I finished Raven’s new jumper yesterday, so he is already for his duties with us fundraising in the lead up to Christmas. Probably not a good idea to let him loose on a walk in it though, as he has a tendency to sidle up to any hedge, bush or tree to ‘cock’ his leg, if you know what I mean and knowing Raven he would be likely to snag it and then run off with his new apparel unravelling behind him!
With the collar rolled down
Wearing his jumper ‘snood style’
I love knitting but in the last couple of years I have found attempting to knit for long periods of time hurts my thumbs not sure if it is RSI or arthritis, so I have been leaning towards doing more crochet plus the projects seem to proceed quicker. I was taught to knit by my Mother but taught to crochet by my Grandmother.
A recent finished crochet project was this crazy scrapghan blanket I made from all the odds and ends of chunky (bulky) yarn I had kicking about. I made 4 different colour themed panels, crocheted them together and then did a quick border around the whole blanket. I was pleased how it turned out and it was a relatively quick project completed on and off in 2- 3 weeks, unlike some other blankies I am in the middle of making – a hexagon, granny type blanket and a log cabin blanket I started over a year ago.
I am now in the process of crocheting Raven a snood combined jumper using two strands of double knit in orange and brown. The orange was donated to me but I thought a bright orange jumper on its own would be too vivid so I toned it down with a dark brown. I purchased the pattern from the Etsy store of the pattern Crochet Pattern for Greyhound Sweater and Snood. I have had to modify the pattern a little by cast off more around the chest area and continuing the collar to make it into an attached snood rather than a seperate snood. I had it nearly finished before I realised it wasn’t a great fit around Raven’s chest and had to rip it back. Once it is finished he should be real toasty in it especially as in December we have quite a few outside fund raising collections taking place.
Well I have continued with the running programme Couch to 5K – where it is possible to be able to run 5k after 9 weeks of training. The idea is to run three times a week, mainly doing intervals – walk for so long, run for so long, walk for so long. Week 6 was really hard as Day 3 was brisk walk for 5 minutes and then continuously run for a WHOLE 25 minutes!! The thought of that was very daunting, but not to be deterred I started it and guess what, I managed to do it all. According to my treadmill my distance was about 2 miles. Tuesday night I start Week 7 which is the same as Week 6 Day 3 but hopefully increasing the distance over the same amount of time, so I shall have to up the speed a tiny but. At the moment I am running at 5mph. I usually hate to exercise unless it is walking but this programme I am really enjoying and once I graduate I am going to actually run outside! Maybe by that time I will be fitter and not look so red in the face as I do at the moment. You can download all kinds of podcasts for the programme with mixes of music and cues to walk or run at the appropriate times. At the moment I am using Carli’s podcast from her website Running into shape – the music is a mix of r ‘n’ b and hip hop, but there are loads of different ones out there. The running must be helping with my weight loss as in 6 weeks I have lost 10lbs – only another 32lbs to reach my goal of a 3 stone loss!!
This is Floyd one of the dogs our rescue group is trying to find a home for – I probably run with my tongue out too!
