4 km/h

Yesterday I went to the gym. I didn't really want to be there because I was very tired, but it is by GP referral, so it is something I really need to do once a week. My exercise plan is 30-40 min of light exercise (really light, I don't even break a sweat).

My normal threadmill speed is 5km/h, which is a brisk walk. I got on the threadmill, fired it up, and started to increase the speed. At 3 km/h, I started to have trouble keeping up. At 4 km/h, I had to stop the machine, because I was worried I was going to fall off. I left the gym (slowly) in tears.
Normally the fatigue just makes me sleepy and a bit slow, but never like this. I was too tired to walk at 4 km/h. It is still burning.

Because I have so much free time...

I have just ordered off Etsy a beginner's spindle kit! It took a while to find a nice one that didn't involve animal hair, although in the end that problem was solved as the seller kindly substituted the original wool by bamboo.

A not insignificant part of the reason I want to learn how to spin, even if just with a spindle, is to improve my skills for the zombie apocalypse. If I can survive the initial chaos, I have the awesome skill of being able to make clothes out of sticks and string, and I want to be able to spin my own yarn as well. All for the zombie apocalypse, baby!

Light conversion

As well as silly comments about my light box at work, several people have approached me to confirm that it is indeed a light box. Some of them, or someone they know, suffer from mild SAD too, and want to know whether it helps, and how it works, so they can look into it.
I doubt I will start a light box trend at work (I don't want to be trendy), but I like that people are willing to accept it, and do something about it!

T is for therapy

Belatedly, T is for therapy

A bit of light therapy

A bit of mental therapy

A bit of relaxation therapy

Autumn makes for difficult pictures

I have spent at least the last 3 or 4 days trying to get a good picture of my woodland shawl, to show off. It's been a failure.
Part of the problem is that, by the time I get home from work, it is already relatively dark. Not night yet, thankfully, but dark enough that I don't get good natural light.
Turning on lights hasn't done a lot of good either. The shawl goes towards darkish, and the light disappears on first contact with the shawl. If I try to play with the camera settings, the yarn, which has a little bit of a natural shine to it, appears to be made exclusively of shiny, and it doesn't quite show how it really looks.

I finally manage to take a decent picture today, by finding a nice rock on my way home from work. Because nothing says knitting obsessed like finishing a row by the side of a road so you can take pictures while the light is right.

Yesterday my chair ate some of the yarn that was attached to my shawl (you can sort-of see the two strands on the left). So well eaten I had to snip it. I was not happy. Then the evening kept piling on crap on my, so I broke out the big weapons: SpindleImp's hand spun silk. It's now wound onto a ball, ready to start Branching Out. I just need to decide whether I want to use 4.5 or 5 mm needles. Also bought some more Rowan Pure Life Organic Cotton so I can make some Veylas. No, I don't have too many projects on the needles, why you ask? :)

On a light-related topic, I have started to take my light box to work. First would be to mention that I have, indeed, bought a proper (although travel) light box, instead of just a craft lamp. I have been taking my box to work this week, after checking on Monday with my co-workers that the light doesn't bother them. I've been getting of the expected silly questions (are you going to get a tan? isn't sunlight enough? -after using it for a morning: so, now you don't have SAD any more?), but overall people have not been bothering me.
Technically, I'm not sure I have SAD or not, but my vitamin D levels go a bit low during the winter, and I have found that the light helps me be less sleepy all the freaking time, so I'm trying to fight everything off with the Power of Electricity!

Look, a shawl detail! I have pictures to show!