The Runs

Well the post-work run went very well. I ended up running a full mile, even though it felt like I barely made it a quarter of that. Not running on a track is definitely the way to go as far as I'm concerned, you can see your goal in the distance and push yourself to get there. Yes, please!

On the downside, I feel all my tendons and hamstrings tightening up on me today. My whole lower body feels like a version of this:

Note: Not my hands, thankyouverymuch

But that's good, right? It means the exercise is WORKING or something. I'm waiting for the fun that's supposed to accompany this process. Any day now, I guess...

One suggestion I would like to make is segregated exercise spaces. There are no words on earth that can describe how dispiriting it is to have someone who is out running for "maintenance" of a slammin' bod lap you four of five times in a single run. I think the maintainers should have their own path and me an the other shlubs who got really freaked out watching that 1,000 pound man documentary on TLC at 1 in the morning on Saturday should have our own. Something like:

Professional artist's rendering

In Knitty News:
I finished another drink cozy yesterday all set to ship off to Canada! I just need to find some cool buttons to sew on it - maybe I'll be brave enough to journey up to the thrift store by my house tomorrow. We'll see!

I also worked on another baby bootie while watching Cheers on Netflix last night. I need to adjust my gauge, clearly, because they turned out to be twice the size they're supposed to be. This really just means I need to do math. Which means I threw the bootie on the FAIL pile and had to walk away. This is where the Never Ending Cardigan comes in handy - nice, repetitive stitches that make sense and fit. We shall see what the weekend brings (besides more rain, boo!)

Charlie Sheen Ain't Got Nothin' on Me

How's your day been going?

Well, that's good/ too bad.

Me? Oh, I've just being doing a great deal of data entry, enjoying some of this long-awaited sunshine and WINNING A CONTEST.

Sweatshop of Love is celebrating its 5 year anniversary and gave away two patterns and the yarn to go with it. I entered both and won the:

Loop Entrelac Top

and the yarn to go with it, betches!

I mean, look over my last month of posts. FREE YARN and FREE PATTERN?! Heaven. Happy Monday... and pardon me for gloating, but "Winner, winner, chicken dinner."

WANT

Mod Cloth is crushing it today. I'm in need of summer skirts and dresses, but this is beyond basic need fulfillment. It's just lust at this point:

Want

Hell Yes

Shut it down

So ugly, yet so RIGHT

I'll take two

New Summer Uniform

Puts me in mind of a childhood favorite:

Doin' and Doin' It

Maybe it's because I've been staying up later, maybe it's because I heard Jimmy Fallon interviewed on the Nerdist Podcast or maybe it's because I watched The Karate Kid remake and have the Smith family on the brain, but I'm starting to think that I legitimately like and prefer this version of Whip My Hair:

Or maybe I'm just old and caucasian.

Yikes, that's probably it.

Et tu, Bootie?

I promise I'll tackle more subjects than just my artsy little addiction, but my 3-5 readers (we're growing, you guys!) are local to Chicago and understand just how much rain and gloom we've had lately. It's nice to come home to projects that aren't laundry, giving the dog a bath or boredom eating.

In the interest of not totally boring you to death, let me take one moment to say that for the first time I ever in my life, the person I wanted to win a reality show competition from the first episode actually won! It's a nice feeling and incredibly unsatisfying, but you need to embrace all victories in life! So, congratulations RAJA  for reading those other queens to DEATH on RuPaul's Drag Race. I've loved you since the moment you walked in the stage door and I realized you were the makeup artist on America's Next Top Model. Love her, mean it.

You're a CHAMP-I-ON

So great. Seriously, if you haven't been watching, drop everything and watch that shit this minute. This MINUTE, I tell you.

Back to Adventures in Knittery with Great Auntie Doogs.

I was able to complete the pattern with no problems this time around! I picked a different scrap yarn because I had more of it and it still had a wooley feel to it. I'm pleased that I finished a bootie that actually looks like something:

This is where the good news ends. The problem with teaching yourself to knit by trial-and-error is that, unsurprisingly, you make many, many errors. In this case, I have a bunch of yarn that I can't identify and therefore don't know what it's actually made of. In order to "felt" a project, the yarn has to be animal fiber that locks itself together through exposure to hot water and agitation. I threw the bootie into the wash on "hot" with an extra pot of almost boiling water to make sure things were nice and scalding with heavy towels to make sure it got a good beating. And it came out.... looking exactly as pictured above. I'm guessing that the yarn may feel wooly but may actually be a blend or superwash wool that is designed to not felt. The OTHER problem could be that I'm knitting too tightly because I'm using bigger yarn than the pattern calls for.

The solution is clear - I need to test swatch some of my scrap yarn and see if I can get any of it to felt. This is not a huge setback or anything, I'm just hoping to use yarn I already own instead of buying more. Ebay yarn is going to ruin my life, you see, and even though I'd be a really well dressed street urchin, you can't eat SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock in Cayenne. I'm just kidding - I don't own that yet, it's on my "watch" list!