Like the Wind

There hasn't been much knitting at chez Running Tangled, but there has been a little bit. It's just a wee little baby hat, but it's something. I have been busy, though I can't pinpoint what I've been busy doing.

I ripped back the start of Cloud City. I hadn't gotten far, but I realised I messed up, so it got frogged. I'll cast on again shortly. It's going to be so pretty once it's done, but for now it kind of looks like this.

My run streak is going wonderfully. So far my run tally is 88.3km. I haven't missed a day and there are only 10 days (including today) left to do. The finish line is in sight!

Speaking of finish lines ...

Do you remember how I had booked a race for Family Day? Well it went better than I could have ever dreamt! I had hoped to run my 10km in under an hour, but was thinking 59:59 would be sufficient. My dreams came true and then some! My official finishing time was 54:51 and ... yes AND ... I came in first place in my age group (35-39) and got a gold medal! It's not real gold, but the feeling of elation is the same as if it were. :)

Grimsby Family Day 10km

Michael's half marathon was cancelled because of extreme temperatures. Did I mention it was -26C with a wind chill of something much colder. The officials weren't worried so much about the runners who would be constantly moving and keeping warm, but the concern was for the volunteers who would be sitting (or standing) at the different stations along the route for 3+ hours. The half marathoners, hubby included, ran their own 10km race along the same route (at the same time as mine, but the results were calculated separately). He finished in a stunning time of 49:55. Like the wind. Both of us.

Grimsby Half-Marathon 10km -- 49:55

My truck is at the garage getting fixed. The fuel sending unit took a crap and started spewing gas all over the place when under pressure (so every time the truck was running). The part is somewhere in the area of $500-$700 plus labour. Yuck. I can't complain too much though. She's almost 11 years old and hasn't caused us too much trouble since we've had her. Also a $1000-$1500 garage bill is much easier to swallow than the cost of replacing her. Hopefully she will be home later today. I miss her.

Surpris!

The other night I was enjoying my evening sipping wine and browsing knitting patterns on Ravelry. I found quite a few adorable and lovely patterns. One I couldn't wait to cast on for. It's Surpris by Yarn-Madness. She has a lot of patterns I could get excited about knitting, but for now I'm just doing this one.

I'm using a smaller needle (4mm) with a DK yarn for this little sweater, though the pattern calls for 4.5mm needles and worsted yarn, so while aiming for a 3 month size I knit the 6 month size. I'll let you know how accurate my guess was on this. So far it seems good.

Lily picked the colours. :)

Tonight while Michael is out at karate I'm going to work on my test knit of Cygnus. I can't wait to get it knit up. :)

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Good morning and Happy Family Day! Today is also the start of Tim Horton's annual Roll up the Rim to Win. If you're anything like me you rolled the r's in roll and rim. I don't drink Timmies coffee often, but when I do and it's Roll up the Rim time it's very likely I will win a donut (which I won't eat).

Dozer says "yawn, stretch"
A Photo A Day #47

So I won! I finished my Ravellenic Winter Games knit, ahead of schedule. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy I got it finished, but I'm sort of disappointed too, because now I feel kind of naked and need to find a new project to cast on ... naked and idle. Never a good thing for a knitter.

It's finished!
A Photo A Day #48

I used four skeins of Wandering Cat Yarns Big Cat. The colour is a custom order called Sprout. The pictures don't do the colour justice. Maybe later I will get ambitious and go outside (in the freezing cold - 16C temps) to see if I can get a better picture of the colour.

The big picture. :)

Finished dimensions are 38" x 30" so it's a really good sized blanket. The pattern called for 158 stitches to be cast on and to use 5mm needles, but I cast on 122 stitches and used 5.5mm needles. I think the 5.5mm needles worked well with the yarn. I love how it turned out. There were variations in the skeins, two skiens were brighter and two were slightly darker. I started with the brighter one, did two darker ones and ended with the final brighter one. It gives it sort of a gradual look. I had thought about switching skiens every two rows to make it blend better but, honestly, couldn't be bothered. The difference in the yarns is so slight.

Waffle Blanket - Ta Da!

I think I may have to make another one of these ... perhaps a larger one for myself. I'm thinking 8 skeins of Big Cat would do it ... Hmmm.  Maybe a colour graduation from cream to dark blue or oooh crimson and back to cream again.  Hmmm.

Early Morning Hockey

This morning I was up bright and early. I had no alarm going off, yet I was was awake at the same time my alarm normally would go off. Why? Because there was a tweenaged girl sleepover here last night and Lily and her friend were awake early, as was Ethan due to the result of the tweenaged chatter.

At first I was moaning and groaning about not having a sleepover. Then I realised they did me a favour. The Canadian Olympic Women's Hockey team was going to be in their first game (starting at 8am Ontario time; I don't know what that is in Sochi) and because of the tweenaged chatter I wasn't going to miss any of it. The ladies of Team Canada won their game against Switzerland with a SHUT OUT score of 5-0. Go team!! :)

Knitting and Olympic Hockey
A Photo A Day #39

My knitting is coming along really well. I'm about 10% done. The pattern is easy to remember and it looks fabulous in the Big Cat yarn. The stitches really pop.

About 10% done!

I'm really liking this knit. It's simple yet on the pattern row I have to pay just enough attention that it keeps it interesting, but not so interesting that I have to give it more focus than what's happening in the Olympic events. It's perfect. :)

Sochi 2014

Today is the official start of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. GO TEAM CANADA!! I'm so proud of our athletes. I LOVE the Olympics. It's a time where the world comes together in competition, in a positive way. It's a time where Canadians come together to cheer on our athletes. It's great! 

It's also the official start of the Ravellenic Winter Games! Officially at the start of the Opening Ceremonies -- which I heard was 11am (Ontario time) but it's actually 11:14 because it's 8:14pm in Russia (20:14) and the year is 2014 ... so I've got two minutes.

I'm ready to go!!

Ravellenic Winter Games 2014 Project
A Photo A Day #38

Biscotte Booties

I've been a slacker in the knitting department over the last week or so ... the actual knitting bit, I've been hanging out on Ravelry a lot ... and I've actually narrowed down my Ravellenic Winter Games project to ONE thing. That's right folks, I've decided.

I'm going to be knitting Waffle Blanket for the Ravellenic Games. I will be using Wandering Cat Yarns Big Cat in Sprout (which is as green as the name depicts). I got the yarn waaaay back when my sister was pregnant with her 2nd son and started knitting a leafy lace blanket for him. However, I saw something shiny, got distracted, totally forgot about it, lost my pattern (thus my place) and it had to be frogged. Now I have the opportunity to knit it into a blanket for another baby boy (he's due in April, coincidentally my nephew was born in April 2013).

I don't know the baby or the parents and in all likeliness won't meet them. The dad is Michael's co-worker in Saskatchewan. I just like knitting baby stuff. :)

Today I knit a little pair of booties. I just have to seam them up into shape. I think they're adorable. I will probably add these to my booty rotation. Too cute. The pattern is Biscotte Booties. I used Patons Decor on 4mm needles, the colours are Rich Grey Heather (dark) and Grey Heather (light).

Biscotte Booties
A Photo A Day #35

They don't look like much right now, but soon they will be super cute, I promise. :)

Speaking of super ... here's a picture of Jenny, Michael and I as we crossed the finish line at the race on January 26th. I bought this from the photographing company who was at the event ... I'm getting prints made. I especially love it because none of us is touching the ground, it looks like we were flying. :)

Robbie Burns 8km - Jan 26/14
Finish Line Photo

Michael headed off to Saskatchewan this morning. His flight left super early, so we had to be up and out of the house by 5:30am. It's been a long day. Thankfully I don't have much to do, so I watched the Season 6 finale of Sons of Anarchy and knitted booties. :)