AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

Yeah June!

It's right around the corner.  Time for swimming and visiting the aquarium and doing a little yarn shopping.  And now that I'm not quite so tired doing a little half marathon report.

Last Sunday I ran (though running was a bit generous a term) Boston Runs to Remember, which honors those lost in service to the city of Boston (firefighters and police officers).  It's a gorgeous event and the weather is pretty likely to cooperate.  We started at the Seaport.  Being mindful of starting too fast, I planted myself with the 12 minute milers and managed to get to mile 4 on a nice target (I wanted to finish in under 2.5 hours, though it was not to be).  I moved to the walk-jog maneuver somewhere along the stretch of Memorial Drive.  It was beautiful.  Sunny and in the 70s. I bought new running pants (so this time I didn't lose my Charlie Card), and generally had a wonderful day.  Just over 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Of course, now I need to sign up for another race.  I'm doing the Corporate Challenge in June, but it is probably the most crowded race in Boston!  There are a couple of bottlenecks that makes it challenging for a mid-speed runner to finish in under 40 minutes.  Almost dangerously crowded.  But Iron Girl should be in September and the Wild Fish One Mile swim should be in early August.

It's a great time to be active in Boston!

I don't like shopping

I don't like shopping for traditional things.  Clothing and food aren't as much fun as buying more yarn or knitting-related tools.  I try to be good about it, and I experience mixed results.  Just like all of life really.

So, when I won a gorgeous skein of laceweight last month (880 yards!), I wanted to find something really good to make with it.  I have another wedding to attend this year (September), and it would be nice to use the yarn for something wedding appropriate.  While I am not supposed to buy yarn (Stashing along after all), nothing says I can't buy a pattern.

I just bought Hanami.  And printed it out.

Now, I will admit my WIP list is still outrageously huge, but I have finished 4 items in the last two weeks!  I'm trying to get around to taking pictures of all of them, but that has never been my strong suit.  I'm almost half way to finishing another as well (they are really basic socks, so they hardly count).  It's been a good couple of weeks in knit land.

(Also, I've been so good about finishing things and knitting from the stash that I'm going to be free and clear to buy the yarn I want for the Butterfly Cardigan within the next two weeks!  A good thing too, because next month is the perfect time for me to stash enhance!)

Number 2 (sort of?)

The Baby Viking Hat (from Bella Knitting) was a quick, fun knit.  Instead of using the Aurora 8 it called for, this one is knit in Tahki Cotton Classic.  I have a fair amount of each skein left (especially the ecru color). 

This knit didn't receive the benefit of blocking, but for the photos has been stuffed with plastic bags to fill out the shape.

When I gave it to the happy family yesterday, they wanted the pattern (which I told them how to get.  I love my copyright law).  It is definitely easier to make the bobbles with a wool yarn.  There is just so little elasticity in cotton!

I made the baby size, so there would be some time for growing into it.  Baby hats feel so small!

c'est fini!

Last week was a pretty productive knitting week for me.  I finished (including those pesky ends to weave in and blocking).

The first thing I finished was Convertible. 

Convertible was a pretty easy knit, not really worth the piquant rating.  Every wrong side row is purled, so it is pretty easy to keep track of the patterned rows.  I didn't make any modifications other than yarn.  The yarn I used (Unger Angelspun) is a mohair blend. 

More specifics?

Skeins needed: Just under 3

Time to knit: Just under a month (April 28-May 22).  It was taking me about two hours a repeat (from buttonhole to buttonhole).  Each repeat felt like it was taking forever after the novelty of the lace pattern wore off, so I'm glad it is done. I'm pretty sure I'll make another one at some point, though I want to make it in the bamboo yarn it called for.  I haven't seen it on the Blue Moon site though.  Did they stop making it (the pattern is about two years old)?

Oh, and completely needed to take a picture of this in my gym clothes.  I promise that they're clean!

For amanda j: button picture?

Vintage mother of pearl buttons.  They really play well off of the colors in the yarn, which was what I was looking for.  Something timeless.

There were other buttons I could have used, but they were hugely oblong bulky shank buttons.  Fine for another project, but not for lace.

wishing myself luck

My half-marathon is at 8:15. I was a bit of a cardio addict this week, so I'm probably not going to do quite as well as I'd like.  Not a problem.  This year finishing would be a major coup between minor injuries and silly colds that prevented most of my more intense training.

(Oh, and working today.  That was a lot of stairs I climbed.)

Anyone else a Gyminee?

I signed up for Gyminee earlier this week when one of my friends pointed me to a discussion of online exercise- and nutrition-related tools.  I really miss the Diet & Exercise Assistant that I had on my PDA, but not quite enough to buy a new PDA or see what it would take to fix the busted pixels on my current one.  I've been looking for alternatives that don't involve a new piece of technology; I carry enough as it is.

It's not quite as smooth as I would like, but it still allows me to make custom food entries (though I would love something that allowed me to submit a link to a specific recipe in allrecipes, and then import the recipe... I should suggest that), and custom workouts which include a large variety of exercises (great for the strength training circuits).  I love that it gives me a grade on both nutrition and exercise.  Of course, I want to change the big F on the screen!

So, yeah, if you are on Gyminee and want a gymbuddy to join in the fitness fun, I'm there as qarylla.

Oh, and there was a "Try a personal trainer" at my gym on Wednesday, and I hurt all over.  Stupid medicine ball squats!  But if I keep up with it, I should be able to do a much better job in the one mile swim this August (and have a nice beach body while doing it).

here's a monkey, there's a monkey

and another little monkey...

Now, I'm definitely not the last person to make the Monkey socks.  I made a pair last year, and eventually gave them away because they were about a half inch to an inch too big for my feet.  I think this pair will be a little better, because I like my hand knit socks to be tighter than normal socks. 

I love this pattern.  I turned the heel sometime (mumble-mumble) last month?  And when I got to it yesterday, I was only part way through the gusset decreases.  I didn't have the pattern with me, but I was able to keep going.  The lace repeat is very memorizable, so without thinking too much about it I was able to continue on.  I will probably reprint the pattern (or plant myself in front of a computer) when I get to the toe decreases, but on the whole I don't need it.  It's a nice change of place to not be a slave to the pieces of paper (especially for knitting on the train).

Dancing along

in FO land!

Convertible is blocking (hallelujah!).  I got through the last of the knitting during lunch yesterday, so I wove in the ends this morning and gave it a light washing.  Of course, blocking always makes Saru-chan (the kitty) mad.  She likes having full reign, but isn't terribly careful or nice to hand knits.  This means that the door is firmly closed.  But at least I have blocked it during the day this time.  Normally I block at night, so we are woken up by plaintive meows.

I spent a bit of time rethinking my current rotation.  When I was doing a lot of cross-stitch, I used this document religiously.  It helped me finish projects in time for the major holidays (mostly because I never did a project that was less than 30 hours of work), and allowed me to alternate the simpler projects with something a little more robust.  Of course, the document really isn't the same for knitting.  It just feels easier to start dozens of projects, so mostly the rotation is there to help me remember what projects I'm working on and if they are stupid close¹ to completion.

I figured that when I printed out my current rotation that I was going to fill the next five spots with the next projects I wanted to work on.  Simple.  One project finished, one project (of similar size ideally - we'll see how long this lasts) to start.  Of course, if I am smarter I will try and finish two projects for each one I start, because I have 13 11 projects on this list (7 5 of which are close to completion).  I'm never sure if organization like this will actually last, but I figure I need to at least give it a try.

I finished this and a secret project this morning, so I pulled out one of my stupid close projects and hope to have it done this weekend!  I mean, I am 3 repeats and a toe away from a pair of Monkey socks so there are no excuses!

¹Stupid Close isn't really a technical term, but I use it for all of those projects that only had a few inches of work or just the blocking/weaving in of ends/seaming to do that just aren't done.  It's like I did 90% of the work and I'm being super lazy and not finishing the rest of it.  Really, really dumb!

Living her dreams

One of my friends has been trying to break into the comics business.  Web comics, that is.  She is working on a sweet story called Autumnside that she is publishing on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Please go take a look and if you like the story or the art, please vote for Autumnside.  There are two little voting buttons under the comic.

Someday I hope to live my dreams as vividly and actively as she is (though I guess I still need to figure out what they actually are first)!

Whoopsie

So, I was going to finish Convertible yesterday, but I walked to the grocery store twice, made Sheri's banana pudding, pancakes, dinner, wrote 5 pages long hand (almost like writing a short story) and read a book (I was a Teenage Fairy by Francesca Lia Block).

Kind of makes it hard to finish, but I have just over a repeat left.  I'm going to work early, so I will get some knitting time on the train, at lunch, and at home tonight.  That should be enough to bring it to done!