Year End 2011, Part 1

Really? Nothing since November 7th? Wow. I posted almost daily for the last year and then nothing. But looking back at the last two months I’m not surprised at my sudden disappearance. Up until Thanksgiving I was working hard on my ½ Marathon training and work was crazy. The my grandmother got ill and my mom needed help and my husband’s grandfather ill too which meant that I was making trips to the bay area twice a week between Thanksgiving and Christmas and work was still crazy. My training schedule went out the window too and other then spending all my time either working or driving, I didn’t do a whole lot.

But it’s a new year. Happy New Year everyone! No more pity party for me. It’s time to get my training back on schedule. My half marathon is two and half months away, March 15th. Yikes. It’s so close, close enough to be scary. Really scaring since yesterday I ran for the first time since December 7th and I couldn’t even run a mile without stopping. Yikes. But that’s ok, I have two and half months. I can totally get back on track with this.

I did do a little bit of knitting while I was gone but not much. No sewing at all happened. None of my Christmas knitting happened. When things went haywire with the family something had to give so it was the knitting and the running. I’m embarrassed to admit it but I gave no hand knit gifts at all this year. Not one hand sewn place mat or table runner. Nothing. I literally did all of my Christmas gift shopping in a couple of hours on a Wednesday night about a week and a half before Christmas.

But I did manage to knit myself a couple of things. Selfish knitting, it’s the best.

I knit myself a scarf. I used Jacob's Ladder Seaman's Scarf by Jennifer Hoel but I modified mine to continue with the pattern all the way across instead of doing ribbing in the middle like the pattern called for. I used 2 skeins of Berroco Vintage in colorway 5125 which is a teal color. It was a nice easy knit that only took a couple of days.

I also knit myself some mitts from Tideland by london leo. No finished pictures on this one. It's hard to take pictures of your own hands. I used Cascade Yarns Heritage Silk for the mitts in colorway 5630. The color matches the Berroco Vintage that I used for my scarf perfectly. I did the long version. The pattern offers several different lengths of mitt. I have enough yarn left over that I'm thinking of knitting a short pair for when I'm wearing long sleeves and don't need them to cover half way to my elbow but want my hands to be warmer. The pattern was beautifully written and easy to follow. I'll have to get Hubbs to get some pictures of them for me.