Rippit, Rippit Good, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Frog Pond.

I switched over my wardrobe from winter to summer (which mostly involves putting away the shorts and pulling out the sweaters - most of it stays the same), and finally had to deal with the problem of my sweaters.

You see, I have about a half dozen handknit sweaters which are... too big. Not too big by a little, but too big by a lot. I don't want to give them to goodwill, so I had to get up the courage and start a frog pond.



In the frog pond we have:

My very first sweater ever. Made of a very wooly wool I bought at a flea market in Wisconsin.


My Wicked cardigan. Knit out of Cascade 220. This is a pattern I would actually knit up again, and very well may.


The Quincy hat, which is not really a good look for me and cashmere is a horrible thing to waste.


The Amelia cardigan, which I like and put a lot of work into, but now that the arms fit, the body is a bit saggy. Made of Cascade Lana d'Oro.


Frosting. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it's too messy for a gift, and too itchy for my poor sensitive skin. Made of Cascade Cloud 9.


These will join my Bulky Mini-Cardi, which got frogged last week. The Arucania Nature Cotton may get a second life...


Narrowly avoiding the frog pond are my Tangled Yoke Cardigan and my Eris cardigan. I don't think the yarn of either will stand up to frogging. Besides, I love my Tangled Yoke. Eris was never really a success, but it is warm. Both will be okay for curling up in around the house.

Letting go is hard, but there will suddenly be a lot more a lot more yarn in my stash.

Expectations v. Reality

*This post has neither photos nor knitting. But I promise the next one will have both!*

So it turns out that posting my weekly exercise schedule on here was actually really really motivating. Here's what I said I would do last week:

Monday - rest
Tuesday - 45-60 minutes of running, with speedwork
Wednesday - weight training (45 minutes)
Thursday - 4-5 miles easy run
Friday - rest or weight training or bootcamp class
Saturday - long run, 6-8 miles
Sunday - weight training, 30 minutes elliptical

And here's what I actually did:


Monday - Rest! No running or gym anyway.
Tuesday - Ran for 4.62 miles/52 minutes. 1.5 miles to the track, 5x200 with 200 rest, 1.5 miles home or so. I have no idea what I'm doing for speedwork. 58 degrees out!
Wednesday - Did my weight training circuit and had time to follow it up with 28 minutes of elliptical (the "fat burner" program on the AMT, mostly because it's programmed to last 28 minutes) at a fairly moderate intensity.
Thursday - Ran 4 miles/46 minutes. It was 30 degrees out. I couldn't feel my thighs.
Friday - Had kind of intended to get to the gym, but with my rest option instead.
Saturday - Air quality was unhealthy, so my run date was cancelled. I went and did weights/elliptical instead. More intensely than Wednesday. Maybe because I saw my trainer there.
Sunday - Air quality was still unhealthy, so I did 7 miles/76.5 minutes on the elliptical. 30 minutes on a regular elliptical, the rest on the AMT (which has a more "run-y" motion).

And here's what I intend to do this week:


Monday - Rest. Already executing that fairly successfully.
Tuesday -45-60 minutes of running, with hill repeats on the only hill in town.
Wednesday - Weight training (45 minutes)
Thursday - 4-5 miles easy run
Friday - Rest or weight training or bootcamp class
Saturday - Long run, 8-10 miles
Sunday - Weight training, 30 minutes elliptical

I realize this is a bit dull. I'll try to think of ways to liven it up in the future.

Sunday Set Up

First things first! An FO. A pair of basic stockinette "movie theatre socks." So called because I knit this kind of sock during movies because I don't have to look at it (I don't do the heels, toes, or ribbing at movies, though).  I had a couple partial balls of this yarn (maybe a Regia?) and went for it. I had to cut the ribbing of the second sock a couple rounds short and use a little bit of a different sock yarn for half the bind off. Nothing remarkable - solidly useful socks. I think, though, that I might start doing afterthought heels for this kind of sock, so the patterning doesn't get quite so wonky.



I'm working on a Tiong Bahru, which is a gorgeous pattern. Unfortunately, I repeatedly miscounted my stitches and ended up 15 short on the first pattern lace row. My trouble? The counts given don't include the border stitches, which I was counting. Sigh. I'm hoping to get back to where I was by next week and I will show you my process for ripping back 3000 stitches when you didn't put in a lifeline...

I also want to start knitting a sweater out of some bulky yarn I have. I bought the kit for the Gallatin sweater a while ago, but find I don't care for the sweater as much as I did a year ago.

I'd planned to do the owl pattern in the grey colorway.

 I have about 1000 yards of the main color, which ought to be enough for a sweater. Plus 500 yards of each of the coordinating colors. But I don't know what pattern to knit - I would be very glad to take suggestions.

Switching modes now, from knitting to fitness stuff. I met with my trainer on Wednesday, and she gave me a new workout routine which is pretty intense. I've had about a month and a half of sort of fumbling as far as fitness and training is concerned (vacation directly into 3-4 weeks of insanity at work (pretty much have maxed out my accumulation of comp-time)), so a reset was sorely needed. And a little accountability never hurts. So this is my plan for the week:

Monday - rest
Tuesday - 45-60 minutes of running, with speedwork
Wednesday - weight training (45 minutes)
Thursday - 4-5 miles easy run
Friday - rest or weight training or bootcamp class
Saturday - long run, 6-8 miles
Sunday - weight training, 30 minutes elliptical

I have goals, so sticking to that plan, and also to a reasonable eating plan, will help me reach them. Not to mention, this weights routine will help me get stronger. I like being able to impress people with my recently developed ability to lift heavy things. Onward!

FO super post!

I've been busy!  And lazy! Let's just cut to the photos of knitted things, okay?

Corrina Ferguson's Berlioz



A super cute shawlette knit out of Shalimar Yarns Breathless. Like the pattern, like the yarn, like the results!

Ribbelmuster Socks


These got a blue ribbon at the fair!  Knit of Handmaiden Casbah Sock (luscious). I love swirly sock patterns.

Corrina Ferguson's Minerva's Tower socks



Knit from Madelinetosh Tosh Sock. A purple approaching black. I love these socks. They look super complicated, but the pattern is easy to remember. But I would suggest using a bobby pin to help with the cables.

Cecily Glowik MacDonald's Goodale cardigan




Knit from Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, I made a couple small changes to the pattern. First, I added a few inches to the body. Second, I added elbow length sleeves. I love how wearable this cardigan turned out.  Also, I adore pockets.

BONUS!  County Fair Pictures!




The aforementioned Ribbelmuster socks with their blue ribbon. My Acer Cardigan with its blue ribbon (despite not having a top button or having been well blocked (had to bring them to the fair three days earlier than I thought I had to...)). And my Evenstar shawl with its blue ribbon and Superintendent's Choice rosette. Very exciting.

And that's the knitting that's fit to share. Onward, ho!

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.