Okay, so part of this Secret Pal thing is that I have to fill out this questionnaire. That way my person knows what I like! Here we go:

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I like anything natural, basically. Wool, cotton, alpaca, etc. I’m not a big fan of novelty wools or things that are excessively fluffy (like angora). I tend to prefer the 8-10 ply thicknesses, mostly (though I do go finer for socks).2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
Uch. I’ve got one old needle roll from the Snook’s grandma that has most of my straight needles in it. Other than that, I have a plastic storage tub that sits under my couch. Inside I’ve got all my circs rubber-banded together based on length. My stitch holders and markers and stuff are all tossed together in a Ziploc bag. It’s a mess!

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I’ve been knitting for nearly five years now. I moved to Australia at the end of 2001 and I had to wait several months for my visa to be approved before I could get a job. So I got into crafting heavily. I made a couple patchwork quilts and did a few cross stitch. Then my mother-in-law sent me a kids’ “Learn to Knit” book, some plastic needles, and a ball of wool. I was hooked. I’d probably classify myself as a high-level intermediate.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Yep. My Amazon Wishlist. I also have a knitting wishlist at my shop, but you shouldn’t buy from that because I’ll potentially see your name!

5. What’s your favorite scent?
Not a big fan of patchouli or anything excessively floral. I like vanilla a lot, and I used to have a “berry” candle that I really liked. Mostly clean, fresh scents, like laundry soap or bread baking. I used to love “Aspen for Men,” if anybody knows what that smells like. But I don’t normally wear perfume these days. (Mostly because I don’t really have any!)

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
Not a huge sweet tooth, but you know what I miss most from America? Peanut butter and chocolate stuff. They just don’t really do that combination here. I really miss Little Debbie Nutty Bars and Peanut Butter Bars. Crap that’s horrible for me, basically! (Actually, at the moment I’m trying to break my sugar addiction so any low-carb or Atkins stuff would be appreciated. It’s hard to get here.)

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I’ve done a little bit of everything. You can see the list here. I’m not really interested in spinning, to be honest. Most of my craft endeavours of late have been food/cooking or costume related. And sock monkeys, of course.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I like a bit of everything, but my “Top Rated” playlist in iTunes is mostly pop, alternative, and showtunes. Most frequent artists are REM, Ani Difranco, Dar Williams, They Might Be Giants, etc. I can definitely play mp3s.

9. What’s your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can’t stand?
I like rich, warm colours, like reds and burnt orange. I also really like hot pink. (My hair was pink for a while.) I’m not a big fan of pastels.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
Just one husband (the Snook) and one cat (Dr. Amy Jones).

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
Scarves, hats, and mittens = yes. Ponchos = not on your life. 🙂

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
*sigh* Whatever I’m not knitting at the moment. Actually I guess jumpers (in the round) are probably my favorite. It’s very satisfying to finish a whole, big, warm garment! I also like sock knitting for its portability.

13. What are you knitting right now?
Hooded vest for my little brother, baby blanket for my new nephew, chair cover for me, cardigan for me, socks for whoever.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Definitely!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Circular. I used to prefer bamboo, but lately I’m enjoying Addis and Knit Picks! I really don’t need any needles, though. I’ve got tons! What I really need are stitch markers.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
No, but I definitely want them!

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
I started the baby blanket well over six months ago, so that’s probably the oldest. No, wait. I’ve actually got a cross stitch that I’m doing for my Mom that I haven’t worked on in a year. (And I’ve only worked on for one day total.)

18. What is your favorite holiday?
Halloween! My husband and I have been throwing costume parties for the past four years. We’re always on the lookout for new costume and decorating ideas.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
I’ve got every book that Roald Dahl ever wrote. (I run a website devoted to his work.) I’ve also got a fast-growing collection of daggy knitting patterns of the 70’s and 80’s. (Think oversized intarsia jumpers.) My husband and I have also started collecting groovy mid-20th century kitsch to go in our mythical Tiki Basement someday, stuff like anodized aluminum drinking cups and nudie tapestries.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
No knitting subscriptions, sadly. I’d love to try out some of the fancy sock yarns that you can’t easily get here, like Lorna’s Laces or Koigu. That sea silk stuff sounds amazing too. I’m also somewhat obsessed with the idea of having sock blocking forms.

21. Are there any new techniques you’d like to learn?
At the moment I’m still entranced by cables and fairisle. I’ve steeked a few things and I’m interested in exploring its possibilities, but information and books are hard to find.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Yes! I love handknitted socks. I wear a women’s size 9 1/2, and I have fairly narrow feet. That equates to a foot length of about 10.5″ or 27cm.

23. When is your birthday?
Beware the Ides of March! (The 15th, that is.)

Hot Dog Loaf. Disgusting… but I’d eat that. Makes me wish I was still doing Atkins! (Link courtesy of Bex, who almost certainly expected more revulsion than this.)

DietBlog: I know I shouldn’t base my whole emotional state on the outcome of my Weight Watchers meetings, but still whenever I see a “minus” written next to my name, it’s like I’ve just taken a swig of Felix Felicis. The sun is shining on me and I can do no wrong. I’ve bounced back from my tiny gain two weeks ago – I missed last week due to sickness – to register another kilo loss. This brings me down to eighty-seven kilos. People, this is as low as I ever got on the Atkins diet, and thus is the smallest I’ve been since college. That’s NUTS. My next mini-goal is eighty-five, for which I’ve promised myself a reward of a new pair of Crocs and some new pants (since all the pairs I own now are falling off my arse).

DietBlog: There’s nothing that takes your mind off bad shit as well as two hours of learning something new and difficult. I had my trainee session as the Weight Watcher recorder tonight and I think I did pretty well. It’s all a bit bewildering. (I’ve never done any accounting before, and most of the stuff at the shop is computerized.) What makes it harder is that we’re changing leaders at the same time, so next Tuesday it’ll be the rookie team of Kris and Chris trying to figure stuff out together. In terms of my personal progress, I climbed back on the wagon this week with a 1.4 kilo loss! I am now officially at my lowest weight in recent memory, equal to my lowest weight ever on Atkins. So that’s pretty good, huh?

Good Food Show 2005
Good grief. What a day. The Snook and I were excited to see that the Food & Wine Show had moved to Darling Harbour this year, as that’s pretty much within walking distance of our place. (It used to be in Homebush and the long train trip was a source of hesitation.) We made it down there about 3:00 today and figured three hours were more than enough to get through. We were wrong. We found ourselves amongst huge crowds, shuffling down long aisles full of bogans treating the show as an all-you-can-drink buffet. Once you got past that, though, it was pretty good! We ran into Steph and Eva fairly early and waved a greeting as we were swept past. Our first major purchase was a tagine from Spice Bazaar (that’s the red conical ceramic dish). The booth owners were really nice and we got a packet of Moroccan spice to go with it. The Snook’s already planning a recipe for tomorrow! We also bought some nice olive oil and verjus (which we tried for the first time). I also ate my very first pickled onion, which wasn’t that bad! What else…? Oh, we picked up some gyoza molds for two bucks, and I grabbed some free Atkins stuff (which finally seems to be breaking into the market here). I pretty much blew my Points for the day, grazing on everything from cheese, laksa, Jelly Bellies, more cheese, dips, olive oils, mustards, and jerkies. Oh, and more cheese. We also picked up some tasting glasses and began sampling the wines on offer. YUM. The only misstep was a truly wretched Rioja, but other than that everything was really good. We came across the booth for the Wine Society and ended up chatting with the nice attendant for a good fifteen minutes. By the time we staggered off, we’d signed up and been given our complimentary Riedel glasses. Time was running short so we hurried off to the beer area… where the Snook promptly discovered the Australian Beer Club. We joined that one too. We never even made it down the last aisle before they kicked us out! What a day…

DietBlog: Tuesday night I officially transferred to the Glebe Weight Watchers group, who I’ve visited a couple times before and who impressed me with their energy and friendliness. They did not disappoint! When Megan the leader mentioned that I was joining them permanently, everyone was like, “Great! Welcome aboard!” and I heard one person actually say, “Oh good, I was hoping you would…” How nice is that? I was yet again dreading the weigh-in though, as I’d felt really sluggish and fat all day long. To my eternal surprise, I’d lost another half a kilogram (a little more than a pound)! I will not give the virus credit this week though; I’m 99.5% over it and I’ve been making an effort to get back into the program properly. I tracked my Points and even walked to work a couple days, so this is the first one is ages that I felt like I really earned. (It also puts me firmly on the other side of the “10% loss” line, so I don’t feel like last week was such a fudge.) My body seems to be settling in to the pound-a-week rate, and I’ll be happy if I stay there for the rest of the time. I should reach my next big mental milestone in a week or two: the lowest I weighed while on the Atkins plan. (I’m actually probably already past it, given the difference between the WW fancy scales and my crappy ones at home, but I still have that number in my head and I going past it will be HUGE.) Oh, and I went to yoga for the first time in, like, six weeks last night. It felt great at the time, but I’m hurting today. Hillary the teacher was like, “Wow, Kris, you didn’t seem to lose any flexibility with the time off!” And I was like, “That’s because I lost ten kilos. My belly doesn’t get in the way so much now!”

DietBlog: So, I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting tonight. Needless to say, I was a little apprehensive. I kept wondering when we were going to drink the Magic Kool-Aid. The room was full of boxes of WW-branded products and books and videos, but thankfully they didn’t seem to really “push” any of that too hard. I filled out my forms and paid my joining fee, and then I got to step on the dreaded scales. Ouch. I’ve officially got – and I’m just gonna say this – twenty kilos to lose. (I’m not gonna do the conversion for you Americans. My embarrassment does have its limits.) What really pisses me off is that a year ago I was within seven kilos of my goal, and now I’ve got to do it all over again… and this time make it stick. Anyway, back to the meeting. A lot of folks just seemed to check-in, get weighed, and bolt, but a half dozen of us stuck around for the meeting proper. Our leader is an older lady named Emily who was really, really encouraging. She even showed us her “before” photo! And get this – I wasn’t even the chubbiest girl there. (I know it’s shallow, but that was a total relief.) We talked about what our goals are and what sort of concrete changes we can make to achieve them. A couple of the attendees were “lifetime members,” i.e. people who’d achieved their goal weights and were maintaining it. (I felt much more charitable to them after that revelation, as I’d been sitting there wondering why all the skinny beeyotches had come to torment me.) It sounds cheesy, but they really were inspiring and they had some good tips about how to get started. Emily even handed out a couple gold star stickers to people with really good suggestions. I really wanted to think it was lame, but deep, deep down in my heart of hearts, I admit that I desperately want a gold star sticker of my very own. So lame or not, the encouragement is working! Afterwards I headed to the store to stock up on supplies. The hardest part right now is re-hardwiring my brain for shopping. Most of the things we were used to buying on Atkins are now verboten, and lots of stuff that was previously off limits – Potatoes! Honest to Christ, potatoes! – are back on the list. I mostly feel bad because we’re going to be cutting out a lot of the things that the Snook really enjoys: fat meat, fat milk, fat cheese. We’ve arrived at a compromise though, where he can have whatever he wants for lunch as long as he does the low-fat dinner with me. Tonight I made us some pizzas on Lebanese bread (from the Week 1 guidebook). Pretty good! I added up my daily points and I was just under my daily quota. It’ll be even better this week once I implement my first concrete lifestyle change: walking to work every day. Wish me luck!

Okay, straight up y’all: Have any of you ever been to Weight Watchers? Stop giggling. I had a minor reality check last week when I stepped on the scales and confirmed that yes, I’ve gained back half the weight I lost during our Atkins phase. HALF. And the sad, sad truth of it is that I know exactly why: I don’t go to the gym anymore and I’ve been on a six month carb bender. The gym situation happened gradually; I started my new job and I was so tired from standing all day that I rarely went. Eventually my membership expired and I just kinda shrugged, “Whatev.” We’ve tried some various things – swimming in the morning, walking, etc. – but I’m just not a morning person. So I need to do something in the evenings, and I’m JUST NOT MOTIVATED. At all. And then the junk food situation… That’s all my fault. Well, and the Snook’s. We enable each other. We enjoy food too much. We’re irresponsible. We tried to go back on the low-carb… but pancakes. And fresh bread. We can’t push them away again. So what’s a girl to do? It turns out that there are several WW meetings in the city within thirty seconds’ walk of the shop, so I’m considering it. I just don’t know. Is it a scam? Will it be cheesy? Will it actually work?

Anyone? Bueller, Bueller…?

Mmm. Dr. Atkins’s Maple Chicken Strips are officially delish!

Mortification.

Woman: “Wow, it’s really busy in here.”
Me: “Yeah, I’m still adjusting to running around on my feet all day!”
Her: “Sure, and especially since you have a bun in the oven…”
Me (after thinking about this for five seconds): “WHAT? I’m not pregnant!“
Her: “Oh my God. I’m so sorry. You just looked like you had a little belly there…”
Me: “It’s just this stupid denim apron! Everyone else’s is custom-made but I don’t have one yet so I have to wear this stupid one that pooches out in the front!”
Her bratty son: “Way to go, Mom.”

So yeah. I’m off the detox and back onto the Atkins induction, big time. I’m strangely ambivalent about the end result of the detox. It was rough avoiding meat, dairy, and caffeine for two weeks, but I didn’t feel fundamentally much different afterwards. I didn’t lose much weight at all. (Granted, I only went to the gym, like, once, but I was running my butt off at the new job.) It certainly “cleaned my intestines” if you know what I mean (and I think you do), but I didn’t pass any twenty year old marbles or anything. It was basically just two weeks of low-grade diarrhea. I think I’ve settled the question in my own mind about whether they’re effective or not. I have to admit that it was kinda fun being a fake vegetarian, though. I actually had to send back a dish at a Korean restaurant when it came with seafood on it. I was like, “I’m sorry; I can’t eat this. I’m vegetarian.” And they were like, “Ohhh! I’m so sorry!” People suddenly started thinking I had ideals and principles and stuff. I almost felt like I could have kept it up if I had any political or moral leanings that way, but… Nah. Hamburgers are still too good.

But anyway, yeah, back to the Atkins. I can’t believe that woman. That is the first time anyone has ever said that to me! Maybe I need to go all Mary-Kate and stop eating altogether.