September 2006 Archives

Is it fall yet where you live?  This week, in Springfield, MO, it has DEFINITELY been fall.  40s in the early morning, 70s during the day... perfect, perfect weather for running. 

Another great thing that happened this week is that my training partner finished her last business trip for a while and is back in town.  I have so much more motivation to go running when I know she's waiting for me.  We ran three mornings this week, which I think is pretty good considering I also went to Minneapolis! 

This Saturday we're going to start the build-up to the half-marathon by running 6 miles.  We are going to have to make some pretty big jumps in mileage between now and our race in mid-November, but I think it's doable.  We both have a half-marathon under our belts so we'll be fine. 

On a completely unrelated note, did anyone hear the interview with Tracy Ullman on NPR this morning?  It was about her new knitting book, how much she loves knitting, etc.   It was a pretty good interview, they managed to get through it without making knitting sound like too strange of an activity.  Tracy Ullman was funny, as expected, but you can tell she really loves knitting, too.  I loved the part where she talks about her nightmare of having her knitting needles taken away at an airport.

"My nightmare is that I'll have done this wonderful piece and they'll say to me, 'You gotta take it off the needles ma'am!'" she says. "No! Please don't make me. 'You gotta pull it off the needles! You can't take that on board.' Can you imagine what a horrible thought? Please not my needles!"

The funniest part to me is that the NPR interviewer was probably looking at her like, "Tracy, you cannot be serious.  It's just knitting needles."  But Tracy was totally serious.   

There's also a link to a free knitted apron pattern on the NPR website. 

Ten knitterly things you may not know about me:

1.  I've never knit anything with mohair.

2.  I don't like big needles - but size 0's still seem way too small.  (Size 1s - no problem!)  

3.  I became a yarn snob astonishingly fast after learning to knit.  The internet can be a dangerous thing!  (But you already knew that.)

4.   I really like to seam up sweaters.  (I think because it means I'm almost done, but I also jsut really like mattress stitch!)

5.  I have a lot of finished projects that I never wear. But I'm getting better at picking out patterns that will look good on me. 

6.  I rarely knit more than three projects at time, but I absolutely MUST have more than one.  I get way too bored!

7.  I love teaching people to knit, but none of my students have become obssessive knitters.  (Much to my dismay!) 

8.  Sometimes I wish I had to commute to work, so I could have an excuse to knit on the train or in a carpool.  

9.   I have no desire to learn to knit intarsia or entrelac.

10.  I am really good at fixing knitting mistakes. 

It was really hard to come up with these - you should try it! 

Actually, there are three! Last week, I was getting close to hitting 1000 comments, so I held a little contest - promising the 990th, 1000th, and 1010th commenters the chance to choose ANY skein of yarn from my sock yarn stash.

The first winner was Brianne, who lives right here in the Springfield area. Last weekend I went to her house for a little knitting (and balll winding!) fun, so she got to choose her prize in person. Didn't she do good? She picked the Tess baby/sock yarn I got at MS&W this summer.

Commenter 1000 is .... Lolly! I'm so glad she won, I got to meet Lolly this May when I went to Washington DC on vacation. She was a wonderful tour guide around the city, and even helped me navigate through my very first fiber festival!

Commenter 1010 is .... Julie from Jujuknits! She was my spoiler in SP7, so it's nice to be able to send her something nice after all the wonderful stuff she sent me!

Lolly and Julie can clck here to peruse the stash up close and personal and choose their prize.

I just got back from a 1 day business trip to Minneapolis.

Good news: plane time=knitting time.

Bad news: lost luggage=thank goodness I have a cousin in Minneapolis who's a lawyer in Minneapolis I can borrow a suit and shoes from so I don't look ridiculous/disheveled for my deposition.

My bag did finally arrive about 2 minutes before I was getting ready to leave my hotel to go downtown for my depo, but needless to say, I was feeling a little flustered by the whole situation when I got there. Luckily I calmed down and tried to ignore the fact that I had no makeup and no hair products. Maybe it helped me intimidate the witness? =)

Eek. Well, the good news is, they changed the rules THE DAY AFTER my flight so hopefully we can all go back to carrying on our bags for short trips like that one. Whew!

Are you already scheming your Socktoberfest plans? I know I am. There's a flickr group to join if you need inspiration, but I have way more ideas than I will have time. Just for my own reference, here are some of the things I would like to do during Socktoberfest:

- Knit a pair of knee socks
- Knit a pair of socks to give away as a Christmas gift.
- Learn new sock techniques - specifically toe-up, short row toe & heel, and new cast-ons and bind-offs.
- Go to an Oktoberfest celebration (trip to Hermann, MO, anyone?)
- Knit another Nancy Bush sock pattern
- Knit some baby socks for my friend Amy's soon-to-be-born baby, preferably out of the leftover Tiger Stripe sock yarn. (Does anyone have a pattern for baby socks in sock-weight yarn?)

Photo credit to bpdphotos via flickr.

Last week I was whining that I’d lost my motivation for training. This week, I got my mojo back – sort of. I did actually work out this week, and I also discovered a few things.
1. I really like to train with a partner. Preferably someone I know well enough to ask to get up and run with me at 6am, but not so well that they won’t tease me relentlessly if I call and cancel at 5:55 so I can crawl back into bed.
2. Getting up when its still dark is hard. I know I can do it but I haven’t convinced my 6am self of that yet.
3. Running on a treadmill all the time sucks, but it does allow me to catch up on ridiculous episodes of Making the Band that I didn’t even know existed!

Since I was too lazy to drag my butt out of bed before work to exercise, I went to the gym several days this week. It’s probably good for me to mix up my routine a little bit – I noticed the day after I did the elliptical trainer that I was a little sore, which normally never happens when I run. I am planning on doing a longer (5-6 mile) run tomorrow morning. Hopefully the storms will hold off until later and I’ll be able to run outside again!

Photo credit to Read! via flickr.

Compared to many knitbloggers out there, this is an extremely reasonable amount of yarn. However, my husband loves to remind me that this is not the standard I should be measuring myself against - to "normal" people this is a LOT of yarn.

I have to say I agree with him. There's not much in here that I hate, but there's plenty that I will likely never get around to using. I don't like to admit that to myself, but it's true. I enjoy shopping for yarn and I will never be able to keep from shopping long enough to knit up everything I have.

I wish I had time to knit up everything I have for charity or some other good cause, but it's just not going to happen.  I've been knitting steadily for almost 2 years now, and some of this stuff has been hanging around WAY too long. 

 

So, in honor of reaching 1000 comments - which should be happening in the next week or so - I'm going to give the lucky thousandth commenter their pick of my sock yarn stash. (And probably # 990 and #1010, too!)

 
I think this will be one of my contributions to Socktoberfest - sending some sock yarn out into the world to become socks! 

See anything in there you like? 

I am the wost swap hostess ever! My Hand-Dyed Project Spectrum Swap ended over a month ago, and I never showed you the yarn I received from Maylin! Here it is in many lovely neutral shades. She also sent me a package stuffed full of other wonderful goodies: cookies, tea, a silk scarf, and some incense! She puts me to shame!

Actually, I've been getting spoiled a lot lately. I found some cheap Cascade Fixation in a color KnitPastis had been looking for, so I sent it to her and look what I get in return!

 

Getting presents from her certainly wasn't my goal but I can't say that it bothers me!

I added all my new yarns to my yarn bin. It's getting a bit ridiculous. But I love it!  Stay tuned for a picture - I'm trying to catch it in natural light. 

Check 'er out! My journey with the never-ending green yarn is getting closer to the end! (Only two 17" sleeves to go. Yeah, don't remind me!)

I was feeling the need for a little celebration, so I blocked the three completed pieces. I am pretty happy with how they look. Hopefully the stockinette curl will calm down a little.  There is only one tiny area on that whole front and back that had any pooling - can you see it on the left front, even with the armhole decreases?  Really, it's not bad at all.  Matt is still not "convinced" that he likes the color, but I think he might just be razzing me.  Lord knows he better wear this a lot this winter!!!

I had a very relaxing weekend - I went to church on Saturday night so I had ALL DAY on Sunday to relax around the house. I did some laundry, knit, listened to some podcasts, and....

 

Attacked the craft room!

I am not too proud to show you the "before" picture - this is it in all of its junky glory. It doesn't really look much different now, but maybe tomorrow I'll show you a picture of my newly organized yarn stash. I certinaly don't need to go yarn shopping anytime soon!

I hate cleaning with a passion, but having a ncely organized room is so rewarding it ALMOST justifies the work.

To make up for last week's slackitude in the running department, I am going to try to run or work out in some way every day this week.

I'm off to the gym!

It was a bad running week. 

 

No running.  None.  I am such a slacker.  I don’t even have a good excuse!  Well, my running partner is out of town for work, but that really shouldn’t keep me from running.  I am going to run this weekend (maybe twice?) to try to redeem my horrible training week. 

 

The worst thing about skipping my runs is that overall my concern about health/fitness goes down.  When I exercise, I want to eat healthy to keep the good vibes going.  But when I sleep in instead of running, I have a tendency to write off the day and eat food that isn’t good for me.  The day’s already shot, what’s the point of eating healthy?  (Ugh, I really need to quit doing that.)  But really, I just need to get out of bed and RUN! 

 

I’m looking forward to the weekend, for other reasons than getting a fresh start on running.  It will be the first weekend I’ve stayed home for several weeks now, so I’ll get a chance to catch up on housework, laundry, and… knitting!  Hopefully I will have some free time Sunday afternoon to relax, watch trashy reality TV shows, and knit.  It sounds wonderful.  Maybe I’ll have a couple of completed sweater fronts to show you on Monday!   

I keep talking about feel stir-crazy with the knitting these days. I like all my projects but they're all BIG... and LONG.... and GREEN! It was just too much. I wanted to start some knee sock for myself, but BIG... and LONG...

Yeah, that's not good. Luckily, the friend I visited in Columbia last weekend has been wanting me to knit a hat for her husband. She bought some yarn at the yarn shop we visited, and voila!

She gave me some basic ideas - we decided on a "preppy looking" cabled hat, and she picked the color.  I added the gray trim and made the final design decisions.  Normally I don't knit on demand, but this is a really good friend and I can knit hats super fast (compared to everything else I seem to make, that is!)

Do you like my specs?  I've actually had bad eyes for a long time, but I normally wear contacts.  I think the change in weather is bugging my eyes - plus, while knitting this hat I kept feeling like I was getting little wisps of angora in my eyes (and breathing it in, too!) 

Project Details:

Pattern: Just a basic ribbed hat - I stole the cable pattern from the Log Cabin Socks in Handknit Holidays.

Yarn: Elizabeth Lavold Angora, worsted weight, Cherry Red. I love it when someone else buys the yarn! (Also a tiny bit of unknown worsted weight wool in dark gray.)

Needle Size: Size 5, 5 dpns

Skills needed: cast on, changing colors, knit, purl, crossing cables, decreases, knitting in the round, three-needle bind-off for the last few stitches.

Pattern Modifications: I just kinda winged this one. I held it up to another hat that fits well as I knitted, and tried to make them match.

Time to knit: 4 days - don't you just love a quick knit that looks this good?

Final impressions: I'm quite pleased with myself... I love this cable pattern so I'm glad I thought to use it on the hat. I'm a little concerned with how the angora will hold up, but my friend wanted something really soft, so that's what she's getting!

This weekend I took a trip to Columbia, MO - the home of the University of Missouri, where I went to undergrad and law school. I don't get a chance to visit too often, so it was really nice to go back.

The main reason I went was for a bridal shower for my cousin, but I got to stay for a football game and some other fun stuff. Do you mind if I give you a tour of campus?

This is the stadium during the Mizzou-Ole Miss game last Saturday (from my dad's primo parking spot, natch!) Our football team is not usually that great, so everyone is really excited that we seem to be playing well this year.

(Turns out playing defense is helpful!)

 

These are the Columns - this is Mizzou's most recognizable landmark. They are from the original administration building on campus, which was destroyed by a fire many many years ago. There is a large green space on both sides of the columns where students go to play frisbee, sunbathe, and relax on campus.

The rumor at MU is that, on a satellite photo, these columns look like missiles lined up and ready to launch, so Columbia is on constant watch by the Russians and Chinese. Hmmm.... decide for yourself!

 

Last but not least, we have my beautiful law school! It's one of the newer buildings on campus, which is nice since it means we have nicely functional air conditioning and plenty of electrical outlets for laptops and such. It sits beside another green space that mirrors "The Quad" where the columns are located. Lovely for frisbee - not so lovely when you're running late to Secured Transactions at 8am and have to cross it on the circular sidewalks!

After taking the walking tour of campus, my family and I went to Shakespeare's Pizza, for a few slices of the best pizza ever.  This was not a new discovery, since I've been going to Shakespeare's for as long as I can remember.  Check it out if you're ever in mid-Missouri.  But let me warn you, it's definitely not diet food!

 

Last but not least, no weekend trip could be complete without searching out the local yarn shop, right?

I'm proud to report that Columbia has an excellent one - Hillcreek Yarn Shoppe. (Thanks for the tip, Leslie!)  

Actually, I really don't need anymore yarn right now, so I wasn't planning on going. (Gasp!) But luckily, the friend I was staying with in Columbia has asked me to knit a hat for my husband for thsi winter, so...you know... we just had to go yarn shopping!

This works out perfectly - I've been hankering for a small fall project; she's buying some really nice yarn! (With my guidance, of course!) I can knit up a hat in worsted weight in just a few days, so I should have something to show you shortly.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of Columbia!

I promise... I really do still blog about knitting. But forcing myself to post every Friday about running keeps me on track with my training, so you'll just have a endure it for a couple more months.

A few weeks ago I wrote about trying to compile a "Route 66 Mix" to be the soundtrack for my training for the Route 66 Half-Marathon. You guys gave me tons a great ideas of songs to add to my list, so I thought I should share it with you! I may still add a few more songs, but you will get the basic gist. Some of these songs were purchased, some were free downloads so they're a little more obscure. My main requirement for running music is that it has a strong beat. I like all kinds of different music, and this playlist reflects that more than most I've put together.

Ooh La La, Goldfrapp
SOS, Rihanna
Mi Tumbao, Tres Coronas
Closer to You, Brandi Carlile
Easy Love, MSTRKRFT
Love Found Me, DecembeRadio
I Should Get Up, Teddy Thompson
Yo Solo Se Que Solo No Se Nada, Jeremias
Over My Head, The Fray
Girl and the Sea, The Presets
Suzie, Boy Kill Boy
Travelin' Thru, Dolly Parton
It's My Life, Bon Jovi
What You Waiting For?, Gwen Stefani
Mama's Room, Under the Influence of Giants
Light in Your Eyes, Sheryl Crow
Sunshine to the Rain, Miri Ben-Ari
Munich, Editors
Pop Song 89, R.E.M.
The Long Way Around, Dixie Chicks
Wound Up, Office
Surrender, Cheap Trick
Do You Right, Kyle Riabko
Give It Time, Eric Lindell
Bom Bom Bom, Living Things
She's Electric, Oasis
SexyBack, Justin Timberlake featuring Timbaland

My training plan this week pretty much went out the window. I was out of town visiting the in-laws on Monday, so I didn't get around to running against until Wednesday (excuses excuses!) I ran 3 miles on Wed. and Fri. mornings with my friend Emily, who is also training for the race with me. I should run this weekend, but I'm going out of town AGAIN so that might not happen.

The good news is my trip out of town should be really fun! I have a bridal shower for my cousin tonight at a winery in Rocheport, MO, then my family is going to a MIssouri Tigers football game tomorrow, and I get to see a couple of my high school friends for lunch on Sunday. Yippee!

And just in case you're not into running, but you still read this far... here's something fun to do with treadmills!

Photo credit to gori-jp via flickr.

Busy busy busy these days. I’m finding no time to knit between work and various meetings after work. Then when I do turn back to my knitting, every single project seems to be a long green rectangle. I really need to start those knee socks… but the only yarn I have enough of for such long socks is currently undyed. So that means I have to soak it, dye it, dry it, and get to the yarn shop to wind it. (Won’t they love to see me coming to use their winder for 200 grams of sock-weight yarn that I didn’t buy there?!) Hmmm… it might just be easier to buy something new – I noticed the LYS got some solid Lorna’s Laces in for fall.

The weather is starting to turn a little cooler here, although it’s certainly not “fall” yet. It’s been in the mid-80’s during the day and the 50’s at night. Fall is my favorite time of year – I just love the cooler weather, the trees turning beautiful colors, and the crunchy leaves swirling around the lawn.

I’m feeling the need for a quick, “instant gratification” fall project. (knee socks are probably not too good for that!) I know once a reach some kind of “landmark” on the Cambridge Jacket I’ll get a little more excited about knitting it again… I guess I just need to buckle down and work on it. My husband’s birthday is closer every day – gotta meet my deadline!

Yee haw! There is nothing I love more than a list. Well, I take that back. I really love checking things off of lists. Sometimes when I have little tasks at work that I finish quickly, I put them on my to-do list after they're already done, just so I can check them!

What do lists have to do with running? Well, what is the training schedule, other than a 12-week to-do list? I am proud to say that I've been doing pretty well checking things off my "list" so far - here's a rundown of last week:

Saturday: Ran/walked 6 miles
Sunday: Rest day
Monday: Supposed to lift weights... we'll call it another rest day.
Tuesday: Ran 3 miles
Wednesday: My first day of speed work! I did a mile warm-up, then ran 5 repeats of 400m with about 2 minutes rest in between each one. I was supposed to run at "5K Pace," but I haven't run any respectable 5Ks recently so I just ran fast. I think I was averaging between 7-8 mins-per-mile pace. (I have a nifty little GPS device that tell me mileage and pace. Very handy.)
Thursday: Ran 3 miles
Friday: Rest

Not too shabby, eh? I probably won't be able to run this weekend, since I'm going to KC for a wedding and to visit my husband's family.

Enjoy the long weekend - I'll see you Tuesday!

Photo credit to moojieturtle via flickr.