Wednesday 17 November 2010

Raven ready for a cold spell

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!

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With the collar rolled down

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Wearing his jumper ‘snood style’

Sunday 14 November 2010

Crazy for Crochet

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.

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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.

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Monday 8 November 2010

Week 7

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!!

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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!