Climbing By Myself

I had a busy day planned.
It started off well- meeting a friend for breakfast at one of our local places to catch up, hang out, and eat some tasty omelets.  We were originally going to go climbing after, but her plans changed once we saw the weather.
A big system was moving in, and the wind was already picking up when she dropped me off back at home.  Instead of opting to stay in, I decided to go down climbing anyway.  After all, there are other ways to train when you have no belay partner.
I like to stick my headphones in and traverse when I'm by myself.  This means starting on one side of the gym, and going across the wall until I can't go any further, then go back.  I usually try to stay off the ground for a minimum of 10-15 minutes, and do it several times.
After traversing and a shorter bouldering session, it was time to get serious.  Outdoor season- and trad climbing- starts when the snow melts.  Trad climbing is different from indoor and sport climbing due to one important reason- you have to carry about 5-7 pounds of gear on your harness as you climb up.  You do lose the gear as you go when you place it on the climb, but you still start with extra weight on your person.  In order to train for this, spring training for Trad Climbers means adding that extra weight on early, so you get used to it by the time outdoor season starts.

One of the best ways to train- without climbing in a gym with a full trad rack on- is wearing weights.  Scott and I have two divers weights totaling 10 pounds that we wear on a piece of webbing tied around our waist, simulating the gear hanging off of our harness.  It's pretty simple, though sometimes the weights give me bruises on my hip bones.  I climbed about 12 feet off the ground on the slightly overhanging hueco wall, then climbed back down to the start without actually stepping to the ground, then back up and down 2 more times.

I did about 10 reps of that before my arms completely blew out.  Then 15 more minutes of traversing with the weight belt still on before I realized that the snow outside was already blowing and accumulating like crazy, and I needed to get out of there before I had to walk home.
It felt great to get a good burn in, and it was worth weaving through the snowy roads to get home after a quick stop at the grocery store for supplies.  My plan was to grab some supplies for soup, then coerce Scott to take pictures of the Snowflake Shawl while it was snowing outside, since it's done blocking (and looking beautiful)!

By the time I got home, the wind gusts and snow were blowing in sideways, and there was no way a photo shoot was going to take place.  Instead, I've been grading, watching CSI, and even got a chunk of reading done in Follett's Pillars of the Earth.

Oh, and watching two kittens snuggle up from the storm. :)
It's hard to not be excited about snowy days up here in northern Minnesota, even when they mess up your knitting photo plans.  There's always tomorrow!

Snow Blockage

It's been snowing on and off for the past few days, meaning that blocking the Snowflake Shawl kept getting put off.  I finally got fed up this morning, and decided to pull out all the stops to get this thing blocked in one day.  I pulled out the largest pot I owned to give the shawl a little bath:

Before sitting with my blocking pins on the bed, resulting in this:

The yarn relaxed a little bit, which I think helps even out the hexagons where I had to bind the edges together.  Due to the lack of sun, I resorted to pulling my big fan out of storage and setting it on medium, aimed right at the shawl.  Every hour or so, I've been moving it around slightly to dry different parts of the shawl, and it's working wonderfully.  Hopefully it'll be fully dried by late afternoon/early evening, giving our comforter a few hours to fully dry before bed!  Then... maybe tomorrow... a photo shoot with the finished shawl?? ;)  We're supposed to get around a half of foot of snow tomorrow, which I think will be the perfect backdrop... :)
While this has been drying, I got to hang out with an old climbing friend this morning and work a bit more on The Dude Sweater.  I'm already past the first color stripe, and hanging out with Alex (while she was sewing) allowed me to get a couple of rows into the colorwork!

I have to admit, the first couple of rows were a little on the brutal side.  This sweater is knit back and forth, so I have to figure out how to read the colorwork charts correctly and how to knit with colorwork on the wrong side, which I've never done before.
Well... it's a chance to learn something, I suppose?
Hanging out this morning and doing crafty things is a nice break for my body- I climbed on and off for about 5 hours last night.  I got off my shift around 4, then kept climbing with various groups of people that showed up.  I didn't get off the wall until just after 9 pm.  My arms and back this morning at exceedingly sore, and my fingertips are absolutely raw.  I plan on doing some stretching and yoga today, maybe a little time on the Elliptical machine, but keep it pretty low-key.  I plan on climbing for a few hours again tomorrow, so today will count as an easier rest day.
Perfect for getting grading and knitting done. :)

(Oh, and if you've noticed that my pictures seem a little different- it's because they're taken from my iPhone with my Camera+ app!  I'm enjoying taking the pics and being able to add flash and clarity and borders, etc. right away, which is perfect for on-the-go knitting pictures.  I may try to take some in the climbing gym tomorrow... we'll see how it goes!)

The Dude Takes Off

I'm a big believer in always staying positive, always staying excited, and generally I'm very upbeat and happy about everything I do.  It's really hard for me to ever get completely bogged down by life, minus major circumstances.
This week has been one of those weeks where I've felt very bogged down and never able to catch my breathe.  Don't get me wrong- I'm usually super excited and dancing through my days and keeping up with my ladies at night, but with extra meetings this week at work, tons of grading with the first round of papers for all my classes coming in, plus extra hours subbing at the dance studio, I'm pretty pooped by the end of the day, and Thursday feels like it's taken forever to get here.
When my week is like this, I try to focus on being happy about the little things.  For instance, last night Scott and I ordered some Pizza Luce for dinner instead of making food, then watched an episode of The Big Bang Theory while we snuggled on the couch and had dinner.  Tuesday I had another moment- after an entire semester of working at LSC, my name tag arrived!

It's something very small and silly, but it feels really cool to feel just that much more official.  Little things. :)
I'm waiting a bit to block the Snowflake Shawl, mainly because we haven't had any sunny days (all snowing and gross) and I haven't had time to stretch it out in the morning before work.  The only place I can block large knitted goods right now is on my bed, which means I have to block it in the morning to dry throughout the day, and it has to be sunny enough out to dry it in one go so Scott and I don't have to camp out on the living room floor at night.  I'm hoping to block it tomorrow morning before work, ready for a photo shoot this weekend when it snows yet again. :)  Plus, Scott's away tomorrow night, and if it needs additional drying time, I don't mind sleeping on the couch... ;)
In the meantime, I'm plugging away at other unfinished projects and starting a big new one.
A really big new one.

Last night, I cast on for "The Dude Sweater" for Scott.  After only two CSI episodes, I'm already past the hem and up to the first color change.  It's cruising like crazy, which feels great after working with such fiddly needles and tiny yarn in the shawl.  Plus, this project is so ridiculous that it's hard not to laugh every single time I look at it.  Or at a picture of it.  Or realize that Scott will be sauntering around our apartment wearing this ridiculous thing eventually.
Why did I agree to this again?

Wait for It...

Yesterday was incredibly productive.
I got to have burritos for breakfast with my brother and his friends...

followed by grading that was supervised by kittens...

and a good burn session at the climbing gym in the afternoon, where I began to work the hardest routes from the climbing competition on Saturday and actually get up them.  Scott and I stopped by Old Chicago to grab some pizza rolls and watch the beginning of the Superbowl before heading home, where I put in CSI and kept going and going on the border until... all of the sudden... the snowflake shawl was off the needles.
I did one more episode to weave in the large amount of ends dangling from the back of the shawl, and then this morning..
Oh my goodness...
Nobody move...

The Snowflake Shawl is done.
It may need a blocking (it's pretty nice without it), but this morning I threw it around my shoulders, danced around the apartment, and watched the sun grab the sparkling yarn I used for the border while I laughed in pure happiness at completing such a crazy project.
I can't wait to see Kim's face when I give it to her...
(Project page with full photos up soon!)

Cold Morning

It's been a busy week, stuffed with a ton of dance, a lot of teaching, and a fever that took a few days to go away.  It was nice to have this morning off to get some grading done, and even better when I run across little drawings from my students:

I have to run out eventually, but when you wake up to a temp of -17 and a windchill between -30 and -40, it's nice to not leave the house for awhile.  :)

Instead, I've got coffee, some climbing magazines, lesson planning for Composition, and trying to plan some meals for the next few days.  I've been running around so much lately that I haven't had time to cook, relying instead on Mac & Cheese, eating out, or (like last night) toast and dipping soft shell tortillas in guacamole.  This morning I opened the fridge and realized that my breakfast was either going to be slices of cheese (no bread), sunflower seed butter (on... more tortillas?), or a red pepper (what am I supposed to do with that??).  Time to make a list.

Tomorrow is the Climbing Competition at Vertical Endeavors, which means I'll be there at 8 am to help set up, clean up, and get climbers checked in.  Tonight, however, is when the real work gets done.  I'm heading down around 4 to climb every one of the 47 new routes to help rate them for the competition.  This is called "fore-running"- I can tell the setters if a route is harder or easier than it's supposed to be, and help find the order that the routes should be numbered in for difficulty.  And at 5'4'', I'm a good person for testing to make sure big moves on hard routes aren't too big for shorter climbers.  If I can climb it, there can't be any complaining that the moves are too far apart.  :)
I'm excited to go climb tonight, but right now I'm enjoying not running around in this chilly, chilly air.
Time to go get Albert to stop licking the windows... stupid cat...

FO: Kleio Shawl

It felt really, really good to get this particular project off of the needles.
I present the Kleio Shawl!

Pattern: Kleio by Rosemary Hill (link to pattern on Ravelry)
Yarn: The blue is "Eavan" in Three Irish Girls Adorn Sock, and the purple is "Enna" in Three Irish Girls Finley Fingering.
Needles: Size 5 on the Denise Interchangable, though when I got to the braids and the lace, I was very close to buying a large size five circular.  The Denise needles disconnected more than once, resulting in swearing and frustration which may have been easily avoided.

Gift/Barter/Swap: Gift!  Supposed to be done for Christmas, but since I won't see the recipient for another couple of weeks, I'm okay with the fact that I'm a little behind on this present...
Time Frame: September 29th, 2012-January 25th, 2013
Mods:  I ended up eliminating the last Latvian braid before the edging, mostly because I had probably three yards left of the blue Eavan sock yarn, and would have never been able to make the full braid.  I'm really happy with the result without the braid, though that may be because I didn't have to go through knitting another long Latvian braid...

Worst Part: Hinted at above- it's a toss-up between the Latvian braids and the Denise needles constantly falling apart and dropping my stitches all over the place.  Both were equally frustrating, though the braids caused a slow-burning frustration and the needles falling off were flashes of hot temper, with a few "F*#&!!!!" and "S%#@!!!!" type-words thrown in there.

Best Part:  I LOVE this yarn.  I'm a big fan of any Three Irish Girls yarn, having used it before in big projects.  The shawl turned out very warm and squishy, to the point that I don't even want to block it because it'll lose the squishy-ness that I love.  Plus I know the recipient will love it. :)

::phew::.  Feels good to knock off this shawl.  Now to get knitting on that border for the Snowflake Shawl and get that one (finally) put to rest...

Friday Night in the Gym

Now that my tendon has finally healed, I'm back to training 3 days a week in the climbing gym!

It feels so good to finally be back on the wall, climbing routes that require a little more fitness and grace than the 5.8's and 5.9's I've been stuck on while I slowly get my finger back in shape.  Scott and I climbed for about two hours, doing all lead climbing as I prepare for a possible Red River Gorge spring break trip.  We then went up to the bouldering cave (not my forte- I'm better at technical vertical stuff than overhanging burly stuff) and worked on the 45 degree overhanging wall for about 30 minutes.  I added a new training bit for the easy boulder problems- every time I moved up the wall one hold, I would completely cut my feet off the wall, swing out, and then bring my feet back in.  I burnt out about the third time up, and this morning my stomach muscles are really feeling it.
When my hands were starting to shake from exertion, we did pull-ups.

One of my favorite ways is "pyramids"- each person does one pullup, then each does two, and you go up to as many as you can do before going down again.  I only made it up to 3, while Scott made it up to 7 (showoff.  I can do more situps than him, though...).  My arms were absolutely sore when we were done, and I could barely tie my mukluks.
After that, we headed home for take-out chinese, some climbing videos, and hanging out.
Not a bad way to end a Friday night. :)