21 hours in St. Louis

This past weekend my Sister-in-law got married.  It was the coolest and weirdest wedding I've ever been to.  

The wedding was held in the circus ring at City Museum.  City Museum is part museum, indoor carnival, and huge climbing gym.  

 

 

Like I said, the wedding took place in a circus ring.  Both bride and groom are performers, various types of entertainment. But no matter what, it seems that juggling tricks are always involved.  So instead of exchanging rings, they exchanged clubs.  I didn't have a picture of this, wish I did, because it was pretty awesome!

 

St. Louis is about 6 hours from my home, so the ride to and from made for some good knitting time.  

I'm almost ready to start the border of my Daybreak Shawl!!

For my next trick: What do you think of these two colors??

A day for Frogging

So it's been a month since my last post and life has been . . complicated . . . I lost my knitting MoJo somewhere. I just haven't been in the mood. I've been spending my time reading, which I could be doing something a lot worse! But I keep plugging along on the Day Break shawl. Today, however, I decided that I should take care of this little problem that I've set aside. I'm going frog my Pogona. It will make me a little sad to do it but, I just don't have enough yarn to make it the size I was hoping for. I started the shawl May of 2012, it's been rough, this relationship between me and my green Pogona. I've made several mistakes and went back and fixed all of them, I went through two, that's 2, pairs of needles in the process of making this shawl. One of which was a very expensive pair of rosewood Lantern Moon circs that snapped in two when I started the final section. Yes it will be sad to let the Pogona go, but now that I'm thinking about it. . I do have a large amount of "Tardis" blue yarn. . . hummm. . . 

Off the needles and onto the swift.

Kinky yarn needs a bath!

WIPs, among other things

David Sedaris.

I went into town, got the oil changed, got a few items needed for the trip to his show, when my mother-in-law called and said the show was canceled. Very sad. So I had the whole day with no plans. So I worked on this:

It's a surprise. And Yes, it's crochet not knitting. 

 

WIP's.

I did promise pictures of some WIPs I had going. . 

Knitting Mojo Dishcloth

Day Break by Stephen West

Running.

It's been almost a week since my last run. Finally the weather warmed up a bit, so today I went running. I'm learning to love how the elements can effect how hard a run is.  It was warmer but I live in Kansas, just so happened to be a windy day.  I did push myself a bit, but not in a way that made the run harder. I focused on moving my legs, gaining distance, instead of "shuffle-jogging". I did improve distance, .08 of a mile further then the previous run, and I don't feel like the run was any harder then the previous one. Good feelings. . I knew that working out and getting into shape would have benefits but I never thought that .08 of a mile would make me feel so good.

And on the topic of running: My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who was affected by the Boston Marathon bombing. All of the runners, family members, volunteers, and spectators. I did know people who where there and Thank God that they are all alright.

Since I have started running, this is the first year that I've even paid attention to when the major races were starting. . The first year that I've enlisted time into understanding the different marathons, the work that goes into qualifying for one, and, above all, how the Boston marathon is different from the rest. For all of those people who were running their first marathon on that day; Chin up, don't look down, keep at it. Don't let something like this keep you from running.

1000+ Pageviews, something must be going on in Russia

Good Day All

So I haven't blogged since late January, but my blog has had a LOT of visitors, mostly from Russia. . Cool!  Hi Russian Knitters!  I've never been to Russia but my Husband has and wants to take me there someday.  Looking forward to it!

So what have you all been up to!?!?!?!  It's been to long!  I have reached my 90 day mark of yarn sobriety.  The last time I bought yarn was in December!  Feels kind of weird, not shopping for yarn.  I did win some yarn from my LYS Wildflower Knits.  And I was gifted some yarn.  BUT I have not bought any yarn.  Phew. . .   But really, not even shopping for yarn kinda makes me feel. . .  like not knitting.  Ugh, I got that out.  I'm just uninspired.  Today was actually the first day in the past four weeks that I've knit.  I started a dishcloth, just to get the juices flowing, and now I've pulled out the project I was working on before my little unintentional knitting break.  Daybreak by Stephen West, one of my favorite designers.  Mine is mostly a cream color with the stripes being a jeweled tone variegated yarn.  LOVE IT.  I don't have my camera with me right now otherwise I'd be posting some WIP pictures for ya.  Don't worry, I have some time in the next couple of days to post some pictures. . get myself caught up on my blogging. 

So what have I been doing instead of knitting?  Reading.  Lost of reading.  I went thought the Harry Potter books and The Song of Fire and Ice books already this year.  After reading those I wanted something simple, non-thought provoking, and just plain entertainment kind of story.  Well, knowing my BFF's would make me watch Breaking Dawn 2, I re-read the Twilight Saga.  If all you want is some entertainment. . .  Twilight has it.  But if you start to think to much into the story, well. . . lets not go there.  After Twilight, The Hunger Games started to call me. . So I re-read those too.  Since I'm on a reading binge, what to read next?  Well, I'm going to meet David Sedaris (yeah, MEET him) on April 19th so I'm reading Naked right now.  But another Stephanie Meyer book is up next, The Host.  I've listened to it on BOCD and loved it.  But I've never actually read it.  OOOH, if you haven't listened to any of Sedaris' books on CD, then I suggest you do so.  He reads them, does voices for various parts, and overall makes for great road trip listening.  

Other then reading and not knitting, I have been working out.  My husband and I have tried the "couch to 5k" thing in the past but all we had to time ourselves was a kitchen timer.   Try running with that, I dare you.  He downloaded the app (now that he's a member of the cool phone club) and that has made a huge difference.  He's being a total sweetheart about it too, running along next me.  With my short legs and even shorter endurance level I'm surprised he hasn't given up on me yet.  He says it's like running in place, he's much taller then me.  But he keeps at it, and every run is easier then the last.   The first one, I thought I was going to choke to death.  I couldn't get enough air no matter how deep I tried to breath.  The next day the muscles around my rib cage were sore, really sore.  But I haven't had that experience since.  The last run, (yesterday) I started to experience pain on the inside of my left calf, but it didn't feel like sore muscle.  Shin Splint.  ugg.  It started shortly after we started jogging, slowed me down quite a bit but I told my husband to keep me going.  I didn't want to turn around and go home.  I figure, some workout is better then giving up, even if I do run slower and walk more then I want to.  So we're taking today off.  I'm headed to Target to check out the work out clothes.  I'm a bit self-conscious of my "back side" so I wear a t-shirt that's long enough to cover things. . but now I'm tired of working out in a circus tint.  So we'll see what I find.  

Hope everyone is doing well and look forward to some pictures on my next entry!

Twenty Days Yarn Free

Hi, My name is Sarah Smith and I have gone 20 days without purchasing any yarn.

I had to skip the Winter Wool Fest and I have not gone into the local yarn store (even though I really need a nice button).  I even passed up going into Hobby Lobby.  *sigh*  

I have been going through the yarn in my stash and finding projects on Ravelry that I could do.  I've been going to the patterns page and then narrowing down the search by yarn weight and yardage that I have on hand.  So far I have three projects in mind.  Each project is a large time consuming project.  Each will take a month or more to finish.  PLUS I have those UFO's to work on still.  

So Right now I'm working on The Springtime Bandit.  Using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes that was given to me by a friend over Christmas.  I have/had 5 skeins of it and hopefully when I finish my Bandit, I'll have one or less :)

As far as my UFO's have gone, I pulled out my Pogona shawl and started tinking.  I want to undo a few rows then I'll knit up the last two rows and will hopefully have enough yarn to bind off.  Keeping my fingers cross.

Well, I hope everyone's new year has been going well.  I promise some pictures next time! 

Knitting in the New Year

Artist: Mansha Friedrich Photo by Julian Stratenschulte of Getty Images

Happy New Year Everyone! 

No better way to bring in the New year then with knitting needles in your hands!  I found this photo at Los Angeles Times Photography.  It is from 2011 but I found it to be the best New Year's photo google had to offer.  The Artist pictured is Mansha Friedrich of Hanover Germany.  I do not know how to read (or speak) German but she appears to be a known Artist who creates large works of art using fiber, called Urban Knitting, very similar to what I call Yarn bombing but on a larger and more artistic scale.  All I can say about that is. . . YOU GO GIRL!  And Mansha, if you get to read this: Hello From Kansas, USA!

Well, we've been in to 2013 for almost 12 hours now. . .and I haven't bought any yarn.  Phew, doing good so far.  I kinda of panicked the other day, what if I NEEDED more dishcloth cotton?  *rolls eyes*  I can do this.  I will do this.  I NEED to do this.

I am writing this from a coffee shop.  They are having a "Hangover Brunch" and asked my husband to provide some live music.  Though I am not hungover (I didn't drink at all last night), drinking coffee and listening to him play is a great way to spend my first day of 2013.  Hope everyone else has  something lovely to enjoy today! 

What's Goin' on?!?!

I know that I have been pretty silent for a while now and I don't think I'm going to even try to catch up with blogging about what life has brought me. . however, I can start right where I'm at. 

1. I've been working out of the book The Artist's Way.  I'm in week 11 out of 12 and I'm feeling pretty good about it.  

Amazon.com Review

"With the basic principle that creative expression is the natural direction of life, Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan lead you through a comprehensive twelve-week program to recover your creativity from a variety of blocks, including limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, jealousy, guilt, addictions, and other inhibiting forces, replacing them with artistic confidence and productivity."

I don't really feel blocked or unblocked. . but I have learned some things about myself during this process and I'm glad I've done it.  Because I own the book, I'll probably do it again in a few years time.  Julia Cameron has other books with the same concepts.  I think the next book of her's that I'll try is The Artist's way at Work. 

 

2. I've given up on Christmas Knitting. . I've finished a few things and I've decided that I'm not going to freak out and try to finish all the projects that I had planned on doing.  Not worth the crazy.  

3. I've been thinking a lot about my 2013 New Year's Resolution.  This is where life gets kinda crazy. . . 

- I'm currently trying to pay off all my debts: credit cards & medical bills.  So spending less sounds like a good place to start.

- I have LOTS of unfinished knitting projects (known as UFO's).  I went through my knitting "area" and put all projects on needles in a box.  The box overflows with UFO's.  

- While going through my stash, I was reminded of the amount of sock yarn I own. . . . last year's resolution was to knit one pair of socks per month, I made 7 out of 12. . .   good enough for my first attempt but I still have a crap-ton of sock yarn.

     So, keeping those things in mind, my 2013 New Year's Resolution is:

Do not buy yarn for the year of 2013, Knit from your stash!

     I know that might be scary for some knitters. . . .  But really, I did spend a lot of money in the past year on yarn when that money could have gone to paying off a bill faster.  The time spent shopping, storing, and (yes) smelling the yarn (I know I'm not the only one who does that!) could have been spent knitting on projects in my stash or finishing a UFO.  

But not buying ANY yarn??  Ok, I have some exceptions, if some one gives me a gift card to a yarn store for Christmas or my birthday. . I'll probably get yarn.  I will not stop buying sweaters to convert back into yarn. . .  however, I still have a small pile of sweaters to go through.  This summer when we go on vacation, we're probably going to Colorado.  I will allow myself some souvenir yarn IF I come across some that I like.  Hubby is pretty good of staying clear of yarn stores when we are out and about together.  

So there you have it. . . .   My 2013 Resolution.