Knit Run, Purl Run

So I finally decided to go ahead & give a couple more highly popular patterns a go ~ my thinking was to do them for gifts, as there are several birthdays coming up as well as the holidays.  So first up was Calorimetry.  Easy pattern, definitely had to cut down on the size.  I found this just gorgeous yarn in my stash – perfect for fall!  Um, so I fell in love with it while I knit and I’m thinking I might end up keeping this for myself.  LOL!  But seriously – look how gorgeous it is for fall:

Next up – Clapotis, of course.  Yeah, every knitter in the world has tackled this pattern except me, right?  LOL  I’m planning to make one for my sister, possibly kid-sized ones for my nieces.  We shall see, anyway.  ;)

The yarn crawl.  We started off at Needles & Knobs in St. Pete ~ always nice to browse all the lovely yarns & hang out on the couches chatting.  I ran & grabbed a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks & met everyone else up at the Alpaca farm.  YES, an alpaca farm in the heart of suburbia!  It was awesome!!  My guys were actually pretty bummed that they were gonna have to miss it, they really wanted to see the alpacas – probably a good thing they missed them, ‘cuz they’d have been begging me to take one home!  Man, those critters are so sweet and gentle!  They have the biggest eyes & will truly melt your heart.  It was a fantastic visit ~ I definitely want to go back again sometime.  Luckily, they are only 2 miles away from me, woo hoo!!  Unfortunately, I had to run to the store to pick up some machine washable yarns for the gifts planned, then get back home.  I have to work again this weekend, so I still haven’t made it up to Uncommon Threads, which I’ve heard is a fantastic yarn shop.  I also missed the visit to my own LYS, but hey, I’m there often enough!  he he he

Gnat – amazing job finding Jamie & her farm – truly awesome job on organizing the yarn crawl!!  Seriously, dude, WOW!  ;)

I have the project done for Biscotte, YAY!  I made it in time for her to ship it out with her sock club yarns.  It will be getting posted on Ravelry for the sock club folks to use for their projects.  She just *might* sell the yarn & pattern as a sock kit in her shop – I’m hoping she does because the colorway is FANTASTIC!  :D

Next up – shopping bags & Clapotis!  ;)

All has been quiet on the running front still.  These 80 hour work weeks are killing me, seriously.  *sigh*  Hopefully it will mellow out here in the next month & I’ll be able to get back on track.

I truly had not planned to post any of my reaction to the events of the past week in the political arena.  I truly hadn’t.  But then I came upon this link that someone had posted elsewhere.  I found it to be one of the most illuminating reads for me to date, actually.  I cannot thank the author enough for providing the information, links & yes, even his opinion.  :)

Emperor’s Rants & Observations

Also interesting – go back & read previous posts as well.  I think you’ll find them equally illuminating.  For example, in one from July 2007:

From where I sit it looks as Queen P was ill-prepared to take office. As I feared without any experience at the state level. It’s too bad that the people of Alaska have to suffer through her on the job training.  Perhaps the problem is that she hasn’t surrounded herself with competent people. Perhaps she is spending to much time making appearances and videos for late night TV, rather than working on the things that she was sent to do in Juneau… like being a leader, cutting the budget and making government open and transparent.

I have written & rewritten this post several times.  Putting thoughts in, taking them back out.  In the end, I’ve decided to simply put the link here – encourage you all to go read it.  Anything that I might say here is really more of a waste of time, I think – as I know full well that anything I might have to say is not going to change anyone’s mind.  Read the post, follow the links provided in it to the Alaskan newspapers articles.  Some you’ll need to get to the comments to find links via the Wayback Machine, as some of the links have beens scrubbed already.

Soooo….  on the knitting front – I’ve been getting quite a bit done this long holiday weekend, actually.  YAY!  I will say that I *am* working on a sock pattern, which is toe-up…  and I am in the process of turning the heel now.  I’ve got part of it written up, but need to finish knitting it so that I’ll have pictures for it.  It’s for Biscotte’s upcoming sock club – if you follow the Biscotte link to her Etsy shop, you’ll see her fantastic yarns.  :)

Running – still not much, the odd 3 miler here & there.  If it isn’t raining, then I get sucked into work or news stories the past few days.  tomorrow, though, I’ve got a 4 miler planned for the morning.  Hoping it isn’t raining when I wake!!

Too much work, huge project we’re trying to wrap up…  will be working all weekend long.  Gosh darnit!  Hope to squeeze in time for a run or two as well as a bit of knitting.  I’m still diligently working on the new sock pattern, one row at a time.

But the other WIP I’ve got is actually a shopping/market/grocery bag.  I got it in my head last week that I really wanted to make MYSELF one – I’ve made them for friends & family, but it’s time I made one for me too!  :)  So that’s what I’ve been working on more often than the sock.  It’s getting close to being done, so I’ll return to the sock very soon.  :)

But interestingly enough, I was just scouting other market bag patterns, well… just because.  I found another pattern that looks pretty good that I might try for upcoming gifts…  then I came across this post by Firefly – you simply must go give it a read!  She says what I wanted to say so well, there just isn’t any point in my repeating it.  She’s got a stellar project going on!