My hands are getting kinked

I've been working on knitting a Harry Potter Hufflepuff house scarf for the last two weeks....on and off. I'm sure if I really dedicated myself to it, it would have been done before now.
It started when I realized Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was coming out on the 15th...My goal was to make a scarf and be able to wear it for the movie when I went. I have yet to go see the movie, thank goodness.
I actually bought double pointed needles at Daiso when I went last, thinking I could use them for just this. Then I started the scarf (in Gryffindor colours), on those. The I realized the needles were waaaaay to long for what I was doing. And if I continued doing it on those needles, I'd have a very wide scarf.
So, instead of waiting to go back to Daiso to see if the shorter circulars they had would be short enough, I went to Michaels and bought the only short needles they had.(really, the only short one! Everything else was really long!) Instead of spending $2, I ended up spending $10. That hurt.
However, I must say, I really love them. I got bamboo ones (the bamboo ones were the only ones short enough.) - and I really like how they knit. The ones I got at Daiso are also bamboo, so it wasn't a surprise, but it did make the $10 a little easier to bear.

I've gotten 6 out of 19 stripes done now. After every two stripes or so my hands start to hurt in the knuckles. Anyone know any good ways to keep your hands from cramping and hurting while knitting for long periods?

Long time no see!

Hey there, sorry for now posting for a good month.
Life gets hectic enough and you forget about things, I guess.

I'm working on the knitting skills (I now know what a purl is!), and I've been making little crochet accessories for people (a headband that won't pinch the temples, for which Deb was very thankful - she finally has a headband that won't hurt her head and won't fall off.) And I'm working on designing a hanging organizer to hand on the wall by the bed, so the cat won't keep knocking our glasses on the floor when she jumps on the side table (bad kitty!).

Speaking of Kitty's, this one has been getting quite self conscious about weight gain over the last few months ("Amy, you're getting fat!").

And, I think partially due to the new D&D group I've joined, I'm going to work on fixing my self image.
Shelly, who is the other female member of the D&D group, is quite the crusader for healthy eating and living - organic food, and watching the calories is where it's at for her.

I found a site with some very good support (and it's free), and some great tools for helping track exercise and food consumption... Myfitnesspal.com

Seems to be quite the useful source.

My main goal this summer is simple: Eat Fresh.

It's going to start with a purge of fast food and candies from my diet.

Rod goes through the drive-through alot for fast food. Instead of stopping him (he teaches martial arts and is thin as a stick...), I will only get salads from McDonalds/Wendy's when I'm with him, instead of bacon cheeseburgers and fries. (Besides, I've heard enough bad things about fries and breast cancer, that it's high time I stop eating them anyways.)

And then, assuming I can afford the change in diet, it's going to be lunches of fresh fruit and vegetables all summer long.

I think it might be a bit late to plant any veggies in the garden for this year, however that will be a goal for next spring. Plant all sort of yummy veggies so that I can save a bit on the grocery bill.

To top it off, I will start talking walks every day, not just to get to the bus stop, and to work.

Instead of nibbling on cookies and chocolates, I'll pick up the yarn and crochet hook/needles, and work on a pile of christmas gifts - since thats my other goal this year - to only give handmade gifts for christmas!

And, my last note of the day - we got an Xbox 360. We got Bioshock, Fable II, and Lego Batman.

I knew Bioshock was going to be a kind of freaky game to begin with.... however, I didn't expect it to freak me out before the action even started. Rod had to convince me to keep moving the character around, after the opening part of the game, simply because it was just that freaky. I guess the game designers know to do their job!

Fable II is amazing! ... Is it childish that I was excited to figure out how to make my character have sex with her husband? ... Probably. I quite like the way the whole system works, and was rather amused to see the bright blue, glowing scars across the characters face after I had gotten her knocked out three or four times. One thing I don't really like is that you can follow a character into their home and they'll kick you out when your welcome is ended, but random npc's will follow you into your home and you can't (apparently) get them to leave without leading them out of the house yourself. Can be a little fustrating when you're surrounded by NPC's who've fallen in love with you, and all you want to do is try and buy some flowers for your spouse.)

Lego Batman is fun, and I quite like that you can play back and forth as heros and villans. I unlocked Batgirl and Nightwing and it gave me the achievment Justice League. I liked that. :D

Anyways, will try to post more often.

Have some new things planned to put up on my shop, so check back for that soon!