Button troubles

Buttons are hard. I have trouble picking out buttons and it takes me forever to get around to sewing them on. Like for this vest:


I finished knitting the vest in, like, February, and didn't put buttons on it until June. And didn't do photos until today. This is the Grandfather Vest by Veronik Avery. I knit it from cashmere. Because I could. It's so soft.



The buttons are from my horde of vintage buttons. I love vintage buttons. I think they go together quite nicely and I think I'll get a lot of wear from this vest.

The other buttons which gave me a little headache are these:



Bright yellow little things. Don't let the photo color deceive you, that green is a green apple green. Bright! and Green! and Bright! So there's some contrast there.

Those buttons found their home, just today, on my Safire cardigan. The Safire cardigan is a cropped cardigan which is not entirely my style, but will be okay for certain occasions nonetheless. It's knit from Cascade 220 superwash. I was worried about running out of green, so I used the brown to ease my mind about yardage.



So, that's the recent button troubles. Not troubles really, so much as avoidance of sewing them on. Funny how the odds and ends of finishing can take so much more mental effort than the knitting.

FO: Evenstar Shawl (at last!)

Pattern: The Evenstar Shawl
Yarn: Alpaca with a Twist Fino, Duchess Blue. About 2.5 hanks (1312 yards).
Needles: Size 4 Addi Turbo Lace
Cast on: January 4, 2012
Bound off: April 23, 2012



I've been in love with this pattern since I first saw it. It's been high on my to do list, but I haven't committed to a large lace piece for a while. And I wanted to change that this year. I have a whole list in my Rav queue tagged 2012 of goal projects for the year.



I cast on just after the new year. I was hoping to knit this in about two months, but I've been really overworked at my job, and between work and training for my half marathons, I just wasn't putting in the time on this that I had hoped. So it took closer to five months to finish.



The pattern is very nice. Clearly written and easy to follow. I only made one small modification which is, on the edging, on the WS, to slip the first stitch (the k2tog with the body on the RS) instead of knit it. Felt more secure to me. The finished, blocked shawl, is somewhere around 5 feet in diameter. Blocking it was actually sort of fun since there weren't 300 little peaks to pin out, just 56 (I think).



This yarn, Alpaca with a Twist Fino, is right up there among my favorite yarns to knit with. It's gorgeous. Soft and supple, but not too delicate. Give me a yarn with some silk blended in and I'm generally a pretty happy knitter.



Overall, I recommend this for the knitter looking for a larger project and a little bit of a challenge. Nothing in here that a dedicated beginner couldn't tackle, but you need to be comfortable trying new things and devoting a good chunk of time to this. (The edging alone probably took me over 24 hours to finish...)

Whidbey Island Half Marathon

Hi blog. I guess I'm only coming out to talk about big things. Like the race that I ran last weekend. I have a massive knitting project which is so close to done, but actually hours and hours of knitting away from being done, and will absolutely be shared as well.

I ran the Whidbey Island Half Marathon on Sunday, April 15, 2012. The race is on Whidbey Island, and runs out of Oak Harbor. Whidbey Island is home to the ridiculously scenic Deception Pass and it's iconic bridge. The full marathoners ran over the bridge. Gorgeousness.

 Anyway, Sunday was a great day for a race. Started out about 50 and overcast, clearing and warming slightly during the run. The half had about 1000 runners and was well organized - including pace signs to line up by (something my last race did not feature). There were lots of water stops and plenty of volunteers. So a nicely run race. The course had hills in the first three miles and the last three miles, the rest being pretty flat. The prerace was a little chilly, but I didn't want to wear my sweatshirt as I knew it would end up tied around my waist in about a mile. So I went with gloves and a sleeveless shirt. That strategy worked great. When I took off my gloves, I tucked them inside the band of my SPI belt (which held my gels and mp3 player) which held them secure for the next 11 miles!
 
Out of the starting gate. Feeling good and looking a little silly with the gloves.

 As for my race… It went great! I started out running at a pace that felt easy, but was actually a decent clip for me. I kept up that pace, even up the first set of hills - one of which seemed pretty steep indeed. I just kept running comfortably. Not really passing anyone, just keeping going and eavesdropping on the runners around me. I took a gel around mile 5, because that was the plan. The next couple of miles were awesome - probably a combination of the gel and the stunning scenery - runners stretched out down the straightaway ahead of me, water to my left, the Olympic Mountains in the distance. Man, I wish I had a photo of that. I saw my husband around mile 9, which was great. He snapped some photos of me.

 
Interesting side note - I've worn the same top in my 10K last August, my half last October, and this race. I really like that top.

Shortly after seeing hubby, I headed up the next set of hills. I jogged up the first long hill, walking through the water station and eating another gel (I’d been walking through water stations since about mile 7 - a good break). After that point, I walked up all the hills, running the more or less flats and down hills. The last 2 miles were mostly downhill, which was great! Except I suddenly got this new stabbing pain in my abdomen on my left side a couple of times. I had to either slow to a walk or run with one hand pressing the spot for a while before it went away. Not sure what that was about. Could be a side stitch, but I'm used to side stitches being on the other side near my ribs. In the final half mile I was running out of steam and bargaining with myself. I really really wanted to walk a little bit, but I knew that I could keep going and my internal monologue was all about not stopping and not giving in to the pain. So I kept going and finished strong!

 
Down the finishing chute! Final time: 2:19:45 - That’s a 10 minute PR from my first race six months ago! My next race is in 2 weeks on a flat flat flat course, so I’m hoping to more or less match this time. I wouldn’t mind improving it slightly…
 
Post race with a proper medal, half a banana, and a smile.

Recapping the week

I had a heck of a week. Easily the craziest week I've ever worked. I work for a museum and we were changing over the gallery. One show came down on the 21st, and two more were up by the 28th. Including one that required us to produce all of the text panels. I worked at least 9 hours every day, full tilt.

I did manage to get a little bit of knitting in. A few times I just knit on my plain jane stockinette sock, but once in a while I got up the energy to work on my Evenstar shawl. I don't have a recent photo, so this will have to do.


I'm now on chart three - one round is 560 stitches. Tiny stitches. In Alpaca with a Twist Fino, which is one of my absolutely favorite yarns. Still, it will be a while before this shawl gets finished.

And I started half marathon training this week. Here's what the week ended up looking like:
Monday - 4 miles, speed intervals
Tuesday - full body strength circuit (x3), 17 minutes of cardio
Wednesday - 2 miles running, 2 miles on the AMT (like an elliptical, but better), followed by an hour of power yoga. (Should have been 4 miles running, but I ended up on the corner treadmill at the busiest time - that treadmill had its own climate. The air was completely still and humidity was high. I swear there was condensation on the machine. It was awful.)
Thursday - Rest day (okay, I was actually on my feet all day assembling exhibits, but no additional exercise.)
Friday - 30 minutes recumbent biking, 15 minutes incline walking
Saturday - 6 mile long run. Ran the first three in Yaktrax on snow and ice. But it was outside, which was awesome.
Sunday - Upper body strength (x3), 15 minutes recumbent biking, 34 minutes brisk walking.

Looks like a lot when I write it out like that! Here's the schedule for the upcoming week:

M- 5 miles, hills
T- Strength, 30 min interval cardio
W - 4 miles easy
Th- Strength, 30 min interval cardio
F-Rest
Sa-7 mile long run
Su - Rest

Let's see how it goes!

A lace scarf and the start of training

A couple of weeks before Christmas, I started a Falling Water scarf. I originally meant it to be a Christmas gift, but since it had to go by mail, after about 4 inches, I decided to make a hat to gift instead.

But since I had already knit 4 inches, I figured why not go ahead and finish the rest of the five feet or so I prefer from a scarf. And let's finish it before January so it's not hanging over my head, unfinished. So I did. It's a beautiful lace pattern, but I was bored to near tears knitting it. And since I didn't really have an emotional investment in it, my arbitrary deadline was the only thing that kept me working on it.

It is lovely though.


Yes, I was very lazy blocking it, so it has faux points instead of being straight along the edges. I think it looks nice, and I guess that's what counts.


I knit this scarf using a cashmere yarn from the fine folks at Keystone Art and Craft. The yarn is recycled from sweaters, and it's very very fine, so I held it doubled. The yarn broke once, because I was yanking at a knot. I'm very pleased with how soft and airy this scarf is.

On the running front, tomorrow marks the start of my training cycle for my April 15th half marathon! I've got four miles with speed intervals on the calendar. And, as the car is covered with about a foot of snow, I may be doing this outside, in the dark, in the snow. Should be a heck of an adventure.

My training plan has me running three times a week, strength training twice, and doing cardio cross training two or three times a week (strength and cardio cross are on the same days). In addition, I'm hoping to keep going to my Yoga Fit class once a week (on my easy run day) because I adore how yoga makes me feel. I'm excited to be training again. I love having a goal.

A little bit of knitting

I've had the book Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi for a while now. A couple weeks ago, I asked my husband to pick out something for me to knit. So he picked the tiny Easter bunny, and asked that it be an albino rabbit. Okay. I can do that.


Except that an albino rabbit would have a pink nose... We both think that this tiny rabbit might be the tiniest bit evil and, you know, plotting our demise. Luckily the cat seems to keep the rabbit at bay. Even his tiny fluffy tail.


For myself, I knit a tiny gnome. Love those gnomes. I knit this little guy up in a couple hours of watching this and that on Hulu one morning. Both he and the rabbit are knit out of scraps of sock yarn that I had in the stash.


The gnome mostly lives on the bookshelf. The rest of the world is dangerous. It's quite easy to fall into a box of yarn and lace and never be heard from again.


Or to be suddenly snatched and eaten by a creature many times your size with claws and sharp pointy teeth.


Best to stay in the bookshelf, safe and sound, navigating the great crevasses and chasms of science fiction with a friend.

Happy New Year!

I finished my Christmas knitting. Four hats and a scarf. Not too shabby.

Windschief for my brother


Coronet for my mother-in-law


Escargot for my aunt


Cerus for my brother-in-law


And a pompom hat for my BiL's wife.


After wrapping those up, I made it my goal to finish 2011 with no WIPs on the needles (except for a movie theatre sock, and the sock yarn blanket). I have met that goal! To really super dooper meet it, I need to sew on two buttons, block a lace scarf, block a vest, and block a cardigan. .... We'll see.

I am goal oriented. I have been thinking about goals for 2012 for the past month or so. My main goals seem to be health and fitness oriented.

1. Run 3 half marathons (already registered for 2, and am looking for a third).
2. Continue to get fitter, faster, stronger, and healthier in general.
3. Hike up Mt. Si.
4. Knit more lace. (Especially Evenstar, the Vernal Equinox Shawl, and Andrea's Magic of Spring))
5. Read more consistently.
6. Blog more, all over the place.

I can think of lots of other things I'd like to do next year, but let's keep the list fairly simple.

I'd best get to blocking that lace scarf!