November 2006 Archives

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE

...MAJOR WINTER STORM TO IMPACT EXTREME SOUTHEAST KANSAS AND THE MISSOURI OZARKS...

AN ARCTIC COLD FRONT WILL CONTINUE PRESSING ACROSS THE MISSOURI OZARKS TODAY AND TONIGHT BRINGING MUCH COLDER TEMPERATURES...ALONG
WITH SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. EVENTUALLY THE TEMPERATURE STRUCTURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE WILL BECOME CONDUCIVE FOR THE
DEVELOPMENT OF FREEZING RAIN...SLEET...AND EVENTUALLY HEAVY SNOW.

FREEZING RAIN AND SLEET ARE EXPECTED LATE THIS EVENING INTO THURSDAY MORNING ACROSS SOUTHEAST KANSAS AND WESTERN MISSOURI.
GROUND TEMPERATURES REMAIN WARM...SO ICE ACCUMULATIONS ON THE
GROUND WILL BE SLOWER TO OCCUR. HOWEVER ELEVATED SURFACES...SUCH
AS POWER LINES...TREE BRANCHES AND BRIDGES WILL BE SUSCEPTIBLE TO
SIGNIFICANT ICE ACCUMULATIONS...AND EVENTUALLY THE ICE
ACCUMULATIONS WILL OCCUR ON THE GROUND. TOTAL ICE ACCUMULATIONS
BETWEEN ONE QUARTER AND ONE HALF INCH ARE EXPECTED. THIS WILL
LIKELY RESULT IN DOWNED POWER LINES AND POWER OUTAGES.

THE FREEZING RAIN AND SLEET WILL TURN COMPLETELY TO SNOW BY
THURSDAY MORNING...WITH TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 4 TO 8 INCHES
THOUGH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS ARE EXPECTED NORTHWEST OF INTERSTATE
44. STRONG NORTHWEST WINDS GUSTING TO 35 MPH WILL COMBINE WITH THE
FREEZING RAIN AND SNOW TO MAKE DRIVING HAZARDOUS.

SHARPLY COLDER TEMPERATURES WILL ACCOMPANY THIS STORM WITH WIND
CHILL VALUES IN THE SINGLE DIGITS THURSDAY.

RESIDENTS OF EXTREME SOUTHEAST KANSAS AND THE MISSOURI
OZARKS...INCLUDING THE SPRINGFIELD AREA...ARE URGED TO TAKE THIS
WEATHER SITUATION SERIOUSLY. BEGIN PREPARING FOR THIS WINTER STORM
NOW. AGAIN...BEGINNING TONIGHT...ROAD CONDITIONS WILL QUICKLY
DETERIORATE AND ICE ACCUMULATIONS ARE LIKELY BY THE MORNING COMMUTE.
ADDITIONALLY...SNOW WILL ACCUMULATE ON TOP OF THE ICE THROUGH
TOMORROW.

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW...
SLEET...AND ICE ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO
POSSIBLE. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL HAZARDOUS.

Ummm... that doesn't sound good.  It was 70 degrees when I went to work this morning! 

How exciting... I powered through the last part of the second sock and finished my Christmas knitting! (It's SO much easier when you only have one project - I highly recommend it!)

Project Details:

Pattern: Gentleman's Fancy Socks, Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush

Yarn: Wool2dye4.com's supersock, handdyed by me - brown and overdyed in green.

Needle Size: Size 1, 5 dpns

Skills needed: cast on, knit, purl, knitting in the round, short-row heel decreases.

Pattern Modifications: Changed the gauge for size 1 needles, added the short-row heel, and changed the toe to a star toe (no kitchnering!)

Time to knit: Early October - late November. Not too shabby considering I had several other projects going at the same time!

Final impressions: I think they turned out realy nice - I'm sure my grandpa will like them. I just hope he actually wears them.

I'm not sure what I think about the short row heel - it looks more like a store bought sock, but I'm not sure it fits me as well as the regular heel flap. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I hope the day off gives you lots of time for eating, family, watching football, and KNITTING!

Photo credit to pghjan2 via flickr.

Running a race in a different city is much more than the few hours it takes to run the race.  You've got the traveling, race expo and race packet pick-up, finding a place to stay that's close to the race but not too expensive, getting up early, actually RUNNING, post-race celebration, and the long trip home. 

First up - the drive to Tulsa.  It's only about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Springfield, on a toll road even, so it's a really easy drive. 

Plus, you get to see the world's biggest McDonald's (over I-44 near Vinita, OK). 

When we got into Tulsa, we went immediately to the race expo to pick up our race numbers, timing chips, and race shirts.  The expo was pretty small, but it was the first year for this race so it was to be expected.  Still, Emily and I were on the hunt for matching race gear so we headed to Target to check out their selection.  (Last spring when we ran a race in St. Louis we saw girls with matching shirts and it was really cute.)

We found some matching pink jackets, and then headed over for window shopping and people watching at Utica Square. 

We headed over to my uncle's house for dinner - yes, we "carbo-loaded" with some yummy spaghetti and meatballs!  We watched Seabiscuit for inspiration and went to bed early - race starts at 8am!

Here's our pre-race photo - it's the best we'll look for the rest of this post! 

We got the the start line about 30 minutes before the start of the race.  It was pretty easy to find parking close to the start - another benefit to a new, relatively small race!  I think about 4,000 people participated in the marathon, half marathon, and marathon relay.  

 

 

 

Here we are part-way through the race - either at mile 7 or 9.  My uncle came out and took some pictures of us while we were running, which was very handy. 

We were right on pace at this point - a bit later in the race my knee started hurting (an old injury flaring up - I'm hoping not!) and we were running against the wind so we slowed our pace a bit.  

We made it through the last three miles relatively well and I ignored my knee pain long enough to do my typical sprint to the finish line - I'm a competitor at heart, even when I'm at the back of the pack!

 

Yay!  Here we are after the race, with our finisher's medals!  The after-race food was pretty good - fruit, bagels, cookies, powerade - the usual.  Also, they randomly were passing out hamburgers and chicken wings for a while, but all the hamburgers were gone by the time we got to that part of the line. 

My bagel only tided me over so for long, so after we went back and changed clothes we went to Emily's favorite restaurant EVER - Lanna Thai - for lunch.  It was really good - you can't get great Thai food in Springfield, so I was very happy. 

And that's the end of my race weekend! 

I'll have a full race report for you as soon as I can get some more pictures.  It was my sixth half-marathon, and I really enjoyed the whole weekend, even though my time was not so speedy (2:27).  I had some knee trouble about halfway through the race, so I'm not sure I could have gone much faster, anyway.

With the race out of the way, I've got Thanksgiving to think about!   I'm hosting my husband's family for Thanksgiving this year.  They're all coming to my house Wednesday evening and heading back to Kansas City on Saturday.  I've got a lot of cooking and cleaning to do between do and then.  Matt is smoking the turkey so I only have to worry about side dishes.  Here's my menu so far:

    * Turkey & gravy (yay for the smoker!)

    * Mashed potatoes

    * Zucchini casserole (stuffing)

    * Aunt Edith's sweet potatoes (heavy on the brown sugar, butter, and pecans) 

    * Homemade cranberry sauce

    * Glazed carrots

    * Yeast rolls (Sister Schubert makes WAY better rolls than I ever could - check your freezer section)

    * Pumpkin & pecan pies (Matt's grandma is bringing these - thank goodness) 

    * Some sort of green vegetable (because that will make the whole meal healthier, right?) 

If I can run a half-marathon, then cooking Thanksgiving dinner should be no problem, right?

 

Project Details:

Pattern: Cambridge Jacket from Interweave Knits, Summer 06.

Yarn: Tess superwash worsted, purchased at Maryland Sheep and Wool earlier this year. (This is awesome yarn. If you're ever at a festival where Tess has a booth - BUY SOME! Get some sock yarn, too!)

Needle Size: Size 6 (umm... I was fooled into thinking this would be a super quick knit, because the pattern calls for size 9 needles. Apparently someone at IK knits really tight, because FOUR gauge swatches later, I finally got gauge with size 6s. Not cool.)

Skills needed: cast on, knit, purl, decreases, increases, picking up stitches, seaming, sewing in zipper (yes, I did it myself!), single crochet.

Pattern Modifications: I changed the shoulders to short row shaping and used a three-needle bind-off on the shoulder seams. I also changed the way you increased where the ribbing comes in on the shoulders and back - I like to increase using the "knit through front & back loop" method, which makes a little purl bump on the right side of the work, which is perfect for adding the ribbing.

Time to knit: July 18 - November 5, 2006

Final impressions: Yippee! It's done! And it ACTUALLY FITS. Frickin' amazing. I think the thing I am most proud of on this project is the seaming around the armholes. I actually looked up how to join all the different sections with stitches going in different directions, and it looks really nice.

I am in negotiations with the recipient of this lovely Cambridge Jacket for a photo shoot. In the meantime, here's the best I can do!

Project Details:

Pattern: Cambridge Jacket from Interweave Knits, Summer 06.

Yarn: Tess superwash worsted, purchased at Maryland Sheep and Wool earlier this year. (This is awesome yarn. If you're ever at a festival where Tess has a booth - BUY SOME! Get some sock yarn, too!)

Needle Size: Size 6 (umm... I was fooled into thinking this would be a super quick knit, because the pattern calls for size 9 needles. Apparently someone at IK knits really tight, because FOUR gauge swatches later, I finally got gauge with size 6s. Not cool.)

Skills needed: cast on, knit, purl, decreases, increases, picking up stitches, seaming, sewing in zipper (yes, I did it myself!), single crochet.

Pattern Modifications: I changed the shoulders to short row shaping and used a three-needle bind-off on the shoulder seams. I also changed the way you increased where the ribbing comes in on the shoulders and back - I like to increase using the "knit through front & back loop" method, which makes a little purl bump on the right side of the work, which is perfect for adding the ribbing.

Time to knit: July 18 - November 5, 2006

Final impressions: Yippee! It's done! And it ACTUALLY FITS. Frickin' amazing. I think the thing I am most proud of on this project is the seaming around the armholes. I actually looked up how to join all the different sections with stitches going in different directions, and it looks really nice.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

In completely unrelated news, my half-marathon is this Sunday!

 

I've been quite the slacker this week, because the weather has been crappy and my running partner has had to be at work super early.  But, I think it will be okay.  I've been pretty good about training until now, so I'll just call it a "taper" week. 

Send me some good vibes Sunday morning if you're up early! 

[Cambridge Jacket not pictured.] 

I love to look at my own blog - what was I knitting this time last year?  What were all my finished projects from the month of April?  Yes, I am a dork. 

Anyway, I clicked on the archive category for 2006 finished projects.  Have I really not finished anything since September?  That can't be right....

No, it's not right.  I finished the Cambridge Jacket!  Matt got it for his birthday and he really likes it.  If I do say so myself, it fits great (although it could stand to be a tiny bit shorter, but still!)  I'm still trying to talk him into modeling it for the blog.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Last Friday my running buddy Emily and I trekked south to Silver Dollar City, an old timey theme park just outside Branson, Missouri, for the inaugural Run to the Lights 5K. 

Branson is a popular summer vacation destination for families and seniors, but SDC tries to keep the tourists coming in the winter by covering every square inch of the place in Christmas lights from November-January.  They have Christmas themed shows and you can still ride most of the rides (except the water rides!) if you can stand the cold.  I had never been during the winter until this weekend.  My expectations were pretty low, as I think SDC is generally a pretty cheesy place, but the lights were actually very pretty in an over-the-top kind of way.

We got to SDC about 7:30pm, got checked in, and then rushed to the roller coasters to get in a couple of rides before the race started.  We got to ride two coasters, five rides total.  It was great because the park was basically empty except the runners, so we got to stay on the ride as many times in a row as we wanted until they shut down at 9pm.

I love roller coasters no matter what time of year it is, but it was really cool to see all the lights from way up at the top of the coaster.  "Glorious," as Emily likes to say!  Plus, the people running the rides were dressed up like elves.  Hee hee!

After the rides shut down at 9pm, all the runners and walkers gathered in front of the big Christmas tree for annoucements and entertainment.  My favorite part was the characters from the Christmas parade roaming around the crowd.  They all had lighted costumes, and the gingerbread men looked like giant spacemen from a distance. 

The race itself was just your basic 5K, except half of the race was inside the park, which made it go very quickly because it felt like you were running through a winter wonderland.  The only bad part was the Hill, which anyone who has ever been to SDC will remember - we ran up this monstrous hill inside the park not once, but twice.  I may have been passed by a six year old on my way up the second time!  Oh well, it was about having fun, not running my fastest time ever!

After the race, we got free wassail (that's hot cider in Silver Dollar City-land) and Christmas cookies to tide us over for the 45 min. drive home.  All in all, I think it was probably the most fun 5K I've ever run.

Does anyone remember Ugoff?  I think this was the funniest commercial ever.  Oh wait - I forgot the sponge monkeys!  ('Cause "they got a pepper bar!")

See, I wasn't just telling wild stories - I have been knitting away on my Lizard Ridge squares!

really like this pattern. The designer did a great job of getting the pattern to show off the changes in the Noro colors. I've got a few more colors of Kureyon on order - I think my Norovember goal will be to finish 4 squares. Don't forget, I've got the green socks to finish up, plus the silk shrug for me!

I started teaching knitting at the Boys & Girls Club this week. I had about 6 middle school girls this week. Between me and my sister, we were running like crazy for the whole hour trying to help everyone, answer questions, etc.

So far, I think my main lesson learned has been that metal needles are too slippery for beginners. I know the project coordinator got them because they were the cheapest, but I think I'll donate some bamboo needles. I think half the time was helping the girls put the stitches back on the needles after the needle slipped out.

Another interesting thing is that the younger kids (maybe 8 or 9 year olds) really really wanted to learn. I think we're going to try to expand the program if we get more volunteers and interest stays high.

First - let's give props to our favorite celebrity knitter, Julia Roberts...... because she just signed on to star in a movie called Friday Night Knitting Club! (Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it will be out until 2008, but just think of the possibilities! We could swarm every movie theater in the country and cover it with hand-knitted goodness! People should never be cold in movie theatres again!)

And now for some more local news: Simply Fibers is hosting a Knit-In this Friday from 6-10pm. I won't be able to stay for very long, because I'm going to run a 5K at Silver Dollar City ion Friday with all the Christmas lights. (I know, it's too early for Christmas, but I couldn't pass it up, it sounds like a really cool race.)

The Lizard Ridge squares are coming along nicely! I finished one, and I have almost finished reknitting the one I messed up the first time around. Noro rocks.

I have to admit, I'm a sucker for a good name - Norovember!  It's so cute!  But I also like joining extremely low-key knitalongs:  no extra posts to write, no projects to finish... just knit something with Noro during the month of November.  To me, this is the perfect combination.  I love the idea of using Noro's bright, crazy colors during such a gray and rainy month (at least it is where I live). 

My Norovember project is going to be making a few squares for the Lizard Ridge afghan.  I've got one done (exept I read the pattern wrong so I have to rip it out and reknit), and two more balls of Kureyon to knit up.  I don't plan on finishing this project very fast, since the yarn is expensive, but if anyone wanted to give me the gift of Noro, I wouldn't say no!  (Mom, are you reading?)

I've never knit with Kureyon (or any type of Noro for that matter) until I started this project.  I know lots of people complain that it breaks easily or that it has lots of knots.  So far I've only found one knot and I haven't had any breaks, although there were some very thin sections that I treated pretty gingerly.  I would say my biggest surpise is the thick/thin nature of the yarn.  For the blanket, I think it's fine, but I don't think I would like a sweater made out of it. 

Each Lizard Ridge square takes almost a whole ball of Noro, with not much left over, maybe 10-20 yards?  Being the thrifty knitter that I am, I'm trying to figure out what to do with the leftovers.  Surely I could make a hat or two by the time I've knit several squares.  If I think of anything good, I'll let you know. 

a project update! 

First up, it's the second sock of a pair I'm knitting for my grandpa for Christmas.  For regular readers this (hopefully) looks awfully familiar to the first sock of the pair.  (If you didn't see the first one, the pattern is Gentleman's Fancy Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush.   The yarn is wool2dye4 supersock, hand-dyed by yours truly!)

This is my first pair of adult socks that I have made with short row heels.  I wanted to try a new technique during Socktoberfest, and I think it turned out pretty well.  Somehow I managed to close up the little hole on one side but not the other.  I was winging the short row part of it and I may have started turning the heel one stitch in the wrong direction.  Hopefully I can figure out what I did wrong and fix it the second time around. 

I told myself I wouldn't do any Christmas knitting this year, but I have obviously broken that rule already.  I actually started this pair at the very end of September, so I thought I'd finish in October for sure.  But a few other things got in the way (see the next two pictures!)  Now I'm trying to finish a section of ribbing each day before I work on anything else.  

When I get to the heel, I'm going to write up what I did (assuming it works this time) so I can come back and use it again, but maybe some other people will find it helpful, too.   

Next up, we have my first Lizard Ridge square - I love the colors, but do you notice anything odd?  Those rows with the "bump" in the middle are missing something - ahh... the short rows. 

The pattern is written a bit strangely, and there's actually a section that you're supposed to repeat in that row - to be fair, it is in brackets - but it never actually tells you to knit it twice.  I suppose if I actually counted my stitches I wouldn't have had that problem, but alas. 

This little square will be getting ripped out and reknit.  Actually, it's just as well, since I figured out about halfway through how to pick up the wraps on the short rows so they don't show.  I'm not sure I could explain it, but I think there was a good explanation in one of the tutorials Lolly linked to during Socktoberfest. 

Oh, and yes - those bumps will flatten out during blocking.  The pattern says they're normal. 

Yes, yes, but surely that one little square hasn't been taking up ALL my knitting time, even with all the little fiddley short rows! 

That's true.  Remember a couple of weekends ago, when I stopped in the yarn shop for a ball of Kureyon and came out with yarn for a shrug?  Well, it's coming right along.   

What?  You don't see it?  Well, right now it's basically a sleeve.   I have to knit across the back and then down the other sleeve, and that's it!  Connie knit a pretty version of it in green, although hers was a store sample so it's a little big on her. 

So, it's not terribly exciting knitting, because all the magic happens when you seam it up and add the ruffle. I did splurge for the alpaca and silk yarn that the pattern was written for - I know some people think it's scratchy, but I noticed that the gauge swatch that got dunked in water & wool wash is much softer than the unblocked piece.  So it should be nice and soft once it's blocked. 

 

Yes, I'm alive, although you wouldn't know it from checking this blog lately.  It feels like I've been busy, but I can't figure what I've been doing.  Lots of random stuff, I think. 

I also forgot that once Daylight Saving Time ends, I have to start taking pictures in the morning before work instead of when I get home.  The good news is, I took some this morning so I will be able to show you some really (not so) exciting stuff - part of the second green sock, a sleeve of the Silk Shrug, and a botched Lizard Ridge square.  I keep thinking of other things I'd reather be knitting but I need to finish this sock (it's a Xmas present) and I really want to wear the shrug.  So.... the same old projects continue.  Check in tomorrow for an extremely similar update, but with pictures!  (Can you tell I'm bored?)