Let be be finale of seem.

Whew

akatewhite — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 04:58:40 +0000

So it’s almost over.

I finished all of the presentations and all of the papers. All I have left is a Czech exam on Thursday morning. Hoorah!

I haven’t been able to do much knitting because of all the work, but I am almost done with my mom’s present. I’m not going post a picture because she reads this. I’ll show you after Thursday, when I fly home.

In running news, I have made it to week 8! Crazy, I know. I ran 2.68 miles on Monday, though my legs burned like crazy. They’re still sort of sore. But my breathing was fantastic! Never thought I would say that. I’m going again in the morning.

I’m also getting my haircut tomorrow, hoorah for that. And having a fun knit night for St. Patrick’s Day (don’t forget to wear green). Alright that’s it for this mini update. I’ll be back in a few days once I’m home for spring break with something more fun.

Deep Breath

akatewhite — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:18:51 +0000

So the Olympics are over, which means I have some updating to do. Yes, I did finish the Ishbel, and here it is (unblocked):

done!

So hoorah! I finished it last Tuesday and was wearing it by Wednesday night. I really like it, it’s very soft.

I didn’t finish the bag for the Olympics, so there’s one failure of my 3 events. Here are my medals:

For the Aerial Unwind (the frogging project I’ve already posted).

Both of these are for the Ishbel. Hoorah!

I also entered YarnHarlot‘s Knitting Olympics for the Ishbel, so here’s that as well:

That’s all of them. I’ve also continued running (I updated the counter), and continued working. Right now I’m taking a tiny breather in between all the knitting (whew!) and the last 2 weeks of the quarter. Upcoming: 4 presentations this week, 1 next week, 1 paper due next week, 2 due in 2 weeks, 1 final in 2 weeks. Get excited.

In running news, I’ve started week 6, which means that I ran for 24 total minutes today. Crazy.

Success!

akatewhite — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:06:01 +0000

So I went running despite the (mild) snow storm. But that’s not the only thing. I’ll start from the beginning — last Tuesday I skipped running because there was a REAL snow storm out side (I was just being a wimp today). Then I went on Thursday, meaning that I had only done two days of week 3. I meant to go this weekend but, well, with Mike here, I slacked off (no surprises there). So today I had to decide — start over with week 3 or just go ahead and jump to week 4 while hoping for the best.

I jumped ahead, and it was fine! Even though I only ran once in the last week and didn’t do all of week 3, I managed to do week 4 without huffing and puffing or pain. I had a slight stitch in my side, but right at the end when I was dodging ice. So I’m pretty happy about this. I guess it doesn’t look like much: walk 1 minute, run 4 minutes, repeat 4 times (total). But for me this is a big deal, especially considering that I’ve been slacking. I guess it just means I had more in me than I thought I did. Also, I’m not at all afraid of week 5 (which I’ll start on Saturday, putting me back on schedule).

One more thing– I was wearing my ninja running mask (which works perfectly), and since our trail is “closed” there was a big snow pile in front of the gate. It was pretty obvious that everyone was using it anyways, so I just climbed the snow pile and jumped the fence, which made me FEEL like a ninja. ha!

Snow Day

akatewhite — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:46:43 +0000

So, today we finally got a snow day. Yes, Ohio State actually cancelled. Everyone be shocked together.

In other news, I had been planning to go running today, and there was finally a snow lull. However, when I emerged from the bathroom, ready to change and get going, I noticed the SNOW MONSOON that has begun outside. Looks like I’m going tomorrow if this doesn’t stop before 530.

I’ve been knitting away, and this is what I have so far for my Ishbel:

That’s about all. Hopefully I’ll go running later.

First Medal

akatewhite — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:40:01 +0000

I got my first Ravelympics medal for finishing the Aerial Unwind event. Here it is:

Tadaaaa!

The Olympics have arrived!

akatewhite — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:05:42 +0000

Well, in case you haven’t noticed, the Olympics started last night. Not only does this mean that hundreds of athletes who like the cold or doing crazy things in Vancouver, but also that thousands of knitters around the world are participating in both the Ravelympics (Ravelry link) and the Knitting Olympics. What does this mean? It means that each of these crazy knitters has decided to tackle one (or more) projects that will be challenging for them to complete in the next 17 days. Starting last night during the opening ceremonies and finishing during the closing ceremonies.

These are my projects:
1. Ishbel, for the Knitting Olympics and (on Ravelry) the Lace Luge and Short Track Shawls events. I’m knitting it in a lovely grey cotton/silk blend.
2. The Big Honkin’ Bag, which is a true undertaking for me. I’ll be knitting it in a purple cotton yarn for the event Bag Jump.
3. I’m frogging this scarf which turned into a small nightmare and redoing it in crochet, which is how it was meant to be done anyway. I’ve already completed one event (Aerial Unwind for frogging) and will be entering the Scarf Super G for the redone scarf.

So those are my projects. Fingers crossed that I’ll finish them by the closing ceremonies. We started our projects together last night in a gathering of Team Knitgang. However, I was also bequeathed a lovely bag of fiber with a spindle in it by my friend, who is trying to get me addicted to spinning just like everyone else. We call them her “crack bags” because the first one is free and then you want to keep buying and spinning your own yarn. Dangerous. So far it’s fun but frustrating. Here’s a picture of what I’m talking about:

What else have I been doing? Well, I’ve been running, though I missed a day this week because it was blizzarding out. I’ll be a little behind on my counter (which, if you haven’t noticed, is up in the tab marked “run run run”). In school I’ve been doing lots of work as well, but Mike is here this weekend so I’m sort of slacking off. Hoorah for that.

Moving Along

akatewhite — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:46:17 +0000

Well, I’ve continued running. I’m almost done with Week 2, which is exciting. I even bought a silly looking face mask to protect myself from evil winter winds as I run. This morning there were these signs saying trail closed but I (along with about 100 other people, from the looks of the snow on the path) ignored them and ran anyway. Whoops.

In other news, I finished a really big step in my project for my MA proposal on Friday and became a total slacker over the weekend. Well, a school-related slacker. I read and knit quite a bit. I’ll probably finish a couple of projects in the next few days (hallelujah).

Speaking of hallelujahs, I really like this new cover of this song:

That’s about all for now. I’m still running, still knitting, and reading as much as I possibly can about morphological parsing and frequency effects. (Joy.)

Babies Make Good Knitting Recipients

akatewhite — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:31:24 +0000

I want someone I know to have a baby so that I can knit them this. It’s pretty adorable.

In other news, I have kept running, but I’m not much farther along with any of my knitting projects. But here’s a picture of that one I finished last week (the Noble Cowl).

That’s all for now.

Run Run Run

akatewhite — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 21:29:29 +0000

So, today I starting running.

Yeah, I know, it’s just as bizarre as it sounds. I found this blog this morning and was utterly inspired to try it myself. I figured posting about it would make me feel more accountable to go do it again on Tuesday.

Here’s the plan:

Stage One

Takes you from ground zero to running 45 minutes using a one minute walk, 10 minute run program. Stage one will get most people ready for a 5k race.
Week	Walk Minutes	Run Minutes	Repetitions	Total Minutes
1	1	1	7	14
2	1	2	5	15
3	1	3	4	16
4	1	4	4	20
5	1	5	4	24
6	1	6	4	28
7	1	7	4	32
8	1	8	4	36
9	1	9	4	40
10	1	10	4	44

I got it from this website. I did my first round of week 1 today, and I’m going to run on Saturdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Wish me luck.

In other news, I have such an enormous amount of homework this weekend that the run and the subsequent cleaning of the apartment was a nice escape. Now back to those papers…

Oh, January

akatewhite — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:50:52 +0000

So my knitting plan has gone quite awry from what I wrote last time.

Some of my Christmas knitting is, indeed, done. I finished the second black hat (for my Dad). My mother informed me that she no longer wanted slippers, but in fact wanted a scarf. So I’m about a third of the way through her scarf, but I can’t link to it because she’s going to read this now. No picture yet, I’m afraid. I think she’ll like it.

I also finished the Beaumonde Hat, but it came out laughably small. I donated it to Erin, who used it for Sticks n Stitches (which I missed). I now have to create a second one and figure out what went wrong with the first. Blargh. The recipient did indeed like the hat, despite its ridiculously small size.

Next up, I still need to finish the Danica scarf and the Exchequered scarf (see previous post). The latter is for a person who already has slippers, though, so she’s last on the list. I do need to make two more pairs of slippers still. Argh.

And that will be it! If it seems like there’s less that before, it’s because I replaced the last two scarves with two cowls that I finished quite quickly. The first followed this pattern and the second the lovely Noble Cowl pattern (which I love and will be making more of). The Noble Cowl is currently blocking, so pictures are forthcoming.

So that’s everything I need to finish. 3 scarves, a hat and 2 pairs of slippers. Then my Christmas knitting will be DONE. I’m hoping to finish it before the Olympics start, as I am participating in the Ravelympics.

What is that, you ask? Well I, along with many other insane knitters, will be entering into knitting and crocheting and everything-else-crafting events that will begin during the opening ceremonies and finish during the closing. 2 weeks (ish) of insane knitting adventures. Here are my events with links to the projects I’m going to do:

The Bag Jump (also counts for SnowCross, as it involves more than one craft. Pattern by Jana Pihota.)

Short Track Shawls (also counts for Lace Luge, for obvious reasons)

Scarf Super-G (I’m frogging my awful knitted version and redoing it with crochet)

I’m really excited. I’m working on my gauge swatches and knitting furiously to finish my Christmas projects in time. Wish me luck!