Biking -not blogging

Although not attractive, I am not falling down while in this race. This was at the Melpomene Institute 5K earlier in the month.



Yes, today I almost fell off my bike in public TWICE! I am so glad I picked this sport. The next embarrassing thing - buying a wet suit! I've also been reading a great book called "The slow fat triathelete - live your athletic dreams in the body you have now" by Jayne Williams. So far, she is right on topic for me. Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to fall off her bike much.

Today was the joy of biking and then the grind of cleaning bathrooms and cleaning the porch. New porch furniture, however, makes for a much more pleasant Sunday of knitting and iced tea sipping. Perhaps a photo is in order. Socks, blue sweater and shawl could all make an appearance.

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

For me, knitting is never all that serious.

I just got around to listening to the knitting related pod casts that I downloaded from I Tunes. I've been listening to Knitcast with Marie Irshad for a long time. She is humorous and really dedicated to knitting. I have never been disappointed in one of her pod casts. Now, Marie has a big set of shoes to step into (not literally, of course, Marie sounds like a lovely petite woman on the radio. I actually do not know what she looks like) for a budding pod caster. However, some of the ones I've been listening to sound awfully serious. Knitting is a craft, usually a hobby and sometimes a business but it should never be SERIOUS!

Maybe relaxed knitting is not a syndrome but a symptom. I thought I was just an extremely loose knitter who loved knitting but not all the work that goes into it. Perhaps, unlike all these "you should teach this way, hold your needles this way, use patterns this way” bloggers, I am just not a serious person.

I don't think I have ever been disappointed in a blogger - after all, everyone has something to share and I have learned a lot but LIGHTEN UP, FOLKS!

Now, back to my regularly scheduled knitting . . .

After putting away Oldest Daughter's blue sweater for a long time - not that I didn't want to knit it but the scarf, the socks, the shawl all pulled me into their lairs - I am finally drawing to a close. Inch by inch. While I learned a lot from this sweater, I have since learned about Combination Knitting from Annie Modesitt and every stitch has been an admission of failure.

Change, Baby, Change! or Change is Good!

Unfortunately, the stitch change would change the gauge. So, no changes. But I can't wait to start the next sweater!!


Now this is serious knitting!

Baseball or blogging?

My weekend started off with a bang at the Saint Paul Saints "Sip, Stitch and Knit" night at Midway Stadium. Although the Saint Paul Saints didn't win (they lost 6 to 1), it was only their second loss of the year and the Yarn themed entertainment was excellent. The giant pig mascot knitted a scarf, they had a knit-off, the cheesy lounge singer sang Weezer's "The Sweater Song" and there were lots and lots of knitters!!

All six of us went to the game and Youngest Child (or Boy, as he could be called) was enthralled. Wiggly, but enthralled. He was terribly excited when he got a hat and a jersey. I think he was in Boy Heaven when someone gave him their inflatable rally bat! The next day at 7 a.m., he was in our bedroom asking for his hat and "Where is my baseball coat, Mommy?" Andy had to get up early and play ball for a while just to get him calmed down. The rest of the family was entertained - after all, what could go wrong when the weather is lovely and there is cotton candy? - but not overcome by the idea of baseball. Seemed like too much work for them. It was a little hard to knit with small needles and keep track of the score.

As for me, the reality of all those hotdogs, cheese curds and cotton candy hit the next day when I had to bike and run for a Brick workout. Bleah! Not the food of champions.

Exhaustion - or creating a Wrap of Many Colors in under 36 hours.

Some time ago I mentioned purchasing a Shepherd's Choice competition bag of various fleeces at the 2005 Shepherd's Harvest Lamb and Wool Show.

Well, I cleaned the wool some time ago - the Lincoln was absolutely the pits to clean - and then promptly forgot all about it. About two weeks ago, I suddenly remembered the competition and began spinning like a demon. (There must be more yarn, there must be more yarn! - shades of "The Rocking Horse Winner.") Then, I changed my mind about knitting an afghan and suddenly, the colors were all wrong. Back to the dyepot. Still not quite right? How about adding in some Kidsilk Haze? Well, after a long night of knitting on Thursday and an even longer night on Friday, I turned in my scarf on Saturday and - lost. I enjoyed the results but no gift certificates for me.

Here's a peek of the Wrap. The edge stripe of purple is Jacob wool dyed violet, the yellow is Southdown dyed with lemon jello and knitted with Kidsilk Haze, the green is Border Leicester, the golden rose is Lincoln, the turquoise knitted with Kidsilk Haze is Suffolk, the gold is Polypay, the red-purple is a mix of Ramboullet/Border Leicester/Corridown and the final pink stripe is Ramboullet. The other picture is of Oldest Daughter modeling the Wrap as Scarf along with her fabulous Giant Leg. Breaking a leg plus surgery for a plate/screw combination equals giant leg wrap and a wheelchair. Tomorrow we find out about getting a cast. She was especially bummed because rainy weather made the fair grounds too wet for using crutches or a wheelchair so she couldn't go to Shepherd's Harvest. Next year, grasshopper!