Sunday, October 12, 2008

Packing my bags and heading west!


Sorry to be AWOL this week, but I have absolutely no clue where the week has gone! Last weekend, Chuck and I worked on the house, Amy and Andy came up on Saturday to go out to dinner with us to celebrate my birthday, and then Amy, Tracy, and I competed into town for the Dino Dash on Sunday. I was very happy to see that I was able to top my 13-min/mile pace and bump it up to 12:49-min/mile. Woo-hoo! I shaved off 11 seconds! Also, if any of you know Tracy, please give her a pat on the back the next time you see her b/c her hard work has really paid off. I tried to keep pace with her, but just couldn't do it.


The rest of the week was really a blur of work, running errands, knitting, and preparing for being out of town this coming week. Thanks to Cheanne's help, I was able to finish the tear down and re-knit of a shrug that was made several years ago (2004, maybe?). Wearing this shrug felt like I was in a Chinese finger trap, so rather than have a nearly finished project (needed a ruffle) that wasn't ever going to be worn hanging around the house, it was re-purposed into a man's scarf. In case you're wondering, this project was made out of Encore (!). I have since lost the label, but actually like this colorway. If you look closely at the yarn, there's a second, thinner yarn spun with the thicker, overall color. The thinner yarn is a baby blue, which catches the eye every now and then...

After much consternation over having to run out to the store to purchase size 10.5 needles (a swatch using size 10s and one using size 11s just wasn't doing it for me), I started and nearly finished the "Medallion Caplet" from the Winter 07/08 issue of Vogue Knitting. I'm making it out of Noro's Kochoran. I'm hoping to wear it this week while on my trip, so need to finish the collar and do some light blocking tonight. Oh well....I really didn't want to hem that pair of slacks anyways. Hemming is such a pain!



The yarn and pattern for this project was bought at Knit Michigan back in February (yes, 2008, for those of you who've held onto projects for longer than that). I saw a version of this cape at the Skeins on Main (Rochester) booth and knew that I really needed to make it.



Since there's angora in the yarn, it did shed quite a bit on my clothes while wearing. I'm hoping to pair this with a brown shirt and gray slacks, so hopefully the shedding won't really stick out too badly....

Now, I just need to find the right button or clasp in my collection to hold it shut.



In case you've made it this far and haven't gotten completely agitated with me b/c I haven't mentioned where I'm going, congratulations on your perseverance! I'm headed to Portland, Or tomorrow for a dam removal and sediment monitoring workshop being held by the Subcommitte on Sediment. I'll be back on Friday, and am hoping to enter at least one blog entry over the the week to update on how things are going. I'll twitter for sure, especially since I'm hoping to hit some of the LYSs while there.


Before I quit for the night, there's one more project for me to mention: I took all of these little squares from Nancy's monthly Stitch Challenges at Woven Art and seamed them together to make a third scarf for the MSU vs UM Charity Knitting drive (Go State!). I'm not quite done as I have 2 more months worth of squares to go, so I'll worry about taking a better photo before turning this over to Nancy to add to her donation tree. This'll be my 4th scarf for this drive, so I really hope we kick some Wolverine ass!

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