AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

20 deg F

It's a gorgeous looking day out there from my window, but the thermometer indicates a whopping 20 degrees Fahrenheit.  I speed walked to get my race packet last night and then came home and knit (and ate too much macaroni and cheese).

I'm on the second strip of seven for the baby blanket and could conceivably be about half way done by the end of the weekend.  It's certainly not a hard project, though I need to keep my brain entertained while I work on it.  Last night I watched a few eps of Knit & Crochet Today while I was working on it.  Not my best idea.  My speed slowed down as I realized that I was trying to purl in a garter stitch blanket.  Whoops!  I never actually made any errors, but I got fairly close. This probably won't stop me from watching more of it today. 

The house is starting to smell wonderful.  I have a loaf of bread that I started last night baking in the oven.  We have to be out for a couple of hours for more viewings, so I'm hoping the smell of fresh baked bread lingers long enough that I can still smell it when I get home.  I love the smell of fresh bread, even though I don't bake bread very often.

Today started off by looking empty, but is now filling up rapidly.  A grocery trip, the library, the bank, a yarn shop, the viewings, and a 3+ mile walk are just part of the list of things to do.  And I'm seriously considering a stop to Sweet as a treat along the road. One cupcake from a bakery certainly is less dangerous than baking about 2 dozen. 

finding the foodie inside

I've been falling down the food blog well for a few months now.  The desserts and breads and dinners all look so amazing, and they remind me of when I had more time and was more willing to make something that was going to take more than 30 minutes after work.

Nowadays I'm getting home between 7 and 7:30 (and thank goodness our kitty has not figured out how to break into the new automatic feeder), and if I start dinner right away I have something ready by about 8 p.m.  All of the articles I read about dinner at 5 or 6 are so foreign.  I cannot imagine getting home early enough to have dinner on the table by then without also throwing in a maid service to boot.

The other night I decided after a truly terrible walk from the T in the rain that the pear sorbet I made was too cold for dessert that night.  Instead, I made the rice pudding from Smitten Kitchen.  The day before I made the crepes from Baking and Books (though I filled mine with a mix of broccoli, pesto, tvp, romano and topped with tomato sauce).  Last week I made cupcakes (also from Smitten) that I got rave reviews on.  It's like if I want to make something, I just troll around on one of these gorgeous sites for a while and poof!  There is an idea for dinner that I might even have most of the ingredients for.

Finding the foodie inside is even more attractive now than normal, because I am in the midst of garter stitch and nothing but garter stitch.  Sadly, I haven't had time to measure, block and remeasure my swatch for the Cobblestone pullover, but I know that when I start that sweater it will be more, umm, garter stitch.  The cooking is delicious and feels creative in a way that the garter stitch blanket never will.  I need to work on something a bit more exciting and energizing maybe with a stitch pattern or some color or a glorious cable.  Maybe tonight after I get home from picking up my race packet!  (10K on Sunday!)

too many projects?

I just checked my Ravelry listings and I have 13 WIPs.  So, why do I want to cast on for something else?

I have the yarn for Tubey, a Cobblestone pullover for my hubby, and a baby jacket that I need to cast on for.  I have yarn for a pair of mittens that I really want to wear sooner rather than later, which is still completely in the skein state.  There are at least a few pairs of socks that I want to make on top of the ones on the needles.  And what I really want to know is how did I get to this state!

Saturday is my next rest day, and the only thing I really need to do is go to the library.  Maybe I can knock one or two of the WIPs off the list, so I can cast on in guilt-free splendor.  Because knowing myself, sooner rather than later I will decide to cast on.  All of the projects will be boring and annoying and I will find an extra size 6 needle and away I'll go!

finding direction (baby blanket edition)

The baby gift set is well on its way, even though I didn't finish the baby hat last night (I just didn't feel like seaming, but it will have to happen this weekend sometime).  I am trying to make sure that the baby blanket, which is done as little squares looks as good or nearly as good from the back as it does from the front.  I'm currently on the first strip, and I figure that when I finish the first strip, I will cast on the stitches for the second on and try doing it like the knitted on border for a shawl.  This will be an experiment and if it doesn't work, then I will go and make all of the strips and then decide on the treatment.

The pattern suggests that you should mattress stitch all of the strips together (or all 48 of the little squares if you did them individually), but I know what my mattress stitch looks like from the reverse side.  It isn't horribly ugly, but it is much bulkier than the rest of the garment.  I imagine that while the seams wouldn't be uncomfortable if you were sleeping under the blanket the same couldn't be said for a baby doing tummy time and crawling over the blanket.

Maybe I'm making more of this than I need to.  Regardless, the queens of the little squares to blankets are Kay and Ann of Mason-Dixon Knitting.  I'm sure that I will find the information I need by looking at one of the previous blanket projects.  Probably the cro-kay method.

ow times two

Getting back into shape is always exciting, and made more exciting each year because I stupidly stop doing any real exercising for a couple of months (2008 that was Oct-Dec).  Usually, I ease back in for the first week or two and then BAM! go full tilt into everything I was doing before.  It's a painful thing to do and sometimes results in burnout or needing to ease off.

You would think that I would learn.

My gym offers a few brick training classes, which are great ideas if you want to do a triathlon!  It gets you used to the idea of transitioning from one exercise to another in a fast sequence.  Of course, I wasn't expecting to run as fast as I could for a mile (which resulted in me running about 8:10 or so by the end, oof!) and then switching to sprints on the bike.  That was bad, but doable.

Worse, so much worse, were the hill intervals.  When I run on the treadmill, I run at about a 1% incline just to simulate the relatively, but not completely, flat terrain.  The hill intervals were 4% incline and 6% incline and then later on 6% and 10%.  I couldn't keep up my very modest pace for the hill intervals without holding on! 

So, today I am sore, so sore, and will just do the Yogilates, which is the hardest yoga class I do.  I'll be sore after that too, but it will be a nice stretchy sore.  Wednesday and Friday are running days and Thursday is cross-training, so I can use all of the stretching I can get!

Of course, it isn't all exercise.  Yesterday, I took a picture of the 4 skeins of yarn for the baby blanket.  I want to pick an alternate pattern, because the colors aren't all as vibrant as the original and send a picture to my MIL making sure she is OK with the changes.  I can't get the chartreuse, which has been discontinued.  I also need to know if she wants me to make a girl-style jacket or a boy-style.  I never personally cared about what side things buttoned on, but some people do and I should double check before I start!

Swatching

Yesterday, I went to visit one of my friends from college and her husband (We were roommates ages and ages ago), and I brought mostly swatching with me to keep my hands busy while we were gabbing.  Because we are geeks, we were mostly rehashing games we had played and talking about the games we would like to play.  I left that evening with a book to read (mostly for the hubby) and a character.  It will be nice to be gaming again!

I was swatching for the Cobblestone Sweater.  The Peace Fleece is world's softer than I was expecting, and certainly softer than the yarn I am using for my FLS (which is still waiting for me to finish the sleeves and any collar treatment I decide to do).  The yarn is rich with lanolin, and my hands thanked me for it given how the cold air has been treating them.  This yarn would make a great Wisteria or one of the other delicious cabled tops from the Twist Collective.  I'm also in love with Bijou, though that is a completely different yarn animal than anything I'd want to use the Peace Fleece with.

On the way home, I worked on the baby hat for my MIL's baby shower (et cetera) gift.  I'm using the Plymouth Dreambaby, which is nice and soft and affordable.  However, the colors available didn't include one of the colors my MIL wanted.  I'll probably contact her sometime this week just to make sure that she is OK with the changes I want to make.  She says she trusts me, but she is particular enough that I don't really want to leave this to chance.  Regardless, she can't actually have what she wants colorwise, because the color has been discontinued.

This weekend was profitable on the yarn front, because I finally bought the last two balls of yarn for Tubey.  Or at least the last two balls of yarn I think I will need.  Granted, I won't be able to start that project until I have finished the Cobblestone Pullover and at least one or two of the baby items, but that still means March.  There will be plenty of time to wear it once it is done!  I'm using Felted Tweed, because I liked the example I saw on Ravelry.  I've wanted to use this yarn for a while, so it was nice seeing some proof that I wasn't shooting myself in the foot by using a yarn that different from the one called for in the pattern!

the knitting factory

My MIL likes giving hand knits to people she knows (generally for baby showers).  But she doesn't knit herself, so she turns to me to make items.  Last time, I made the Hoover blanket, which was a nice pattern and took me about a month to make, and better yet I familiarized myself with the double knitting technique. 

When she called a month or so ago to see if I was willing to make another, she sounded like she wanted another Hoover blanket.  Then she found a store (I believe she said Knit One in PA), and found a pattern booklet.  I have this First Steps Learn to Knit baby pattern booklet (Sirdar booklet 292), and she wants patterns 2, 3 and 5 (or a baby hat, a baby blanket and a jacket).  All done in garter stitch, and the blanket is squares that are either individually seamed (and I hate seaming) or worked into strips and then sewn together.

Now, there is no hard and fast deadline for this project, but I am almost halfway done Henry and the yarn for the Cobblestone Pullover for my hubby arrived last night.  I would rather work on either of those projects, especially the pullover because I'm using Peace Fleece in the Sheplova Mushroom which is just gorgeous, and so much softer than I was expecting. 

The main draw that the baby project has over those is that I don't need to think at all to do them.  All of the projects are based on basic garter stitch squares or rectangles.  The hat is effectively an all garter version of the hat I made for myself earlier this month, so it is a seamed rectangle.  Easy peasy, but still likely to make me fall over with boredom. 

I am thinking of getting one of those book readers (umm, the things that go in the lap), so I can at least read while I do this.  And about that saying no?  I never feel like I can do that.  I blame that guilt cloud that I can see hovering all around me.

more showings

Even though our condo has been on the market since October, I feel like the last couple of weeks the showings have really picked up.  This is a great thing, especially if someone (or someones) fall in love with our unit.  It's a great place, but it is too small for either kids or a dedicated, kitty-free craft room.  There is a showing later today, so I will get my run in, shower, do some mild cleaning and then go to the bookstore, library or the pet store.

There is another showing on Sunday, which while a good thing is always slightly more aggravating.  More of the places I go to hide away during the showings are closed on Sundays, so it might be a trip to the grocery store or the bookstore.  I love the bookstore, but it is a place fraught with peril!  Even on a bad day, I can find a book that I MUST HAVE!  And they have coffee.

The delicious brown elixir of life! Yummy!  (I can hear my hubby going blech now.)

So, here is to my crossed fingers and hope that the house selling process will be over soon!  It would be nice to be on the house buying end of the scale!

out sweating in the cold

I did my first street run in ages, which proved once again that my Nike+ either isn't properly calibrated or just can't handle my uneven running stride over the winter terrain. 

My run according to Nike+ was 2.6 miles (which is slower than my walking pace) and according to gmap-pedometer, one of my favorite online running tools, was 4.93 miles.  A huge difference!  Thankfully, there is a handy-dandy calibration thread on the Nike+ site, so I should be able to nip this problem in the bud.

Other than running,  I didn't get any knitting done last night.  Instead I made Smitten Kitchen's Pumpkin Cupcakes with, in my case, eggnog cream cheese frosting.  I stayed up a bit late last night, so I could eat one as soon as they cooled enough to frost.  The rest of the frosting is stored away and I will frost them a bit later.  They were oh, so good, even if I will need a street run or two for each cupcake I eat!

With the temperatures expected to hit 40 today and 37 tomorrow, I should be able to get another run in!

a good title is hard to find

For a post that is.  Finding a good book, not nearly so difficult. 

I started crunching through (again) on Henry a couple of days ago, and it is amazing how much better I felt about the project when I was no longer trying to get it done for some arbitrary time (*cough* Christmas).  I'm only getting a modest 4-6 rows done most days, but it still means that I could finish it within a month. 

I'm trying not to put it aside, but at the same time it is cold enough that I am contemplating a new scarf.  My warmest scarf (the Ravenclaw scarf) and many of my less warm scarves are all packed away, so I have been using a scarf I bought from Filene's a number of years ago.  It is a rather thin cloth and is warm enough for the around 30 temperatures, but not if there is any wind or if the temperature dips.  And dipping has been the order of the day!

I don't want to buy the yarn right now, mostly because I have yarn on order for my hubby's sweater and about time too.  It's Peace Fleece (this color) that I'm awaiting for a Cobblestone Pullover.  I'm really looking forward to making this sweater, even though I am going to need to buy a copy of the pattern (my magazine, also packed away).