AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

a new log

Seanna Lea — 2009-07-15T06:44:34-04:00

Monday I picked up a new workout logbook. I had just finished week 24 in the Ultimate Workout Log by Suzanne Schlosberg. Usually I just use the same workout log, but I was tired of the same tips and tricks, quizzes and other flavor. I was also getting tired of buying at least 2 of these a year. So, my new workout log is The Runner's Training Diary by Bob and Shelly Glover. This training log is much more bare bones. Each week is broken over 2 pages and has little boxes for mileage, shoes, heart rate and other things that are important for runners (and should be important for many avid exercisers). There is a big box for each days running, which I am using to record pretty much any exercise I do.

So far it is pretty good. I put my walking at the bottom of each big box with my other non-running exercises in the middle. My running goes near the top. I'm not sure that this will truly make me a better runner, but I'm hoping that I can get past what for me is a major hurdle. My training cycle is usually about 4 months steady followed by 1-2 months of almost nothing. The last almost nothing was right before my last half marathon. Not exactly a stunning training plan. My next half marathon is in about 10-11 weeks, and I would like to stay on target this time. I don't mind including walking in the plan, but I need to feel solid at a 10 mile run.

Running isn't the only thing I'm doing, but it is one of things I've been thinking most about. I've been doing very little at home, but I finally managed to get a library card. I've been flipping through Victorian Lace Today and Hands On Rigid Heddle Weaving. I'm hoping to finish a project this week, so I can start something new (maybe from these books or more likely the vest pattern I've been eyeing). Two months is a long time for project monogamy.

sometimes the internet is full of stupid

Seanna Lea — 2009-07-13T12:58:22-04:00

Let's take for example mbta.com. This site has a nice little trip planning tool, and I was wondering if it would be reasonable to try and make it to an after work social knit. It's been ages since I've been to a social knitting event at a shop (I didn't really knit at the guild meeting, though I certainly could have).

There is a yarn shop in Dedham that I haven't been too called Sheep Skate. I know I can get down to Dedham on the Orange Line and that the nearest Orange Line stop for me is Downtown Crossing. I plug Downtown Crossing Station as my starting destination and the shop address as the end. Easy peasy. I choose minimize walking (and believe me, it didn't make a difference, because I did it both ways) and I get this:

These instructions are at best kind of dumb. They say Walk from DTX (where you started) to Park Street Station, take the Red Line one stop, transfer to the Orange Line, and then take a bus from the appropriate Orange Line stop.

I changed this around a couple of times, and the only thing it changes is whether they want me to walk to a different stop. It's like Downtown Crossing is a null zone and you are just not allowed to start from there.

It's probably not necessary to say, but I don't tend to do things after work. It's just so much easier to schedule something on the weekends even if I am usually chronically overscheduled.

I need to call around to a couple of LYS and see if any of them have the Classic Elite booklet 9092 for sale. That has the Portland Tweed Vest that I would like to make. It will only take me about one more week to finish the cross-stitch project now that I have the floss (which like all variegateds does not look that much like the last ones I bought), and then I will be able to do the finishing work on a baby set and start a new knit for the train. I'd like it to be this one, because the vest will be perfect for a couple of the white button down shirts I have for work.

from the guild

Seanna Lea — 2009-07-11T07:46:57-04:00

Yesterday was the last Common Cod meeting of the year (the year runs from September to July with meetings on the odd numbered months). Barbara Parry was talking about color inspiration and bit into the technicalities of how she visually selects colors from her environment. It was much like a woolly Georgia O'Keeffe. Barbara takes pictures of the world around her, mostly on her farm, and then crops them and blows up elements and selects colors from that section. It's a gross oversimplification of her technique.

Afterwards, she was signing books and selling yarn. I'd done the koolaid and the wilton dying before, but I don't really have the space to do dying on a regular basis or the desire to get even a few large cheap pots (so I can keep dying separate from cooking). The only dye method that she mentioned that was really interesting to me is solar dying, and I can try that when summer really gets here with some good sized mason jars.

I bought yarn. Her yarn line, Foxfire Fiber, is super duper soft. She has two (to me) main color groups: pastels and the richer, more saturated jewel tones.

I bought this yarn, sort of: I actually got the wool-alpaca blend, which is a much fuller color than the cormo-silk blend at the right. Without the silk, the yarn doesn't have the sheen and just soaks up the color. i have 4 skeins of loon, a rich teal blue-green.

I'm thinking of making a cropped vest, like the Portland Tweed Vest. My 4 skeins have a slightly larger yardage than the yarn called for, but are fairly close to the same yarn weight.

In completely unrelated news, I got home to find out that I had rehung the bag with my cross-stitch in it, so Saru-chan did not get an opportunity during the day to snag the nearly finished project. Must finish the stitching first, before starting anything else!

government forms aren't much fun

Seanna Lea — 2009-07-10T10:01:09-04:00

I finally got the last of my documentation together and went to the post office to apply for my first passport. I finished filling the last few things out and then took my number and waited in line (the big post office at South Station has tickets like a deli counter).

I had the wrong form. It was a passport application form, but apparently they changed forms a long time ago. The post office I got the form from was still handing out the old form in May. So, I took the new form (which can be scanned into a computer and results in faster processing) and filled it out and got back into line.

Theoretically, they don't start processing passports until 9, but they were taking people with passport inquiries earlier as long as there were 3 employees at the registers. I gave them my name change documentation (it wasn't required, but I figured it would make things easier for them) and got my picture taken. I should have my passport by the second week of September.

To celebrate getting that thankless task done, I went and got some chocolate for my desk. Just a little bit. Hopefully it will last me a week or more. Oh beautiful salted caramels. How do I love to eat thee! Om. nom. nom.

waiting for the post

Seanna Lea — 2009-07-08T16:13:08-04:00

I'm back to knitting again. I was going to motor through the last bit of my cross-stitch project, which has been my only project for the last month when I realized I managed to lose a half skein of the Sampler Threads I was using. It's what I get for putting my projects in grocery store bags. They always split along the sides and then bam! I've lost a little something.

So, while the order is winging its way to me (or more accurately vrooming via the US Post), I figured it was OK to go back to knitting. I started Delphine back in April, put it aside to work on the Icelandic Turtleneck (finished, but still unblogged), and continued to leave it aside while I crocheted potholders and worked on cross-stitch. But Delphine is a summer knit, and I would like to wear it for the one or two more days of summer we're likely to get around here.

I love this pattern and the yarn I'm using for it. The Misti Alpaca Pima Silk is super soft in a beautiful red. I'm leaving it as my lunch project, so if I get the skein of floss in the mail tonight I won't chuck it all to continue working with its softness.

Of course, this wasn't the only project I could have worked on. I also still have the baby set, which I need to mail by the end of the month (it's the finishing work that has me hesitating) and I found a lot of other cross-stitch projects I started ages and ages ago. I will probably add one of those to the pile, because like knitting the cross-stitch doesn't get done without the application of hands and time. I'd love to get some more of these beauties up on the walls.

swish and flick

Seanna Lea — 2009-07-07T16:20:01-04:00

I'm rereading the Harry Potter books like a mad woman for the movie around the corner (and ignoring the fact that I won't see it until August after my friend is done studying for the bar). In an attempt to not let reading the books stop me from cross-stitch, knitting, baking, and training for the half marathon, I went to the gym this morning before work to take my favorite yoga class and do some cross training.

I am apparently brilliant and forgot my work clothes at home.

I work in the Financial District. Sweaty gym clothes are not part of the standard business casual attire.

Speed shower, and a mad dash to the Marshalls for something I could wear during the day without feeling too much like a dork and without costing myself an arm and a leg.

Funnily enough, I must be good at speed shopping or the Marshalls had a good selection, because I got a lot of compliments about my outfit. Hopefully tomorrow will be better though. I'll do my speed work (there were intervals, and there was much rejoicing. yeah.) and get ready for work without needing to buy even more stuff. Phew.

searching for new running routes

Seanna Lea — 2009-07-06T10:46:39-04:00

I'm definitely a creature of habit. I order the same coffee drinks, eat the same pastries (or other things), and run in the same areas. Except now I can't run the same routes I was running before. Usually my running routes start from my home, and I just plot a circular route without too many loops that will take me out and back. My first long run is this Saturday, so I am back to the drawing board, using my favorite mapping tool: GMap Pedometer.

I might be running with a friend this weekend (half marathon training goes a lot faster if you have somebody to run with), but even if I don't I have a 7 mile run to get in. I was thinking of starting my run at North Quincy and running along Quincy Shore Drive and the beach until I get close to Quincy Center, going through my stomping grounds as it were, and looping back. Just over 7 miles. I've been over most of the area, but I'm not quite sure how the roads and traffic is where Sea Street crosses the Southern Artery. I think it will be OK, especially if the run is on the earlier side.

I was supposed to go running yesterday, but I'm a morning runner through and through. This can be a problem, because it means that I don't tend to go running if it is past that window of two to three hours after I wake up. Definitely something for me to fix. I'm still trying to perfect my training. It's just too easy for me to say that the walking is enough or that running on the treadmill will be enough today even though I know that the treadmill is an easier surface, though far more boring!

Today is Sunday's run (25 minutes, easy peasy). Tomorrow is yoga and speedwork (treadmill), and hopefully from there I will be caught up and able to get back into a routine. Faster times, trim legs, and less stress all from the power of pavement.

i cot a code

Seanna Lea — 2009-07-02T12:17:56-04:00

Only two days before July 4 with my inlaws visiting, and I have caught a cold. My joy knows no bounds!

I can be fairly productive when I'm sick (years of practice going to school even though I was sick), but I tend to do less crafting and more reading when I am under the weather. I'm still working my way through the cross-stitch. I'll be ecstatic when it is done. I love doing cross-stitch, but it is not the fastest craft I've ever done and it only feels speedy if I exercise Constant Vigilance and project monogamy. Project Monogamy is not my strong suit, so I have been browsing patterns and yarns on Ravelry. I won't be starting anything new, because I have a deadline project that I want to finish in the next two weeks and a couple of summer knits that also should be finished in time for summer.

In time for summer.
I love misty rains, but this has gotten a little silly. Quincy (according to the weather stats I saw a day or two ago) had 5.21 inches of rain in June. More than 2 inches above the June average. It's been wet, gloomy, and a little on the chilly side for the month. It's supposed to get a little better, but I'm not convinced it will happen yet. Definitely a case of I will believe it when I see it.

Saturday and Sunday are supposed to have lower to tiny chances of rain, which will be good. I signed up for a half marathon in the fall, and my first training day for it is Sunday (a short run). I am still trying to find the best running routes in the area, but obviously I'm not trying too hard. The pavement has not been quaking under my running stride!

With no knitting, just a little cross-stitch, and copious rain, I haven't done much with the garden either. There has just been no need. I cushioned my potato plant this morning, because it had fallen to one side. Silly plant was listing like Pisa. I've been doing a lot of reading in the last few days about gardening, and I was wondering if anyone in the New England region had planted a cover crop like clover over their entire yard in the fall. I think the soil in the entire yard needs some help, so it would be great to know what steps I should take and when! Yeah, I want to be like Norma when I grow up!

making of a craft room

Seanna Lea — 2009-06-30T16:52:02-04:00

Or in my case a craft closet.

I started off with the best of intentions. We have a guest room with a large, deep closet. Most of my craft stuff is in that closet, but like many things in our new house it is apparent that I was pretty good about cramming things into the darnedest spaces and so not quite all of my craft stuff fits in the closet (and the bottom 3-4 drawers of the dresser with most of my yarn).

Some of this is due to organization. There simply isn't any. I don't have the energy or inclination to cook dinner and organize my craft stuff when I get home from work, and I haven't had an iota of time on the weekends (my fault - Chronically Overscheduled could be my middle name). I'm trying to decide how to organize the rest of my cross-stitch and move enough of the random project bags into an organized area that I can do things like get to the sewing machine or the loom without taking a 100 pieces of yarn and paper and what have you and moving them only to need to do the same thing to put the sewing machine or loom back.

Each set of shelves is two shelves tall (IIRC), and the two opposite the door are the skinny ones that you can knock off if you hit your head on them. Ask me how I know.

The other shelves are deeper and much sturdier (my little line drawing is definitely not to scale). The filing cabinet fits under one (that side has a pole for hangers, because it is a closet after all), and the other is deep enough to fit a white drawer and shelf affair (like this one only with a drawer on top and cheaper). I have my craft stuff in a disorganized array on most of the shelves minus the lego shelf. I also have a huge duffle bag full of fabric on the floor. There really isn't any room to move around and do anything in there, and there really won't be until I get stuff organized.

Any tips for your favorite yarn and craft organization schemes? I have soap and candle making stuff (not much), cross-stitch (a ton), yarn (ditto), and fabric. There are other odds and ends in there as well for the moment, but I'd love to get a start on things.

And the filing cabinet is at least in part for my cross-stitch. It's what I bought it for when I was still a single chick living in Somerville. The boxes of cross-stitch patterns, kits and supplies are patiently waiting for me to recreate my file structure for all of them. I know this won't happen this weekend with family visiting, but it would be nice to get to the end of July and not shudder each time I walk into the room.

my happy little potholders!

Seanna Lea — 2009-06-29T15:35:00-04:00

I got my potholders last week and have barely had time to photograph them much less use them (it's pretty bad when I have blog fodder for at least a week's worth of daily posts and they get spread out of three weeks, because I don't have time to write all of the posts... sad, so sad).

I got these lovely potholders / hotpads:
So pretty! I want to figure out how the petal one was sewn down and made so well, because that was the pattern I tried and then ripped all of them out! These are all gorgeous, and I have them hanging up next to my very plain aprons (where I will hopefully remember to use both the potholders and the aprons with greater regularity).

I wish that more of these had little labels on them, so I would know who to thank (other than the organizers, Adrian and Maritza). They might have put labels on and had them fall off. I know I was bad and I put my labels in the bag, but I was running out of time and couldn't find a pair of scissors to attach the labels to the potholders themselves.

The only one with a name label was the one from Terri at Purple and Paisley (this is the link to the other hotpads). Terri had some amazing quilts in progress! I love the idea of making a quilt, but mixing colors is not my strong suit! The flower hotpad has seen a fair amount of use, so I really appreciate it!