The thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat.

Well, one out of two ain't bad.

I was going for two medals this past Sunday. In my last post, I shared my goal for the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics, to finish the Darkwood Cardigan. I had 17 days to do so. Now, I'm sure that there were times in those 17 days that I could have been knitting and wasn't, but I knew I had no plans for Friday night and Saturday during the day and was planning on using that time as catch-up. Until...

We had a little repeat performance of New Hampshire weather damage on Thursday. A crazy wind storm blew through the Granite State and parts of Massachusetts, leaving almost 300,000 without power in NH and over 100,000 in Mass. We did not have power from Thursday night til Monday afternoon! Luckily, we borrowed a small generator from a friend, but it was literally only hooked up to the burner so we could heat the house and shower. We didn't even have any light! So try as I might... I did not finish the cardigan. So sad. I still have the hood, weaving in ends, and buttons to do. I actually debated staying up late to finish on Sunday night, and then realized that I never got any buttons! So aggrevating! So, I cut my losses and went to sleep. But as you can see... I REALLY tried... *sigh*

Knitting with a headlamp!

Onto better news... the OTHER medal I was shooting for was the finisher's medal for the first leg of the Wild Rover Series!! This series is so fun. You run three weeks in a row, 3, 4, and 5 miles, respectively. They all begin and end at Irish bars. The shirts are great, the food is great, and everyone's attitude is happy and fun! At the end of each race, you get a medal, and those three medals come together to form one BIG medal! So fun, right? Two years ago I ran the first and third races. Last year I ran the second and third. So this year I said self... you are getting all three of those medals! My biggest concern was not finishing, since I have been battling IT Band Syndrome. But thanks to my good friend and trainer, I have been working on rolling, stretching, and strengthening my legs to make them strong enough to run again! No pain! I was even able to cross the finish line in a dead out sprint against another girl who tried to pass me... and failed. :) Me with my hardware below, 4 miles this Sunday, I hope its just as successful!


And hopefully I can show off my new cardigan before the weather gets too warm to wear it...

New!!

First new thing is a new baby in my life! My friend Kelly had her baby, Beckett this week! I got to meet him last night and he is just gorgeous. Congrats to Kelly and Scott!

Here's me and Beckett :)



Its always so exciting to have a new baby around!

Ok the other new thing is my crazy idea to join the Knitting Olympics! This is different from Ravelympics, which I didn't get around to in time. Knitting Olympics is on the Yarn Harlot's site, the post is here. Cast on during opening ceremonies, finish before closing ceremonies, and the project has to be something that's a challenge for you. I have chosen to knit the Darkwood Cardigan (Rav link). I bought the yarn for this during the summer, printed the pattern, got the needles... just haven't gotten around to knitting it. I think the project itself will be fine, but the challenge will be working on it enough to have it done in 17 days!!!

Watching the dog show...

Its going to be a great day...

Happy Thursday!

I left for work early enough today to stop and get coffee/oatmeal at my favorite nation-wide coffee chain. I decided to go in instead of waiting in the looooong drive thru line. After I paid I walked over to wait for my chai and a pleasant girl saw me and said "I like your hat"


And after I thanked her she said "I bet you made it... I saw you at the register and said 'Hey, that's the Amanda Hat'".

You can't imagine how excited I was, as this has never, ever happened to me! So then I commented on her scarf, which was the Prismatic Scarf and she told me she made an Amanda hat to go with it. I told her it also goes well with the Shifting Sands Scarf, as I made a set for my friend, and we chatted about patterns that show off variegated yarns, Ravelympics, and knit groups. Then she grabbed her latte and left.

I love how a hat that took me all of 5 hours to make can spark a conversation between two knitters to make the time waiting for coffee to pass that much quicker. Its going to be a good day!

And here is a better pic of my Amanda Hat:

Pattern: Amanda Hat by Gina House\

Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted, I believe in Azul Bolita

I made this hat on the train to and from New York from 1/1 to 1/2 of this year. This poor yarn wanted to be the Koolhaas hat so badly, but it was never meant to be... I think it looks great as an Amanda, though :) I am trying to decide what to do with the rest of the skein now, possibly a matching cowl, since as we know, Mmmmmalabrigo is SO soft.

Just another Sunday night

Finding comfort in some Comfort

A WIP and a conversation with my favorite non-knitter

For Christmas this year, my wonderful husband got me these, which I had asked him for months ago. He always pays attention and its always a pleasant surprise:

He has no idea what "frogged" or "ripped" means to a knitter, but he tries to use them in conversation with me. On Sunday, I was working on my sweater (see below) and we had this conversation:

M: You know what? I am SO excited that this sweater fits me so far.
E: Yep, otherwise you'd have to frog it.
M: Oh my God! You know what that means now!
E: Honey I don't really, I...
M: Do you know why they call it frogged? Because you rip something out and the noise is something like "rip-it, rip-it"... y'know, like "ribbit, ribbit", like a frog.
E: Ok, that's weird. So, when you frog something do you call it a lilly pad?
M: No, but that's a great idea. We say we send it to the frog pond.
E: Uh-huh
M: Just ripping a few rows is just called ripping. And when you just have to take some stitches out and you un-knit them, you call it "tink-ing", because "tink" is "knit" backwards, get it?
E: You lost me.

So I may end up calling frogged projects Lilly Pads now, because Erm made it up and its cute.

But I WON'T be frogging THIS:

Its the Textured Tunic with Side Buttons from Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel. I love this pattern, I love this book, I love this yarn. I love everything about this sweater so far. I love that it FITS. After the Rusted Root incident, I learned that although its a pain to do, its a good idea to take things off the needles and try them on. It also gave me an idea of where to do my decreases for my waist, which I've done. Now I'm ready to increase for my hips. I can't wait to get this one done!!!! This picture here is closer to the true color. My apologies for those messy yarn baskets!

A needle in a haystack...

...or a bobby pin in my bag!

Happy New Year! Looking at other peoples' blogs, it seems like a lot of people had a rough 2009! Here's to a happy, healthy 2010!!!

We started off the new year by heading down to New York City for a great dinner and a show at the Blue Note Jazz Club to see Chris Botti! We took the train, which gave me plenty of time to knit, of course. I took my nice bright blue Malabrigo with me and the pattern for the Amanda Hat (Rav link). I tried to make the Koolhaas Hat (Rl) with it, but after two or three unsuccessful attempts, I decided to cut my losses and try something else. How liberating.

At the end of the hat, I realized I did not have any tapestry needles with me to weave in my ends! I really wanted to wear my hat off the train because it was snowing in Boston, so I had to use my MacGyver skills and figure something out. I rummaged around in my purse and found my new tool:

That's a bobby pin. Don't leave home without it.