wearing for the past several years, but I realized it was close to falling off all the time, so I tried my ring again and it fits great!

I'm trying to remember that this is a long game, and I need to pace myself.  I have four special needs children who are still very young, a busy husband who works long hours and my own health issues aren't going to go away.  I can't just snap my fingers and make everything work the way I want it to at the time I want it to.  And 19 pounds is nothing to sneeze at.  

(Keen-eyed viewers may recall that this chambray dress had a square neckline originally.  I liked it, but I didn't love the drag lines on the upper bodice, and I didn't like that I didn't have a single light weight cardigan that looked good with a square neckline, so I changed it to a u-neckline sometime in October.  I'm much happier with it now, as the new shape released the drag lines, and makes it much more versatile with my layering options).

On to my Ramona!  I loved willfulmina's version of the same, and immediately snapped up the pattern a few weeks ago.  I had ordered some merino worsted weight yarn from yarn.com that I decided would be perfect for the project.  It took a few gauge swatches, but I ended up knitting this on 10.5 circulars (I didn't size down for the cuffs and bands, but I sort of wish I had done the cuffs on 10s).  It was an incredibly fast knit.  I think I knit the whole body in less than a week (although I did go back and frog back about four inches, because the written length came out to a very unflattering place on my body.  *shakes fist at short waist*)  

I also frogged back an entire sleeve because I really despise working on dpns, and it was taking me forever to finish one sleeve because I hated the process so much.  I couldn't see doing it again on the second sleeve and still finishing this sweater before the end of the winter.  I ended up knitting them flat from the cap, and then seaming up the middle, which worked a charm and went very quickly.  The sleeves came out slightly too long (again with the short forearms!) but that is pretty normal for me in ready-to-wear.  I just turned back the cuffs once.  If I make this again (and I'm sure I will), I will omit the last round or two of decreases.  

I knit a 35.5" (S) size, because I'm finding that if I knit according to my full bust size (about 38" these days), I end up with a sweater that is way too big in the shoulders (this is what happened with the Almost Lady Gansey sweater I knit this summer.  I knit a size 40, but the shoulders just came out way too wide--the sleeve cap hit at a terrible spot on my upper arm.  I loved the color but ended up hating the fit and feel of it, so it ended up in a donation pile.  Remind me not to knit with acrylic yarn again).  I need to knit according to my upper bust, because then it fits fine in the shoulders.  Also: raglan sleeves are my friends.  I also prefer a slightly more fitted sweater, and often size down in ready-to-wear, so I think the same needs to apply to my own knitting.  

In any case, I'm pretty happy with this finished sweater.  The neckline is ever so slightly too wide, but I think that is a function of the raglans, and it doesn't bother me too much.  I used some random brown buttons I had bought on etsy a long time ago for something else, since I didn't have any green ones the right size that matched the yarn.  

I think the contrast is nice (and the buttons have a small amount of detail on the face that is interesting)  I do think I would change a few things for next time, but I will wear this one in any case.  The merino is very soft and warm (it suddenly turned quite cold!) and I really like the color.  It goes nicely with my fall and winter palettes.

Also: my boot search is complete!  Just in time too, as the heels on my Modcloth boots were almost flapping in the wind this week.  I sort of forget about Macy's as a place to check for this sort of thing, but they had the goods in the end.  

I got these boots on a great sale, and I'm so pleased with them.  The toe shape and heel height are perfect, they are real leather, they don't slouch around the ankles (I hate that!) and the shaft actually fits comfortably around the top of my calf.  (I got the regular width, and the buckle at the top can be adjust about 1/2", which was about right--my calves are about 15.5" around at the widest point).  I like the buckle detail, and I think that the sole is constructed in a way that could be resoled in the future if need be.  I wore them yesterday for the walking commute to school and I was totally comfortable.

As for reading, I just finished The Three Stations, one of the more recent Arkady Renko mysteries.  The pacing on this one was a bit slower than some of his other novels, and one of the plot lines was a real nail biter, but I'm happy with the way everything resolved.  I really enjoy the series and I love immersing myself in Russia every so often.  I think I have one more to read before I'm up to date.  I'm also continuing my background research about special ops for this character I'm developing.  

I finished season four of Person of Interest a week or two ago, and decided to start back over at the beginning again.  Like Alias, POI is even more enjoyable the second (or third!) time around because you can see things develop while knowing where it is going to end up.  There are details in the earlier seasons that make more sense in light of what happens at the end of season four.  I'm eager to see what happens this season.  I'm also watching Blindspot and The Blacklist this year.  I really loved Legends with Sean Bean, and am eager for season two (which is airing now, so will probably hit Netflix over the summer).  I keep meaning to pick up Homeland again, but after the dramatic conclusion of season three, I'm still kind of reeling from it.  I knew it was coming, I was prepared, but I need a bit more time before I jump back into that world.  

Linking up with Ginny for Yarn Along!

Just the facts:

Back to Basics Chambray dress: me-made, June 2015, modified October 2015

Ann Taylor brown knit shirt: ThredUp

Green Ramona cardigan: Valley Yarns Amherst in Jungle Green, Ramona cardigan from The Brown Stitch, random vintage brown plastic buttons from etsy

Holmes necklace: put together from findings on etsy

Earrings: bought in Ireland in 2010

Boots: b.o.c. Faye in Mahogany at Macy's