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!

What the heck is up?

I had a decent run on Tuesday, but about half way through my ankle gave me a painful twinge. I've had this happen before. I'm not sure exactly what causes it and it usually just goes away. And it did, and I started running again and it twinged again .... this happened a few times. The odd thing about it now is that it keeps coming back! Very bad timing, since there's a race this weekend. I took some naproxen this morning before I came in to work and I'm not limping now and I'll try to run at lunch today. My fear is that it's a stress fracture. I am going to keep positive thoughts ... just a muscle strain.

Still very very cold - below freezing again this morning so no biking for me. Plus which the brakes on my bike are pretty much useless so I brought it in with me in the car and I'll drop it off at the bike shop on the way home. I can't take any chances with that huge hill I have to bike down every morning. I was unable to completely stop last time I rode in and that's pretty scary.

Had some people come by to do some work at the house yesterday and since S couldn't be home, I worked from home instead. It's almost the end of winter quarter so I'm gearing up for spring quarter and that means hours and hours of design work and fiddling with the sites. I like it - makes the time go by quickly.

Knitting -- just around and around and around my skirt. It needs to grow about six more inches I'd say, and then I can start on the lace part. That will be much more interesting.

Oh poo!

Got a phone call yesterday late afternoon from my friend who put together the wine dinner. It is canceled. I was SO disappointed! I haven't been to one in ages, and this one was to be at a restaurant specializing in Southern cooking. I had decided to skip the run yesterday since I wanted to have only a two day gap before the race Sunday so I was already in a bad mood from not having my regular exercise and that just put me into a really bad mood. Cold and snowy, no spring in sight and no wine dinner to look forward to! [Aren't I just a big baby??] But I got home and changed my clothes and played a little Wii and then my DH took me out for some spicy food -- I wanted East Indian but the restaurant in our neighborhood was closed Mondays, so we went Mexican instead. That was a nice treat and cheered me up ... well, the Margarita helped too. Then I just played more video games and went to sleep at 10. I feel marginally better today. It's still bloody cold, although it's supposed to be sunny now for the rest of the week and warm up, but it's supposed to be raining on Sunday. It is forecast to be nearly 50 so the run should be tolerable. It is going to be a difficult one for me because I haven't been training as regularly as I was for the February race and it's longer. Oh well ... it'll be fun all the same.

The topic of conversation

Okay ... after the economy, the main topic of conversation around here is the freakin' weather! It keeps snowing! It doesn't stick around for long but we had snow all weekend and again this morning. Needless to say I couldn't ride my bike in a snow storm. Regardless of what it's doing at lunchtime I've got to run though, because I've got the St. Paddy's Day Dash coming up Sunday. Supposedly it's going to be sunny and warm up by the weekend. I'm not holding my breath.

Not too much interesting knitting this weekend. My skirt, since this one is top down, is still just round and around, increasing every few rows. It won't get interesting for another 10 or 12 inches. Saturday I did manage a few rows, but then I ran errands, bought a really lovely new dress and in the evening went downtown to join my DH at a job he was doing in a fancy hotel. It was a fun evening, got to see Jay Leno perform ... he was hilarious ... and had room service breakfast the next morning. Nice.

Yesterday was more of the same - errands and chores and washing the doggie (who promptly went outside and rolled in something). We had been planning on going out to eat last night but we're going to a wine dinner tomorrow so we decided to cook at home instead.

Daylight saving time -- I'm tired today.

arghg

Working from home. I'm trying something new with my web site stuff and I am publishing this page here just to make sure that some changes I made to this blog work.

Could my eyes have deceived me?

I am pretty darned sure that I saw a pair of ducks going at it on the way in to work! I was riding along at a pretty good clip and saw the ducks in a puddle. It took me a little while to register what was going on. Ahhhh ... spring is in the air!!

I had another weird night last night. It must be because my sleep patterns haven't yet normalized from two weeks off. It seems to happen each night (or morning) at around 3:30 am. Tink usually comes to bed when we do, but if she has found another cozy place and doesn't come in when we do, then at 3:30 that's when she does it. And it wakes me up because she either shakes and her collar jingles or she comes to my side of the bed and scratches on the bed frame to come up. Otherwise she sleeps under the bed and at 3:30 she scratches or decides she wants up, or if she's up wants down. Typically I'll get her re-settled and then drop right off. But lately I haven't been doing that. Last night (no, this morning) it was all about knitting. I couldn't shut my brain off!! I was thinking about turning the heels on my two color socks, wondering if I'm going to have to take a row off the outside of one color or will I be able to turn one heel, then turn the second and then switch yarn. And once I put that matter to bed, so to speak, I started thinking about my next skirt and should I make a pattern up or go with something already out there and if so which one and what yarn? I mean..... crazy stuff!!!

I am wearing my cute Lacy Skirt with Bows today. I am not wearing the shoes I want to wear with it, but the other ones are just not suited for work. So far it's cute and comfy. I wish I had thought to bring a slip though. I have a very long cami on that covers my behind, but I think it should have a slip.

Takin' it easy

Yesterday was my first bike ride in 3 weeks -- two weeks off for vacation and the week prior to that because it was just plain too cold. I did just fine yesterday and even though it was rainy, it was warm. Today I've got to start running again so I can be ready for the St. Paddy's Day Dash. I figured I'd probably better err on the side of caution, NOT over do things and so I drove in. It was pouring rain early this morning. It woke me up (again). I wish I wasn't such a light sleeper.

I worked a bit more on my socks last night. I figure I've got at least another month to go on the Rockstar, mostly because it is one of those projects where I need to be quiet and concentrate and it's not TV knitting if there are any increases or decreases. So I have to find my next project because socks are just a little TOO simple sometimes. I am considering making another skirt. I have an idea for a pattern. But then again, I've got some Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora in a light and dark blue that I've been thinking would make a good Tubey, or just a cute baseball type raglan sweater with the sleeves light and the body dark. Maybe I'll decide this weekend.

Oooo, speaking of this weekend. It's spring forward on Saturday!!!! Yay! That was quick. I have really noticed how much lighter it is these days. Of course it'll be darker in the morning for a while but that's okay.

Well that didn't work out too well

All my good intentions of blogging on vacation and I couldn't get any pictures to download from my iPhone! Perhaps the pictures the iPhone takes are too large to post to the blog. That's the only think I can come up with.

It was a great two weeks. A couple days in Oregon doing the wine tasting thing, then up to the Washington coast for a couple more days. Tink just loves the beach so much! It had been almost exactly a year since we had been there and she seemed to remember what it was about and couldn't wait to get down to the beach. I bought a hard ball to throw for her and she would run until she was exhausted.

I got lots of good knitting done while we were traveling because the hubby likes to drive and that's fine with me. I got the Skirt with Bows finished on the road trip and took it with me to California where I put the ribbons on it. It's this just the cutest thing? I am going to wear it to work Wednesday for the noon knitting show and tell.

When I went to the yarn store to get the ribbon for the skirt I also picked up some sock yarn so I would have a portable project for the second part of the trip. I found a skein of Koigu half price but since that's not enough for a pair of socks I bought a plain ball of sock yarn and I'm making a pair with both colors, swapping the toes and heels and cuffs. I just started doing the heel flap but you can get the idea here. The one with the green instep looks smaller because the yarn is stretchy.

I also worked some on the Rockstar jacket but it's not too exciting so there are no pictures. When I get the back finished and start on the sleeves, then I'll take another picture. That project is slow going. I'm doing decreases and I have to read the chart, which is not my favorite thing to do. I like written out directions.

No pictures!

Shoot! I got on my friend's computer and I see now that none of the pictures I have sent from my iPhone are showing up! That's annoying. We're just getting ready to head out to drive the Apache Trail and I thought it'd be cool to send some pictures. Ah well .... AND I forgot my camera at home so all I have with me is my iPhone. I wonder if the pictures are too large or something. I know I used to be able to easily do it on my Razr. Off we go!

A new song

Here's McG debuting a new song last night. I like it.



Shelley

The photo for the post

Still trying to get the mobile blogging set. I think I have it now.

Sunday

This was last Sunday, wine tasting at Torii Mor. Today I am in California having a long weekend with my sister. Last night we went to a dinner party up in the Hollywood Hills with an assortment of authentic Hollywood types. The weather is rather rainy but tomorrow it's off to Phoenix where it is going to be sunny and hot!

Shelley

This was last Sunday

Shelley

A perfect record

Yeah ... drove in every single day this week. I can't remember the last time I did that. I could have ridden my bike today except that this is the one day that I have to have the car because I have a hair appointment at 4. Oh well. At noon knitting Wednesday one of the girls said "Just get over it". I guess I'd better!

No knitting last night and the night before was just round and round the skirt while watching LOST. It was Pub Night last night so by the time I got home I was too full and impaired to knit so I took my new Interweave Knits spring issue up to bed with me and read that until I fell asleep. It's a pretty good issue. Nothing jumped right out at me but I'll give it a couple more good looks.

I have tons and tons of work to do today to get ready for my two weeks off. So when I woke up last night I started thinking about that and composing email in my head ... gaaahhh! I'm tired today but I've got to keep chugging along so I can get everything done and not have to worry at all while I'm gone. Have a nice, relaxing vacation.

Posting is going to be hit and miss. I am sure I can do it with my iPhone because I used to do it with my Razr phone. I can always Twitter.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Okay now ... this is getting ridiculous!!!

It is neither raining nor snowing today. In fact, it's sunny! It's also very very cold. I SO wanted to ride in this morning when I looked out and saw that it wasn't raining and the streets were clear. What I couldn't see was that my car windows were covered with ice. I knew it was likely to be cold out there but I didn't know it was 29 degrees. My husband pointed that out to me when I said I thought I could bike in today. "Honey, it's 29 degrees out there!" Damn damn and double damn! I got dressed and got my stuff together and when I went out to start my car I was talking myself into riding -- "Oh, it's not THAT cold". Hmmm ... until I couldn't open my car door because the handle was frozen shut. Ah! Okay, so it IS that cold. As I was driving in I could see the puddles were frozen along side the road. I do not like having to driving in day after day. Yes, I guess I could suck it up and take the bus ... but I just need a few more degrees warmer and I can bike. Maybe by the time I get back from vacation this nonsense will be over.

I did a good bit of skirt knitting last night. Now comes the fairly boring part - knitting around and around and around, doing decreases every 12 rows. Inches and inches of it. But oh ... it is going to be so nice!

It's LOST tonight! Woohoo! Now that football is gone - it's my favorite day of the week.

WIP pictures

Finally I have pictures of my skirt. Only one week since I started it. I really wish I could discipline myself to take pictures in the evening rather than in the morning when I don't have any time. I always end up just snapping away in the morning as I'm running out the door. This shows the six lace panels - 3 in front, 3 in back, and the eyelet row for the bows. Since I'm doing this in the round, rather than as written, I completely missed that the eyelet row is supposed to be in garter stitch. But by the time I figured it out I was over half way through with it so I am leaving it as is. With ribbon threaded through it I don't think it would have been that noticeable anyway. I don't need to say how gorgeous the drape of this garment is already. I just hope that I am doing the right thing and that it fits!! I am entirely smitten with this pattern.

I got up this morning all fired up to bundle up well and get on the bike. After all, as I looked out my window I could see that the streets were clear and it didn't seem to be snowing. I checked the temperature .... ummm well, it was a little cold. Showing 33 degrees. Add wind chill to that ... but no, I'll wrap up my face, I said to myself. So I got all my bike clothes together and went downstairs to start some coffee. Tink needed to go out, as usual, so I opened the slider to let her out and got blasted in the face with very cold air, and also noticed at that time that floating through that cold air were teensie ice crystals. AKA snow. So no, no biking today. I will have to run at lunchtime. Have I said yet for the millionth time how freaking sick I am of this weather????

Goals

Remember my Action Plan? Step 1 - get back to my real size? Step 2 - save up vacation time and Step 3, take a 2 week vacation in February? An unwritten part of the action plan was to break my own 5K record. And this weekend I did it!! I got a personal best time at the Love 'em or Leave 'em race yesterday. I am still right in the middle of the pack for my age group - the first of the group came in more than 10 minutes before me, which is astonishing and definitely something to shoot for. But for now I think I'll be happy if I can shave a minute off my time. The next race in March is longer .... 3 3/4 miles so I'm not going to be breaking any records there, that's for sure. I could have even done better if some very rude people hadn't broken the rules. If you're walking you're supposed to be at the BACK of the pack, not right in the middle of it slowing people down. Also, this was a new route and there was a very bad bottleneck that slowed a lot of people down. And was it ever cold! By the time we started my hands were frozen into little balls of ice. They were numb and a definite distraction. Usually there is a booth at these races giving free coffee but there was no coffee booth this time so my hands got really really cold. It was 37 degrees out there.

And as for Step 1 -- I am 2 pounds away from my goal and wearing everything I own ... not at the same time of course ... I had to get my rings inspected and cleaned on Saturday the jewelry store is right by a Nordstrom Rack. Can't drive by a Rack without stopping, can you? I got myself two new pairs of jeans, which I really needed since most of my other ones are all frayed at the cuff. And a cute little top and a really cute jacket. I'm all set for my trip. Now I just have to make it through a week of work.

No biking today. Care to guess why? Snow!!! Freaking snow!!! We must have set some kind of records in Seattle for the amount of snow we've been getting. At least it wasn't much and had already started melting by this morning so I drove in. I did have a little scare when I was getting ready to pull out onto a busy street from a residential street and started skidding. But otherwise it was an easy drive in. And it's clear now so we probably won't be getting any more snow in the next few days. Fingers crossed.

I got lots of good work done on my skirt. All of the panels started, then hooked together and I'm now just a few rows away from the first eyelet row. I have decided to knit the small size after all because my gauge is off enough so that it won't be too tight. Plus which this yarn grows. I think it's going to be very pretty.

Thank goodness for the rain

and the humidity that comes along with it. It has been SO dry lately. And with the spontaneous nose bleeds that have been plaguing me I was starting to look like a LOST time traveler. It started sprinkling last night and it was lightly raining on my way in this morning. It's good.

I had a decent run yesterday at lunch. I'm pretty confident that if I fuel myself properly I should have a good race Sunday. I'm excited. Can you tell?

My DH is working long and late this week so I didn't see him yesterday evening again. I thought I'd get some good knitting done but Tink was so needy that it was difficult to get anything done. Plus which she's been super itchy again and she's got another yeast infection in her ear! I still have some medicine left from when I went for her right ear and I've been using it. I thought I had the left ear thing kicked but I noticed last night that she was going to town on it and sure enough. So I started it up again and this time I'm going to do the full 7 days of treatment no matter how good her ear starts looking. I remember from when her right ear was bad that when her ear cleared up she stopped scratching so much. Hope that can happen again because the poor little thing ... she's just SO itchy!

Knitting-wise I did manage to get the third panel started and all three put together. Now I need to do the same with another three, join them up and do those little increases and then I should be on track. After I get the lace done this is going to just zip along!

Tonight is a pizza birthday party for my little niece and Saturday tons of errands. But I'll have the whole of Saturday afternoon and evening to rest and knit and then Sunday ....

LOST eats into my knitting time!

I just can't knit when LOST is on. Even the "enhanced" repeat episode is too riveting to knit by. So last night I only got two of the six lace panels started. I need to make three 24 row starts and knit them together, then do the same with 3 more and then put all six together. I thought I was being so clever when I realized that because my gauge was off that I could make the small sized lace panels and then do the rest of it in medium size except ... well, the stitch count is off, isn't it?? And I like the way the skirt is shaped so I will increase before the eyelet row and then start the decreases. Because I am doing the lace panels with a size eight needle they are very stretchy and this should work. Fingers crossed. I don't want to get that far and have to re-do it. I am now all keen on knitting skirts. Go figure.

When I was first starting out knitting I bought some beautiful bulky thick and thin yarn in purples and greens. I made a very bulky first time out V-necked top-down sweater and also a cabled cardigan. I don't wear either one of those sweaters and I fell in love with the Trapeze Jacket from Stephanie Japel's new book, Glam Knits. The yarn is almost exactly the same. I am going to frog those two garments and see If I can get enough yarn to make this. I love it!!

Because I was under the weather this week I didn't get my run on Tuesday. I did run Sunday before the party and then my plan was to run Tuesday and Thursday so I could have a nice rest before the race Sunday. However .... I couldn't run Tuesday so I am going to run today and still rest Friday and Saturday. I rode in today -- cold but totally do-able -- so I won't be rested but I've got to run. At least it won't be so cold at lunchtime. It's actually been pretty nice these past few days, although rain is due to come in soon. But still I can't wait to get to California and Arizona!!!

Felled by a bug

I believe this is/was the second time in 3 months that I've been downed by some mysterious bug. This time it was a stomach thingie. I thought, since I've been eating such a low fat diet lately, that maybe it was a reaction to the fatty foods I was eating this weekend - dinner out Saturday and then the party on Sunday. But when I felt worse as the day went on Monday I realized it must be a bug. I worked from home Monday and Tuesday but I came in today. My stomach is still queasy but I drove in and I'm going to risk it. At least I've been able to eat - just finished a little oatmeal and some berries and so far so good! Fingers crossed.

I never feel much like knitting when I'm sick, plus I was working when I wasn't otherwise occupied but yesterday evening I was feeling better and started looking for a new project. I bit of startitis, I guess, since I'm still working on Rockstar and, of course, a pair of socks. I have purchased some really nice yarn lately - some llama/silk blend and some other Ella Rae silk blend, plus of course I've got those 10 skeins of Ella Rae Shibu. I was looking at little "blouse" patterns, but also I've been wanting to do a round yoke thing but nothing was really calling to me. Either they were pieced or just not right in some way. Some knitted skirts had caught my eye a few days ago and it was bubbling around in my brain and that's what I came up with. A skirt! I have a great pattern in the "Greetings from the Knit Cafe" book, the Lacy Skirt with Bows. I will, of course, modify the pattern to knit it in the round. It is absolutely insane not to do that. Also I am going to use the Ella Rae Shibu even though it's not giving me gauge. I really love the fabric this knits up to on size 7 needles at exactly 5 stitches per inch. The pattern calls for size five needles and 21 stitches per inch. If I switch out to size five needles with this yarn it's going to make the fabric too dense. I'll make the calculations but I think, off the top of my head and from doing a few rows of the lace, that if I use this yarn and make the size small it should come out just right - not quite medium and not quite small. I'm excited to get started and since my DH is going to be working the next few nights I should be able to get a good run at it.

OMG -- this is .. well, is it weird or funny or what??