Knitting : Projects in progress

Currently, I have two projects that are in progress. For my home project, I'm now working on a fingerless mitten. Please congratulate me on figuring out how to knit in a round using a set of double pointed needles. :-) My stitches are a little bit loose between the needles in the first few rounds but I just carried on because I wanted to see the results fast. Anyway, since I'm practicing on cheap wool, it's okay to make mistakes now. When I get on to the better quality wool, I want the results to be perfect.

My Fingerless Mittens in Progress

My other project that is now in progress is my 'office project'. Yes, I do have a set of knitting needles to keep me occupied during the lunch hour when my lunch mates are not around or out shopping. However, progress on that project can be slow because I don't knit every lunch hour. (I do go out to shop between lunch too :-))

I'm currently working on a tissue cover. I invented that project by using an empty tissue wrapper as a guide. What I'm now doing is I"m  knitting a rectangular piece of fabric. When it's done, I'll sew up the ends so that I can insert a packet of tissue in between. This would prevent the wrapper from tearing and scattering tissue in my bag. :-)

My Tissue Cover In Progress. The empty wrapper in the right is my guide and the paper behind tracks how many rows I've done. Yeah...I need one of those.

I will probably post the completed project online when it's done. Till my next knitting blog...

Knitting: My Completed Projects So far

One of the things that I aim to achieve is to use up all the wool that I've bought from the series of sales at our local store. The thing is I just can't stop myself from buying new wool because every time I pass the store, I just have to get one or two balls of wool. Check out my wool collection so far. I'm trying not to make it grow by the numbers any more. I just love to hold and touch new wool!!! My knit projects are moving at slower pace so I really have to control myself. ;-p

My first few knit projects were done on a round knitting loom because it helped me knit pretty fast. However, the problem with using the looms is that you can only use very thick wool so I had to wind the wool a few rounds and the project ended up very thick. Check out my looms below.

My Finished Projects include the 2 pouches below (the one in blue and the other in white) and a cushion cover (the large green one)

Yes, yes, I know the cushion cover looks a bit lop sided but I was a beginner back then. So it was a worth a shot. My pouches are now being used as organizers for storing toiletries and stuff. So these are my completed projects so far... For my next few projects, I hope to learn how to make some socks, leg warmers, arm warmers and maybe even a bag. Wish me luck on getting there.

SEM3 : The beginning of a new chapter

In this blog, I’m going to put to test the recommended memory techniques suggested by Tony Buzan in his books Use Your Perfect Memory and Master Your Memory. Since there are many facts and languages that I’d like to learn, I’m going to use the SEM3 method to memorize a few thousand bits of information in an order. The only way to find out if his method really works is to try it out. I’ll be blogging my progress here.

From his book Master Your Memory, I’ve decided to start off with the “Vocabulary” section last night. I memorized the first 11 prefixes and it was a slow process. Perhaps I don’t have a strong imagination so that is why it’s taking a while. Today I managed to recall 10 out of the 11 prefixes in the correct order. The information was stored under the 5000 category of ‘sensation’ because that was the suggested category according to page 11.  At the moment, I’m still very excited about using the SEM3 method. The progress may be slow but it’s better than not starting at all. Let’s see how far this will go. I hope to memorize another 10 prefixes tonight.

To be continued in another blog section…

Yoga & Pilates: My progress so far

Last week, I decided to start off by doing the shoulder stand just before bedtime. According to some yoga sites, this is one of poses for promoting digestion. Before doing this, I had to first make sure that I wasn’t feeling any queasy feeling in my stomach and that I wasn’t having any indigestion issues. It was an hour before bedtime so my stomach felt fine. (Supper was 2 hours before that). I got down on the floor and propped my body up with my hands. I held that pose for about 30 seconds and felt the blood rushing to my head. I was afraid that I might feel giddy but I was okay. When I got back down and stood up, I decided to go to bed. Surprisingly, I slept very well that night. When I woke up in the morning, I felt that I really had some quality sleep. So far I can’t really say that the shoulder stand had improved my digestion yet because the results can only be seen the long term. However I can say that it did give me a very good night’s sleep. 

Yoga & Pilates : The first entry...

My health problems have made me decide to look at yoga and Pilates in a different light. Although I’ve been taking Pilates classes once a week, I had never been practicing on my own regularly within the week until recently.

For the past few years, I've been having the indigestion problems for certain periods of time. After taking some medication, it would then get cured but a few months later the problem will resume. I was allergic to some of the GP's medication so I tried some TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). TCM works but the time taken to get cured is very slow. However my indigestion problem still resumed a few months later again. This cycle continued for the past three years.

Recently I was referred to a gastroenterologist by the GP. He sent me through a series of tests because he said that my symptoms were ‘very unusual’. He took some blood tests, did a barium test and even an ECG. All my test results came back normal. He said my stomach appeared normal and he could not pin point what was wrong with me at all. I was glad that my stomach was ‘normal’ but I was frustrated because I really wanted to get rid of the problem and even a specialist doctor can’t even help me.

I was going through some yoga and Pilates websites and I read that these exercises not only have external benefits like toning and strengthening the muscles. They also helped our internal organs and can help with problems like digestion, lungs, heart, memory, concentration... The benefits were said to be enormous and the results could only be seen in the long term. However, I’m a little skeptical and the only way to find out if Yoga and Pilates do help is to try it regularly. So that is what this journal is all about. I’m going to blog my progress as I go along and see if the indigestion ever comes back.