Ravelryversary

Yesterday was my 2nd Ravelryversary. I believe Ravelry has revolutionized the world of knitting and crochet by making so much information accessible to anyone who signs up. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, Ravelry is an online knitting and crochet community with over 364,000 members worldwise (as I write this). It's like the Facebook of knitting. People can post their projects with all the pertinent information (dates, photos, needles used, yarn used, comments, etc.) and search what other patterns and yarns other people have used. Many, many patterns are free and they are either downloads from Ravelry itself or links to the patterns online. I certainly try to inform every knitter that I know about it as it is such a valuable resource.

I continue to be excited about my new knitting gig - making up samples for a local yarn shop and planning a series of classes on lace knitting I will be teaching in the fall.

Currently I'm working on the Lehe square shawl from Nancy Bush's "Knitted Lace of Estonia". I'm about half done the centre square after which I will pick up stitches all around the edge and knit the border. I thought it would be a lot harder to do but I find the instructions in this book are very clearly written, easy to follow and there are very few errata.

Today marked the 6th class I have taken at the gym since last Sunday - 2 weight-lifting and 4 Zumbas. I've been really putting a push on to try and get off this effing weight plateau but the results have been disappointing. However, my doctor and I may have found a medical reason for my lack of weight-loss. Blood tests I took last week indicated that I have little or no thyroid function. The normal range is 0.3 to 3.0 of TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) and my number was 13.8 - WAY out of the normal range. So I went for some more blood tests and will get the results at the doctor tomorrow. It would be freaking awesome if these last 10 lb. would fall right off me once my thyroid levels get straightened out. I sure am keeping my fingers crossed and continuing my push at the gym.