Thursday, January 8, 2009

He spoils me


Have I mentioned that HH spoils me? He's a doll and most of the time I don't think I deserve him.

He gave me a bee-yoo-tee-full bicycle last September and we did a spinning class together. It was great fun , but I didn't ride during the holidays when I went on vacation to see Dad, and then let life get in the way of exercise. Well, I just started another spin class and I'm really having fun. Hopefully this can take the place of running since I don't think I'll be able to run marathon distances anymore.

I'm considering doing some long rides this year. I know for sure that I want to do a metric century (100 km or 66 miles), and I'm considering doing a regular century (100 miles in 1 day). I don't know what draws me to these endurance events, maybe since I know I'll never be fast I might as well be out there longer than most everyone else? We'll see.

If you see someone out riding and they have a knitting bag with them, It's probably me!


Slowly (on wheels)
d

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Updates and new projects ...

Time for an update. Back in December I let you know what I've been working on and I've decided that it's time to let you know how things are going.

I finished my philosophy paper, my professor accepted it and gave me an "A" for the course. He was really very generous since I don't think that I produced good work. I hate feeling like I slid by just because I stuck it out and turned something in. I'm grateful for the grade, but I should have done better.

I finished up the pi shawl with a crochet chain bind-off. Now I just need to find the time to block it. I think it will finish up about 3' in diameter.

I only made one of the Ysolda mitts. It's an ingenious pattern, and the hand portion fit really well, but the wrist portion was too tight. I'll try it again, but I'm going to noodle the pattern a little to get it to fit me a little better.

I'm still working on the gansey. I've separated the front from the back and I've decided not to put in gussets because I'm afraid that it would just be too much fabric in a sweater that is already on the thick side since it's being made from worsted weight yarn.

I do have a new project on the needles. I've cast on for Brooklyntweeds Hemlock Ring Blanket. I'm using some Jamieson New England 2 ply wool on size 6 Addis.

I'm also starting a basic pair of toe-up socks. A dear friend of mine brought some lovely sock yarn from Germany. It came in a single 100 gram skein and I've had trouble getting 2 matching socks from a single skein recently, so I decided to try an experiment. I borrowed my HH's digital scale and divided the yarn into 2 (hopefully) equal balls. We'll see how this works out.

Slowly,
d