Baa Baa Black Sheep...Have You any Wool?

Yes ma'am, yes ma'am way more than three bags full!

In addition to getting in a whole slew of new products last month, from wonderful bamboo tools for knitting and crochet as well as for your kitchen to wonderfully soft merino wool yarns from Malabrigo to an adorable postcard that features a little lamb on yarny hills - it's perfect to use to send greetings or thanks to another yarn lover - mail it as a postcard, or pop it in an A5-sized envelope!

Of course, in addition to hunting down new product, I wouldn't have been doing my job if I wasn't keeping up with the dyework ;) I've been getting a workout moving the dyepot around, and the house has been filled with the smell of wet vinegary sheep. The dust-bunnies and fur-balls from the cats blowing their coats have been joined by bits of wool (my poor vacuum cleaner has been earning its keep!)...and the shop has been updated.

In case you're wondering, this last update was the biggest one yet...with over twenty-two pounds of fiber being dyed. Any guesses as to how many trader joes bags that is? Well, I already gave away the fact that it's quite a bit more than three...I will admit that the bins I currently have for storing skeined yarn and prepared fibers are not sufficient to contain it all. The bins are full to overflowing, and I've had to do up some make-shift containers to hold it all in an organized manner...now of I could only figure out how to use all this yarn to add to the insulation of my house ;)

By the way, the people who have subscribed to the newsletter generally get a few hours head start on the browsing - so take some time to sign up for the newsletter if you're interested. All email addresses are kept confidential, and updates are sent about once a month.


So...Any guesses?





Well, if you guessed seven, then you're way better at estimating that I was :) And yes, there is one whole bag of newly dyed spinning fibers in addition to all that yarn!

Cruise over to the shop to check it all out!

Hoping for a Bumper Crop!

Perfect for Project Spectrum - The prickly pears in my backyard have exploded into bloom.

From their immature pink buds with fuchsia and golden tipped spines (the ones photographed were from the wild, and not my backyard), to the lovely green of the pads to the lovely golden flowers - all the colors of the April-May Triad are present!

With all my prickly pears bursting with buds or flowers, I'm hoping for a bumper crop of fruit this summer. Unfortunately my prickly pears aren't terribly diverse genetically - I have a couple purple prickly pears and a bunch of Engelmann's Prickly pears - unfortunately, all the Engelmann's are from the same parent, so I'm not sure if I'll be getting fruit or not...


The blooms on the purple prickly pear seem to be more clear and purely yellow...

While those of the Engelmann's Prickly Pear seem to have a faint orange blush to them.

If you've never had an opportunity to taste prickly pear fruit, it's quite tasty (once you get past the spines ;) ) and it has a stunning vibrant fuchsia color. I was lucky enough to have received a jar of prickly pear jam last year from a friend - and since then, I've been tempted to see if I might be able to cook my own, but I've never been lucky enough to have a big enough "crop" of fruit - perhaps I'll be luckier this year!

Chop Chop!

Just in time - I'm finally getting rid of my blechy cutting boards and am replacing them with bamboo ones :) I even have one just for cheese. mmmm cheese.

Incidentally, since I'm now carrying my own bamboo needles and hooks, I'm also picking up a line of eco-friendly cutting boards. Unfortunately, I don't have the bi-colored ones right now, though you can get those here.

In the spirit of full disclosure, these boards are imported and sold by my family.

W5D1 MAF 3.9 0.0

When we last heard from our pink clad alter ego she was forced into a break from all things running due to ridiculously painful shin splints. Well, here we are, almost three months of physical therapy, an x-ray and a bone scan later, and I've been given the all clear to play nice with the Dreadmill.

Who would have thought I would ever be excited to be able to play nicely with a treadmill?! It's the sick and twisted mind of a runner at work, I tell you. Anyhow, I've been told to get back into running slowly, so I figured revisiting the C25k program may be in order. That, combined with my happy heart rate monitor, along with cross training (I don't know what kind yet), will hopefully keep me injury free.

So, to decode the above, it's the Week and Day (in this case, week 5, day 1) of the program followed by the speed and incline on the treadmill that seems to keep me at or near my selected training zone. I am currently attempting to follow the Maffetone method - with a target HR of somewhere between 143 and 148 bpm. Needless to say I am a little frustrated because I find it a smidge depressing how slow I have to go to maintain my heart rate within the targeted zone. Ah well, it's been proven to work, so while I'll never be a speed demon, I should see improvement!

Spring Brings New Things!

Spring means renewal, refreshment and other new things :)

Incidentally, I have a bunch of new items at Spritely Goods. I'm supplementing my own handdyes with wonderful Malabrigo...I've added some wonderful patterns from the talented Cookie A. In addition, I am launching a line of postcards and stationary items featuring Spritely Goods products - the first features the little Lambkin frolicing on chaparral and palo verde yarn hills. Finally, I'm also excited to announce my own personal line of bamboo needles and hooks!

Hop on over, have a look, and feel free to leave me comments on things you'd like to see in the future.

Tropical Sea

While I've been taking my hiatus from knitting, I've been spending more time with my spinning.

I've always loved looking at tropical fish, with their bright colors and exotic looks - I think this yarn captures the gorgeous colors of a tropical reef.

A little more info and more photos can be found here.

Happy Earth Day!

Today is Earth Day - it's been good to see and hear the local media talk especially about climate change and particularly about the local air quality (or lack thereof) today, and I only hope that the discussions continue and aren't just because today is Earth Day.

One of the things I have done to try to reduce personal energy consumption was to change over as many lightbulbs as I have personal control over to compact fluorescent bulbs - so far, even after having many of these bulbs installed for years, not a one has burned out or gone dim. I recently found out though, that compact fluorescent bulbs should not be disposed of as normal garbage as they do contain mercury.

It does seem like more and more places are creating Compact Fluorescent Recycling just based on some quick googling.

Check out Earth911 for a comprehensive listing of various recycling facilities by zip code.

Did you File?

...for your Burrito Refund?
No joke - apparently Chipotle is celebrating Tax Day by offering those patrons that purchased burritos over the weekend to get a free one today!


And if you're looking for other free eats, tomorrow is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's :)



As for me, I did indeed get my taxes done...though the State is apparently ridiculously behind in the processing - they are still processing returns that were mailed in at the beginning of last month. Perhaps it's a hint that I should be e-filing instead.

Into the Depths

After the slight detour about food, I return you back to my hiking adventures. I'll have a semi-fiber related post soon, I promise :)

Of course, sandstone not only makes for wonderful and fanciful sculpted buttes and toadstools, it also makes for fantastic slot canyons. This is a photo taken in Buckskin Gulch - this was the first slot canyon I ever did - and from that point we were hooked. It's still as beautiful as ever, with the canyon colors ranging from a warm golden and orange glow to a cool, dark and mysterious grey-brown. There are areas in the Buckskin that serve as strong reminders to the power of water - from giant logs, and full log jams in some cases, wedged firmly many feet in the air - to the "bathtub-ring" high water mark that appeared to be 6-10 feet above the canyon floor.

Definitely worth a visit, if you are so inclined - unlike many other slot canyons I've explored, this one does not require ropework!

Speaking of Sandstone...

...And inspiration, I do actually have some handblended batts in the shop that were inspired by sandstone (and lizards too, but I figure naming a yarn after a whiptail wasn't such a good thing something about scaly reptiles and yarn just don't jive in my mind).


One of these days I'll actually have a nice sized skein of handspun done up out of those batts. It's one of my favorite colorways and it's nigh impossible to capture the shine and sparkle of the yarn - I think it really does look like desert sandstone, but in a much softer, more huggable fashion!

Hiking Makes me Hungry.

So it's a good thing that there appear to be snacks on the way...


After checking out the second wave, we decided to go hunt down Melody Arch before swinging back down to the "regular" Wave and the car. Unfortunately, we don't have any photographs of Melody Arch, mostly because it's huge and the lighting was simply not favorable. It is a rather unique formation consisting of a gigantic grotto or basin that has worn through into a pair of arch or window formations.

Incidentally, there really is a feature near the Wave called the Hamburger Rock. And it really does look suspiciously like a Hamburger. Oddly enough, through the window of Melody Arch is a stunning view of the Coyote Buttes Teepees. In the foreground was yet another hamburger, much larger than this one...which admittedly is rather large...

See?

Anyhow, after much nonsense with the Hamburger Rock and poking around the sandstone cliffs, we headed back down to the Wave to find the lighting even more favorable.


In case you'd like to see further evidence of varied shades of sandstone, here's another example taken right near one of the main buttes that forms the Wave formation.

A fiber interlude

mmm...yarn always makes me happy - and hopefully this yarn made Lily happy as it was a belated birthday gift :) It's name is Newspaper, and you can see a better close up of it over here.

I had a lovely weekend visiting with my brother and other extended family while also puttering around the house catching up on things that needed catching up on. Amongst other things, I finally baked up the cookies that the fore-mentioned birthday girl Lily gifted me last holiday - they are fantastic with a tall glass of cold milk, and wonderful also with some vanilla ice cream sandwiched between a pair...

Thanks again, Lily! (For the cookies and all the wonderful drawings!) I hope you had a super-fantastic birthday!

Catching a Wave

While we were playing around up in Northern Arizona, we decided to go visit the Wave so I could try to refresh memory and get some lovely photographs for some attempts at color matching for future dye work.

Behold, the Wave - a magnificent example of saturated desert colors in fascinating sandstone that looks an awful lot like a petrified wave! Photographers can spend hours and days at this location, the rock changes color with the light, and is even more entrancing when water is pooled inside the formation.

A little bit of additional exploration brings you to the 2nd wave - a fascinating feature made from cross bedded sandstone - I hear the color on this feature is heightened at sunset, though I can't confirm it as we weren't able to wait around to find out...other adventures beckoned and we needed to start heading back towards the car...

Color Change!

Those following Project Spectrum know that April and May bring a new triad of colors :)

While February and March had a rather pitiful showing on my part, I'd end the triad of blue, grey and white with this photo:


It's a photo of me, taken by a fantastic photographer friend, John Hart. You should cruise over and check out his site - his photography is amazing. The 3-D stuff he shoots is fantastic too, but to make it really work you need a pair of funky glasses. :D

The next triad of colors is Yellow, Pink and Green...as you may have seen at the shop, I have several colorways that fall nicely into those categories. Recently, I stumbled across a lovely pair of socks knit by Guinifer. She's allowed me to share them in my Made with Spritely Goods gallery.


If you happen to have any photos you want to share in the gallery (or not - I can keep quiet if you don't want the whole world to see) I just get such a kick out of seeing stuff that people make with my yarns and batts!

And to make sure I get the Yellow in, here's a lovely little wild sunflower:

Another Armchair...

...full of yarn has been uploaded to the shop. And yes, there are new limited edition colorways :)

Spring Tulips Indeed!

photos by a family friend

Well then. Laden with Chocolate (for home), Beer (for my Uncle), and a very fine cake from Goossens (for sharing), I made my way to visit some family members in Holland :) Of course, they had been following along on my blog (hello! J & M!) and had noted that I have a fascination with all things colorful and had expressed some interest in seeing the Tulip Fields. My wonderful Aunt greeted me at the train station with a gigantic bouquet of Tulips - incidentally, they matched my Spring is Here colorway perfectly (though I didn't take a photo of the bouquet - you'll just have to trust me).

Keukenhof is touted as the most beautiful spring garden in the world. I find it hard to disagree. The park is covered in beautifully landscaped arrangements and also has several indoor pavilions that feature even more flowers (and gorgeous and unique flower arrangements as well). Incidentally the park is only open for a very limited time - during the peak of the blooming season - apparently after the blooms have finished, and the park is closed, the planning for the next year begins anew, with the grounds undergoing a massive overhaul. All the bulbs are replanted each year - something on the order of 7 million bulbs are hand planted on the grounds between September and December!

I have to admit, I had never know that there was such a huge variety of tulips - nor had I any idea that there were double and even triple petaled tulips! Variety was found in every aspect from size of the blooms, stem height, and the color combinations (of both the flowers and the foliage!) - I definitely learned a whole lot! While the flowers photographed below aren't an exact match (I still say the bouquet was pretty darned close!), I think I could have a whole series of colorways named after the stunning array of flowers I had a chance to see on this trip!

Spritely Goods Spring Tulips colorway along with some Spring Tulips

Bread, Cheese and Chocolate.

And the beer isn't half bad either!

While Raquel reminds me that being in Europe sans camera is just plain wrong, I have to admit I simply wasn't thinking about it while packing my bags as I really didn't anticipate having much time for site seeing...

...and I haven't. Though I have had some time to check out some lovely bakeries and chocolatiers. Of course I had to taste the wine, beer and cheese while I was at it.

If ever you make your way to Antwerp, I say forget the diamonds and pay a visit to gaze at the chocolate creations of Mr. Burie - the window of his shop is chock full of Easter bunnies and decadent chocolate eggs right now. And just down the street, queue yourself in the line at Bakkerij Goossens, the oldest bakery in town. As for beer, there are plenty of microbrews over here, and entire shops dedicated to the stuff....it really is too bad about the 3 oz liquid restrictions on plane flights!

Happy Spring!

Here's to a wonderful spring :)

I'm kicking myself for not bringing my camera...it seems I'm actually able to see the Tulip Bloom this year (and judging by the train ride south, the fields are indeed bursting!).

It's a welcome break from the drought stricken desert southwest - it seems in Europe the Daffodils are blooming in crazy disarray it seems, bringing bright splotches of yellow to the landscape.

Happy Spring!

Desert Toadstools

While we do have regular Toadstools here in the southwest, they can't be found in the desert...

Though there are some pretty awesome rock formations that do a pretty good job at mimicing Toadstools!

These fanciful formations are made by differential erosion - leaving a hard capstone on the top and weathering the softer sandstone beneath into these pillars that resemble toadstools and goblins.


The Toadstools come in a variety of colors, size and geology - and can be found in several locations around the Utah Arizona Border, with some of them only a mile or so hike (one way) to reach!

Technically...

...it's still Winter.

First day of Spring is not until next week, yet Spring has Sprung and then some...(record breaking temps down here in the Southwest - with it forecast to actually break 100F eeek!)

It seems I'm getting a head start on Project Spectrum's April and May colors (Green, Yellow - sorry, no pink here). I didn't look in the backyard a couple days - and the next thing I know it, the Hopbush looks like this:

(Sadly, this hopbush is no good for brewing.) Seriously. Green and boring one moment, and bursting and fully loaded with flowers the next. It's like some magical timer went off and suddenly the whole thing is in bloom.

Not only that, but the Acacia is joining in on the fun:


Unfortunately, the Mesquite looks a bit ratty and has gone and dropped a goodly portion of its leaves, but it should leaf out again soon - if it would only rain a little.

Another favorite Green & Yellow combo is the Palo Verde when they bloom - but that's not due to happen for a little bit yet...

If you'd like to get a jump on some Project Spectrum Knitting, there are several nice green yarns in the Shop - and specifically there are a couple skeins of Palo Verde available :D

For the Birds

One of the places I've recently been to visit in my quest to get outdoors is the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. It's has some great exhibits,and lets you get up close and personal with some of the desert creatures. While all the lizards and other reptiles appeared to still be hibernating, the river otters were putting up a great show, as were some of the other animals.

While watching the Collared Peccary browse on the shrubs in their enclosure, I spotted a brilliant red cardinal - even when I lived in the north, I don't think I ever saw a cardinal quite so brilliantly colored! Sadly, he wouldn't sit still for a photograph - but once we got into the aviary, I managed to get a pretty good one of a female cardinal.


In the same aviary, I managed to sneak up on a Dove and snap its photo...


There were plenty of other animal sightings, though it seemed this visit had me entranced with birds - I had an opportunity to watch a cactus wren in the process of building a nest (sadly, no photos as I didn't have the camera in hand at the time) and a tiny hummingbird nesting - I had never seen a hummingbird nest before! No photos of that as the camera refused to cooperate and kept focusing on things other than the bird in question.

If you ever find yourself in Arizona and are looking to learn a bit more about the Sonoran Desert, I recommend a visit!

I'm still here!

Buried. Under work. And not of the yarny variety.
Stay tuned, I promise an update soon :D

Not Kneaded.

Sorry for the rather sporadic posts - March is shaping up to be quite the hectic month...while I haven't had much time for blogging, and work (the day job, not the wool job) had a sudden burst of issues (thus the tendinitis, which has sadly put a halt to my knitting).

Anyhow, I had a few moments to do some baking this weekend :) Interested in the recipe? Click here for more info!

In other news, I was cleared to start interval running again while also being directed to work on my balance (lets just say that it is arguable if I would pass a field sobriety test given how awful my balance is and how weak my muscles are in my feet and ankles). So I'll be doing something along the lines of Couch to 5k again to ease back into running....at least, that's the plan. Now if I can just get my hands and forearms to be happy again!

Yikes!

Almost as frightening as the Crunch and Snap noises when I was spinning happily....this Crunch and repeated snapping noise occurred while I was recently skeining away...turns out I've used my swift enough that I've managed to wear through a good number of the connecting strings on each of the arms - of course, I'm too lazy to go and replace all of them, but perhaps I should - to save my wall from taking a beating when one of the arms goes flying - and to save my poor heart from jumping when I hear it start whacking away.

Incidentally, other rather amazing crunch and snap noises are made when you hit a flying tumbleweed on the freeway....

Have you ever wondered....

How much space 11+ pounds of yarn occupies?


Well, wonder no more...it fully occupies a medium sized armchair.

You know what this means - the shop has been updated - and if you've a sharp eye, you can tell that there are a whole bunch of new colorways there. If you're a Project Spectrum participant, there are several colorways perfect for the February/March triad of colors. I also did one up especially for the April/May triad as well.

If you're interested in receiving notifications about Spritely Goods updates when I don't post about them here, please head over and subscribe to the newsletter - even when I do post about updates here, the newsletter peeps get first dibs, as I typically send the newsletter anywhere from several hours to a full day in advance of blogging about it!

I heart Wool

Wool is Wonderful.
But we knitters knew that already. A while back, I was reading Janet's Blog and she was mulling over the wonders of wool, while also celebrating her third year knitting. Indeed, wool is a wonderful fiber - and there are many reasons - go read Janet's summary :D

Just for reading (and participating) I lucked out and I recently received a wee knitted gift celebrating wool from Janet.


See? Isn't it great? It's a bright and cheery felted potholder - I love the contrasting edging, and how well it matched the tissue she wrapped it in :) Janet has the most wonderful vintage photos that she posts periodically on her site - and this one she made into a card - it's so sweet! Included with my wonderfully woolly potholder (works perfectly - I used it to fetch the pans of cookies out of the oven over the weekend) and the sweet card, Janet also sent along a matching retractable chicken tape measure - the tape pull is an egg!

Thanks Janet, I love handmade surprises!

Delicious.

The weekend was full of chocolate and flour...

I had some bananas I had to take care of (any banana that gets past green-tip stage gets earmarked for banana bread)...

And since the oven was on, I had to try my hand at these decadent Quad Chocolate Cookies...
In my case, I used what remained of a Green & Black's Dark Chocolate Espresso bar, plus some of a Scharffenberger Bittersweet bar, plus semi sweet and white chocolate chips :)

Delicious. And very very rich - fantastic with milk or coffee :D Thanks for enabling once again, Raquel!

To Dye...or not to Dye...

that is the question.

Since I haven't been able to knit of late (I well and truly have Tendinitis :( and have been told to cease and desist on anything that causes more problems for my forearms and hand) I've found that spinning doesn't aggravate it, so I've been spinning instead :) Unfortunately for my poor husband, his sweater will likely not be finished this season.


Anyhow, this brings me to my current question - the yarn above is currently on my bobbin...and I'm undecided as to whether I want to overdye it or not. I adore some of the colors, and am kind of "meh" on others. It is a blend of soysilk and wool, and it is quite lovely to spin. So...what do you guys think? Overdye or no?

And all I got...

...was this tee-shirt.

Well, if you're wondering why my number looks so spiffy and flat, it's because it's unused. That's right - In order to prevent myself from doing any further damage to myself, I decided to stay far far away from the starting line of the race - but I went to go get my goodie bag and shirt anyway, seeing as I wasn't going to be getting my registration money back.

Inside the goodie bag were fliers for a bunch of other events - including the Arizona Distance Classic, which celebrates runners of all levels...though I'm quite certain I won't be healed in time to be able to participate in that event...another race that caught my eye is the Rangar Relay Del Sol...perfect for groups of crazies that like to run - course I don't think I'll be rounding up a team for that event any time soon...

Thanks to everyone who provided suggestions for my poor handbag - my wonderful husband took pity on it as the straps took a turn for the worst this weekend and he replaced them with the mil-spec webbing - from afar, you can't tell that the straps don't match the strappage that goes around the bag...and it's essentially as good as new - I suspect the body of the bag will wear out before these new straps do....

Here Piggy Piggy!

Happy New Year!

No, I'm not wishing you a belated 2007, I'm wishing you Gong Xi Fa Cai ! Happy Chinese New Year! This next year is the year of the Boar - which, according to the Malaysia Star, is going to be a good year for good will and business! I sure hope so on both fronts - especially as Spritely Goods supports charities by donating a portion of annual proceeds at the end of the year - and I certainly hope that the donation grows each year!

Anyhow, I wish you all good health and good fortune this year!

Help my Handbag!

My purse (a red canvas tote with pleather handles) is in need of assistance - I love the thing, it's the perfect size to carry everything I need, including my wallet, my quart of water, a notebook for scribbling ideas in as well as a small cosmetics bag (not for holding cosmetics, but to keep a bunch of other stuff like medication, an extra scrunchie (for when I grow my hair out again) and other personal stuff). Anyhow, the poor pleather handles are rapidly degrading - the body of the bag is in fine condition, and other than some cosmetic issues, is essentially as good as new. Any suggestions on what to do to replace the handles? They are attached to little square-shaped brass connectors - my DH was figuring we could just cutting the straps off and replace them with black climbspec webbing - course, it's not going to match (because there are matching pleather bands that wrap down and around the bottom of the bag's body and those are not readily removed and replaced) but the webbing will hold up a heck of a lot better than the pleather handles ever did.

Or am I doomed to have to go hunting for a new bag? Maybe this is a clue that I should hurry up and knit & felt myself a sophie bag - course, with the weight of the stuff I currently schlep about may be way too heavy to stick in a sophie - after all the quart of water alone weighs 2.2 lbs.

SOAR

bald eagle soaring above the desert - colors of Project Spectrum photo by Sara DeSalme

The word brings to mind all kinds of wonderful things :) The freedom expressed by a bird in flight, the Searchable Online Archive of Recipes and of course, with me being addicted to fiber, there is also SOAR, which I wish I could attend someday.

Happy Heart Day :)

I'm so excited :) I got a present in line with Project Spectrum for Valentines :)


Tickets! to the Blue Man Group's How to be a Megastar 2.0 concert! I had heard good things about the Blue Men, and then I saw a Blue Man Group special on PBS of all places. I missed out on the first leg of the tour (venue was sold out) - but it turns out they are bringing the show back around again :)

A Stash Flash

Well then, in honor of Project Spectrum, I'm offering up a stash flash of my blue yarns - the sick thing is this isn't all of it - I have lots of multiples, and I have piles of white/ecru yarn and I'm currently working my way through a grey cone as I knit up Avast. Keep in mind, all that there yarn is personal yarn - and does not include the shop inventory! As you can imagine, I'm working on a self imposed yarn diet. I think I might even have yarns that fit the bill for each of the Project Spectrum triads!

Paused

Constant knitting and typing have taken their toll, and I find I'm having to take an unwanted break from Avast (tendinitis, I'm afraid). I'm stuck on sleeve island and have only completed 8 inches on the sleeves! that's 12 inches more to go...while DH's chest measurement isn't anything to cause me to cringe while thinking of knitting him a sweater, he's built lean and has long limbs - like a climber or what I imagine a proper running physique to be. It's nigh impossible to purchase clothing off the rack to fit his inseam length or his arm length - if the inseam or arm length is correct, the poor guy is usually swimming in the clothes - thus the reason for the sleeves that will go on and on :P

Sadly, knitting isn't the only thing I'm being forced to take a break from. I'd been happily training for a Half Marathon, and was halted mid stride by the odious pains called Shin Splints at the tail end of last month - I had hoped with active rest (cross-training), ice and NSAIDs I'd be well enough to compete as scheduled - I am now coming to the slow realization that this may not be the case. My type-A personality is wanting to try anyway, but my mind (and numerous other athletic friends including the DH) are telling me it's just plain foolish and I'd be asking to damage myself worse. This sound advice has been confirmed by my physician as well as the Physical Therapy place that I've been told to schedule an appointment at. *sniff* My very first Half Marathon shall have a DNS.

Anyhow, I've continued hunting for information to improve the quality of my training as it would seem that I've been going about distance training all wrong - and as I have been told before, I may have rushed into this whole Half Marathon business without the appropriate base mileage. This has been confirmed in my latest read: Marathoning for Mortals. I wound up learning several things from this book, some of which I'll include for those of you who may just be starting a running program, so hopefully you don't have to get damaged or derailed.

As a relatively new runner, I apparently should have allowed myself a minimum of a yr and a half of base training to prevent injury. I also probably should have started in with the cross training earlier in the program rather than getting myself forced into it - all that pavement running apparently took its toll and I find I am regularly now visiting with misters Dreadmill 1 (the treadmill) and Dreadmill 2 (the stepmill) along with Mr. Bike and Mr. Ostrich Machine (elliptical trainer) in an attempt to maintain my cardiovascular fitness. Lastly, I have discovered that I apparently didn't read No Need for Speed: A Beginner's Guide to the Joy of Running very well - or perhaps I just didn't take it to heart as I have been doing all my races at what is referred to in running-speak as tempo pace - needless to say, long slow runs - the ones that were really supposed to form the meat of my training needed to be just that - with an emphasis on the Slow part. Ah well, live and learn :) and here's to being even more prepared for the next race, whichever it may be.

Sheepish Soaps

You may or may not be aware, but one of the things I make for Spritely Goods are handfelted soaps. If you're not familiar, with the concept of handfelted soaps, they are soaps that have had wool applied and felted onto them. The soap is used with the wool in place, by simply getting it wet and lathering it up. The wool acts as a washcloth and as a gentle exfoliant. The wool makes the bar last longer, and ensures that the entire bar is consumed - no more tossing those random soap slivers! For those who would prefer to not use the soap, they can be used as a scented "sachet" and can be placed in your dresser or bureau to lightly scent your clothing!

Anyhow, I'm extremely excited to announce Spritely Goods' press debut in Crochet Today! I had to smile when I received my copy for viewing, as the cover falls neatly in line with this month's Project Spectrum, though I'm quite confident that that wasn't planned :P

The magazine features a slew of patterns and a nice article on finishing techniques. As I'm a self-taught "hooker" I was especially interested in what the finishing technique article had to offer.

Of course, I was even more interested to find out just what they had written about my soaps, and I have to complement them on the photograph - it makes my soaps look so "happy" if soaps could be happy that is LOL - I've scanned it in so you can see for yourself :D

Madness.

I live in the desert where Sweater Season, no matter how thin my blood is, is rather limited.

I have always had a sick fascination with steeks. I don't know why - somehow the idea of taking a pair of scissors to ones knitting (ideally) with no detrimental effects just boggles my mind. I had an opportunity to see Stephanie's Hardangervidda in person when she was here last July, it it was gorgeous. A couple of weeks ago, when I was in Minnesota, I happened across a pile of Dale of Norway sweaters on sale! Of course, being a knitter, I resisted - thinking "I can knit one of those."

Of course, since then we've had snow make an appearance in the desert, and I find myself hauling out my knitwear - and I keep ogling Dale of Norway kits. Ironically, the largest collection of such kits appear to be available at Allegro Yarns, which apparently is located in Minneapolis. I should have saved myself some trouble and just gone and bought one while I was back there ;)

Of course, Hardangervidda calls to me, though not in the colors available. I also like Gjende. The Olympic Sweaters are also lovely - I especially like the US 2002, Vail, and Park City sweaters. Non-traditional Bjerk, especially in green, is just beautiful. I haven't succumbed yet, but I'm weak - and oh so tempted. Thank goodness I'm still working on Avast!