Knitting and Running Update

Hi everyone!

I have decided this year to participate in or emulate the Yarn Harlot with her self-imposed sock club. I don't need any more sock yarn, in fact, I need less to be able to purchase some yarn at Sock Summit 2011, which I plan on attending. It turns out, I have a lot of people I can knit socks for who will appreciate it. January was my cousin Allison, who really loves socks! I decided to knit the first pair of the year for her, as I promised her socks when I was in Portland, Oregon last time for my grandmother/grandfather's informal memorial. We picked out the Toe-Up Totem Socks and some Dream in Color Smooshy I received in a swap a few years ago. They turned out to be a really good combination. The yarn was a dream and the pattern was easy to follow. I only used the stitch pattern from the pattern, doing my standard toe, heel and bind-off.
I did these in 19 days, which is a record for me for socks. I normally take my time and have more than just the socks on the needles. However, this time, I only had this project going and it went very quickly.You can check out the rest of the project details here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/KnittingDefender/toe-up-totem-socks.
I also finished the baby blanket for my cousin's son. It was difficult to find a spot to take a picture of this. I took the patterns from some dishcloth patterns I purchased on etsy and put them together into a 3 X 3 block pattern with seed stitch in between. You can check out the pattern pictures here http://www.ravelry.com/projects/KnittingDefender/baby-blanket-for-nephew.I have started my February socks already, I'm doing the Manly Aran Socks by Wendy Johnson in String Theory Caper Yarn. It's very soft and a good match for this cabled pattern. You can see the details here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/KnittingDefender/manly-aran-socks.Here is the start...This pattern requires a lot of attention from me at least and so I also started a scarf project to use up one of my single skeins from Rhinebeck. It is Brooks Farm Solo in a green and white colorway. The pattern is the Prismatic Scarf. Here is the ravelry link for the project.
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/KnittingDefender/the-prismatic-scarf
I have been running a fair bit and I have a 5k coming up at the end of February, a 10K planned for April, a 5K planned for July when I am in Portland for Sock Summit on the Nike campus and a half marathon scheduled for the end of August. I admit I have been struggling with my runs, energy wise and my legs have been feeling dead but I stuck it out for 3.5 miles yesterday even though I felt awful. I'm going to start a 10K plan now and jump into a half marathon plan when I am done with that.

I also made meringues for the first time and they turned out great, soft in the middle and crunchy on the outside. I plan on making more as they weren't hard to make.

Happy knitting and running and baking.