Aren't I supposed to LOSE weight on a diet??

Ah, the lovely Monday morning weigh-in. Up a pound from last week's official weight. I didn't post the numbers, but in an effort to hold some sort of threat over my own head when the Twinkies attack, here goes.

Last Monday, 161 weight, 41.5 bust, 34.5 waist, 39 abdomen (oh yea, I'm such the apple), 41 hips, 7 wrist. All measurements are in inches, excluding the weight, of course.

This Monday, 162 weight, 41.5 bust, 34.5 waist, 38.5 abdomen, 40 hips, 6.5 wrist.

Shame as a weight loss tool. Plus, no Weight Watcher fees to pay for the public humiliation.

Considering that PMS, with its aggressive water hoarding, bloat, and general ill temper, has happened between this Monday and last... I suppose I should be grateful that weight is up only one point while bust and waist are holding steady. Bellies sustained a loss of .5 inch while hip experienced a dip of an entire inch. The expected numbers for this period were a weight gain of 5 lbs with bellies expanding beyond scary proportions. The softer increase has led to less pessimism overall. Next week's market is expected to make a serious drop.

I'd slipped into South Beach's phase two in the tortilla and pasta department, with a brief and debached visit into refined pastaville over the weekend. Blame the PMS again. I go carb-crazy, nothing's safe. But! And it's a BIG but(t), no sugar was eaten. Not a grain. Good for me!

So what if I was shooting up honey and freebasing corn syrup. That's not sugar, right?? Just kidding. I stayed away from those, too.

Enough of that. Any more emotion over my minimal/lack of progress and I'll have to use that elephant tranquilizer gun on myself.

Saturday, I come up with the idea of designing a lovely shawl for my beloved Mom. Lorna's Laces Tuscany, of course. It being Tuscany, I wanted a leaf/vine/grapey motif. So I sat down with my chart paper and drew. Then swatched. Redrew and reswatched. Did this a few times more until people around here wailed for food. Took a break to serve up some slop, then ate while looking at eraser shavings. Hmmm. This designing thing is a bit trickier than I'd thought. Gave up finally on the wonderful twisty vine pattern I'd tried to force the pattern into and started researching other lace stitches. Sigh.

Then, this morning, while looking at About.com's knitting section's free patterns, there it was. On elann.com, a lovely shawl in sportweight. (not as thin as lace, but still pretty thin) Hmmmm, looks good, so I scroll down and see the handscribbled stitch pattern. Instantly, because I'd spent at least ten hours trying to make the thing work, I see that it's the viney stitch I'd wanted to repeat throughout the shawl. Officially, it's called Travelling Vine. The pattern calls for sport weight and ends up being pretty large. 80 inches across. Mom's "only" 5'7", so I could cut the size down by a foot and it would still be big enough.

The red scarf is almost done. Hubby's Jeep's heater needs work, so I'm hoping to finish it up today or tomorrow. Although I want to start something new, I'd rather complete the started things laying around. Fry's Nordic mittens and the fair isle sweater being the ones. I'm dying to start Mom's shaw, make some baby booties for fun, knit up the Peruvian Highland Wool into sweaters, and start some new Jaywalker socks.