2017 Temperature Afghan

Late in 2016 I heard about something called a "Temperature Afghan" -- where you choose a spectrum of yarn, assign each color to a temperature range, and then stitch one line per day, the color being determined by the high temperature. It seemed like a ridiculous, grandiose project -- and yet one that was "do-able" because, hey, what's one row of crochet per day?

I didn't always get to my rows -- in fact, due in part to our trip to Africa, at one point I was EIGHTY-FIVE days behind. But in the end, I finished the crocheting right on January 1 -- so as to capture an accurate temperature for December 31, of course!

But first, I had to get started. 

I knew I wanted to make my afghan in greyscale -- I love the rainbow effects other people, including my friend Suz, crocheted, but for me I knew it had to be grey. I wanted the shifts to be subtle, which meant I wanted 15 shades from white to black. But would I be able to find them?

I went to Jo-Ann in mid November and walked around and around in the yarn section, grabbing skeins of every black, grey, and white yarn I could find in "worsted weight / 4" and throwing them into my cart. 

With a lot of trial and error, some trips to the front of the store to compare colors in daylight, and some "well, it will have to do" attitude adjustments, I came up with 15 shades. 

I wasn't 100% happy, but I was probably 95% happy with my choices and spectrum. I purchased one skein of each color, and was lucky that I was able to buy additional skeins as I needed during the year, even if I needed to go to a JoAnn that was farther away.

I got home and made a plan / yarn chart.

Just seeing how the yarn was laid out made me happy. It still does. It was a real challenge to wait until January to get started. So I let myself stitch two foundation rows in black, just to give myself a little taste. 

I had decided to do a very simple pattern -- just HDCs across, with the occasional "spike" down 2 rows to add some extra interest. Just that little texture really makes the afghan, I think. I think each row was about 250 stitches wide -- wide enough to cover a queen sized bed, with a little bit of overlap on each side. 

Within a the first week I was completely hooked -- pun intended, I suppose. And by the end of January, I knew this was one of the most satisfying craft projects I had ever done. 

I tried to record most "month end" progress, but didn't always quite make it. Here's January's work, as recorded on February 1, 2017:

And here's January and February, as recorded on March 1:

I loved seeing the different colors, and how pretty they looked together. Here's a close-up of March and part of February, as recorded on April 1, 2017:

New high temperatures meant new colors -- and cause for celebration. On April 4 we hit 63 degrees, which meant using "Red Heart Super Saver - Grey Heather" for the first time.

On May 1 I recorded that we were 1/3 of the way done with the year ... and that the afghan was already 33 1/3" long. #gonnaneedabiggerbed was born.

And a couple of days later we topped 70 -- the warmest day of the year so far -- so I recorded this to celebrate using "Red Heart Soft - Light Grey Heather" on May 3.

On June 1 I showed some of May -- and the "warming trend with some cold days thrown in". January is peeking through behind. Not really sure why I showed the back, buuuut.

June 25 we had a little "hot snap", hitting 93 degrees, and triggering my first use of "Baby Steps - Elephant". Oddly enough, that was the hottest day all year, and we only hit 90 or above three more.

I was a few days behind, but recorded the January - June results. I spread the blanket out and Bubble -- our great big Maine Coon mutt cat -- immediately colonized it to provide a sense of scale.

July didn't have a lot of temperature changes -- I only used three shades the entire month. But when I put it on our bed this time, it's clear how long it's getting. With smaller cat, Squeek, for scale (and our pillows clearly visible...)

Our trip meant I didn't work on the afghan for a few months -- as I said above, at one point I was 84 days behind. But on December 4, I had wrapped up November. Lots of colder days here.

I had given up trying to capture the blanket spread out, so borrowed an idea from Suz and made a very lumpy jelly roll.

Then, finally, I finished the stitching. And with a couple of evenings spent weaving in the ends and stitching a few rows of black border, it was complete. And massive.

I cannot say enough how much I loved this project. I had given myself all of January to wrap up the finishing, but ended up completing my 2017 temperature afghan on January 6, 2018.

One downside -- and I suspect anyone who has done this sort of project has had the same issue -- is that I have a TON of leftover yarn:

That said, I have an idea of how to use it up -- but that's for later.

Finishing the afghan was the one of my #101in1001 projects, and the first I completed. A huge huge win.

Would I make another one? Probably not -- there are only so many blankets I need! But I loved making this and can totally recommend this sort of project to anyone.

Bag of potential: reclaiming my leather satchel

When I was a starving graduate student, I used to read the East Bay Express religiously. It was a small, independent, free paper -- like the Stranger here in Seattle. It even had the "Savage Love" column … and introduced me to Rob Brezsny's "Free Will Astrology".

I kept seeing a small display ad for a handmade leather bookbag for $79, with a slightly larger size for $99. I decided that, as a grad student, I deserved a good-looking bag. So I called the artist -- I wish I knew who he was! -- and arranged to visit his studio, in an industrial area in Oakland. He showed me the two size options, two options for buckles, and then showed me a bunch of leather hides to choose from. I chose a smooth black leather, paid half the price of the bag, and left. Two weeks later -- probably less -- I went back, paid the remainder, and picked up the bag.

It really was the bag of my dreams -- simple, clean lines, an inner zip pocket, roomy enough for a laptop. I carried it every day for years and years.

Over time the leather got pretty beat up, and the bag faded to a distressed light gray. It was still the PERFECT bag, but I stopped carrying it.

before... 

Recently Wil and I were talking about bags. He covets my black Filson Field Bag -- a weird sample that one doesn't see very often. I sort-of covet his small leather bag he picked up at KOBOSeattle at Higo, but it's not big enough for my purposes. I do love my Filson bag -- it's a beauty -- but it's not quite perfect. My leather bag, however, *is*… almost. It's just not black anymore.

I said, "I wonder if there's leather dye for bags" -- realizing, as I said it, that OF COURSE there is leather dye. We looked it up on Amazon and, sure enough, found Fiebing's Leather Dye. Reviews were good, so I bought the "set" -- the Deglazer (to remove oil, dirt, and old stain), the Leather Dye, and the Resolene (to protect the finish).

Over the weekend I cleared off the table, put down a couple of towels, and opened a bunch of windows … and set to work. I couldn't really tell if the Deglazer was "working" -- but it did seem to take off some of the color… and several of my brain cells. Imagine nail polish remover. Then concentrate it. Then surround yourself with it. We ended up opening the front door to get a cross breeze and clear out the stench.

Then it was time to apply the dye. I'm not sure what I was expecting -- but I do know that since I was working with black I didn't have to worry too much about "matching colors". So I used the funny little sheepskin-tipped applicators and painted it on. The leather -- which was pretty dry -- seemed to really soak up the dye. I used about 2/3 of the bottle on this one bag. It was amazing just how black it got.

first application: 2/3 of the bottle

I had been worried, somehow, about applying too much dye -- with the result that the front flap of the bag was a little streaky. Okay, more than a little streaky in bright light.

okay, yeah, it's quite streaky

So a few days later I just put on another light coat. The result? #nonemoreblack

#nonemoreblack

Then another day later, I applied a coat of Resolene, the clear acrylic finish. I'm not sure what I was expecting -- would it be glossy? One coat seemed enough for most of the bag, but I ended up doing a second coat on the flap.

Even that still left the bag feeling a little … dry. To be fair, the leather had been dried out and distressed, so just a dye-job wasn't going to solve the issue. I considered using something called "Leather Honey" -- which I suspect shouldn't be indiscriminately Googled -- but we tried using Dr. Marten's Wonder Balsam, which we already had at home. And, well, it worked wonders.

Over the next week or so, when I remembered, I would rub in another bit of Wonder Balsam into the bag, and it got softer and shinier each time. I can imagine that I'll need to keep doing this every couple of months, but I'm still amazed at how great my old bag looks.

the result!

The Fiebing's Leather Dye was easy to use, though admittedly just trying to get something black is easier than trying to hit a particular shade. I'm not sure whether just reconditioning the leather would have re-darkened it, but I love how jet black my bag is again.

While this wasn't part of my #101in1001 project, it feels like a corollary to it -- and a huge success.

obligatory before and after collage

100-Day Challenge, Finish Line

Today is the 100th day of the 100-Day Challenge, and I'm happy to say that I finished strong.

Yes, I had a bleak week at the turn of the year, hitting my goal only 3 out of 7 days.

But then I rallied. Ten out of ten days to finish the project. And, yes, this did include some late-night strides around the block to hit my goal. I am absurdly proud of this.

It's difficult to read on this graph that summarizes the 100 days in weekly installments, but the only week that I didn't at least average over 10,000 steps per day was the first week of the year. 

Full disclosure: I can't run an hour nonstop. And I didn't get at least 10,000 steps for 97/100 days. 

However, I did hit my goal for 92 out of 97 days, and I'm super proud of that. And I used a lot of stickers. I hope I can keep it up even outside of the challenge!

Reading Darwin: Voyage of the Beagle

I decided that I'd like to read more of Darwin's work, rather than read *about* Darwin. So as part of the 101in1001 project, I've added several of his books to my reading list. Unsurprisingly, I decided to start with Voyage of the Beagle.

It's been charming to read his narrative -- shocking sometimes, of course, given how much times have changed. But I was surprised to hear him use the phrase "people of color" -- albeit to indicate different non-white races who co-existed in one area with whites. And he often praised the natives -- again, though it was often tinged with a "noble savage" feel.

My favorite section, unsurprisingly, was the chapter on the Galapagos -- so funny to hear him talk about the differences in, say, the finches on the different islands, but not knowing why. Darwin didn't have an "a-ha!" moment while there -- indeed, that wouldn't come for some time -- but it's funny to feel like you're the clever one, rather than Darwin. "It's evolution, you ninny!"

This edition includes two appendices: a copy of the instructions from the Admiralty regarding the voyage, and a lengthy essay by Captain Fitzroy attempting to reconcile the geological record he saw with the biblical account of the flood. The first appendix was remarkable to me largely because the visit to the Galapagos wasn't part of the main mission -- it was listed as a "nice to have if you're in the neighborhood" sort of thing. The second appendix was remarkable since poor Fitzroy is left turning intellectual somersaults to soothe his soul, having found some of Darwin's work "ungodly".

I love reading Victorian scientific works -- science at a time where people didn't have formal training, but used their powers of observation. Lyell's "Principles of Geology" -- written by a man who wanted to be a barrister, but had poor eyesight so turned his focus to geology -- is an excellent example of this. Just thinking about him is making me want to dust off my old "Controversy in Victorian Geology: the Cambrian Silurian Debate". And just re-reading the title of that book by James Secord makes me feel a little nerdy. Happily nerdy, mind you, but nerdy.

Now trying to decide whether to re-read "On the Origin of Species" next, or read Alfred Russel Wallace's independently arrived at paper on natural selection first. I've always had a soft spot for Wallace, you see.

But I'm happy to say that this marks the completion of a #101in1001 project. Off to a good start!

100-Day Challenge, Milestone 3

It really was going so well. Despite back to back Fridays that fell short of my 10,000 steps goal, I was running *and* getting my steps almost all of the time. And even though I had missed 3 days of the "10K Every Day" part, I felt like we were in the home stretch, and I would be able to achieve this crazy thing.

And then my hip started to hurt. That's okay, hell, that was even expected. So, okay, I'll get my steps.

And then I got sick. Not deathly ill or anything -- just a good old-fashioned cold, the likes of which I hadn't had in a couple of years.

I got sick on 12/31, and only got 3334 steps in. I rallied on 1/1, and then missed again on 1/2 … though at least I did get 7810 steps. Another rally on 1/3… and then another miss on 1/4, but again I had a decent day with 8250 steps.

Then another miss, on 1/5, with just 2315 -- the fewest steps I had taken in months. Back up on 1/6 … and then back down on 1/7 (3354! Ouch!).

A combination of feeling ill, rainy cold weather on many of the days, not wanting to go out in said weather on those days, and plain laziness are the culprits.

However … I'm happy to say that I didn't drop the entire challenge just because I went through a bad patch. And even on the days I didn't get my steps, I didn't always just give up completely and resign myself to the couch. I mean, on 1/2 and 1/4 I got within a couple of thousand. So I've got that going for me. Which is nice.

So we've got just over a week until the end of the challenge -- I'll check in again then.

101 things in 1001 days, take 2

Photo by Teddy Kelley on Unsplash

A few years ago Wil and I started a project I'd seen on someone else's blog: 101 things in 1001 days. I'll be honest – I didn't do all that many of the tasks. Being generous – that is, expanding the end date from 5/29/2017 to 11/30/2017 – I completed just 43 out of 101 tasks.

I divided the tasks by theme – unsurprisingly, some themes were more successful than others. "Culture Vulture" was a rousing success, with 4/5 tasks completed. "Blogginess" and "Craftiness" were more mediocre, with 8/17 and 10/18 respectively. And "Fitnecessity"? A dismal 2/18. Ouch.

It was so demoralizing that I didn't even write up a summary post back in May.

But recently I've been doing a "100-Day Challenge" my friend Tony turned me on to. And, well, it's been great. I've gotten my steps 57/58 days so far, and kept up my running. So I'm feeling pretty good. Good enough to want to try the 101 things in 1001 days project again, starting on January 1, 2018 and running through September 27, 2020.

I've learned from my previous project: don't schedule a task that would take all 1001 days to complete. There are no recurring monthly tasks – "Cook a new recipe / month" makes it really easy to fail, while  "Cook 10 new recipes" is doable. Some tasks not completed the first time around are included here again. Maybe now I'll get our wills done. Maybe.

I promise to do check-ins on the following dates:

9/8/2018 – 250 days

5/16/2019 – 500 days

1/21/2020 – 750 days

9/27/2020 – the end!

See my updated task list here. And wish me luck, starting on January 1, 2018!

C25K W5R3

Just a very quick post to say that this morning Wil and I went to Green Lake for our run. See, today was Week 5 Run 3 of the NHS Couch to 5K plan ... which meant that we did a huge jump and ran 20 minutes non-stop -- and the previous longest single run was 8 minutes. 

I wanted to go to Green Lake so that I didn't have to think, to plan, to wait for traffic -- I could just trot along on a relatively flat surface. And though it was drizzling turing the first few minutes, it actually cleared up a little as we ran.

We started with the usual 5-minute warmup walk. Then the first 10 minutes of running felt hard -- I was relieved when "Laura" (the podcast host) said we were at halfway through. I felt surprised, however, when she said we were at 15 minutes -- I think I was finally warm and loose at that point.  And then I was happy to hear "just 2 minutes left", and really pleased and more than a little tired when we finished.

Then we did our 5-minute cool down walk, and then extended that a tiny bit so Wil could hit 3 miles on his GPS. Twenty minutes! Nonstop! I'm really pleased to be making progress. 

The 100-Day Challenge

On October 5 my friend Tony Dubose posted a link on his FB timeline. The header? "Imagine How You'll Feel on January 18 (If You Start a 100-Day Challenge on October 10)".

I was intrigued – you know how I love a project. So I clicked through to Bill Murphy Jr.'s article from Inc. magazine and read this pull quote:

There are 100 days between October 10 and January 18. What if you decided to change something big during that time? 

The idea is simple. 100 days is long enough to accomplish something big, but short enough to discourage procrastination. And I have things I want to accomplish!

I decided to focus on one thing – increasing my chances of success by decreasing my tendency to get discouraged when I try to do too much at once. And the thing I have really felt has been missing from my life? Running.

It's weird – when we started running all those years ago, it took me a while to feel like a "Real Runner". But then I embraced it. It became part of who I was. Oddly enough, when I went to work for a running shoe company, I felt LESS like a "Real Runner" – I felt like I wasn't fast enough to be legitimate, a feeling reinforced by some of my colleagues who would say things like "Oprah didn't RUN a marathon… she COMPLETED a marathon. Anyone who takes that long to finish isn't RUNNING." Mind you, Oprah famously ran the 1994 Marine Corps Marathon in 4 hours, 29 minutes … a good hour faster than I've ever run a marathon. It didn't *stop* me from running – hell, I ran a lot of half marathons during my time there – but it definitely made me feel like I wasn't a Real Runner.

And then when I left the running company – when I thought I would be able to re-gain my runner self – I hurt my hip. Not running, amusingly enough – in an overeager attempt to do squats and lunges at boot camp. With the Kilimanjaro climb looming I decided to stop running and just do my PT exercises and walk and hike to train. I didn't want to hurt my hip and risk being able to climb at all.

But now that we're back I really wanted to get back to running – to being more active every day, not just when hiking. So the 100-day challenge is perfect.

I set as my 100-day goal to be able to run for an hour, without stopping, at the end of 100 days. Note that it's not a distance goal -- it's a time goal. As part of the goal, I decided to spend the first weeks following the NHS Couch to 5K program. And then, when that ends after 9 weeks,  and I am running for 30 minutes nonstop, I'll just keep building slowly by adding 2 or 3 minutes of running to each run. I feel good about this goal.

HOWEVER, because I'm being very sensitive to my gimpy, old-lady knee, I wanted to have a backup goal. If I had to stop running because I got hurt, I would at least make sure that I got 10,000 steps per day for 96 out of the 100 days. This was, in many ways, the more ambitious goal: since going back to work I rarely get my steps in. I have become weirdly sedentary. In fact, I looked back and in the weeks leading up to the challenge I only hit my step goals once or twice per week, usually on the weekend. Grim.

Here are my step totals for the month before the challenge, September 10 - October 9:

It doesn't look too bad in the early part of that month ... until one remembers that we were on vacation in Africa until September 21.

Thursday 11/9 was the first milestone day -- 30 days into the challenge. I had set my milestone goals as follows: having completed run 2 of week 5 of the Couch to 5K program, and having hit my steps 29 out of 30 days. I'm super pleased to say that I have done both!

Here are my daily step totals for the first 30 days of the challenge, October 10 - November 9:

Yeah, there's one day where I didn't come close: November 3. But I felt like it was a conscious decision that day not to push it, and I was okay with that.

The challenge has served as extra motivation -- I don't want to slip up; and I want to see how I keep progressing. Compare the week before and the week after the start of the challenge, October 3 - 17:

I've been making sure to get my runs in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, usually running at work, either on the treadmill or braving the roads of Woodinville. And on the weekend I get to run with Wil. And to get my steps in, I've been trying to move more at work, and then we go for walks in the evening. And it's not just because I want to keep earning stickers...

Big stickers = runs; small stickers = hitting my step goal.

There's still a long way to go -- lots of minutes to run, and lots of steps to get. But I still feel motivated and excited to keep going. Okay, maybe it is just stickers...

Zanzibar doors

I wrote about Zanzibar doors back in 2016 ... and I don't think I understood just how prevalent these intricately carved doors are in Stone Town, and how much pleasure I got from seeing them. And to be clear, these doors aren't just on preserved houses, or on museums -- these doors are still used and locked every day.

Doors were traditionally the first part of a new house to be built. And the bigger / the more elaborately carved the door, the greater the wealth and status of the house's owner.

Older doors reflect an Arab influence, with geometric designs. Doors dating from the late 19th century, however, reflect an Indian influence. Many doors are fitted with brass spikes, which may be a modification of the Indian practice of studding doors with iron spikes to fend off the attacks by war elephants. (Apparently, when Marco Polo visited Zanzibar in the 13th century, he wrote that the island had "elephant in plenty". Pity there are none left.)

The remaining doors in Stone Town date primarily from the 18th and 19th centuries and are maintained by the Stone Town Conservation and Development Authority.

Click on the thumbnails below to see larger versions of these images.

...

African Adventures 2017

It has taken me longer to write about our trip than it took us to live it. Maybe because it still feels like three distinct trips. It also surprises me that it all fit in one little Poppin notebook.

And, though I don't think this picture is testament to the fact, the edges of the pages where we were on Kilimanjaro have a distinct dingy brown hue.

It feels like we really did go on three distinct adventures. First and foremost, of course, was our Kilimanjaro climb.

Then our amazing safari in Kenya.

And, finally, our vacation from our vacation in Zanzibar. 

There's a lot to read -- and lots of pretty pictures too. Frankly, I don't expect anyone to get all the way through it. But I'm happy to have recorded it here in this blog.