Bows, bells, baubles and beads

Recently I’ve started feeling inspired. It is spreading to all areas of my life. I have just started doing a management course at work, which I think has something to do with it. It is making me want to be efficient and organised.

I’m not there entirely (I have the time management software picked out, but haven’t got the To Do lists set up), but I cleaned the bathrooms yesterday, instead of leaving them to Sunday. As an extra, I did the stain treatment on the washing, and cleaned the oven.

I’ve been putting on a lot of weight recently (I was overeating because I wasn’t getting pregnant, overeating because I was pregnant, then overeating because I wasn’t pregnant any more). I’ve never been overly fit, but I’ve discovered that the extra weight really lowers even those low fittness levels. So yesterday I started the couch to 5k programme. I have to say, I don’t think I could cope with trying it without my handy iPhone app, but that app is excellent. It tells me when to walk, and when to run. It also lets me know when I have 30 seconds and 10 seconds respectively to go. They say in the programme that the first week (60 seconds running, followed by 90 seconds walking) is something easy that anyone can do. Well, I did make it, but only barely. This morning I ache all over. It is a good ache though, so hopefully I’ll keep going and in a few weeks I’ll have something resembling a decent level of fitness.

The other area I’ve been inspired in is spinning. I’ve finally got my pay it forward spinning done for Cassie. I really hope she likes it (though it should be pointed out, I was aiming for sock weight and hit worsted). Annoyingly, it isn’t all in one skein, because I ran out of space on my bobbin. I shall take a picture of it before I send it, and post it here once it has arrived.

I’ve also been working on my Rampton Spinners project. We were all given the same fibre, which we had to blend, spin and knit into a bag. Thus far I have done the blending and part of the spinning and have come up with a bag design. It is the first bag I will have knitted and the first pattern I have designed myself from scratch. We’ll see how it goes.