A slightly larger triangle with token kitty interference

Yes, it's been weeks since I've shown my progress...because as you see, it's not been very impressive. I'm about halfway through chart 3 of 8, and there's a lot of non-chart knitting in between. Myha would not stop being all Vanna White when I was trying to get a picture. However, I'm headed to NYC for a girl's weekend, and there might be some time where I should be able to get a few rows in. You know, between Broadway and Chinatown and general drunken debauchery.

Besides knitting, I found a few spare minutes to clean a path to my long neglected spinning wheel. I didn't spin much, as you can see but it was spun more even than I remember being able too, so that's a plus.

I'll leave you with the sight my husband will see all weekend long as he sits at the computer without me to give Miss Myha attention so she'll leave him alone.

Friday Photo

From tonight, a post dinner surprise :)

Might I be in Training to be a WAHM?

I saw this on Ponyknit's Blog, and I could not resist. Plus I have nothing knitterly to share here.

50 As a 1930s wife, I am Average Take the test!

The heat wave broke this week with severe thunderstorms, high wind speeds and tornado warnings. I went to my 5K trail race that night (in between storms) to find it cancelled with large branches fallen all over the place. Because it was hot, and we have been travelling every weekend (just one more weekend in Western MA, woohoo!), my shawl is only a slightly larger triangle, which I probably won't have time to photograph before we leave for MA tonight. I tried knitting a bit before the heat broke, and it was just not happening because despite the yarn being laceweight, it's still wool.


Work has been exhausting me this week. The hours have been long and the Russian Fulbright Scholar has been tagging along. That itself can be exhausting in itself, as he doesn't really speak English and just tends to mess things up. The Fulbright Scholarship is a prestigious award, so the guy must be bright, but lack of language is such a huge barrier.

A few weeks ago we were doing an experiment and I asked him to get me some liquid nitrogen (which is used to freeze things very quickly).
I asked if he understood and he said, "Yes, yes."
He came back in the process of pulling on gloves, with surgical scissors in his hands. I know this might be amusing, but he's been here since last October, and the fact that he can't differentiate between "liquid nitrogen" and "dissect" or "take the blood" (I still don't know exactly what he was trying to do) just kind of makes me want to hit my head against a wall. This is not the first time I've had to train and work with someone whose English was practically non-existent; it's not even the first time I've had to work with a Russian with poor English. I think with every poor language experience, my patience slows starts to ebb more quickly. Maybe I should just try to be more like my new coworker and try to learn Russian and teach them cultural traditions like the pinky swear :)

I'm sure by now, everyone's seen the new Knitty. I must say that I like more of their patterns this issue than last. Because I have sooooo much time to knit. I better work on my 1930s housewife skills...

New Online Knitting Magazines

In case you don't have a large enough pattern queue, it looks like there are a few new online knitting magazines out there.

The one that has patterns and articles accumulating on it now is Knotions It has some old Magknits patterns too. Bonus.

The second one I came across looks very exciting, with a count down and a daily sneak peak. Less than 2 months until we see what the Twist Collective will look like. The sneak peak patterns are pretty promising. Now if I could only learn to knit fast enough to make attempting sweater a worthwhile pursuit :)

A contest, but not here

Nothing new to show, I've been too busy with running, soccer, Matt's birthday BBQ, and cooking in preparation for my brother's college graduation this weekend. Oh, that and realizing I never updated my passport with a name change, and it's now "strongly suggested" for travel to Canada. Grumble, grumble, grumble.

So instead, I found you a contest at: The Land of the Knitsaur You have until the 31st to enter any three measurements and you get a chance to win. Don't forget to mention me!

Vermont City Marathon

My most recent excuse for not knitting:

I had a whole post about the marathon and how it went, but Blogger ate it, and I just don't have the heart to rehash, so the high points:

Beautiful weather, great crowds, great running partners (see photo)

Droopy hands, I don't know why (again, see photo)

Marathon PR now minus one hour (yes, that's huge amount of time to take off, and I won't be able to take another hour off in one race again)

Have recovered enough to run tough hilly trail race 48 hours later.

Thinking on signing up for the Maine Women's Half in September and then I could sign up for the Hartford Marathon in October and do the the half as a training run....

Two weeks of knitting and all I got was this lousy triangle...

I don't really think that. I'm actually quite pleased with the slow progress I'm making. We won't talk about the sock. The sock and I aren't currently getting along, which is all my fault. How did I not figure on stitches not falling off needles if I just threw the knitting in a bag with no dpn holder on?

Le sigh.


It's just that many other things have been going on in the past two weeks.
I ran the Corporate Cup 5K last thursday in Montpelier, which then required going out for dinner and not getting home until 10:30 at night. That's our "Corporate" Team in Training in front of the Statehouse. There were almost 2000 runners and walkers there. It was a ton of fun, and great to see so many people out and active on a weeknight.

I got my bike back with a new chain and it's like a new bike (the husband also got his first ever road bike and we've been spending some time on the bike paths. Yes there are many in the area. I heart Chittenden COunty)
We also changed the landscaping in front of our condo from perenial beds to more traditional landscaping (ie landscaping the condo landscapers will take of, because apparently they get paid to ignore perennial beds). After hearing an estimate for how much it would cost, we decided to do it ourselves. After a week of back and forth it's done, and I'm still uncertain as to whether the landscaper was just poor at the dealing with the people side of his job or whether he was just having a bad week or whether he just thought communication by ESP is acceptable. In any case, much less work, and much more money later, I will say it does look nice. But I can't wait until I own a home where the only gardening approval I need is my husband's.

I am on week two of tapering for my marathon this Sunday, and despite the lack of running, I seem to be managing to fill the time with other physical activities...which I think I'm not supposed to be doing. Training schedules are for people who run fast anyways :)