Monthly Archives: March 2010

After resting up on Friday after a horrible stomach bug that lasted over 24 hours, Sam and I spent the daylight hours of Saturday and Sunday at Portland International Raceway with his first his second love; his race car. The first practice and race day of the 2010 SCCA Solo Autocross season, I happily sat track-side armed with my SLR still camera, our digital camcorder, and my knitting bag.

The best part? I wasn’t the only knitter on the track. Shortly after Sam registered for the event, he mentioned he had overheard a girl arguing with her boyfriend who was getting ready to race. He heard her yell, “If you want me to be here, I’m going to be KNITTING!” We both had a good laugh about this, as I had already been knitting in the truck for a good half hour by this point.

And that’s when I noticed the friendly lady I had met at the SCCA kick-off party about a month ago. She was camped out in a chair knitting away near the exit gate of the track — directly in front of the time box. Prime seating! And she’s knitting! There were now 3 knitters on one race track. Who knew!?

I walked over to the woman I’d met before, asked if I could share her ultimate spectator spot, and then happily plopped down and opened my knitting bag. It felt absolutely liberating. Not only was I knitting at the race track, I was knitting in public – something I don’t normally like to do. My hands, arms, and wrists are sore from the hours and hours of knitting time I don’t usually have, but I made some truly impressive progress on the shawl on that race track. Especially considering this is my first shawl ever.

I plan to make a short video soon with the racing footage I filmed over the weekend, but until then I’ll leave you with a peek at my sparkly Bat Shawl as it looks after a weekend of uninterrupted knitting until my hands and arms felt like they were bleeding.

I’m calling this project about 50% finished, as I’m finally done with chart A and steadily cruising along on chart B, the second and last of the pattern. As the shawl grows, it takes longer and longer to get from one side to the other; therefore I’m working harder and harder while the project is growing slower and slower. Knitting has definitely built up my patience.

P.S. — I can’t wait to hit the gym tonight, it’s been too long. Being sick on Friday, we only managed to go twice last week. I can’t wait to sweat out all of this built up guilt!

I’ve spent most of the day in bed feeling sick, sick, sick. Having thrown up more times than I can count in the past 24 hours, this is how I’ll be ending the evening. Tomorrow’s a big day, I hope I’ll be ready for it.

Last Saturday, Sam and I spent the day at Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood. If you aren’t familiar with Timberline Lodge, you may recognize it from the classic Jack Nicholson film, The Shining (a.k.a. my favorite horror movie of all time). Here we are standing in front of the main lodge. Photo credit goes to the overwhelmingly friendly Timberline staff greeter at the main doors.

While Sam went on numerous snowboarding runs up and down the mountain…

…I happily settled into one of the comfy couches in the main lodge and set to work on my Central Park Hoodie. You know, the hoodie I started 902383098 months ago. The hoodie that I have put down for periods of 3 to 6 months at a time. The hoodie that is currently 70% finished and already nearly a year and a half old, still in progress.

After ripping the half-sleeve I’d knit months ago, I started the first sleeve over again for the FOURTH time. 45 minutes later, I was the proud owner of the 5″ ribbed cuff. Hey, the 4th time’s a charm, right? Here I am cruising along, happy as a clam. Photo cred goes to Sam for this one.

We spent nearly an hour in one of the many bars at the lodge where I had by far the yummiest spiced cider I’ve ever had in my life. It was fucking DELICIOUS, and worth every penny of it’s outrageous $6.75 price.

I even snuck in some knitting time while Sam was dragging off his wet, soggy gear in preparation of the drive home. (He even let me drive both ways!)

All in all it was an awesome Saturday spent with my favorite person on the planet, and I enjoyed every second of being away from home and the change from our usual routine. Sam goes to the mountain almost every weekend and I always stay home and do my own thing - it was great to get away and do something drastically different for a day. And of course I LOVED the snow. I grew up in Alaska, and I really, truly miss it’s beauty. *For the record, I don’t miss the cold.

I’ll leave you with the photo I snapped when I realized Sam is *still* driving around with this sticky note on his dash. I stuck it there when he wasn’t looking about 2 months ago, and it hasn’t moved since. I think he likes me. =]

This afternoon, I re-colored my fire engine red bangs, leaving them extra bright. Not only does this touch-up give my color a vibrant upgrade, the Manic Panic hair dye I use glows under black light. Earlier this evening, Sam and I closed ourselves in our pitch black bedroom with a camera and his black light from the 90’s.

I can’t tell you how much fun we had taking these photos; these are a few of the awesome results.

And here’s the black light, circa 1972.

*View more photos by clicking any of the pictures above.

Sam is rummaging around in the cupboards trying to find a cake pan when this conversation takes place:

Him: Did you know that your ball winder is down here?!

Me: Yep. That’s where I keep it.

Him: …You keep your ball winder in the kitchen?!

Me: Well, yeah! That’s where I wind my balls!

Oh, Daylight Savings Time; how I both adore and loathe you depending on the season. However wonderful and liberating it is to “fall back” an hour every autumn, the resulting “spring forward” creates quite the rude awakening. Literally.

As Sam and I crawled our way out of bed this morning at 6:45 am, it felt like 5:45 am. And the drive to work at 7:30 am? It felt like 6:30 am. And then my stomach was eating its own lining at 11:00 am because it was certain that it was noon, the time that I would normally be eating some kind of lunch. Add the Daylight Savings time-fuck to the weekly Monday madness here at work and I’m already looking forward to a hot bath and bedtime.

In unrelated news, I’ve lost another pound — bringing my total weight loss to 12 pounds and one pants size so far. I am now just 2 sizes away from leaving the plus size section and I couldn’t be more excited. The day I fit into a pair of size 15 jeans will be a day I do some SERIOUS celebrating — it’s so close I can taste it!

It’s been a while, I know. Sam and I have had a crazy busy past week, and I’d love nothing more than to tell you all about it and show you the 177 pictures we took on our trip to Seattle to visit Sandi and Andrew. But instead, I’m headed to bed. We’re exhausted.

For now, I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite photos from Seattle. We really had a great time. I can’t wait to go back.

I knit this cute little Grass for my partner in a Spring themed swap I’m participating in this month. (Sam still doesn’t understand the idea of packing a bunch of random stuff in a box and shipping it off to someone I’ve never met, and then to receive a box full of random stuff from someone I won’t even be able to thank since they basically drew my name out of a hat and I won’t know who actually sent it. Of course now that I said that, I realize it is is bit… well, completely batshit crazy.) My assigned partner appears to be a quirky, somewhat eccentric sort of person, and I have a sneaking suspicion she will appreciate the level of adorable in this little guy.

*As soon as I let him outside, he went straight for my carbon fiber hood. What can I say, he has good taste.

Not to mention he’s made of Mmmmmmmalabrigo - only the softest merino wool ever to grace my knitting needles. This little grass is definitely snuggle-worthy.

*Grass felt most comfortable in it’s natural habitat.

The FREE knitting pattern for this Grass can be found here.

This morning as I made my way across our driveway to start my car, determined to go to work despite fighting off the last of this damn cold, Sam just shook his head and said,

“Baby, you’re leaving a trail of tissues behind you…”