Beccalou

First let’s get the business out of the way - the weekly question!

1) What yarn (that you don’t have/haven’t used) would make your stash “complete”?
2) What yarn do you never want to be without?

For the first question - I’m not sure.  I see a ton of yarns on Etsy that I would love to have.  Mostly sock yarns.

The yarn I never want to be without - that’s got to be Malabrigo worsted, lamb’s pride or cascade 220,  If i needed a cotton yarn I’d have to go with Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece.  But that’s just me.

Now as for what’s been happening this week.  I’m chugging along on the Interlaken blanket.  Now that I know how it works, I’m cruising along.  The goal is to have it done by the end of summer.  I may have to teach myself to knit backwards just so I don’t have to keep flipping this bad boy around.  It’s gonna get a bit unruly soon.  I really like the way it’s turning out.

It’s been a busy week at work.  We’re moving, yet again.  But this will be the last move.  It’s been a bit rough trying to get a warehouse ready to move and still be functional until we physically move everything up the street to our new home.  In top of the move, we had a container come in.  The container was late in arriving.  It should have been here mid june and it just arrived yesterday.  There’s nothing quite like emptying a container in the hot summer sun.

I also decided that it would be a great idea to meet up with my trainer again and get back into the swing of things.  She worked me over like a bad hangover.  The next day I could barely sit down from all the squats, lunges and crazy monster walk exercises she could make me do.  I have to say it felt good to workout like that.  I haven’t done that in a long time.  We’re trying to get my knee back to normal as well as make my shoulders stronger so I don’t have to go back to physical therapy for a rotator cuff injury.

And today I’ll be heading to the nutritionist to see how bad my diet is.  I think the really hard thing for me is cooking for one and reading all the labels on things.  I have a feeling she’ll whip me into shape just like my trainer does.

After that, I’m off to hang out with some friends, BBQ, play some card games and watch the fireworks.   Fortunately for me our new warehouse space is right down the street from the fireworks.  So I’ve got a great, locked parking space that no one else can get to.

Happy Fourth of July!

Yesterday I got up and got my hair cut and dyed.  And I love it!  I went to a new place.  It’s a salon called Ba Ba Louise in Ballard.  The stylist that did my hair was Ava and I think she is awesome.  I have crazy hair - it’s thick and curly and that apparently makes my hair coarse and dry.  She did an awesome job cutting it and getting the color just right.  I highly recommend them.  By the time I left the salon at noon, it was already boiling.

I spent a bit of time running home, getting changed for the Redhook ale house ride that I planned and then I headed out to meet the ladies.  We got started shortly after 2 and we were off and biking.  It took a bit longer than normal because of the heat and the various levels we all ride at.  We got to Redhook, had a beer and something to eat and then it was back on the road.  By the time I realized it, it was twenty after six and I was going to be late to see Superbad at the Fremont Outdoor Movie.  So I had to leave the ladies and bust out the last couple of miles.  By the time I got back to my car, it was so completely stifling hot I thought I was going to pass out on the drive to my office.  I was able to change into something somewhat normal to wear as well as do a quick face washing.  I probably stunk from the ride.

My friend and I grabbed a couple of lawn chairs and grabbed a spot in the “theater” and settled in to watch Superbad.  The one thing I didn’t realize was I had been eaten alive by mosquitoes for most of the ride.  Once I saw the bat flying around swooping down to grab some dinner, it dawned on me, there’s mosquitoes here too.  At one point I got thinking, if I could just catch a bat and either keep him/her on a perch or tied to a rather long leash, it would a be a mutually beneficial relationship for all involved.  I guess I was too lazy or I just wanted to watch the movie, but it just didn’t happen.

By the time I got home it was close to midnight.  And by the time I got all my gear and my bike out of the car it was close to 12:30.  So you can guess that I didn’t make it to the open water swim this morning.  I just couldn’t get myself up and moving that early.  So instead, I got up, again, in the sweltering heat (ok sweltering for Seattle) and went out and got myself some new shorts.  And now me and the cats are home, waiting for my friend to call so I can head down to the lake and get a swim in.

Yesterday I stopped at my local farmers market and got some pumpkin ravioli

and some fresh strawberries.

I’m not a huge strawberry fan but these just looked amazing.  And they tasted amazing!   This is just another reason why I love summer!

We just finished up another group workout and the ladies are doing great.  It’s a lot of fun working with them.  It seems like a fair amount of them are going to be joining me and some of the other Sea Tri Gals for the ride up to Redhook on Saturday.  It looks like that’s going to be a fun ride.

Secret Pal 12 weekly question #3!
What would you consider the perfect amount of stash?

That’s a tough one… I would say a yarn store size stash :)  I suppose if I had that size stash, I want to be a pretty accomplished knitter.  Actually I wish I had a room specifically for all my crafty things.  So I suppose an Ikea bookshelf or two of yarn stash (with the correct amount of yarn for each project that I want to do) would be ideal.  I’m probably almost at the level

And let’s be honest here, if it’s good yarn, then the stash can never be too big

This is going to be the summer I feel like I wish I had more time to do things for myself.  I already feel a bit like I may have stretched myself a little too thin.  We’ll see how this summer goes.  If I need to drop something I suppose I will.  I’m hoping things will settle down a bit with the Danskin group.  They’re very eager to get started training and I think that’s great.  But the one thing I think they are forgetting is all of us workout leaders are volunteering all our time to help them.  I think their eagerness has lead to a lot of questions they probably could answer for themselves if they just took the time to think about it.  If not, I may have to threaten the car cleaning again….

And on the training note, I took a couple of pictures of the walk from the parking lot to Colman Pool over in West Seattle.  You have to either walk thru Lincoln Park or along the sound.  I chose the walk along the sound because it was just such a beautiful day.

And you can watch the Fauntleroy ferries come and go while walking to the pool!

And then there’s the pool…

And the view from the pool (you can’t really check out the view while you’re swimming. But hey, when you get out of the pool…)

As for my knitting projects… well I’m alternating between the Asymmetrical Cable Cardi and the Interlaken blanket for my friend.  So far, both are coming along well.  I just wish I could knit faster.  I get to a certain point with my knitting projects where I just want to see them done and finished.  Just call me impatient.

I just realized that my poor blog has been neglected.  I will write a bit more tomorrow.  But I just wanted to get one small entry in before I hit the hay.  I’ve been super busy with getting everyone set up and running with the Danskin Team Training.  So far it’s been a blast and all the women are great and I’m really looking forward to working with them all.  They’re so excited about it!  I took some pictures from our first meeting and I’ll post a couple tomorrow.  That’s what has been taking up more of my time recently.   I’ve got Martha Steward reruns on in the background and she’s doing an entire show about knitting!  I love it!  I really should invest in TIVO for moments like this.

This coming weekend is a busy one for me.  I’m hoping to be able to go see the Reverend Horton Heat on friday.  Saturday I’m getting my hair colored.  I noticed there’s a lot of grey and there shouldn’t be.  And after that I’m hopping on my bike and leading a 30 mile ride up to the Redhook Ale house.  Nothing seems to motivate people quite like beer.  Then sunday morning is the big open water mile swim.  I think I’m most looking forward to that.  That will give me a good idea of how I’ve been doing swim-wise.

Geez…. reading all that made me tired.  It’s time to turn in.  Jimbo said so.

One word - cold.  I got in the water and my feet and hands were soooo cold.  By the time I realized it, the water hit the zipper of my wetsuit and I found myself letting out a “Jesus!  It’s freezing!”  I got myself moving and then started swimming… never putting my head in the water because it was just too cold.  I did eventually put my head underwater and when I popped my head back up, I looked at my heart rate monitor and my heart rate shot up about 28 beats!   So now, as I type this, I’m sipping on hot chocolate.

I found out today that my health insurance covers 4 visits to a nutritionist.  So I think I might use that option.  Who knows… maybe I’ll learn something I don’t already know :)  And all it will cost is my copay.

And now… for the Secret Pal 12 weekly question #2!

As a kid, what did you look forward to most about summer vacation/break/holiday?

I think it would be being home with dad (my dad was a high school teacher) and going to Helderberg Workshop.  My dad would teach a class and I would take class.  I remember taking an archeology class, a pottery class… hmmm, I’m sure there was one of two more but I can’t remember them.  I do remember getting there early with dad and we would hang out until everyone else arrived and it was time to start.  It was so quiet and beautiful in the mornings.  I also remember getting the coolest pet - a guinea pig that we named Big Al. He had a mohawk.  He was the coolest of all guinea pigs.

I also looked forward to going to camp.  Camp was a summer home my grandfather built in the Minerva, NY.  We always had fun their.  I remember playing a lot of card games, going swimming at Minvera Lake, putting puzzles together, watching the beavers at the swamp with grandpa,  waiting in the car while dad went fishing on the river, going to garage sales with grandma and mom, doing some needlepoint with mom and grandma, helping grandma make a pie (by helping I mean, eating raw dough), or going out in the canoe or guide boat with grandpa (A boat he built over the winter months.)

Or there were the times we go to Pow Wows on the 4th of July weekend and setting up the tee pee.  Nope.  We’re not Native American.  My dad got interested in Native American traditions and such when he was a boy scout and it just carried thru to his adult life.  I remember catching grasshoppers on the side of the tee pee and picking wild strawberries in the field.  And of course, falling asleep to the drums at night.

Yesterday was the first day this spring/summer that I wasable to get over to Colman pool.  It’s an outdoor, saltwater 50 meter pool that looks out onto the Sound and the Fauntleroy ferries.  It was so nice!  The weather was perfect, the water temperature was great and the swim wasn’t bad at all.  It was a bit crowded but that’s because it’s a seasonal pool.  So people try and workout there as much as they can until the season closes.

I also ran into a former boyfriend at the pool.  It was good to see him.  We chatted for a bit and it turns out he’s training for a triathlon.  I’m always ahead of the curve.  I’m the one who starts the trends.  Maybe I’ll try and see if I can start a new trend where people wear socks on their ears.  Hand knit socks, of course.

I’m getting ready to bike over to knitting.  Hopefully they can help me figure out why I keep making little mistakes here and there that result in me having to rip out several rows of work.  We’ll see how that goes.  This is when I wish I lived closer to grandma so she could help me or fix my mistakes

I was going to try and post something on Wednesday but my friend came in early, so I couldn’t post. I’m sorry blog. I won’t ever do that to you again. My friend was only here for a few days but it was nice to see him. It’s unfortunate that he was sick the whole time he was here. I really wanted to show him around Seattle… Next time.

I’ve been working on the Interlaken blanket for my friend. It seems like every time I get going, I get a new set of directions and I can’t quite figure it out. I think I’m probably making it a lot harder than it should be. I have a tendency to do that with knitting instructions. I’ll be taking it with me to my knitting group. I think they’ll be able to get me back on track. What I’ve figured out, it coming along well. When I would get frustrated with it I would work on the Asymmetrical Cable Cardi. And when I would get frustrated with the Cable Cardi, i would try and figure out the Interlaken. It’s a good mix. So I guess you could say, knitting was, I was frustrated all weekend

I had my swim workout this weekend. My coach kicked my butt. She wanted to see what my splits were. She was trying to figure out what my pace is and was also trying to get my condition to speeding up to pass people in my races. The first workout was to do a reasonable pace 25 meter swim - 3 times. Then on the 4th 25 meters I had to swim as fast as I could. We did this 5 times. I was exhausted by the end of it. But we found out that my reasonable pace time for 25 meters is 25 seconds. And my fast pace for 25 meters is around 19/20 seconds. I feel pretty good with those numbers. We also worked on some form things. It was a good workout. It hurt and still hurts a little. Today I took off of training so that I can recover from swimming and go swimming tomorrow, at Colman pool. Colman pool is open only in the summer and it’s outdoor, saltwater pool! I can’t wait!

And our first Secret Pal 12 weekly question arrived in my email this weekend - what is my favorite summertime drink?

Well, that all depends on where I am. If I’m just hanging out, it’s probably iced tea, or iced coffee. If I just got finished with a workout, it’s chocolate milk. If I’m at the ballpark, it’s a beer. And if I’m feeling sassy, I’ll head to Uwajimaya and grab a melon or orange flavored Ramune.

On the subject of the Secret Pal 12 swap, I’ve already started shopping and will send a small package out this week! I’m super excited!

you probably didn’t know how to fix, it ends up looking not so good.  Today I was working on some knitting - the Asymmetrical Cable Cardi and I realized, after several minutes of trying to figure out where I left off on the cables, that I hadn’t done my decrease on one side.  So I thought, “OK I can fix this without unraveling 3 rows of knitting (including to large cables on each side).”  So I set about fixing it.  I got to my offending stitches and dropped them.  That was enough to make my heart stop, then I did my decrease and picked up the stitches back to where I was supposed to be.  And it looks ichy.  So what did I learn?  I learned that I tried and while it doesn’t look right, I tried.  Tomorrow, I’ll take it to Hilltop Yarn and I’m sure some lovely woman over there, will help me make it look like nothing happened.  But at least I tried.

Perhaps I’ll see if there’s a class on fixing mistakes