who knew???? well, thanks to everyone's advice about the smelly yarn. it definitely wasn't the standard smelly wet wool smell. i clearly had not rung out the poncho enough and then didn't put a towel under it when i laid it out in the bathtub, so it basically sat wet for over a week. it has that mildewy smell. so i'll resoak it in the wool wash that smells so good with tea tree in it. then i'll put it in the spin cycle of the washing machine to really pull all the excess water out of it. then i'll block it with a towel and change it regularly until the poncho thoroughly dries. wow, this knitting stuff takes a lot of careful attention. but it looks soooo beautiful. i can't wait to take a picture of it!!!
ok, what do you do for this?? i finished the rowan poncho from forever and a day ago. i went to block it, soaked it in wool wash, and then laid it flat to dry. maybe my first mistake was laying it in the bathtub with nothing underneath it to absorb the water. anyhow, it's taken forever to dry, and now it smells all funkified. i guess i should resoak it, ring it out better and lay it on something to sponge up the excess water??? that's what i get for being in a hurry. well, if i ever get the funkiness out of it, it's gonna look hella cool.
also, in running news, I PR'D AT THE LONG BEACH HALF MARATHON THIS PAST SUNDAY!!!! i was so thrilled, especially given that i hadn't run in nearly three weeks since my back pain flaired up again. now i just gotta ride the storm out until the new york marathon on november 7th!!!!
ok, so due to a recent flair up of the lower back injuries, my body was sending me the message that i just had to slow down. that is not easy for this girl on the go who has just about a month to go before the new york marathon!!! i had missed my 22 miler two fridays ago due to the injury flaring up while working and was anxious to try to make it up this sunday. after coaching my runners saturday on their 20 miler, i knew that a long run was impossible for me. my runners have been so supportive, and it kills me that i can't run along with them. i was so afraid to even admit out loud that my back was hurting as bad as it was.
all that to say that i came home saturday afternoon and laid on the couch for the remainder of the evening. at some point i got bored of watching the "when harry met sally" marathon and went into my room and dug out an unfinished project that had been sitting for probably over a year!!!! it was the poncholong poncho that i started with my virtual knitting group. there's still a link to it in my "on the needles" section. now, why i never finished it, i could not say. when i pulled it out again, both pieces were finished and just needed to be blocked and seamed. i think when i was last working on it, i had ripped and reknit the one piece because it never ended with the right amount of stitches and on the right part of the stitch pattern. those rowan patterns can be crazy with their decrease instructions!!!! so i got over it and just frogged to the point where it did match with the front piece and started seaming from there. it's blocking in the bathtub right now after i washed it in this awesome wool wash that jackie gave me when we visited in alaska. i'll take a progress picture at some point and finally put that thing in the "finished stuff" section. and the "kyoto redux" has been finished forever but i never took a final pic of it either. one thing at a time. one thing at a time......
it felt so strange to have the needles back in my hands!!!! i felt like i'd forgotten some vital stuff as well. but now that it's beginning to feel like fall, i'm all about making fun, cozy stuff again. next on the list is to catch up on swatches for the virtual knitting girls. i'm waaaaaay behind!!!!! at the same time, i wanna get going on the "ubernatural" short sleeve cardi from magnits designed by the one and only stef of glampyre fame. stef's also posted some adorable knit necklaces. i might have to crank one of those out too!!!!
and to prove to you just how long it's been since i've knit, when i finished the poncho yesterday, i thought to myself, "ok, now i just have to do that thing where i wet it and lay it out and stretch it to it's correct proportions while it dries. yeah, what is that called????" thought about it for about another hour. "oh, yeah, blocking!!!" duh......
monica, 33, single
photographer / running coach
live in los angeles
2 dogs, ella (lab) and ruby (dobi)
learned to knit when i was 7, but recently picked it up again in december 2002
...owned a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?
i've thought about this one before. i'd call the restaurant "whateva's cleva" and change the menu every day with all my favorites including, mexican, indian, soul food, veggie friendly, etc.
...owned a small store, what kind of merchandise would you sell?
yarn, duh!!!!!
...wrote a book, what genre would it be?
biographies are my favorite, but i can't imagine that my own would be a top seller. probably a crime story.
...ran a school, what would you teach?
tolerance
...recorded an album, what kind of music would be on it?
oh, again, that's a difficult one. i'm a musical schizophrenic. some punk, some funk, some metal, some rap, and at least one sappy love song
how come this little pixie never looks like me????
