I’ve thought about going back before, lots of time. When I heard about friends who kept going in our training after our big race (that I missed), when I saw people running, when we moved to a neighborhood with good sidewalks and elevation changes.

But, today is the day: I will become a runner again.

I don’t have any specific goals just yet, as I’m not sure how long it’s going to take me to get back into things. The plan is to run 3 days a week using the 5k 101 program until I successfully complete the program, when I’ll do longer runs one day a week (hopefully with a friend or two).

I’ll post over here every time I run and on FB to friends who are interested. I’m also using the Runkeeper app which automatically posts to its own timeline of sorts.

So, yeah, let’s get started.

Which lead, almost immediately to two replies:

So, why? Well, because I’m not just feeling it anymore.

Maybe it’s my current projects. I’ve only completed one item in the last six months and have barely dabbled in it, otherwise. I made about 3″ of that hat and have very little desire to go back to working on it. The socks for Lora, eh, those bore me to no end (sorry, Lora).

Maybe it’s what’s in my stash. I just am not feeling anything I do with all of the DK I bought the day after Thanksgiving (yes, way back then). I’m not a fan of the bulky I’ve got. The random balls of Worsted are basically useless to me. Only things at all appealing are a skein of dark blue fingering weight and the leftovers (if you can call them that) from the colorwork hat I started.

Maybe it’s that I’m finally fed up with having all of these beautiful shawls and things I’ve made with no one to give them to. Every Aunt on both sides on the family that wants one, has one. Same for random friends and coworkers and cousins. Right this minute, I’ve got three different shawls hanging up in my office, just waiting for someone to give them to.

Maybe it’s because I’m no longer part of the knitting community. Moving to the outer ‘burbs meant leaving behind the neighborhood knitting store. Sure, I can get over there pretty easily, even after work. But, still, it’s a bit harder. I have to drive, have to find a parking space, have to plan ahead. And, on top of that, many of my knitting companions have moved away. Except for shop employees, I only know one or two folks who still live around here.

Or, maybe, just maybe, I’m over the whole knitting thing. I’ve been knitting for almost five years, officially the craft I’ve stuck to the longest. But maybe I’m able to move on from it.

I do promise I won’t make any rash decisions. I still follow knitting celebrities on Twitter, still subscribe to knitting blogs and newsletters, and don’t have plans to suddenly get rid of my entire stash (though that bulky is SO out of here).

For now, I’ll just sit and think about what’s next. And hope beyond hope that my friends will pull me back into it (or that I find myself free from any desire at all and can get rid of that giant plastic box of wool and needles).

Because, as has been my mantra, this is my life and if I don’t record it, no one will. Years from now, I’ll wonder when exactly we got that new birdfeeder or when we painted the bedroom or whatever. And, because of this project, I can look back and tell you.

Someone once pointed out that you wouldn’t care that your grandmother didn’t have perfectly composed layouts, just that she made a scrapbook of photos and maybe some explanation of what’s going on in them. You’d long for more and more detail, more information. A better picture of the couch you can sort of see in the background, a list of her favorite foods, how she felt when she finally got up the nerve to do that thing that always scared her. Sure, it would be nice if it were pretty or colorful but, really, that’s just a bonus.

So, I’ve continued and will keep going until I can’t do it anymore. When life gets super complicated, I’ll rely on those slower times when I can catch up. I still journal like crazy, writing down what happened daily (though not in a Harriet the Spy level of detail). I still take photos fairly often. The pages, those can wait for later, when life’s a little less nuts. Or, really, it only takes me about an hour to make a page. My life is not so nuts I can’t find an hour a week. One less hour reading won’t make a big dent (though I do have this reading compulsion lately, I can’t a book once I start it).

For the curious, here’s my pages from weeks 5-11 (this last week was week 12), newest to oldest.

Materials include:
Right Now by Kara Dudley
Valorie Wibbens Today Journaling cards
Valorie Wibbins Pockets No 3
Karla Dudley Breezy Papers

I had a pretty crazy day at work on Wednesday and decided to remedy this by making toffee cookies after work. I tried to find a recipe elsewhere but eventually went with the recipe on the back of the back of Heath bar chips (or bit o’brickle or whatever their actual stupid-sounding name is). I won’t bother with a recipe as it’s right on the bag but note: if you use unsalted butter, you’ll need to add more salt than it calls for. Mine wound up very sweet. And, yes, they really do make about six dozen cookies.

Here they are, all ready to go, in their not-quite-the-same-size goodness.

And just out of the oven. Even though Matt and I love cookies, we had more than enough to share. I handed them out to work to everyone except my boss who is allergic to nuts and a whole handful of folks who gave up sweets or cookies for Lent.

On the backyard front, Matt finished up getting things cleaned up and today we bought grass seed and straw (along with the grass seed dispenser thing – thankful we sprung for the model you push vs the manual version).

I don’t have any photos of what it looked like before we started on the backyard a few weeks ago but here’s what it looked like after a dusting of snow in January. You can sort of tell how many leaves there were – about 3″ worth – plus there were tons of sticks and acorns.

Here’s what it looked like earlier this week, with most of the cleanup done (and a new birdfeeder – that one got all gunky and I couldn’t clean it out).

Finally, here’s what it looks like today which, I admit, looks almost just as bad although it is progress.

I think it’s been a pretty good week. For now, I’ll ignore the fact it’s Sunday and have to go back to work tomorrow.

So, what have I been doing? Well, working, knitting, scrapping, improving the house, enjoying the weather, planning vacation, and reading. Mostly working and reading (ok, and sleeping and eating but no one wants to hear about that).

Working

Don’t worry, no boring details. Just know that work is busy and while it’s sometimes overwhelming, I’m enjoying my current project.

Knitting

Ok, so I haven’t knit a single stitch in about three weeks but before that, I knit a shawl/scarf and about 2″ on a colorwork hat.

The shawl/scarf was Different Lines using bright blue and bright orange Neighborhood Fibre Co Studio Sock that I originally purchased to make the Steven West mystery shawl. It turned out HUGE and rather scarf-like due to how I blocked it. Of course, I forgot to really take photos of it once I gave it to the recipient (Anne, my Phi Rho big sister).

The colorwork hat actually isn’t one of the patterns I was trying to choose between a few months ago. It’s called Latvian Hat and I’m using Neighborhood Fibre Co in a white colorway that’s named, appropriately, after what Matt tells me is a very, er, racially non-diverse part of Baltimore and Miss Babs in Lilacs. Even though the pattern starts at the crown and gets larger, it’s still very slow to work a single round and the pattern requires rather a lot of conentration. It’s also at an awkward stage where it’s a bit too small to work on two needles comfortable but too large for only one. I put it aside once work got busy enough that I was only making myself more frustrated trying to work on it in the evening hours.

Scrapping

Despite not taking a whole bunch of photos lately, I have been keeping up with making at least one scrapbooking page a week. Some weeks, they’re rather unimpressive but it’s about recording what’s gone on, not always having a gorgeous page. I am going to try and pick up my picture-taking so it’s not quite so sad when I open up the week’s folder of photos and see only two in there. I’ll post pages from weeks 5 to I think we’re on 11 later this week. I also still need to finish the last few pages from our last Europe trip. I think maybe two need words then they’ll be done. Oh, and finally print some of these off, likely starting with Europe pages.

Improving the House

Nothing involving power tools or anything but quite an impressive list of small projects:

• Hanging photos everywhere (my friend Lead provided opinions on good locales)
• Installing a door sweep and fixing the screen on the porch door (Matt did most of this)
• Picking out and trying a paint color for our bedroom (liked the color, will paint the whole thing starting this week)
• Buying a new hanging birdfeeder – the old one had old feed permanantly stuck in it
• Cleaning up the leaves / sticks / acorns / randomly strewn bricks in the backyard (Matt did most of the work here but I helped with some pickup and  moving of stuff to be picked up to the curb)

Enjoying the weather

Despite being mid-March, it’s been in the high 70s almost every day the last week or so, with mostly clear skies on top of it. We’ve already grilled out twice (burgers then chicken) and enjoyed several evenings of reading on the porch after work. I keep waiting for the weather report to talk about a return to colder temperatures but it’s supposed to remain warm at least for a few more days. Anyone know if this may mean I can get my hands on some good and not very expensive steamed crabs earlier this year than normal? The wait until Memorial Day may be the end of me. Ok, not really. I’m just impatient.

Planning vacation

Matt and I started a few weeks ago thinking about taking a summer vacation and where we wanted to go and all that. After lots of thinking and looking around, we decided we’re going to head to Ireland for 10 days in May.

Reading

Ever since Matt got me a Kindle about a month ago, I have been reading like a crazy person. I think the first book I read on it was an Agatha Christie book, quickly followed by memoirs, dystopian novellas, more Agatha Christie, two books about WWII with a time travel theme, and, most recently, a thriller. I won’t go into all of the details but you can check out what I’ve read on Good Reads.

So…what’s up with you all?

Week 1
The first part of the week was spent recovering from the holidays and visiting family. You know, getting back to the usual routine of getting up early, going to work, dinner with just the two of us. I love when family visits but, as someone who loves her routines, it’s always a bit stressful how they shake things up. The last day of the week was the FIRST kickoff, where we learned about this year’s game. This was also the week Matt first started playing Skyrim (which is now a nightly fixture in our house – he’s got something like 80 hours of playtime clocked).

I first made these pages using not only a different kit but also a different template for the page protectors, neither of which I really liked. So, I switched kits and protector sets (and bought some journaling cards) and “fixed” them the following week. I won’t show you the first version – it really was a mess – but here’s the pretty-fied versions.  
 

Week Two
Week Two included our first dusting of snow for the year which was only my second time driving in snow. We also got our basement fixed such that is no longer has water coming inside when it rains (which isn’t quite as photogenic as our snowy backyard so I didn’t grab a photo of it). I didn’t take many photos throughout the week so I instead captured the current sermon series at church, the cat’s current favorite sitting location, and my love of Chipotle. The sort of things I would have never thought to include in scrapbook pages but I know I’ll be glad I captured in years to come.

I gave FIRST its own page (a trend I continued in later weeks) because, well, it’s so different than everything else going on in my life. I’m sure I annoy the students with my constant photo-taking but they’ll appreciate that I’ve captured the build process as it goes along. I took something like 50 photos that whole have been appropriate to scrap and somehow managed to narrow it down into just the best ones shown here. (Oh and you’ll notice, FIRST weeks are one week behind “regular” weeks which constantly throws me off.)

Week Three
Week three was the week of zero photos. Okay, not zero but very, very few. Something about the week just killed any desire I had to take photos, including self potraits (yes, I’m trying that whole thing again – missed all of week 3 but good otherwise). So, instead of giving up and not making a page for the week or trashing the entire project, I decided to embrace it. Lots and lots of journaling about the week. And that picture I took while being evil and watching Matt clean off the car from our front stoop. (I cleaned off my car by myself the next day so I got my just desserts, dont’ worry.)

Week Four
Thankfully, I got back into the photographic swing of things in week four (last week, for those keeping track). After looking over my photos for the week, I decided to do a Top 5 page with SPs, cookies, Ada, books, and a really yummy pasta dinner. I struggled to fill the last “block” on the template and decided a summary of the week was probably a good idea to include. I probably got a little too sappy in the review but whatever. It’s my scrapbook, I can be as sappy as I like.

There weren’t any cancelled FIRST days in week 4 (and I took some shots on my iPhone during mid-week sessions) so I had plenty of photos for a whole page about it. I knew I wanted to use the photo-overkill version of the template but struggled with what to do when I had only 16, not 17 good photos to include. I decided the “As of right now” element was perfect for a countdown/progress bar and embraced it. After moving things around a dozen times, I finally stepped back and finalized the layout. I forgot to include any mention of the week or date which I may go back and add (or be very careful when putting these in order in my book once they’re printed).

(Quick note: I forgot to keep the template as the top most layer so these aren’t quite the final versions. In the final, the template is on top and gives the whole thing more of a page protector look like you see in the very last page. I realized this mistake just before pushing publish and am too lazy to make new JPGs right now. It’s fixed in PSE.)

Coming in Week 5:
- No FIRST photos (missed all work sessions due to teacher workdays and our trip)
- Our trip to WV to go skiing
- Current knitting WIP (may be an FO by Sat night!)
- New sidewalk lights

Materials Used on Various Pages:
- Valorie Wibbins: Pockets No 3 (page protector template)
- Karla Dudley: Right Now (Background paper and elements)
- Valorie Wibbins: Today journaling cards
- Robyn Meierotto: Dated 2012 Stamps

I have actually tried colorwork before, multiple times. My one success was ten little lines of stranded colorwork on a baby dress – nothing to write home about. I’ve tried knitting the Endpaper Mitts a good dozen times but have failed in color combinations or not getting gauge (boh too loose and too tight) each time. I think the pattern may actually be cursed for me, destined never to be knit. I’ve also tried a couple other patterns, often getting too aggravated at the slow pace of progress, pulling the project out after a week of work that resulted in less than an inch of progress. But, hey, I can now use both of my hands and I’ve got significantly more free time and, you know what, I’m allowed to buy other sized needles if I can’t get gauge on a 1, 1 1/2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 10 (the only needle sizes I own, mostly size 7′s).

So, I’m determined to try again. Should I stick to something small like fingerless mitts or a hat or go nuts and make a whole sweater? Whatever I choose, I’ll have to go on a shopping trip first as I have exactly three skeins of cobweb, one of fingering, one of sport, 12 of DK (6 each of two colors not different enough from one another for colorwork), some random worsted/aran in colors that don’t go together, and 3 bulky.

What do you guys think I should make? Here’s 16 ideas I came across on Ravelry. Links below.

From top left, proceeding across the row then starting the next:

1. Shelbu Modern    2. From Norway with Love     3. Peerie Flooers    4. Whale Watch Hat     5. Latvian Garden Baby Blanket     6.  Undergrowth     7. Plum Forest    8. Freyja Sweater    9. Platte River    10. Liberty    11. Ukranian Tiles    12. Ida’s Kitchen    13. Tapestry Cowl    14. Inga Hat    15. Winter Solstice    16. Staghorn Hat

It’s January which means another FIRST Robotics season is upon us. This means six weeks of having nearly every thought consumed by robots and ten hours a week at the high school. This year, I’m finally not a student myself so I’ve got far more time to devote (and am actually available to answer questions).

First off, this year’s game. It’s basically a modified version of basketball. A three minute animation explaining it can be found here.

Again this year, we’re working with Thomas Jefferson, a magnet school for science and technology. The students are very smart, very driven, and basically just need our help to keep them from building something far too complicated and to re-explain how PID controllers work.

So far, they’ve got a priliminary design complete and have welded most of the chassis. Pretty good progress, seeing as we’re now about halfway through the six week build season.

And, now, photo overload.