Snow Frolicking

We just got back from a snowy weekend in Squaw Valley. Not falling snow, per se, but a lot more snow on the ground than they had last year (which was NONE).

I love Tatum's black fur against white snow. He loves trying to lick snow.

That marks the end of winter for us, as it is already spring in our neighborhood. High of 75 today. Flowers blooming everywhere. Sun, sun, sun. Didn't feel like we had much winter to speak of, but it is hard to argue with the beauty of spring.

Onward and upward, I guess...

Stitches West Haul

I love, love, love Stitches West. I went for the first time three years ago and have eagerly anticipated each one since... the market alone. Wow. I took a 3-hour class for the first time this year and that was also a great experience.

I selfishly went by myself, so as to move more nimbly through the market. The mission: find a navy/midnight blue color match for a bridesmaid's dress in fingering weight yarn. And the project is for myself, so quality is important, too.

Mission accomplished:

With slight purple overtones that I LOVE. Excellent find.

Other treats included more fiber- cool colors and a pile of 100% baby alpaca that I'm eager to learn how to spin.

And the biggest surprise was finding border collie fabric. Total impulse purchase, but how could I not???

not amused

So currently on the needles are a few projects I'll share soon: the blue shrug for the bridesmaid's dress, a wire necklace for the same wedding (first time knitting with wire!), another afghan pattern and then all the spinning I've been up to. Whew.

Pollywog

Introducing my first spinning wheel: the SpinOlution Pollywog.

No barefoot spinning shot; feet still too banged up from marathon.

It's petite, light and affordable. Since I'm not a chunky yarn spinner, the smaller bobbins are just enough for me and I love, love, love the Lazy Kate.

So using some scrap Romney (pink) and Wensleydale (white), I made my first skein.

Clearly I have much to learn- tension! ratio! plying!- but I'm ready and eager to do so. If you need me this weekend, you can find me at my spinning wheel.

Thank Goodness That's Over

This was the first marathon I've ever started not fully believing that I'd finish. I registered 11 months ago, in the time before cancer. Almost simply out of stubbornness, I towed the start line.

It wasn't a personal best, but not a personal worst either. I'm pretty damn proud that I slogged through the heat and sun. I hope my training partner Taters is proud, too...

He's the Amy to my Shalane.

The other great event this weekend was getting to watch the US Olympic Trials for the marathon. I volunteered the day before for some set-up events and got to meet most of my favorite female runners. I maybe giggled and gushed most of the day.

Then we watched them run on a really, really tough day. It was amazing.

Lots of personal heroes for me in those photos...

Ok, that's enough about running. I'm recovering for a while, so a lot more knitting will be happening. And also: Stitches West is this coming weekend! YARN!!

Here Comes the LA Marathon

Not much knitting this week, as I get my affairs in order and we journey down to LA.

The weather forecast for this Sunday's race is by far the warmest marathon I will have run out of five.

It's scary, but this race has never been about a PR for me. It will be the one (and hopefully ONLY) race I run with cancer. Well- I did one 5K between diagnosis and surgery in which I was literally running with tumors on my neck, so that's the real race WITH cancer and I did some warm-up races during training... but you know what I mean.

I'm well on my way to remission, thankfully, and marathon training has helped immensely with the mental/emotional/spiritual challenges of cancer. Seriously- what a kick in the ass this has all been. Just being able to start this race is a win, regardless of how long it takes to finish. That'll be my mantra on Sunday.

To all the other runners going down to LA: good luck, run smart, stay hydrated.

Adoptaversary

We recently celebrated our 4th adoptaversary with Tatum. He came to us through the good works of a local humane society and we couldn't be more happy with our pup.

He's my eager running companion and reluctant snuggle buddy. He's part grumpy old man, part rocket scientist and part insane child (in the car).

Cute Tatum story: after I had surgery to remove some tumors this past year, Taters wouldn't leave my bedside. He wouldn't get into bed and kiss my face or anything adorable, and I was mostly asleep or out of it, but he just stayed by the bed. This lasted 3-4 days. My husband would try to get him to go outside or move, say all his favorite words, but he wouldn't budge. I don't give Tatum a lot of credit for emotional intuition, but I was very touched at that moment.

Tatum is the best.

puppy paws

A Petite Tahoe Mt Beanie

Oblique Eggplant left a lot of Malabrigo Mechita leftovers. I also had a skein of Finito in greens that I had no plans for... All of which were 100% superfine merino. It is one of the greatest pleasures of knitting- handling very fine yarn.

With greens and purples, I decided to see how a fingering weight yarn would knit up as a Tahoe Mt Beanie. The answer: child sized. Or small-headed-adult sized.

Here's the process:

The white yarn is some Rowan baby merino silk dk. Final measurements: 17" in circumference, 7-7.5" high. It doesn't fit me and I don't know any children I could convince to model it, so I put the hat on a winter squash, which is not ideal...

It wouldn't even fit on Tatum, my reliable hat model.

As you can see, I'm also tweaking the Tahoe Mt Beanie pattern, with the goal of one day soon publishing it.

If a child or small-headed adult in your family is in search of a warm hat, you can find this one for sale at my Etsy shop. Thanks for visiting!