No longer good society . . .

Hey, if Guinifer says "Jump off a bridge," we all jump! Enjoy . . .



Although, I think the second rule of Jane Austen Fight Club should be, "Learn to knit."

If you are totally confused, you may need to reference these two works:

Pride and Prejudice and

    Fight Club 

Oh, this is just getting better and better . . .

Or, what the difference an inch or two makes.

So, my gauge has been off about half a stitch and I'm making the medium size of my Mr. Greenjeans sweater.

 Sometimes that isn't really a problem - sometimes it is. And today it is. 

I think this may be a result of my sore hand (more about that later) but I'm not really sure. 

It could be the iffy nature of the "worsted weight" Briar Rose Abundance yarn. I am actually getting perfect gauge for the yarn - just not for the Greenjeans sweater. From the front and side - the gauge looks good. Nice, even. However, from the back - whew, look out! One big sweater coming by!

Yikes. So, later today, I'll be ripping this back. Back to casting on for the small size. I've never actually made a small sized sweater before! But I think that the change in gauge demands it. 

As for my sore hand - I'm going to see the hand doctor on Monday. It's been getting better but (small problem here) every time I swim or bike - it becomes very, very sore. As I'm supposed to be doing another big swim in August plus a triathlon, I'm gonna be needing that hand. Luckily, running - no problem. 

Youngest Boy and I have been running three times a week and I've been running my own distances on the other days. Let me tell you - you get much better tan lines swimming than running!

As for my Saturday Seven - 

One pair of pants, a grey teeshirt, a pair of soccer shoes & shin guards, one pair of soccer socks and a mini potholder loom.

And a copper compost pot. Try singing that to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas!"

A great day out with the kids!

Not my kids, mind you, but the MiracleKids Triathlon at Lake Nokomis.

Bikes everywhere! 

This is a kids triathlon where kids raise money for families with children with cancer. 

It's sponsored by the Miracles of Mitch Foundation. 

"For his final wish, Mitch made his family promise they would keep helping cancer kids and he sealed it with a “pinky swear” made with his father.

The MOMF is the non-profit formed in 2003 to fulfill that pinky swear. Today it is one of the very few charities that provides direct support to families who are treating a child with cancer.

The MOMF has two major giving priorities:

To provide cost of living financial assistance to the families of children diagnosed with cancer, and

To facilitate an individually tailored quality of life initiative for that child and their family.

The MiracleKids Triathlon is by far the MOMF’s largest fundraiser of the entire year. If not for the hard work of each MiracleKid raising pledges and the generosity of each and every donor, the foundation would not have the funding needed to support cancer families across Minnesota."

There are two races - one at Lake Nokomis in July and one at Lake Ann in August.

Today I was lucky enough to be the USAT waiver volunteer at Lake Nokomis - I handed out waivers to parents who were registering their child atheletes - and then I got to cheer on all the swimmers as they exited the water and ran on to the bike transition area.

That was one long gangway from the lake to the parking lot but those kids were just flying! They were very excited and I saw that continue later at the run to the finish line! Smiles all around and lots of friends holding hands as they crossed the finish line. 

For some time there has been a "2010 Miracle Kids Triathlon" button that leads to Youngest Child's First Giving page. 

Yep, YC is racing at the Lake Ann race in August. We've been running together three times a week (for a mile at a time), biking and swimming together as well. He's progressed to Level Four in swimming lessons this summer and got his first bike with hand brakes. We've gone to the MoM swim training at the Foss Swim School and we are planning to go and bike the Lake Ann course in August.

According to YC - he's ready to rock! 

I know not everyone is able to give and that many people have already planned their giving but if you are able to make a pledge in any amount - this is an excellent cause. And if you are able to volunteer at the Lake Ann event, I'll see you there!

Third time was no charm

Lovely, eh? 

But this was one of the flatter sections. And shortly afterwards, at almost the end of the bike course portion of the triathlon I was training for, I crashed my bike. 

Luckily, my first biking injury was just a sprained wrist - yea! - but no vacation triathlon either.

This view was the bloodiest but not that bad.

At this point in my day, I was longing to get out of these bike shorts!

Since typing is a bit hard, I'll be getting back to you later.

And the knitting is on hold for a bit as well . . . 

Things I learned from Plarn

Last week I took a class all about knitting with Plarn. You do know what Plarn is, right? Plastic Yarn made from recycled plastic grocery bags.

Lesson #1: Plan on a long evening at home. Making plarn involves cutting up lots of plastic bags and then connecting them.  Me? I was watching back episodes of Stargate SG-U: 1.0.

Lesson #2: Plarn rustles. No knitting with plarn in church! It starts out fairly wide but as it passes through your hands, it stretches and becomes much thinner. But it also makes a lot of noise . . .

Lesson #3: Plarn is easy to make mistakes with. The stitches blend together and it is very easy to lose track! I've been frogging quite a bit for using recycled plastic bags.

Lesson #4: Plarn can be very pretty! Eventually I will have an Ilene Bag - a very nice, stretchy shopping bag. Until then, though, I just have plarn.

And just in case you wanted to see a work in progress - check out Kate E. Austen's "How to make Plarn" video tutorial . . . 

(Oh, and that Saturday Seven? Pretty sure it was more than seven but I took two shopping bags full of dishes, trays, mugs and jackets over to a rummage sale. It was going to rain so I just skipped the photograph and dropped it off. Use your imagination!)

My new sock?

Okay, so I was overwhelmed by the sock love going on at the Minnesota Knitters' Guild's June "Sockapolooza" meeting - all kinds of sock techniques displayed made me hungry! - and I started another pair of socks.

The "My Vampire Boyfriend" sock from Knitty.com is a knit-a-long project over at Ravelry.com and now it's giving me heart palpitations!

I'm using some lovely Claudia Hand Painted Yarn (Fingering Weight) in the "Rubies Playing" colorway. It's a deep, rich variegated red. The pattern? Grrr. I've ripped back twice.

I'm thinking a nap should clear things up. I had a 1 mile swim this morning and while it was an okay workout and not that hard of a distance, I really had a problem sleeping last night. Lots of sighing!

The rain held off and my time was about seven minutes slower than in a pool. 

(Editor's Note: Times were posted today and my time was actually 31:12 - that's actually only 1 minute slower than my pool time! Yea!)

And I ran into fellow knitter Shelly Kang! She was doing the 2 mile swim and looked fantastic!

Today's Saturday Seven starts out pretty slowly - no photos except for a "Kent Co-Pilot Kids Tag-a-long bike." 

Our neighbors gave it to us after their own grandson stopped using it. Youngest Child is biking on his own now and we needed to find it a home. So, off to Freecycle with it!

Running with the big dogs, er, guys!

By 9 a.m. this morning, I'd run a 5k race, had a beer and brat and was on my way home. As Mr. Daisy said, "This could be a recruiting poster for the Army!"

For some reason, Mr. Pringles led off the race, the Lederhosenlauf 5k at the Germanic-American Institute. 

I was happy it was an early morning - it was pouring rain by 10 a.m. After knocking back a few chores, I think it's time for knitting and watching "James and the Giant Peach." I've started Not Plain Jane's Hedgerow Socks (only down 2-at-a-time as in 2-at-a-Time Socks: Revealed Inside. . . The Secret of Knitting Two at Once on One Circular Needle Works for any Sock Pattern! - a great resource!) and they are at the tricky getting-the-pattern-set-up part so I'm not taking them around town just yet.

As for that Saturday Seven, I found three curtains (from who knows where!), three tee shirts and a pair of sweat pants. 

When you have curtains you can't remember buying, you have to many curtains!