MA -- Miscellaneous Accomplishments.

A few things have happened the past couple of days...

I actually finished my Anthro-inspired capelet on Saturday, but have not yet taken pictures. There are a few reasons for this, but I would say the biggest one is that I am trying to nail this new Lauren Conrad-esque braided hair as a headband type hairstyle, and I haven't gotten it to look like much other than a rat's nest yet. I promise pics will be up soon (when I figure out how to make my hair cute, I mean).

Monday was my first *official* day of 5 weeks to a 5k training. I was instructed to "circuit 20 minutes", which means jog 'til you're winded, then walk to catch your breath, then jog again, for a total of 20 minutes. Much inspired by a new playlist sent my way by Linds (thanks, lady!), I started on my 5 minute warmup walk. I then started jogging, and when I looked down at my watch, was already at 18 minutes! I knew I could make it another 7, and I did -- my first time jogging for a full 20 minutes. A small accomplishment, but one that was much celebrated by way of new Nike DriFit running shorts (40% off PLUS employee discount...!).

Tonight, Deane made a delicious dinner of lean steak and pepper skewers on the grill and king crab legs, which helped me stay within my fitday.com required limits :) So tasty and healthy! He is a great cook and always wants to try new things (I had *no* idea how to make crab legs), and I love that. He also finished grouting the new shower in the bathroom and sanding the imperfections in the walls. We are so close to a fully remodeled master bath, all compliments of my v. handy man. Lots of productivity in this house!

Today I started my first original pattern -- a cropped black vest in Paton's Pooch. I have a serious love/hate relationship with this yarn. It has lots of adorable bobbles throughout, which is fabulous for covering mistakes, but it takes 2 full reruns of One Tree Hill (DVR'ed, no commercials) to cast on 81 stitches and knit the first row. For a super bulky yarn, it does *not* knit up quickly, and creates a lot of confusion within stitches (is it a loopy loop or an actual stitch?). Halfway through Idol, I thought about frogging the whole thing, but I am going to stick with it and see what happens. I am really hooked on knitting things I can wear now.

Pics soon! Have a great week!

A quick post.

*SO* much to blog about, so little time.

I am thinking of laying out my entire life onto a spreadsheet, including daily goals of caloric intake, knitting progress, and running time. Will also need to include time to learn blogger and make the most of this still-under-construction, sorry ass page. Hope that what I provide in content makes up for what I lack in impressive page-making skills.

Am also thinking of creating a Hal Higdon like training guide on how to become a knitter (or finish an unfinished project...!) I am using his methods to train for my first 5K.

Anthrolpologie capelet is almost finished. Expect pictures to be posted by Tuesday.

Lots more to come; stay tuned!

Good intentions.

Ok, so I can't cross everything off the list I promised to finish this weekend, but I did:

1. Finish, seam, and felt the charcoal diagonal stripes bag. Here is a pic before:

And, after:

It was an interesting experience. I was careful at first, washing her on delicate in cold water with a pair of old jeans (thanks to a tip from Vickie Howell). She shrunk up all weird and not at all in some places, and I could still see the stitches throughout. I tried another spin cycle, but there were no changes. Finally, I went all out and threw her in REGULAR cycle in WARM water. That did the trick! You can see it shrunk to about 1/3 its original size, and it needed quite the haircut when it came out (this wool sheds more than my dogs, which is saying a LOT), but it came out quite nicely. I searched high and low for appropriate handles and/or a snap, but have had no luck. This afternoon, I purchased some size 9 dpn's (finally) and think I am going to try to fashion a felted i-cord handle. Not sure at all how this will turn out, but I kind of hate this bag by now anyway (why knit with winter colors at the beginning of spring???), so chances are it will never see the light of day.

2. Posted pictures of felted bag (see above).

3. Cleaned out 9 episodes of Knitty Gritty from the DVR (and learned a cool 9 block blanket, tank top, fair isle pattern, and tri-color technique...!

And, I am *so* proud of my last accomplishment. Determined to start a garment, but hateful of all tank top patterns, I discovered a gorgeous Anthropologie-inspired piece to start next. I had picked up some Bernat Bamboo in corn -- simply because the texture was so scrumptious. (I had been spoiled by some delish Malabrigo at Christmas and have hated everything I've knit with ever since.) I cast on and going to town after only one day on this project:

I'm not sure about the color now that I have started, but it is a good practice piece. Too bad I'll probably spend more on a button for finishing at Anthropologie than I did on the entire sweater. Maybe I'll get lucky and find something cute and re-usable around the house.

Feeling v. productive and proud of self, and so excited to see how my little capelet turns out -- it could be a gateway to knit designer knockoffs!

Distractions Abound.

There are a lot of reasons I have not knit a stitch nor posted a blog in the past TWO WEEKS. Above all else, I should blame the lack of productivity on myself -- surely a motivational seminar/book/hypnosis CD would encourage me to make more out of the hours in my day. Here, however, are a few reasons there are FEWER hours in my day, leading to frustration, leading to a lack of desire to knit:

1. Commute. I spend upwards of 2 hours per workday in my truck. Now, I love my truck very very very much, not least of all its ample store space (a console large enough for Roxy ipod speakers, my Juicy slouch hobo, Nissan owner's guides, 4 Lancome juicy tubes, 3 pairs of sunglasses, AND a current knitting project...!), but the recent gas hike is really cutting into my yarn budget. As much as I like both having time to unwind before getting home and the fact that I am physically separated from my place of business by over 40 miles, the fact of the matter is that this is 10 hours per week I could be spending knitting.

2. Commitment to craftiness in other mediums. This past weekend, I revisited one of my favorite crafts -- t-shirt making. In college, we would make t-shirts for nearly every occasion. I can't think of a party, birthday, or event that didn't consist of a trip to Target for a 3 pack of boys Hanes tees, along with hours in a dorm room with fabric markers. My 2 besties, Em and Linds, are training for the Flying Pig marathon in Cincinnati on May 4th. In addition to being phenomenally committed runners, they were also chosen by Cin Weekly to blog about their training and experiences. This led to a series of photo shoots, interviews, celebrity sightings (even I was shown on the cincinnati.com home page thanks to these ever-popular ladies!), least of which was their constant re-appearance in Cin Weekly. So, I fashioned them some tees to wear as they run about town. I will post a pics as soon as I get them (hint hint!) By the time I nailed the logos of all the sponsors I wanted on these special shirts, this turned into a weekend-long project (but one well worth the hours invested!)

3. Learning to blog. My brother is nothing short of a genius, who I am sure has something of a cult following on his own livejournal. It took me no short amount of time to figure out how to incorporate the links above, but I am v. proud of this accomplishment. Thanks for your help, Michael. :) I am still wading into the unknown waters of html editing, but I'll get there someday.

4. Pets! April 20th we celebrated the 3rd birthday of Lilly and 4th birthday of Roach, our two large and wolf-like dogs who I love more than life. We spent most of the weekend eating bones, watching tv, and laying on the floor together. Here is Lilly singing "Happy Birthday":

We also welcomed the addition of kittens! We have 3 outside cats, the result of their reluctantly-inherited-when-neighbor-moved-away mother (rest in peace). All 3 of them seem to have spurred kittens this weekend. We are unsure of how many exactly, or whose are whose, but I did snap this pic of all of them sleeping in a heap.

5. Ravelry.com. I am new to this online knitting community, and I have already lost countless hours browsing patterns, other members' stashes of yarn, blogs, and so on. I spent three days just looking for a pattern for a blanket! This site is AWESOME -- certainly the greatest resource a knitter can have. I am excited to delve into it more.

This weekend, I have SWORN to do three things:

1. Sew handles onto the felted diagonal striped bag.

2. Post pictures of said felted bag.

3. Watch at least 4 of the 34 new episodes of Knitty Gritty on my DVR.

And, as a stretch goal, my 4th ambition is to cast on a tank top (my first apparel item!).

We'll see what distractions come up this week...

How much does the job of "fact-checker" pay?

Ever the slave to celebrity smut, even I do not stoop so low as to watch the TMZ television show on a daily basis -- however, I did catch a brief glimpse of it the other night before Idol, when TMZ showed brothers Peyton and Eli Manning leaving a late-night club with some "hot chicks (uh oh!)". Even with the shittiest camera work imaginable, it was obvious the "chicks" were Peyton's wife and Eli's fiance (of whom they had just shown a photo). I'm quite certain this is the least of TMZ's injustices, but it upset me quite a bit. You don't see Tom Brady spending time raising money for "Idol Gives Back", do you?





Here's the video, in case you missed it.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid353549946/bctid1493152527





Also, I really need to learn how to imbed links. I wanted you to be able to click on "Tom Brady" and see his Stetson cologne ad. (Michael, help!)

Movie Theatre Handbag

Over 2/3 of the way done with my first felted project, this is officially the BIGGEST HANDBAG EVER. Bigger than the kind you take to the movies to sneak in a candy bar and a soda. Bigger than the kind you take to the movies to sneak in a ChikFilA 12 pack nugget, fries, a large sweet tea, and 2 tall boys of Steel Reserve. I mean, it is HUGE (you can see the ruler next to it in the picture). The finished dimensions are supposed to be something like 13" by 8". This thing is going to shrink like [insert witty analogy here].

Sorry for the lack of posts; this bag has almost swallowed my computer. I hope to bind off and felt this weekend, then pick out a great pair of wooden handles to complete!

First non-knitting related post.

I cannot live another minute without pointing out the obvious similarities between American Idol finalist David Cook and Roger from "American Dad!". I wish I had a more recent picture of his haircut from this week, but the equal square footage of forehead space is still apparent in these photos: