Latest Knits

The two short sleeve tees are my design... nothing fancy, just a way to get rid of some summer yarn. The hat was also made with no pattern and with an unknown marled yarn from AC Moore. The Clapotis scarf and cap were made with Rio de la Plata. I modified the pattern in order to use only 4 skeins (including the cap).

*GASP*, "NOOOOOooooooo!", runs to daughter to retrieve slightly unraveled sweater on circulars. Whew! She only frogged about 30 stitches...'Coulda been so much worse! ...now back to blog post:

There are 3 more finished projects to display, but I can't show them yet since they're gifts!! On one of them, I tried intarsia (as well as sewn-on pockets) for the first time. Now that I've tried stranded and intarsia knitting, I think I prefer stranded. You only have to deal with two colors at one time with stranded. Dealing with numerous yarn bobbins is not good for your mental health! With stranded, there aren't all those infinite strands to weave in; and IMHO, it's much easier to get the stranded knitting's stitches more even. I don't like waiting until afterwards to adjust the evenness of the stitches. This is not to say I won't do intarsia again - I just need more practice, I think.

I finally finished my latest read-through of The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and the LOTR, and just started Pride and Prejudice. Have you seen the Keira Knightly (sp?), movie version? Much is left out, but I did very much like the music and the overall romantic feel. I rented it last week. This week I'm watching the Colin Firth 5-hour version that closely follows the book. There is much to appreciate, but I miss the Keira Knightly version.

The main reason that I haven't been blogging lately is that I'm taking an aero circuit class. It's been kicking my butt! Class is on Mondays and Wednesdays, so the only day my muscles aren't sore are Saturdays and Sundays. This has been going on for over 4 weeks now. Since we're discussing exercise, I might as well mention that I bought one of those jogging strollers. Before trying it out for the first time, I assumed that the biggest adjustment would be the restricted arm movement. But, it turns out that the biggest adjustment is the burn that your arms experience while running. If you could let your arms hang relaxed, like when driving, then it wouldn't be an issue. But since it's a stroller, you have to push forward, and therefore get an arm workout. The other unexpected adjustment is turning corners - jogging strollers don't turn on a dime. When you approach a turn, you have to pop a wheely. So the moral of the story is: choose the straightest route possible!