Mr. Aitch and I have been enjoying our neighbors again.
We love watching this feathered couple outside our window.
Usually, the female eats from the feeder…
…preparing the meal…
…while the male sits or hops on the ground picking up any seeds she happens to knock off the suet cake.
But sometimes he gets a chance at the feeder, too.
My Fitbit* Flex is a few years old and was a great motivator to get up and walk. (This model is no longer available.)
After I retired (and had a change in some medication – meaning I had to change to a not-so-great insurance plan), I gained 20 pounds. Happy? Not in the least.
Anyway, I’ve been doing these “Workweek Hustle” events with some other Fitbit users.
These have really helped me get out of my favorite knitting chair and move. I only know one of the people in this group but that really didn’t matter. What did matter was that I was motivated again to do something about the extra pounds.
And last week I won! 
Big time won! Personal best week!!
I just need to keep walking to reach my goal of losing ten pounds by July 4th. The only downside to this fabulousness is not much knitting. I haven’t figured out how to walk and knit at the same time without doing any damage to the knitting or myself.
*Not a paid product review. Just my story and my own personally purchased Fitbit.
I forgot to post this last week but I don’t think it’s ever too late to talk about food.
Yummy food like these Carrot Cake cupcakes with tiny icing carrots that I made for Easter.
I’m happy to share the recipe. Just ask.
April showers bring May flowers so the true colors are not quite shown in the photos below due to the snowy/rainy and cloudy days we’re experiencing this week.
Finished the body and began one sleeve.
I need to find my bamboo double-pointed needles as these metal ones are very slippery and the stitches fall off the ends. Of course, I could use more than four needles with fewer stitches on the needles.
Picot hem – though I did not cut the green yarn yet. Just in case I don’t like it, I can rip it out and try something else without worrying about having too much or too little yarn to work with. I really hope blocking will keep the bottom edge from curling. If not, I’ll need to come up with another plan.
Cable cast-on two stitches and bind off five. Place the last bind off stitch back on the left needle, cable cast-on two stitches and repeat to the end of the row. Not hard but it uses more yarn.
If you have been following me for some time, you know I don’t like to sew seams. However, seams do add structure. So I made fake seams by doing a reverse stockinette stitch at the center underarm point all the way down to the hem.
It looks like a seam and will (hopefully) keep the sweater from twisting out of shape. Have you ever used that technique? More importantly – does it work?
Knitting In Flashes 