And We All Fall Down

It's almost ironic that the last picture I posted from yesterday is a pic from the bike ride with my parents, because I went on my first real training session yesterday for biking the twenty-odd miles for the tri, and it didn't turn out the way I expected.
I was doing the ride with Tyler, since he was equipped with tools and a way to tell how far we'd gone and how fast we were going (plus motivation to go far and fast). We were maybe a mile past the Glensheen Mansion (perhaps 4 or 5 miles into our ride) when disaster struck- riding side by side, he accidentally veered too close to me and the handlebars of our bikes stuck together. We both tried to overcompensate and he swerved into traffic and I swerved into the curve. Luckily the car behind us braked in time to miss Tyler, so all he did was road burn the entire right side of his body and cracked his helmet (plus got part of his helmet shoved into the back of his head- blood everywhere- yuck).
I was not so lucky- my bike fell on top of me, I crashed into the pavement and the curb, got giant road burn all down my left side, and twisted my knee pretty bad under my bike. I also had the wind completely knocked out of me (which I guess isn't bad really, but it's scary not being able to breath at that moment), and jammed my wrist pretty bad when I threw my arm out to catch myself (stupid idea). I hyperventilated as I tried to breath again while at the same time crawling off the road on the grass, while Tyler dragged our bikes out of the road. Eventually we recovered enough to limp to Glensheen to call for help, and I spent most of the evening with a bag of frozen vegetables on my knee. I'm sore all over and have bad road burn down my side which I cleaned out (ow). I got up this morning and found that walking was slow and painful, so I called in to work for the day so I could have a day to give my knee a break, and pulled out my old knee brace since I'll probably need it later (like if I want to walk today or this week).
Anyhow, I didn't roll under the car, so I'm pretty happy to be alive and no broken bones. It could always be worse. I'll probably just be taking it easy for today, although the problem of how will I get anywhere is eeking at the back of my brain.
All right, enough for now. I'm off to stand and move and maybe get breakfast.
Cheers. :)

FINALLY!

I can't believe it. After six months of working sporatically and unhappily on these things, the Trident Lace Socks have finally materialized in whole.I worked hard on them the entire fourth weekend, squeezing in some time hanging with the girls on the fourth as well as quality beach knitting time while girl-chatting with my Mom.The toe on the left one doesn't exactly match the right, but that's because I lost the original pattern with my notes on my change in plans on closing the toe and resorted to actually following the pattern for the second one. Nice and ironic for me, because I'm historically bad at completely following patterns without changing them. I love love love the lace on these socks, though.My fingers permanently have the pattern memorized, and I used Wildfoote yarn which has the perfect amount of stretchy-ness that I like in a sock yarn.The lace really helps the socks fit my feet perfectly, and I can't wait for fall to come so I can wear these more.I know what a lot of you are thinking- they're just socks, what the heck took you so long and why are you making such a big deal out of them?
Well, darn it, because I kept growing sick of them and putting them aside- for six months. A pair of socks shouldn't take six months to knit. Look at Cheryl- she's doing a sock a day to get ready for her class. Now that's inspirational. I decided I needed to finish them so I could have my metal size 1's back, and start the Outside In socks with this gorgeous yarn that my old roommate Larissa got me awhile back:Hopefully an infinitely easier pattern that will keep my attention and make for a simple, portable project that can travel with me when I'm not working on the Dale (besides the pom-poms on the legwarmers, it's down to the Dale. Gulp...). Besides, it's Harry Potter yarn, and since the sixth movie is coming out mid-month, it'd be cool to wear Harry Potter sock yarn to go see the movie in the theater for the first time! (Nerd alert)
It was nice to hang out with the family in the cities for a few days, finish these socks, and have a small vacation. Now time to get back to life and reality... realities such as a billion and a half stitches left to go on a complicated Dale...

Fourth of July

I got to celebrate the fourth of July this year in one of the best possible ways- with magnificent people doing magnificent things! I drove down to the cities to my friend Kim's house yesterday after my shift at B&N, and fun things abounded for the day! There was a white chocolate fountain for dipping strawberries that was so tasty, Larissa and I just wanted to eat it all up!We played games of gigantic badmitten (the half-ball part of the birdie was the size of a tennis ball), and gigantic golf. We would pick random things to hit as "holes", and I ended up being one of the holes.The bruise on my shin is the result of this picture, where Kim's brother Matthew proceeded to hit the golf ball at me full speed. He got the hole, and I got a bump to prove it! :)Bubbles were one of our favorite ways to celebrate! Kim had special bubble blowers in the shape of ice cream cones. Perfect.Pretty sure that my favorite part was spending the day with some of my favorite people that I haven't seen in a ridiculously long time. It felt so good to just take some time with old friends, catch up, relax and hang out. It ended (of course) with fireworks and sparklers.All in all, not a bad fourth. :)

Oopsie Daisy

You'd think that by now I'd be happily be reporting the completion of something wooly. The socks, for instance. All I have left is the bottom of the foot. In fact, it shouldn't take me that long at all to get that done- it's half stockinette stitch, so nothing terribly difficult. Or working hard on the body of the Dale. Another line or two, even. Or (this one does hurt to not have worked on, I have to admit) making four insignificant pom-poms to put on the end of the ties for Jenelle's legwarmers. That's all they need to be complete. An hour- tops- to complete.
But I've been busy.
For instance, these two lovely folks stopped by to visit me:That's Mark on my right and Larissa on my left- my two old roommates, whom I miss every day ever so much! They have incredible news that I'm excited about- they're getting married!!! Huzzah and good tidings to them! The wedding will be in early October next year, and I'll be one of the bridesmaids for Larissa!
I've been really gearing down on beginning my training. On August 2nd (a month from today!! Holy cow!) I'll be competing in the Brewhouse Triathlon. Originally I was going to be doing the swimming portion, but since I'm the only one of the team that bikes (and I commute, so I bike quite a bit) I'll be biking the 20.6 miles for the race instead. It's not a matter of finishing it- for me, it's a matter of doing it fast. This is, after all, a race. This last week I've been riding my mountain bike more and more, and today I did a two hour mountain bike ride that really kicked me around up and down hills all over the place. If I can do it on a moutain bike, I can do it on a road bike. Speaking of, I'll be picking up my Mom's old road bike this weekend (she rode it on her honeymoon with my Dad around Wales back in 1984 for a month) and starting to train on that hard as soon as I'm back up here.
Oh, and I'll be heading to the cities for the fourth of July weekend for some family and friends time- I'm very excited for that!
Soooo... hopefully my next update will have some gorgeous pictures of socks or legwarmers or Dale prettyness...
but not this one. :)

Aw, Crap.

I told myself that in order to start any other project that I really really want to, I absolutely have to finish all the big projects that are currently on my needles. There are really only three contenders that this covers.
Trident Lace Socks- It's amazing how much I can do on a slow Sunday at VE, especially when I only pack these as entertainment- no books, no magazines, not even other yarn to look at. It's still slow for me to work on lace, but I'm thinking perhaps as far as socks go I only have a mind block up. After all, I got a ton done and only have the foot left. Maybe I can finally finish these stupid things soon. I've only been working on them since flippin' January...
The Dale-Okay, so maybe it doesn't look like I'm much further. But you can bet that there's progress on this beast. Slowly but surely. I'll get it done before it snows. Probably. Of the three, this one is probably going to test me the most. Especially since I'm almost done with the other two.
And, of course,
Mosey Legwarmers for Jenelle-
Okay, here's where I ran into a slight... um... problem, if you will. I originally bought two skeins for this project, and needed three to finish. I bought another skein weeks after I got the first two (amateur mistake, I know), brought it home, realized it was waaaay too dark, brought my legwarmer to YH the next time I went, and got another skein that I thought matched all right. I noticed it wasn't exactly right with color at the shop, but it looked close enough that I thought it would be fine. I started knitting with it in the legwarmer, and only when I was much farther that I really looked and saw the difference. Unfortunately, this was the skein closest in color at the shop, so I had to go with it. Take a look at the finished product. That was with a flash. Still don't belive me?Without a flash in regular light.
Crap.

...

.....


Screw it.After these things dry completely (and they're close), I'll get a proper photo shoot and get them to the recipient. I won't say anything, and maybe she won't notice...Since these are pretty much done, once I finish the socks I'll only be working on the Dale. I may start some travel socks just to be working on something, but it's going to be all Dale all the time. ::gulp::.
This might be a bad idea...

Another One Bites the Dust

...well, chalk dust that is, since that's what this bag is meant to hold. I'm pretty excited though- the chalk bag is completely finished and on its first run as we speak!I decided to model the chalkbag myself since I wasn't going on the inaugural climb this weekend (working at VE- blasted responsibilities!), but hopefully I can get some "action" shots at some point to post. :)As far as chalk bags go, this one is humungous. Instead of the standard one, you could probably fit five chalk balls comfortably in there- not kidding at all.I'm really happy with the finished product- fleece on the inside, canvas rim to hold the shape, a drawstring with runners on the inside, and pretty pretty garter stitch wrapping around the entire bag.You better believe I'm going to make one similar for myself- once I alter the pattern so it's not for giganto. I'll post the pattern too once I get a solid one written up and not just scattered notes all over the place.
Time to make dinner after a long day at work... toaster strudel, perhaps?

Birthday!

I had my birthday on Thursday, and it couldn't have been a more perfect day for going outside. I had a short shift at B&N in the morning, where my amazing co-workers were kind enough to sing "Happy Birthday" to me over the loudspeakers before we opened, and treated me to a fancy coffee (my preferred white chocolate mocha!) and lots of b-day hugs. Afterwards, I got to go to my favorite local breakfast place- Uncle Louis Cafe- for some french toast deliciousness before heading up the shore for some lovely climbing!We went to Palisade Head, since we didn't want to climb anything below a 5.9. Started off on one of my favorites- the beautiful 5.9 crack Phantom Crack- as a good warm up, then decided to try some stuff that was a little more out of the way that I haven't done yet. Above is me on Rapprochement, a tricky 5.10b where I got stuck on the move above the crux (hardest part), naturally. I did enjoy it though, a tricky little corner climb. My favorite of the day, however, was Laceration Jam- an incredible 5.10b beautiful hand crack that I can't wait to lead. Laceration has two parts- the bottom section that I cruised before it splits off into two different cracks- Laceration traverses over to the right for a lead-only section, while the left crack (the one I did) is a different crack called Christmas Tree Crack. I have to admit, after that gorgeous hand crack I thought Christmas Tree was a little on the dirtier side, with more loose gravel and the hand crack turned into more off-width (crack that you have to stick an arm or a leg in to get up- not nearly as nice), but it was still worth it just to do Laceration.The day was beautiful, and I'm so glad I got to go out to the cliffs! It was a little on the warm side for me- up to 80 degrees, uff-da!- but the breeze made it bearable for belaying, and the later it got the more it started to cool off. After my hands had properly been beaten like crazy, it was time to head back into town for BIRTHDAY CAKE!!!!This year the boys went all out- the guy I'm making the chalk bag for, Tyler, has a connection- his Mom professionally makes cakes. She made me this beautiful raspberry layered cake with home-made frosting- no sugar in the frosting at all, and it was light and fluffy and exactly what the best type of frosting tastes like! I was in heaven.
Overall, a grand birthday that made turning 24 not bad at all. A big thanks to Tyler for being my belay-buddy, although he probably loved going out there anyway. As climbers, we take what we can get...
Project update later...