highlandheffalump

YOP8 – Weeks 15 and 16/52

After a lovely week away at a holiday cottage on the West Coast of Scotland, this week has been so stressful and depressing.  I need to keep up with my projects to keep me sane and keep me from slipping back into depression.  

I have put up lots of unused craft supplies on Facebook Marketplace and already have sold some things.  This was prompted by me having too many warning signs I was teetering on the edge of being a full blown hoarder.  For anyone interested here’s a link to that post.  I think its important as a community we show that life has ups and downs and that’s ok and normal.  Electronic lives can seem like everyone is living perfect lives.

A quick update on my nuno felted scarf that I was unhappy with; I re did it adding more fibre around the edges and the roses.  I am so much happier with it.  It is so light to wear but warm!  

Nuno felted scarf update

Last week I finished Allistar’s first sock and I am doing the heel of the 2nd at the moment.  Already I spot they aren’t ‘Pairfect’…as per the yarn name.  My long tail cast ons were different tail lengths and despite re-doing the cast on 3 times it wasn’t perfect, so this has had a knock on affect at the top of the foot!  Typical as thats the bit people will see when he sits down.  The yarn was really splitting though so a 4th attempt wasn’t possible.

Allistar’s first sock

I wanted to see what the sari silk looked like felted, so made a weird shaped scissors case!  I love the silks and wish I had loaded more on! 

Scissors case

I joined the Brit Spin marathon on Ravelry, in team ‘More enthusiasm than skill’.  Our team each received 100g of Shetland fibre from our sponsors Curtis Fibres.  It is now the morning of the 4th and final day of the challenge and I have only managed to spin a third of the Shetland so far, partly because I am trying to spin very fine so that I end up with a 3 ply fingering weight yarn, but mostly because I am frantically dashing from one priority to the next, not sleeping well and really feeling the physical signs of some stress I am under at the moment.  My fitbit says my heart rate was in fat burn for 15 hours on Friday despite me not actually exercising! When I did some spinning at 6.30am, having been awake for hours, you can see my heart rate drop.  It drops again when I did some spinning about 2.30pm…the final drop is when my husband tried it on!   I wish I was better equipped to manage stress, but at least I know the spinning makes a physical positive difference.

Stress affecting my heart rate

 

 

 

 

12 comments

  1. That’s fascinating that you can track your heart rate – and see how spinning helps your stress level. When my current (very simple) FitBit dies (i.e. when it gets washed in my pants’ pocket) I think I’ll look into something that tracks more than just steps.

    The silk scarf is really interesting. It all looks free form, but with intentionality behind it. I enjoy seeing what you come up with, Liz.

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  2. Thanks Becki, don’t rely of the washing machine killing off the Fitbit One if that’s what you’ve got. My old one was washed and even recorded the steps in the spin cycle hahaha! I’ve got a screenprint of it saying 736 steps very intense. My new one tracks sleep as well, just in case you just imagined you only had 3 hrs sleep it confirms it for you and tells you Deep, Light and REM sleep. Pretty cool.

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  3. I like Alistair’s sock. I really don’t think too many people will look at his socks to see if they match 100%. No on has ever noticed that on any of my socks that do not match 100%.

    That silk is fascinating. It really makes a lovely fabric and silk is one of those materials that can keep you warm or cool.

    I hope your stress level starts to decline soon. Anxiety and depression can really mess with heart rates.

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  4. Your felted scarf looks amazing, and I’m sure it feels the same. Love the socks, and I agree no one will notice they don’t match exactly.

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  5. I love the socks! I personally like it much better if they DO NOT match, so those would be perfect for me. And I especially like the red stripe, in it, it totally makes the sock special.

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