A blessing in disguise

I was not too happy last week. On Tuesday while I was out running I hurt my ankle. Nothing dramatic ... I was just running along and then OUCH. I finished my run as best I could and didn't think too much more about it until that evening I noticed that I was still limping. Odd. It would come and go, but it was painful. Wednesday it was definitely with me all day and I was bummed! I had been looking forward to the St. Paddy's Dash for months but there was no way I could do it when my ankle was sore. So I completely laid off it starting Thursday evening, following the old tried and true RICE formula, worked from home Friday and didn't do much of anything all weekend long. Today after my bike ride it's just a little sore, not too bad at all. And I am actually happy I didn't do the run because it was snowing and sleeting and blowing and just plain miserable out there. It would have been just awful, so it all worked out okay. Maybe I can find a run in April to do. Hopefully if I am a good girl this week and don't run on it I should be able to start up again next week.

I took my bike in for new brakes on Thursday and today was the first time I had been on it. Wow ... I really needed brakes!! I just gave them a little squeeze as I was going off down my street and I almost went over the handle bars!! It's that long steep hill I have to go down in the morning. Just wears those brake pads down to nothing.

Saturday I finished up the plain top part of the skirt and have now started on the lace portion. Much more fun to knit. Since there was no natural light this morning when I took this picture I used the flash and I don't think this is quite accurate. Yes, it's purple but more of an eggplant than this would suggest. And the yarn has more of a sheen than is shown here. I'll try to get a picture in natural light next time.

I was thinking back to the first several times I tried to do a lace project. It was a disaster and so very frustrating until I started using markers between the repeats. Why is it that no one ever tells you about that?? Every pattern always has some ridiculous and obvious line in it, like "join to knit in the round, making sure not to twist", but I've never seen a pattern with instructions to place markers between repeats or, that the stitch count is going to vary between certain repeats. I took my Rockstar Jacket back to the beginning 3 times before I realized that I wasn't making a mistake, but that the count varied from row to row! Sure, these are the types of things that mark the differences between an experienced knitter and a novice, but it shouldn't be like some secret club!