Episodes
Tuesday Sep 26, 2017
Episode 23 - Wips, Ease and Increasing Mileage
Tuesday Sep 26, 2017
Tuesday Sep 26, 2017
Episode 23 – 9/25/17 Knitting and running in 30 minutes or less
Topics this week include FO, Wips, Out and About, On the Run
FO
Itty Bitty Kitty Preemie Hat test knit from Sarah Jordan, aka Knit Wit. To fit 2-3lb baby hat worked in Berroco Comfort Sock
Wips
Emerald Deep by Romi Hill – finished charts B & C, started chart D. Finished that Irish-style lace section I mentioned. It was lots of fun but you have to place close attention because it’s knit lace on both sides – no rest rows. Gift for my cousin’s wife for Christmas in Prism Delicato Layers in Kale colorway
Another Itty Bitty Kitty preemie hat, the same test knit pattern in the Maldvies colorway of Berroco comfort sock
Lillesand cowl by Monika Eckhert, working on this in some deep stash, Cascade Yarn’s Sateen in a burgundy-red color and Rozetti Yarns Soft Payette in white with a few sequins for sparkle here and there – got a few more rows done on this cowl for my aunt for Christmas
Hitchiker by Martina Behm in Ito Yarn’s Kinu, 100% silk – still plugging away at this a few rows a week. It’s my purse knitting
Knitted Knocker in Cascade Ultra Pima – literally just cast this on waiting for my toddler to fall asleep so I can record this show – visit their website at www.knittedknockers.org
Knitting Talk
Fit and Ease
Ease - how much extra room (or lack thereof) do you want in your garment?
An inch or so of ease will be a fitted garment but the material will not stretch to fit you. Negative ease, where the material is actually less around than your body, will give you a very fitted garment where the material itself is stretching to fit around your body – think a typical sock.
2-3 inches of you will give you a comfortable fit without feeling fitted. 4 inches or so and we’re getting more into loose-fitting cardigans and approaching boyfriend sweater territory. Some of the huge boxy sweaters out there these days may have as much as 8 inches of ease to give you that boxy effect.
Out and About
Rhinebeck! I’m headed to Rhinebeck for the day via the bus from Webs. Gonna be a long day – I have a grad school reunion at the MFA in Boston the night before then I have to leave my house around 5-5:30am to drive to Webs.
I cannot wait! The artichoke line was waaaay too long by the time I found it so I hope to grab one of those earlier in the day. I’ll be at the podcaster meetup, of course, and probably at the Ravelry meetup too. I’m also hoping to locate the bag check this year – missed it last year, but I’ll have a big ‘ol day pack with me for the bus and car ride. On the plus side, with a minimum of 4 hours on the bus I should get a bit of knitting done that day!
On the Run
After walking to school for 3 weeks today I started a Galloway-style run-walk-run on the way home and it felt good. Rolled out my quads, IT bands and solias muscles, which have been cranky with the sudden mileage increase, but they felt OK too. Will try again in a couple of days.
Mileage Increases – keep it low, keep it slow
As I mentioned last week, I broke one of the cardinal rules of running by suddenly drastically increasing my mileage by walking my son to kindergarten. That’s an additional 3 miles or so per day for me. Now, we mitigated this by not walking every single day – we’re averaging about 3 days a week and some days we only walk one way and not the other. But this is a huge faux pas and something even us veteran runners forget.
If you’re new to running, an important rule to remember is to keep your mileage increases small, no more than 10% increase per week. This is super important because most injuries are directly linked to increasing intensity or duration of exercise too much too soon.
Now, let’s unpack this statement – this does not mean you should increase your mileage by 10% every week – on the contrary if you look into the data, most folks should be increasing your mileage by a MAXIMUM of 5-10% every OTHER week. You should also be incorporating rest weeks where you run less than your baseline, or average weekly miles. The reason for all this is your body needs time to adjust to the changes your asking of it.
Particularly when starting out, don’t plan on increasing mileage or speed any time soon. Listen to your body. Take more rest weeks if you need it, or put mile increases off till next week if your body is feeling off. The whole point is to start running or increase running without injury and that means giving yourself time to adapt. If you have existing injuries, then you REALLY need to take it slow. Thinking of starting a couch-to-5k program? You can plan on repeating the 1st week 3 times to give your chronic issues time to adapt slowly. Or something I did when I did my marathon training I took the marathon training plan and slowed it down by adding more rest weeks because I knew my body and knew that I had to be careful of asking too much of it too soon.
To sum up – take it slow and stay injury free.
Thursday Jun 29, 2017
Episode 15 - All the Wips
Thursday Jun 29, 2017
Thursday Jun 29, 2017
Episode 15 – 6/29/17
FOs, Wips, Knitting Fail, Stash, Wearables, Tip Time, Out and About, On the Run and In the Gardenp
FOs
Maris Stella shawl – it’s finished! End aren’t woven in yet, but it’s done. Knit in Ocean View gradient kit by Birdies Knits
Wips
Green Hitchiker – Valley Yarns Greylock 100% Cashmere; approximately 90% complete. So close! I’m limiting it to 3 rows before washing my hands so the progress is sort of slow going, but it’s nearly done.
Purple Hitchiker – Cascade Ultra Pima Fine 100% Cotton in Periwinkle (but really more of a royal purple) – about 20% complete. I’ve been focusing on other projects, so not much progress on this one
Firebird – Cast on the Firebird Shawl by Romi Hill in Blue Heron yarns Egyptian Mercerized Cotton in Carnelian. On row 5 of Chart B. The beginning was fairly simple (side note – knitting fail) so I worked on this while watching the America’s Cup. Ironicaly Knitting Fail occurred after the races ended!
Empire Top – Cast on again. Figured out what the problem was last time around. For background, I’d gotten 1 extra st per inch over 4 inches so I cast on 1 size smaller to compensate for those extra few inches over my ribcage circumference. I sat down with a tape measure last week to double check my math and discovered that I’ve lost 3 inches around my ribs at 2 around my bust! No wonder the blasted top didn’t fit, I’d shrunk! I’ve been working my tail off at Physical Therapy the last 4 months and I’ve only lost 5 pounds so I hadn’t bothered to re-measure myself. Thankfully I did before I got any further on the Mommy’s Tunic pattern so I could adjust that down a size too.
Mommy’s Tunic – I finished the cable band and grafted it, then began knitting bust. As I mentioned previously, I ended up going with a smaller size. I’ve finished bust darts and split for front and back – currently working on the back panel.
Knitting Fail
Firebird 2.0 – Finished Chart A and the first few rows of Chart B and I just couldn’t get the right # of sts on the last repeat so I finally just gave up and unraveled and started again. It was so early in the process that I’m not upset – though I am now using lifelines again, lol
Stash
No actual stash, but I need to find some pink yarn. My mother-in-law saw the pink hitchhiker shawl I made for my Family og Hitchhikers project and she really liked. So I need to track down a similar color pink, if I can – alas Webs, where I bought the yarn, has been sold out of that color for the last month. I will keep looking, and I’ll check some fun yarn stores I know on Cape Cod next week. Wish me luck!
Wearables
Thoughts by Joji Locatelli, knit in Araucania’s Yumbrel a discontinued yarn in the Pastels colorway. I find myself wearing this a lot now that the weather is warm. It’s ¾ length sleeve and made in lace-weight yarn so it’s nice and light, the perfect sweater to wear to a movie theater or cool restaurant on a hot day. I’m seriously debating making another one in a very different color.
Tip Time
When picking up sts, use a smaller needle so you don’t get that baggy-looking first row of knit stitches. I try to go at least 3 sizes smaller when I can – for socks this isn’t always possible, but for garments I just grab whatever small needles are handy. Today I used a US Size 1 (2.25mm) to pick up sts on a garment I’m knitting on US Suze 6 (4mm). That’s a smaller needle than I would normally use, but I had it handy so I used it.
Out and About
Next week I’m off to visit my parents on Cape Cod and one of my favorite LYS, A Great Yarn in Chatham which is also a book store. Seriously, if they served tea or mimosas it would be the perfect store. Planning on packing my Mommy’s Tunic, the 2 hitchhikers, and maybe and old sock or the Hamilknit hat. Can’t decide if I want something else mindless, or something I want to actually work on. I know I could finish the hat and the green hitchhiker easily, and make good progress on the others which is why I’m thinking of bringing 4 projects. There’s definitely a part of me that wants to bring something new to cast on, which I just should not do, but the Second Grace sweater by Bristol Ivy is calling my name and I already have the yarn for it…. Gah! Too many choices!!!
July 20-23 off to Nashville for the Super Summer Knitogether with The Knit Girllls
August off to NS, Canada to visit family
On the Run
I graduated from Physical Therapy! Woohoo!!!! Very happy to be done. I have come so far and I feel a LOT stronger than I did 3 months ago. My abs and glutes in particular are much, much stronger which should really help when I start running again. Fingers crossed, I’m hoping to do some very simple runs next week on holiday – something like run 30 secs, walk 90 secs repeat 2-3 times. I’m starting back slooooooowly so I don’t re-injure myself.
In the Garden
First crop – sugar snap peas are ripe and delicious. Also, we debate moving the garden itself next year because our trees have grown a LOT in the past 10 years and the garden is now part shade.