More Snakes a Tip and a Timer

THE CONTEST

Running from June 1 - September 15

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I hope everyone had a lovely and restful weekend! Ours was blissfully lazy and uneventful.


Got this in the mail...



It's the sock yarn I won over at Nishanna's. My photographic skills (or lack thereof) don't do justice to it's fiery goodness and I can't wait to make them into socks!


Friday evening, my husband was in the bathroom while I was folding clothes by our bed. Our bathroom has no windows and w/o the lights on, is relatively dark. Out of the blue, D says, "I think we need to call a vet!" I asked what he was talking about (as we are currently petless). I turned around and see him walking out of the dark, shirtless, with his arms flexed in the classic bicep-flexing pose, " 'Cause these pythons are sick!" What a goofball! Laughed for days! He'd heard it on the radio along with some other ways to say how big your arms are ("I'm not allowed on the playground because these guns aren't registered", etc.). We made stupid, buff-arm, python jokes all weekend. We're lame. (Very different then last week's snake story, no?)

Since we moved here and he's had this new job/business. He's lost around 30 pounds. He's around the same weight as when we met. (Hot!) I wish I could say the same (she says, sitting on her butt at the computer or knitting all day).

Alright, on to Tippa Tuesday...


Last week, I posted a tip on how to make frogging a little easier. Yarnhog left another method in the comments (thanks, Yarnhog!). She said to put a smaller knitting needle on the row you are ripping to and rip away. I thought that was a great tip. I had tried that a long time ago when I was still a relatively new knitter and didn't keep the needle on the same row somehow.

After I read her comment, I tried again on a swatch and got it right this time. I also tried it a different way - instead of using a smaller knitting needle, I used a darning needle and some waste yarn. It worked great! It was flexible and, for me, easier to manage. I thought it would also work especially well with large pieces.

The second tip is for Massage Monday, which I missed yesterday by announcing my contest (see link at top of post). (By the way, I initially forgot to tell everyone where they can send the helmet-liners. I've remedied that and it's towards the bottom of the contest post.)

How often do you get up from your desk/knitting/other seated activities during the day? I know how it is, you get going and 3 or four hours have passed and you haven't moved. I do it too. At least I used to. It's So. Very. Bad. for you. You've got the stress of work combined with being stagnant and you go home with your shoulders up in your ears.

The easiest way to remedy this is to set a timer. You want to set it to go off every 50 or 55 minutes. (I use a kitchen timer but I hear there's a way to set a timer on one's computer.) When it goes off, don't just reset it. Get up! Walk to the bathroom, stretch, breath. This will, believe it or not, make your day go much faster. It's a physical break, it's a mental break and it will make you more productive. I'm not talking about taking 15-20 minute breaks every hour, I'm talking about 1-3 minutes.

I gave that tip to a client I had at the spa and he told me he couldn't possibly, he was too far behind on his work. I told him if he was that far behind, then a couple of minutes every hour wasn't going to make a difference and (as I already said) it would actually make him more productive. He didn't believe me. A few weeks later, I got an email from him telling me that he'd tried it, was all caught up on his work and did I have any more tips for him!

Going to go stretch now, Ruth!