The Husband recently completed his first Ironman! Of course, I braved the heat to watch him do amazingly well throughout the day.

Minutes after the Ironman and he's not falling over!

We all have a visual of what someone competing in an Ironman looks like, right? He or she is either cut with rather impressive (not necessarily big) muscles or just a skinny runner type (like the Husband). That’s not always the case. I was amazed by people competing who looked like normal, albeit pudgy, people. One gentleman I met was a second-time competitor at this Ironman and had at least four more lined up for the year. If you didn’t know he was a finisher, you would think that he might have a heart attack going up the stairs too vigorously.

The following week, the Husband did a short race. I know, I know. Why, if he just spent a little over 13 hours swimming, biking, and running 140.6 miles, would he do a 5k within a week? Wouldn’t he just want to take a couple weeks off to rest? Well, in fact he did take the week off by only doing the 5k and not the 15k on Sunday. As we watched the 9k racers cross the line, I saw someone who was overweight cross the finish line. Let me rephrase that. I watched someone, who society feels is lazy and can’t sit up from eating fried chicken, french fries, and chocolate in front of the TV without getting winded, cross the finish line (not last) after running 9 miles and looking quite good after.

Now, I could tell you that this is an excellent reason why you should never judge a book by its cover. I could tell you that it’s not about size, it’s about health and that so long as you are exercising the size doesn’t matter. I could tell you that stereotypes are stupid and you should try your best not to buy into them. I’m not going to tell you any of that because you are smart enough to realize that on your own. What I am going to tell you is that it was inspiring. All these people you would stereotypically consider to be unfit were doing things that most people in this country would never ever do, no matter how fit. All I’ve ever done is a 5k and a tiny sprint tri and I had rationalized not doing any more because I have bad knees. I felt very wimpy.

Don’t get me wrong. I have had bad knees ever since 6th grade where the joints were apparently overtaxed during a massive growth spurt. At least, that’s what my parents said the doctor said. Ever since then, my knees just never quite were as good as they should be. In high school I tore a ligament in my knee and surgery seemed to make a lot of it worse. But, are my knees really that bad or are they an excuse to get out of doing more? Am I just intrinsically lazy and have an excellent excuse built into my joints? I decided to test it out and challenge myself to a 10k race (that’s 6 miles). Originally, I was going to do the 10k next year, but we found one in November that not only is in my town but goes around my neighborhood. It can’t get any perfect than that, and I’m going to aim for it.

If I can’t do it, then I can’t. At least I’ll know that I made the attempt. Do I see myself doing more? I honestly don’t know. Yesterday I would have said that this was it, but now I’m thinking, if I can do 6 miles, why not 9 or 13? Or even *gasp* 26.2? Yeah, maybe not a marathon. It just sounds boring. I do blame the Husband though.

Pattern: Central Park Hoodie (with Viking Modification)
Yarn: Cascade 220
Needles: US 6 & US 8

Blocking like a good sweater.

OMG I love how this sweater turned out! Heck, I love it enough to use OMG in a blog post and I don’t do that often. I had a lot of issues knitting and liking this sweater at first.  It seemed like such a burden, none of it was perfect, and I kept ripping it out so it would be perfect. Then I realized it was because my inner Baljeet comes out when I take a class. No matter how much I enjoy the class.

Seriously, I just really wanted an A. So after the class (which was awesome) was complete, I decided to make myself finish the pieces. I didn’t want to stop mid-way through only to forget what I did and find my notes were awful. So I finished every piece and then put it aside, in a deep dark hole, to find my sanity. I even worked on Humanity in the interim.

Buttons! They are actually made from recycled plastic.

Then I started slowly picking it up again. First I took about a month to seam it together. I tried it on and was a little worried it would not fit, but decided to just do the button band once I found buttons. Button band completed and buttons attached, it was time to try the fit again and. it. FIT! It fit really, really well. At that point, it was only a matter of days to finish the collar, weave in the ends, and do a final block to straighten out the button band and collar. And I LOVE it. It really fits well. I think it fits better than it looks in the pictures since it was still blocking when I tried it (What do you want from me, I couldn’t wait?) and I always act like a dork when I have to pose for pictures.

My (cabled) Guns!

I can’t fully comment on how well the Central Park Hoodie pattern was written. I used the Viking variation for parts of it and sort of followed those instructions for a good part of the sweater, but what I did use of the pattern was well done. I do admit, it was a little difficult trying to blend the two patterns together since the Viking version doesn’t include the Central Park  Hoodie parts for copyright reasons, but Lisa Kay does a good job getting you to understand how they fit. Of course, the most annoying part was having to spread both patterns and class notes for some sections of the sweater. It’s worth it though. If you love these cables but are afraid of doing them, don’t be. It’s easier than it looks and you won’t regret the finished product. I did learn how to do cables without the cable needle and was so thankful that I did. It sped up my knitting a lot.

When I saw someone's version with these cables, I got chills. Yes, I know it's dorky but so beautiful.

I don’t have much to say about Cascade 220. It’s a good and affordable workhorse yarn that produces lovely products. It’s not going to be a lush fabric nor will it be overly-scratchy. Someday I may convince myself to splurge and make a sweater out of the expensive stuff, but really with Cascade 220 there’s not much of a need.

I'd be yelled at for being too posey on ANTM

So after all the frustration and crankiness, I am so very happy with the product. I hope that what I learned from the class will be translated to more sweaters so they look just as good, if not better. Now, if only it would start snowing…

I so love that cable.

Pattern: Humanity
Yarn: Frog Tree Merino Melange
Needles: US 6

There used to be a blog by Yarnsticks who is one of my best friends. There are friends that will be old and infirm one day, sitting in rocking chairs on the porch of the old lady’s home, knitting and just enjoying each other’s company. That’s us. We’re in different states but she is so important to me that we will be friends long into old age.

When I turned 30, Yarnsticks made a pair of socks for me. A few years later, I drove to her house while 6 months pregnant. I don’t know how it had come up in conversation, but she mentioned that no one ever knit for her. I decided then and there, in my pregnancy-riddled mind to make her something. I made sure to sneak in a hand measurement and took note of a yarn she liked. About a year later, when I thought I was ready to make the hand warmers, I came up with a lie to get a list of hand warmers she liked. About a year after that, I made humanity.

Let me say this about the pattern. It doesn’t quite make sense the way it is written, but it isn’t wrong. It’s just not written to make sense to me. Basically, the cabling row says to put 2 stitches on the cable needle, then purl, knit 2, and knit the two off the cable needle. If you do that as written, then you end up off the 2 x 1 ribbing. Instead it seems to make more sense (to me) to put 2 stitches on the cable needle, then put the purl stitch on the cable needle, knit 2, purl off the cable needle, and then knit the last two off the cable needle. Did I confuse you? Yeah, I’m still confused, but it worked well enough as far as I can tell, and other than that, it’s a good pattern.

Frog Tree Merino is to die for. I almost did not give Yarnsticks the handwarmers because the yarn is so yummy. I really did struggle. The yarn was so soft that I tried to talk myself into keeping these and knitting another pair. Thankfully, reason took over and I decided that I can knit a second pair for me another day. I have a lot of projects I want to do so if I hadn’t done these, they weren’t getting done.

Seriously, though. Go get Frog Tree Merino and snuggle with it. It’s just that good. Even OP didn’t want to give them up.

Pattern: Humanity
Yarn: Frog Tree Merino Melange
Needles: US 6

There used to be a blog by Yarnsticks who is one of my best friends. There are friends that will be old and infirm one day, sitting in rocking chairs on the porch of the old lady’s home, knitting and just enjoying each other’s company. That’s us. We’re in different states but she is so important to me that we will be friends long into old age.

When I turned 30, Yarnsticks made a pair of socks for me. A few years later, I drove to her house while 6 months pregnant. I don’t know how it had come up in conversation, but she mentioned that no one ever knit for her. I decided then and there, in my pregnancy-riddled mind to make her something. I made sure to sneak in a hand measurement and took note of a yarn she liked. About a year later, when I thought I was ready to make the hand warmers, I came up with a lie to get a list of hand warmers she liked. About a year after that, I made humanity.

Let me say this about the pattern. It doesn’t quite make sense the way it is written, but it isn’t wrong. It’s just not written to make sense to me. Basically, the cabling row says to put 2 stitches on the cable needle, then purl, knit 2, and knit the two off the cable needle. If you do that as written, then you end up off the 2 x 1 ribbing. Instead it seems to make more sense (to me) to put 2 stitches on the cable needle, then put the purl stitch on the cable needle, knit 2, purl off the cable needle, and then knit the last two off the cable needle. Did I confuse you? Yeah, I’m still confused, but it worked well enough as far as I can tell, and other than that, it’s a good pattern.

Frog Tree Merino is to die for. I almost did not give Yarnsticks the handwarmers because the yarn is so yummy. I really did struggle. The yarn was so soft that I tried to talk myself into keeping these and knitting another pair. Thankfully, reason took over and I decided that I can knit a second pair for me another day. I have a lot of projects I want to do so if I hadn’t done these, they weren’t getting done.

Seriously, though. Go get Frog Tree Merino and snuggle with it. It’s just that good. Even OP didn’t want to give them up.