Why not knitting and fitness? It's time for some honesty, mostly with myself. I am a middle aged fat woman with multiple injuries. I had a partial tear in my rotator cuff, which I treated mostly with physical therapy. I have three bulging discs in my lower back. I also sprained a ligament when I twisted my ankle on Father's Day in 2018. The very rude trainer at LA Fitness let me know just how out of shape I am during a humiliating sales pitch at the end of which, she informed me that it would cost at least $300.oo per month to fix my problem.
Not going to happen. I left the gym in tears, ready to give up. Instead, I am going to try something crazy. My husband has had the book, Convict Conditioning for a very long time. It is basically a bodyweight training guide that really eases you into the program. I am going to post my progress here, along with my knitting updates. Let’s see what happens.
On the knitting front, 2019 has been amazing so far. I went to VKLNYC.
I splurged this year and bought the VIP package. It was an indulgence, but I really wanted to make sure I got into all of the design classes that I wanted. I took an all day shawl design class with Andrea Mowry, a photography class with street artist, London Kaye, sweater classes with Laura Bryant and Josh Bennett, and a class with Veera Valimaki called, “From Idea to Pattern”. Each class was amazing and inspiring. I learned a lot about the way each designer works, lots of tips and tricks for doing tricky pattern math, where to take inspiration, and so much more. Andrea mowry even taught us the Norwegian purl. There is a lot of information to process, but I am really motivated to kick my design work into high gear this year. My big goal? I am going to design my first sweater in 2019.
Look for my Magic Ball cowl pattern to drop this week. I have 2 hats and a shawl in the writing and tech editing phases. How have I made this much progress in such a short time? I put it on the calendar. Every weekday while the kid is in school, I block out a 2 hour chunk of time to work on designs. I will not schedule anything during that time. I admit it, sometimes I go over, but having a visual block of time on the calendar helps to give me the discipline I need. Here is a sneak peek at Magic Ball Cowl.
And now for some humility:
My stats.
Weight:203
Waist:(Tempted to say what waist, but I won't) 41.5"
Chest: 45"
Hips:48
Bicep:14
Please join me on this journey. I am sharing this very personal information because if it works, I want people to be able to see where I started.. Maybe I can inspire someone who looks like me to make a change. I will end each blog post with my stats and how many of each exercise I completed during the week. Tomorrow is my starting day, so 0 exercises this week.
Happy knitting!
