Will I Make It?

This past week I didn't get so much knitting done. I am at this point on both socks however. I turned the second heel last night and am knitting my way up the leg slowly. Both socks look pretty much like this, but one has the current repeat pictured and one additional repeat completed. Can I get them done by Sunday around 11 AM when the Tour de France rolls into Paris and onto the Champs d'Elysees? I just don't know. It would probably involve marathon knitting on Saturday because I am missed knitting night tonight. I did knit on the socks while I would have been there, but am not sure I was as productive as I would have been. M is in a team race tomorrow night so that will be cut down on time and Friday night we may go see Inception or something. Can I do it? I probably can, but do I want to?

I did check out Windsor Button's Tuesday lunch knitting group. It's small, but nearby and a good fix if I need to knit. I also picked up some beautiful soft blue Blue Ski Alpaca 100% Organic Dyed Cotton for a baby blanket for a Hawaii baby. I figured wool was just not an option otherwise I would have gone for Cascade 220. I picked up six skeins and it is 150 yards each and it should do it based on other baby blankets I have knit.

Finally, what would the world be if our Big Papi wasn't being cute? Here he is in a box peaking out at me on the couch. We have so many boxes in the living room because we were separating old kitchen stuff to give to our respective siblings.

I have not run since Saturday. I know, I wish I were but ever since I went from running 11-12 minute/mile pace normally to 4 miles on Saturday at 9:30 minute/mile pace my right hip on the front at the crest of illium has been hurting. It's now down to discomfort, but until it is feeling better, I am resting it. I will be taking it slower for my runs from now on. That was way too fast for me.

Happy Knitting and Running!

Tour de France Project

I love the Tour de France. I don't follow cycling except for the Tour, but I love it. It might have something to do with the fact that I love most things French, but not all, and I love the actual country. I can't stand mushrooms and that is something not very Francophile at all.

However, I love the Tour and follow it as much as possible during the week, watching when I can, and I watch on the weekends. During my last summer without 9 to 5 working, when I was studying for the bar exams I took, I watched every day on mute while studying.
Now, I watch less but love it just the same. It's an incredible feat just to ride it and to win it is to be lucky and skilled and determined.

A fair amount of people do a Tour De Fleece where they spin an entire fleece during the three weeks of the Tour. I am doing my own Tour challenge, of a project to complete during the Tour.
I cast on a pair of socks during the first real stage, not the Prologue, and have been knitting on them ever since. They are my Tour challenge, my mountains to climb.



I made a little more progress after taking this photo. I have three repeats done on the first sock I started and I have one repeat finished on the second sock and am on the second repeat now. I want to have three repeats finished on the second sock finished by the end of the day today at least. I think I will need two more repeats on each sock after that for a total of 5 repeats for the foot. I plan on using wendy's gusset heel for these socks instead of the one using wrap and turns. I think I am on pace for finishing these socks by the end of the Tour. We will see how that keeps going. I think there will be a lot of catch up on the weekends for these socks.

I also went running yesterday. M and I joined a running club, the Shamrock Runners. They are out of Woburn, MA, right near where we lived in Burlington. We went to go do a trail run they do on Saturdays yesterday, but people were only there for the earlier runs. M was going to do the entire 9 mile run, but I was going to do less. It was hot by the time we got there at 8 AM and we were the only ones there. We weren't really feeling it and after a few false starts we did 1.9 miles out in 21:26 minutes and walked back because I felt bad after that. I felt light headed and dizzy and like I was going to get sick. He went to the gym after that and did another 6 miles inside. It was too fast for me, our pace. In the heat, I couldn't go that fast and feel good after three drinks the night before and not properly hydrating. I'll try it again next week maybe when we go earlier and without drinking the night before and will properly hydrate.

Happy Knitting and weekend!

FO! FO! FO!

This is why I haven't been posting that much.

I ran my first 5k last weekend.  The arm you can see to the right in red is my husband, M.  I started running 6 weeks before that and signed up for the 5k as a way to motivate myself.  M has been running for many years and has been encouraging me.  I finished in around 36 minutes, which was my goal, besides running the entire thing.  With work and running and life there isn't a whole lot of time.  I have been knitting, but not that much.  

I did finish the socks for my grandfather.  Here is the finished project.  I hope they fit him.  I'm a little worried about that.

I also lost a weekend to Michael's marathon softball game.  Here he is batting during the game.  He did well, even though his team lost.

Here is the finished scoreboard we spent all weekend before the game working on.

I have since started a new pair of socks that I started during the first real stage of the Tour de France this morning.  The prologue just seemed like a strange way to start it to me.  I hope to finish these socks before the final stage in Paris.  I'll fill you in on the details of those next post.

For now, Happy 4th of July and Happy Knitting!