Excitement

I'm going to share something that anyone who knows me will totally not believe.

Are you ready?

I've started running... and I'm enjoying it!!

A couple of weeks ago, Rachel at Yarn-a-Go-Go mentioned Robert Ullrey's podcasts for the Couch to 5K plan. Now I've already committed to walk at least 540 miles this year, following up from my run-a-go-go plan last year. So what possessed me to move from walking to running? I don't really know.

For whatever reason, it just spoke to me. I thought about it for about a week and then asked S to load the podcasts onto his IPod. I did the first run and, wow amazing, I survived. After that I was a girl possessed.

Of course once I decided to run, I had to get some equipment (laugh... yep you see where this is going). I already needed new shoes ... last year's 500 miles took it out of my last pairs. Visit to our local running store... shoes and socks: check. Clothes to wear (running makes you sweat alot more than walking you know?): check. A way to listen to the podcasts when S has taken his IPod off to class: check.

So let me talk about my little mp3 player (that's it in the picture above) ... I love it! It's a 1 GB Sansa Clip MP3 Player and it is tinyyyyyy! 2 inches tall, 1 1/4 inches across... tiny! I love it. It has all my podcasts on it plus a bunch of music. I can clip it to the top of my pants and off I go. The best thing... $40. Yep... there's not a digit missing there... 4, o, dollars (I think it's even on sale this week at one of the big boxes for $35). I'm totally enamoured of it and it's keeping me committed to running. After all you can't buy such great stuff and then let it go unused!! Thanks mom for the gift that made this little splurge possible!

Another positive bonus... S is running too! So far we are running separately but one of these days I could see us going out together.... fun!

All this inspiration seems to be spilling into my knitting life too. Once I finished Jean's scarf I had to decide what to do next. You know what called to me this time? It was those trekking socks that I cast on way back in ... well I don't even really remember. I know I swatched, cast on, and knit no more than about 5-10 rows, then... well let's say the sock went into a long slumber. This week, well the sock called to me. Warm, cozy, wool socks.

In between all my running about, I've been working away. I'm using Charlene Schurch's four stitch ribbing pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks and using a rotating rib pattern (ala the Harlot): regular 2x2 ribbing, but moving the ribbing over one stitch every 10 rounds. This is the pattern I used to make my first pair of socks and I'm looking foward to finishing this pair (which will be number 3).

I've also decided to consider this my official casting on time... I figure all those months of not being worked on shouldn't count against these little guys. Happy birthday little sock!