Mess of Stuff

It's been an interesting week up here.  S got supremely sick starting Monday with pretty much everything at once- flu and cold and stomach flu for two days, then sore throat, cold, cough, and being zonked for another couple of days.  He's finally starting to get up and move around a little today without coughing up too much grossness.  Poor guy!
His week has been spent moving from the bed to the couch, watching Netflix on the Nook, being partially force-fed soup by me, and taking naps with kittens piled on top of him:

The kittens seemed to take a leaf out of his book and proceeded to snuggle up as much as possible too!

Aww, so cute when they're not eating my wool or tearing apart the house. :)
Speaking of, I've spent the time tearing apart my own house.  After spending way too much time pinning really pretty house layouts and decorations on Pinterest, and due to a stormy day off on Thursday, I proceeded to clean off my entire art desk, move around two bookshelves, and started to redecorate the entire apartment so it feels more so like a real home and not just another "stop" in the line of apartments I've lived in.  Plus, living with someone that actually helps keep it clean is a huge plus. ;)
Due to all the redecorating, the apartment is a bit of a mess right now- piles of books as I move around shelves, picture frames hanging out on the floor until I hang them, and poor S trying to find a place to nap a midst the chaos.  It doesn't help that I also have a clothing exchange planned for Wednesday night at my place, which means I've been tearing my closet apart in an attempt to get rid of as many clothes as I can!  The only room in the house that's clean is the kitchen.  By hosting the clothing exchange, it's good motivation for me to finish cleaning everything else. :)
In the middle of all of it, I took time off yesterday evening to run the William Irvin 5K in 85 degree heat and humidity.
I was lucky enough to get a pre-race picture:

where I still look dignified healthy.  I did not get a post-race picture, due to my lobster-like red heated body and crazy frizzy hair as I guzzled water in an attempt to hydrate myself.  It was an extremely hot race, and I probably pushed it harder than I should have, but I did end up with a time of 30:49, averaging just under 10 minute miles!  I was pretty happy with that, and it gives me even more motivation to enter more races in a sneaky attempt to keep myself in cardio shape.
Today is hopefully a lot of knitting time as the whole of Duluth is completely taken over by Grandma's Marathon runners, families, and spectators.  It's a fun event, and I was able to watch the Kenyans take first, second, and third place before I had to scootch through the crowds over to work.
(I don't think I'll ever do a full marathon.  Maybe a half, if someone signs up with me and runs with me the whole time.  Even then it will be a struggle.)

FO: Lil' Bunny Hat

Last night I cranked out the ears on the Lil' Bunny Hat, and today it's ready to be sent off to my old high school friend with a little girl on the way!

Pattern: Bunny Tail, from Susan B. Anderson's amazing book Itty-Bitty Hats

Yarn: Sublime Yarns Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK weight

Needles: Size 7 Bamboo

Mods: None!

Gift/Barter: Gift- Stoff is an old friend from High School, as in we went to prom together "as friends" and have always kept in touch over the years.  I was lucky enough to watch him get married last fall, and he'll be welcoming a little baby girl this September!  I wanted to get it knit up and sent before I left on my trip and I would come back to getting things ready for the beginning of the semester.

Worst Part: This might sound silly, but I'm never a huge fan of carting an entire book around for one pattern.  I'll definitely be making a paper copy to carry around with me next time.

Best Part: I always love an excuse to play with this yarn- it's sooooo soft!  Maybe someday a sweater??

I've been working on several things from my list from yesterday, one of which was making my apartment more of a "home".  One of my incredibly talented friends does photography, and in exchange for a hat he made some prints for me to hang.  

Two smaller ones are of me climbing (ice climbing on one, bouldering on the other) and a larger one is of the northern lights from the Gunflint Trail this winter, in northern Minnesota. 

They look incredible, and I can't wait to hang them up!  This weekend, I'm also receiving the much-anticipated painting that my brother's girlfriend made for me in exchange for a cowl!  Once I get that, I'll be moving stuff around in my living room and start trying to figure out how to coordinate all my mis-matched hand-me-down furniture. :)

Last but not least, our little garden is finally producing some vegetables!

The cherry tomatoes taste incredible- a ridiculous amount of flavor in a tiny little fruit!  

The green peppers aren't quite big enough to pick yet, but I'm excited to make a stir fry out of them (Well, let's be honest- I'm excited to watch S make a stir fry out of them for me to eat)!

Busy bee.... and off again!

Summer List

I wrapped up my dance season on Saturday, and took the last couple of days easy.  Sunday was a hot, humid day, so I ran errands with S, stopped at the bookstore and sipped an iced white chocolate mocha while starting a new book, had a burrito out in the sun (and burned my shoulders after only a half-hour outside), and finished the night with a movie (Prometheus- awesome special effects) and some pizza.  After work yesterday, I finished my book, hung out with my kittens and a climber friend, and started going through my closet in preparation for a clothing exchange I'll be hosting.
While going through clothes last night, I realized that I had the whole summer ahead of me, and a lot to get done before the semester starts.  I also have a lot of fun stuff to get in.  Thus, I made a small list of things to do this summer, with a large range of stuff to accomplish (or not accomplish, as it were)!

1- Cook for myself (and possibly S) at least once a week.
2- Have at least one picnic down by Lake Superior.
3- Ride my bike everywhere, unless it's absolutely pouring outside.
4- Run 2-3 days a week outside.
5- Complete Stacey's bag (sewing project).
6- Have a movie marathon day when it's storming outside.  Bonus points if all snacks consumed are healthy.
7- Finish S's sweater for the Knitting Olympics.
8- Finish the body of my Dad's Dale of Norway by the end of August.
9- Lead El Matador on Devil's Tower (5.10b) and Mr. Lean at Palisade Head (5.11d) on gear.
10- Send at least 4 pieces of mail per week to various friends and family.
11- Go to Duluth's "Movies in the Park" and watch a movie under the stars.
12- Visit my friends that homestead and learn a little about homesteading.
13- Learn some duets on fiddle (me) and guitar (S).
14- Get my library card "OK" again and begin checking books out of library again.
15- Pick all the music for my tap competition lines next year- START CHOREOGRAPHING
16- Make our apartment more of a home.
17- Paint!
18- Work on writing my kid's book with my Mom
19- Visit friends in the cities at least a few times this summer.
20- Prepare everything for the start of fall semester.

I figure 20 is a good amount of stuff, especially when some will be easy to tick off and some will be incredibly difficult.  Summer is a time to both get things done and slow down to enjoy life.  Being gone through the whole month of July will be incredible for my climbing trip, giving me some much-needed "away" time from the working world.
Duluth is also an amazing city to summer in.  Many locals (myself included) state that we put up with the long, dark, and very cold winters for the incredibly perfect Duluth summer weather.
I'm pretty excited to have started my summer.  :)

(image via Pinterest)

Wait.. What?

The last week has been absolutely stuffed with dance.  The recital for the studio that I teach at is this evening, complete with a teacher dance I'm participating in.  It's been a ridiculously busy week as I learn a hip-hop dance (while trying not to look like a chicken), get my girls ready, finish making and handing out dancer thank-yous, and help the director as much as I can with all the logistics of putting on a show with 100+ dancers.
Last night, right after the third run-through of our teacher dance, one of the other teachers approached me and asked me if I liked running.
Me- "About as much as I can- I've done a few 5Ks to try to stay in cardio shape, but nothing huge.  I'm kind of bad at running."
Her- "Oh, you've done 5Ks?  Perfect!  Want to run one for me?"
Me (in the post-dance happiness of a good run-through)- "Oh sure, no big deal!  When?"
Her- "Just the William Irvin 5K next weekend.  It's in the evening and no biggy."
Me- "Sweet, let me know the logistics whenever!"
Her- "Awesome!  Thank you, I was hoping not to waste my entry!"
It was only after the rehearsal was over and I was home eating a little post-dance ice cream that what I fleetingly agreed to suddenly sunk in.
I'm going to be running a 5K.
Next weekend.
During the annual Grandma's Marathon festivities.
Even though I haven't actually gone for a run in... weeks?  Probably over a month?

...Huh.

Well, at least I only agree to a 5K... right?

Bad Kitty

Lately, Maeby has really grown to accept her kitten-ness and spent the last month or two pushing her boundaries around the apartment.  She's up on the kitchen counter, in the closet pulling down dresses that have strings hanging off of them, and basically being a pest anywhere she possibly can.

I learned right away with her that yarn was not safe to be left out overnight.  S and I have already learned that food left on the counter or coffee table for more than a minute is not safe.

Tonight, despite all prior warnings, I walked away from the baby hat I'm knitting, leaving a squishy ball of the Sublime cashmere merino silk safely in a ball on the couch as I went to the kitchen to put the spaghetti noodles in a boiling pot of water.

Alas, it was a minute too long.

In that time, Maeby (with some help from Albert) managed to tear around half the living room with the yarn in her mouth, which she promptly chewed apart and then proceeded to swallow about a foot of (which she yacked out and I had to pull out of her throat and mouth- yuck!).  I then had to rewind the entire rest of the ball of yarn that was strewn around the apartment.  Luckily, I was pretty close to the end of the hat, and there wasn't a ton of yarn left.

The point was still made.

8 month old rambunctious kitten and anything not glued down or locked away is not safe.

ESPECIALLY not yarn.

::sigh::

Finally- outside!

A gorgeous forecast and a short closing shift in the evening on Saturday meant a whole bunch of outside time and climbing for me!  After a couple weeks of nothing but rain, a full weekend of beautiful weather- a weekend off, nonetheless- was like a cup of pure happiness for my soul!
S and I biked from our apartment to one of our small outdoor crags called the Whoopie Wall, and did some trad leading for the first time this year.

I love to Trad Lead.  You place gear in the rock as you go up, and you have to climb above each piece with a larger potential fall.  If your gear isn't placed well, it could also pop out when force is put on it, making your fall even farther.  It requires the climber to be in a completely different state of mind (or at least it does for me), trusting that they can climb something and not fall, and also trusting their gear and gear placements.
We started with some easier stuff, easing ourselves back into the mindset needed for trad climbing.  We have a lot of trad climbing we'll be doing on our month-long trip to Wyoming in July, so we want to get as much practice as possible!
Yesterday we drove up to my favorite haunt, Palisade Head along Lake Superior for a full day of climbing.  I worked a couple of my projects, both Mr. Lean (5.11d) and Oz (5.12b).  Not going to lie- both felt pretty rough.  I fell only once on Mr. Lean, though the whole route felt pretty desperate, and the cracks tore the backs of my hands apart. I pulled through the crux on the last part screaming, and stood on the ledge panting with a gigantic grin, beaming up at S and saying "THAT WAS AMAZING!" between gasps for breath.

I didn't get any pictures climbing since it was just the two of us, but I did get a picture of my friend Mat leading The Poseidon Adventure, the 5.11d that I named my big beautiful shawl after and the same climb that I pulled a chunk of rock off the size of my torso when I was climbing (scaring the daylights out of both myself and my belayer).
Going outside really motivated me to train harder, so I'm completely ready to climb hard on my trip.  One more week of dance before my nights are free to climb outside a TON! :)

PS- I started and got pretty far on a baby hat for my friend, which I'll hopefully finish in the next day or so, and I'll post pictures then. ;)

The Big Ones

After I finished the beret for Sarah, I realized that the only thing I really have on my needles right now are long-term projects.  Ones that I can't finish up in a weekend (unless I knit all day and all night, which is reserved for the knitting Olympics).  That being said, I feel like I'm making immense progress on both of them.

I've been working slowly but surely on the Lavender Cardigan.  

This is a good project to keep at work, where during slow periods I can chip away at the endless rows of stockinette.  I love that this cardigan has a large, draping opening in the front, but this means I have to knit a large, draping opening.  The pattern calls for size 9 needles, and in order to get gauge I had to go waaay down to size 5, which makes progress even slower. 

(Oh, and for those doubters- notice that I mentioned gauge- YES I did INDEED make a gauge swatch!  Believe the impossible!  I actually had to make THREE as I kept going down in needle size!)

It finally feels like it's growing, especially when I try it on.

Albert came in to check out my photo shoot, and we learned that he has a great appreciation for yummy alpaca yarn.

Maybe too much of an appreciation.  I don't need more kitten power ready to attack my wool.

I spent a couple hours this morning with a large cup of coffee and an even larger box of pins to block the first six snowflakes for Kim's wedding shawl, and despite all the pokes and sore fingers, the reward was incredible:

7 more snowflakes to knit before I'll start adding on the borders.  I feel like this project is going faster than I originally anticipated, but a large part of that is being able to cast on and finish about a snowflake a night when I have the time.  Hopefully I can keep up this pace.  My goal is to finish both of these big projects before I leave for Wyoming at the end of the month.  We'll see how that actually goes. ;)

Off to enjoy the beautiful sunshine for my day off.  I have a big list of "to-do" for the day, plus a picnic in the park with my guy later this afternoon.  

Yeeeeah fridays!  Enjoy your own ;)