San Francisco Marathon: Part I (Pre-race)

I originally intended to tell my experience of running the San Francisco Marathon in one post, but with so much to share and talk about, that one post grew way too long. So, I decided to break my recap up into two separate posts. I'm sharing all of the pre-race fun today, and will detail the actual run/post-run craziness tomorrow!

Beginning January 1, I started training for the San Francisco Marathon. One of my big New Year's resolutions was to finish a marathon in under 5 hours. I only had one official marathon race under my belt, and I was determined to achieve an enormous PR. Month by month, I filled in my daily workouts and rest days so that I knew exactly what I needed to do in the upcoming days and weeks. I found that this method really worked at holding me accountable and allowed me to be successful in completing my training program. After a few months of getting back into the habit of running regularly again, I realized that I was capable of more than my initial goal. I wanted to PR by over an hour for a time of under 4 hours and 45 minutes. Again, after many more exciting long training runs, I challenged myself to finish the SF Marathon in under 4 hours and 30 minutes. I knew this final goal would be tricky, but based on my pace and how good I felt after my long runs, I was pretty sure I could accomplish this big feat.

Lauren, Marissa, Heather, and Leti also signed up for the marathon. We were all looking for a way to get back into running after having been out of shape for awhile. Since Lauren and I both live in Philadelphia, it was easy for us to train together and follow the same running schedule. The two of us completed all of our long runs and most midweek runs together.

I flew out to California with Lauren in the middle of July, leaving plenty of time for us to adapt to the time and environmental changes in preparation for the July 26 marathon. Being in California completely threw off my normal daily routine I had grown accustomed to in Philadelphia. I tried to be strict about my midweek runs the two weeks leading up to the big race, but when I did manage to go running, my runs were all pretty casual and lax. I'm not sure how this affected the actual race, but such a big change must've had some effect.

The day before the marathon, the five of us drove to San Francisco and eagerly went to the race expo ready to check out all the vendors. Our first stop was the SF Marathon pop up shop. I had been eying the souvenir zip up hoodies online, so I quickly purchased a green one! Heather and I now have matching sweatshirts, and Marissa and Lauren have dark gray ones. While waiting in line to buy our sweatshirts, Marissa and I ran into our second cousin Carey who signed up to run the second half marathon. We hadn't seen her in years, so that was fun!

Lauren and I are known as the "sparkle twins" throughout our SacFit running group because we always wear sparkly headbands when we run. Obviously you can never have enough sparkle, so of course we needed to stop by the Sparkly Soul booth to add a few more headbands to our collections. This was my first time trying this specific brand of headbands, and after trying multiple other ones, I can honestly say that I'm going to be a longtime customer of Sparkly Soul. I picked two glittered headbands: a pastel rainbow and pewter; and a solid shiny brown one to wear when I'm not running. 

After spending a few hours at the expo and dealing with the "parking situation", it was time for dinner! We were planning to go to Source since Lauren, Leti, and I loved the food when we were there last year. After trying to look up directions, we discovered the restaurant closed. Luckily though, we quickly agreed on Gracias Madre for our pre-race meal. Being an all vegan menu, Lauren and I found ourselves not knowing what to order since everything sounded so good. We order lots of appetizers and a few entrees, and decided to share everything amongst the five of us. Everything tasted delicious, just as we remembered, but all of our favorites were the potatoes and cauliflower appetizers. Their cashew cream sauce is to die for.

After dinner, we made our way to the Hilton in the Financial District to check in. Originally, the five of us were going to share one room to save money. I went ahead and booked two rooms, just in case we ended up changing our minds and needed more personal space. I was planning on cancelling one room, but my parents decided they wanted to come and watch us all run! So in the end, Lauren, Leti, and I shared one room, and Marissa and Heather shared a room with my parents. The rooms were on the pricier side, but being in SF that's to be expected. Our rooms were very clean, large, and had amazing views- well worth the price.

Once we checked in, we spent the entire evening resting. I packed my water bottle and drop bag, set out my clothes, and showered so that I wouldn't have to worry about doing anything the morning of the race. Planning works wonders! When I woke up at 4 o'clock race day morning, I wasn't stressed at all. As soon as I woke up, I sat in bed and made myself finish my entire breakfast. I made and froze pancakes two days before to bring with me. I also brought a single serving pouch of Justin's almond butter. Since I had been eating these same exact pancakes with almond butter the morning of every long run, I knew that this breakfast would work well for me. I gave myself plenty of digestion time to prevent any stomach issues during the race. After my fancy breakfast in bed, I finished getting ready in not time at all.

We met my parents, Marissa, and Heather in the hotel lobby around 5 o'clock and walked less than a mile to the start line with them. I was afraid that walking that far before the race would tire us all out, but fortunately this was the perfect little warmup. I threw on extra layers expecting it to be really cold on the walk to the start. Luckily though, we were blessed with the perfect weather! We dropped off of our drop bags and had just enough time for one last port-a-potty stop. None of us realized how much further the actual entrance to the corral was. We were expecting to be able to walk into the start gate right after the port-a-potties, but in actuality we had to jog another quarter of a mile to get there on time. Lauren and I have had bad experiences missing our designated corral, so we wanted to be able to start at our correct time. This caused a lot of stress for our group, but we made it there right on time and had a few minutes to take a group shot before crossing the start line.

07.15 Goals Roundup

A few weeks ago I discussed my efforts in finishing my 24 goals as part of my 24th birthday challenge. Last year when I first came up with this list of 24 items to accomplish, I made a separate list of 10 tasks each month, hoping these smaller goals would make my larger goals list seem much more manageable. Long story short, coming up with just a few things to focus on each month really did help me tackle most items on my big yearlong list.

Even though I already posted about my successes and shortcomings regarding my 24 goals, I still wanted to talk about my progress during the final month of this yearlong challenge. So without further ado, let's discus my July goals!

1. Read a book: I read several books this past month. First, I completed Z: Zelda Fitzgerald by Fowler. A few years ago I randomly picked up a biography about the Fitzgeralds, and I surprised myself by being so interested in the dynamics of the duo and their relationships with their peers. I've read a few other novels based on them, and just like those, this loosely based biography of Zelda kept me hooked the whole way through. I also quickly finished Autobiography of Us by Sloss. I found this novel very entertaining, although thinking about it now, very cliche. This is a story of two high school best friends and how the choices they made in college changed their futures and relationships. Lastly, I brought Banished by Drain along with me on my trip to California. The theme of this memoir was the only thing that kept me from quitting after the first chapter. This book was on my "must read" list because it's written by an ex-member of the Westboro Baptist Church and details her firsthand experience with this radical group. Drain had a lot of great insight into the cult-like nature of this church, but the writing wasn't as great.

2. Ride my bike: I had big plans to ride my bike while I was home in California, but those grand ideas never took off. I did manage to bring my helmet back to Philadelphia with me, so I'm hoping to try out Philly's new bike share program, Indego soon.

3. Use my big camera a lot while I'm in California to capture "people pictures": I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't take a single photo with my big camera the entire month I was home. I lugged my camera with me (carry on, of course) with the intention of taking hundreds of photos. It was pure laziness that held me back.

4. Go through all of my clothes back home: As always, there's still a lot more items I could've gone through. But since I did go through a large portion of my boxed clothes, I'm considering this goal complete. When we moved to Philadelphia last year, Lauren and I stored a bunch of clothing that we hardly wore in cardboard boxes at her dad's house. Going through the boxes this past month, I'm not sure why I needed to keep all of those items. I obviously haven't worn them in over a year and I actually forgot I owned a lot of them. Together we filled several large bags full of clothes to donate. I still have a long ways to go, but surely I'll have a normal sized wardrobe one day!

5. Take a day trip to somewhere fun: Lauren, Marissa, Heather, Leti, and I drove to San Francisco one weekend and had tons of fun. However, the entire purpose of the trip was to run the SF Marathon. So, I'm going to be strict and not allow this trip to count. I was planning on taking a trip to the beach and a separate day trip to the Bay area to visit my brother, but those plans changed.

6. Make lots of progress on my knit sweater: Basically, in July I started my sweater, and that's about it. The whole sweater knitting really didn't take off until August when I returned to Philadelphia. Although I didn't get much knitting done in July, I'm flying now and will most likely meet the September deadline!

7. Set up my new iPod: Again out of laziness, I didn't set up my iPod. I just need to make myself sit down in front of my computer and do this one afternoon so that I can have some good tunes to listen to while I exercise. The whole "why do today what you can do tomorrow?" mantra has really taken over my productivity.

8. Tie Dye: My siblings, Lauren, Heather, and I tie dyed twice while I was home! We had so much fun the first round that everyone wanted to tie dye again the following week. Because I trying to get rid of clothes, I decided to tie dye several yards of cotton fabric. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to make with the fabric, but I'm so glad I opted to dye fabric instead of clothes.

9. Make something with beads: I brought my little bag of beads home with me, hoping to use pliers and other tools that I don't have in Philadelphia. But spending time with friends and family was way more important, so I didn't make any jewelry. There's always next time though.

10. Make two dresses: YES! I mentioned a few weeks ago, but I'll happily say it again. I sewed a knit dress and a woven one. Both have been worn several times already. Although neither are near perfect, I've learned what I need to change to sew more-perfect dresses in the future.

Score for July: 4 out of 10.

Well, my 24 birthday goals are really complete now. I still haven't come up with the perfect birthday challenge for this year, but I have a few ideas stewing around in my head!

24 Goals: Finished

Last year for my 24th birthday I came up with 24 goals that I wanted to accomplish by my next birthday. Now that my golden birthday year has come to an end, it's time to evaluate my success. On my half birthday in January, I did a quick run through of the status of my goals at the time, but now that I've turned yet another year older, here's my final assessment.

1. Run another marathon and ultra marathon.
Okay, so I didn't run a marathon or any race longer than that during this birthday year. I actually only ran two 10 mile races- one road and one trail. That being said though, I have run a lot more than I have at any other point in my life, which I suppose was the real underlying goal here. I did however run the San Francisco Marathon this past weekend, just two days shy of my birthday! 

2. Blog at least 5 times each month. 
I've easily accomplished this. This past year I've been so much better sharing recent news and projects on my blog, and I'm so happy about that. Initially, I needed to constantly remind myself of this goal in an effort to blog more. But now, thinking about blog topics is frequently on my mind and it's no longer a huge effort to get something ready enough to hit the "publish" button. 

3. Sew every month.
I'm not quite sure that I sewed every month, but I have sewn a lot more (especially garments) this past year! I even worked up the courage to sew with knits which is huge for me. My handmade wardrobe is slowly growing, but growing it is!

4. Use up the majority of my stashed fabric (so I can buy more, of course) ;)
While I have been sewing a lot more, especially lately, I still have a ton of stashed fabric. I don't see myself needing to go fabric shopping for awhile. In fact, Lauren and I agreed to continue working through our respective stashes, and if we make large dents, then we can go on a Christmas fabric shopping spree at our favorite fabric store in San Francisco this Winter!

5. Knit and finish at least one project. (I must get back into knitting!)
I remember coming up with this goal and having a hard time wrapping my head around this one. Last year I was at the point where I didn't want to knit because everything I attempted wasn't working out. Luckily though, I needed to knit Marissa's birthday present. It turned out that I loved knitting that cowl so much that I couldn't stop knitting. Besides Marissa's cowl, I also knit: a cowl for Lauren; another cowl; and a shawl for myself. I even joined my first knit along and am currently knitting my first sweater. There's been so much knitting progress for me this past birthday year!
 
6. Mail at least one letter each month.
I sent a letter to someone most months. There were a few months where I just completely forgot. I do love receiving snail mail though, so sending random letters (and ones with real purposes too) is something I want to do forever.

7. Take lots of pictures with my big camera as a way of exploring my "neighborhood". 
I've gotten a little better at using my big camera more often, but there's still much more potential waiting to be had with this goal. I crave pictures with people in them, and now that I've moved across the country away from my family, taking people pictures with just Lauren and me can get a little redundant.

8. Finish my Summer Sampler cross stitch pattern.
I finished my first cross stitch pattern in February and have been anxiously awaiting this trip to California to stock on more supplies for the next samplers. I still need to get my Summer Sampler framed, but that will have to wait a bit longer. It took awhile for me to get into cross stitching, but once I found my groove, it was hard to stop. I find cross stitching so relaxing, but I can understand how it's a nuance for others.

9. Read at least one book per month.
Check! With the help of my local libraries and insanely inexpensive books on Amazon, I've easily been able to read more this past birthday year than I think I've ever done in this time frame in my entire life. I even compiled a list of books to read, and I'm almost completely through it.

10. Sew at least two dresses, and actually wear them.
I did, I did! I haven't taken photos of them yet, but I managed to squeak out a striped woven tunic and a knit dress right before heading out to California a few weeks ago. I've worn both of them twice so far and like them enough to keep them. But even more important, I figured out what changes I need to make so that I love my finished dresses next time.

11. Try at least one new food item each month.
I'll be honest, I really cared about this goal at first. But then after a few weeks, it wasn't something I wanted to strive for anymore. So no, I most likely didn't follow through with this plan, although I wasn't really keeping track either. I did find myself needing to eat lots of garlic scapes though, so there's always that.

12. Read through all of the magazines I own to clear up some much needed space.
I didn't even get halfway through my stack of magazines. It was pretty ridiculous how many I had. Last Summer I was trying to read two magazines a day to tackle this goal, but when it was time to move to Philadelphia, I tossed whatever I had left and called this task done.
 
13. Catch up on all of the birthday presents I owe people.
I caught up on all of the birthday presents I owe people. In my mind there were so many presents I needed to still make and gift, but in reality, I actually only had to knit cowls for Lauren and Marissa. Once I got my knitting mojo back, this was easy.

14. Run under an eight minute mile.
I haven't actually timed myself on a mile run. I bet I can accomplish this, but I haven't tried. 

15. Go through and clean up my room at my parents' house.
I mentioned this briefly before, but I tried pretty hard to tackle this while I was home for the holidays this past December. But, I soon realized this was never going to happen since my room has basically become a storage space for random family items and furniture. I did try though.

16. Create an art/gallery wall.
I was really excited about this one. I have all my frames and tons of ideas in my mind. But, I haven't managed to fill all my frames yet. I wanted to wait to hang art up until all of the frames are filled, so my wall doesn't have anything to show of my progress so far. I did create two pieces for my wall though: one out of paint chips, and an ode to my home state, California.

17. Keep plants alive.
I was doing great keeping several house plants alive while living in Sacramento. But when I moved, my plants had to stay back in California with Leti. I believe they're still alive though. Lauren and I also grew tomatoes and helped a lot with Leti's home garden. Once we moved to Philadelphia, I bought two new house plants and they're still both thriving.

18. Have at least one vegetable every night for dinner.
Like trying a new food item every month, this quickly became something I no longer want to try for. I'll be honest, I don't eat at least one vegetable every night for dinner. That being said though, I've been eating a lot healthier than I have in a really long time, and that's the most important thing.

19. Set a monthly budget and stick to it.
When I moved to Philadelphia I knew this task would become very important. I set a budget and I've been able to stick with it every month, expect December. I only went over by a few dollars, and it was because I needed to buy Christmas presents for other people. All of the other months I "saved" money, so I was okay with over-spending a little bit once.

20. Weed through my belongings and donate items I no longer need.
With a big move comes lots of donations. Last Summer in preparation for my big move, I purged a lot of clothing items (the big hoarded culprit!). I still have a ton of clothes in California, and my closest in Philadelphia could use a good clear out too.

21. Get a hair cut!
I love getting my hair cut, but I hate it at the same time. I love how lightweight my hair feels afterwards, but I've only ever had one professional hair cut that I really loved. It usually takes a few weeks post cut for me to like my hair again. So, I always put off getting a hair cut until I can no longer live with unruly hair. Speaking of, it's about time for another hair cut soon!

22. Make sure I get my daily 10,000 steps, but not make it a chore.
I definitely haven't gotten 10,000 steps everyday. But, I did make this one of my New Year's resolutions and have been marking off the days when I am successful. I usually reach my step goal six days out of the week, Friday easily being the hardest.

23. Try a new physical activity, like yoga.
I tried both yoga and zumba. Initially, I liked zumba a lot and would go several times a week. During the Winter though, I started having hip issues which were exasperated during zumba classes. So, I stopped going to zumba and started going to yoga a lot more often. It helped that Lauren worked at the gym. This gave me a reason to want to work out more, so it was easy to go to fitness classes. Now that Lauren no longer works there, I don't go to the gym nearly as much and haven't been to yoga in over a week. I should start going again when I get back to Philadelphia because it is a great way to get some stretching in. 

24. Ride my bike often, while I have the opportunity.
I don't think I rode my bike at all this entire year, which is a bummer. I like going on casual bike rides but never made the time to do it.  

Although I definitely didn't accomplish everything I set out to do this past year, these goals made me think about how I choose to spend my time and what's truly important to me. I'm still formulating ideas for my next birthday challenge, and I'm excited to try something different for this new year.  

Best Friend Friday No. 40: Franklin Fountain

On Saturday, July 11 Lauren and I treated ourselves to the best vegan ice cream in the world. Okay, so "in the world" may be a stretch as we haven't tried every single place that offers vegan ice cream (but hey, there's a bucket list item!), but this ice cream is by far the best vegan version we've had in our lives.

Back in May, we made a random visit to Franklin Fountain on our way home from a craft fair. Ever since then, we've both been dreaming of those delicious flavors. In the months that have passed since then, we hadn't come up with a good enough reason as to why we needed to go back. But, after discovering that the oldest continually-running candy shop is located right next door, we had to go back. My brother's birthday is coming up, and I honestly thought he would enjoy Philadelphia-made goodies. So on our way to the candy shop, we made a little pit stop and treated ourselves as well. If there was anything to celebrate, it would be that we had just finished our last double-digit training run for our upcoming marathon earlier that morning. If that's not a good reason to seek out ice cream, I don't know what is!

Halfway to Franklin Fountain, the subway came to a sudden halt as it became "out of service". Everyone was forced to exit the train and wait for the next one. We had no idea how long this would take, as the train we were formerly on hadn't moved, preventing a new train to come and pick us up. All was okay though, we thought. We would wait patiently for the next train without complaining, just happy knowing that we would soon find ourselves overjoyed with ice cream. However, after several minutes had passed, there was a terrible smell that neither of us could stand. It was making us both feel sick, so we decided to just exit the subway station and make the long trek to Franklin Fountain by foot. This meant walking fifteen blocks (after having run 12 miles). Despite the heat, it was all worth it.

Franklin Fountain has dozens of flavors- dairy, sugar-free, non-dairy, and vegan ones. Last time we stuck to the officially labeled "vegan" flavors as we didn't know exactly what hindered the "non-dairy" ones from being "vegan". This time Lauren asked, and we figured out that all of the "non-dairy" flavors are made with only vegan ingredients, however they aren't made in a vegan kitchen. Considering most times we go out to eat our food isn't prepared in a vegan kitchen, the "non-dairy" options immediately became additional vegan choices for us.

As far as the vegan options go, there seems to always be at least one sorbet option. This time they offered mango and raspberry sorbets. Their non-dairy flavors were chocolate and vanilla, while the vegan options were strawberry and blueberry. All of the non-dairy and vegan choices are coconut based. I giddily selected chocolate, and Lauren opted for a mix of vanilla and blueberry. As always, we tried each others selections, and we both decided that while we enjoyed all three flavors, our favorite by far was the chocolate. We agreed that it tasted exactly like a Wendy's frosty. It was that good!

Afterwards, we walked next door to Shane Confectionery to pick out a few birthday treats for Nate. We filled up a box of assorted chocolates for him, and also picked out a fancy Liberty Bell lollipop. The colorful salt water taffies looked so cheerful, so we had to get those for him as well. Then we couldn't stop eying the fudge, so I chose the oreo-topped one to give to Nate. Hopefully he likes them!

We had been eagerly awaiting this little expedition for a few weeks now. As soon as Marissa, Heather, and Leti arrive in November, this will be one of the first places we'll throw their way. I'm hoping they love this old-fashioned ice cream parlor just as much as we do, which will give us even more reasons to get our share of vegan ice cream!

And with our bellies stuffed with ice cream, Lauren and I are flying home to California this afternoon to spend four nice, relaxing weeks with our families...and to run the San Francisco Marathon!

My First Knit Linden

This top may look a little familiar; I wore it while sharing my Melodia shawl and my tubular stockinette cowl. It's my second Linden I've made, and I love the pattern even more than I did before. For this one, I decided to go with knit fabric to see how I'd like this combination.

I sewed up my regular Grainline size (4), and it ended up fitting perfectly. I typically like to wear looser tops, and using a knit, I was able to achieve this desired fit. 

After sewing my first Linden, I knew I needed to make a few adjustments in order have more professionally finished seams. For all of the bindings (neck, cuffs, and bottom hem), I used a 1/2 inch seam allowance to ensure that I would have plenty of fabric to zig-zag together and then securely top stitch down. This easy change was a great solution. In the future, I'll probably add an extra inch to the width of the neck binding pattern piece to allow for this alteration. I may also add a 1/2 inch to the length of the neck binding as well, as I had to stretch the binding more than usual.

Unlike my first Linden, this time I made sure to have ample fabric to tack down with top stitching. I love how much more finished it makes my garment look. However, the neck and bottom hem bands became pretty wave-y after top stitching. I think the tension on my machine was too tight, causing the fabric to pull too much. Next time I'll change the tension on my machine during this step to see if that helps.

I chose this particular fabric mainly for its color and the simple fact that it's a knit. After sewing and ironing it a lot, I realize that the polyester content is too high for my liking. I'll definitely still wear this top a lot, but now I know which fabrics not to buy.

I love the Linden pattern, but I still need to work on perfecting it for my personal situation. This fit is spot on, but wanting finished seams without owning a serger can be tricky. I'm willing to keep trying though because this is the best fitting, quickly sewn, relaxed top I've made yet.

Tubular Stockinette Cowl

Back in April, Loop hosted their 10th Anniversary Celebration and commemorated it by offering 10% off everything in store. Although I really didn't need anymore yarn (I am trying to use up my stash!), I can't pass up a sale. Plus, I love looking at all of the pretty, colorful skeins! As always, I made Lauren tag along with me; it's not like I had to drag her or anything.

I still hadn't learned my lesson from my previous yarn purchases. I showed up without any real plan as to what I wanted. This has messed me up in the past, which is why I now have dozens of single skeins of yarn. Don't get me wrong, they're beautiful and I love the colors and texture. However, I justified my shopping impulses by declaring, "Oh, I'll make a cowl out of this". Needless to say, those "plans" never came to fruition. If they had I would be swimming in dozens of brightly colored cowls, which still wouldn't make these random buys okay either. Basically, I came to Loop with this same game plan, or lack thereof.

After walking around the store several times and admiring everything, I finally realized that I could come up with a real plan right there in the store. Copying Lauren, I scrolled through my Ravelry queue on my phone in an attempt to find something I wanted to knit so that I could purchase yarn specifically for that project. I selected this circle scarf, but after further examination, I realized that it wasn't exactly what I wanted. I adore the simplicity of the stockinette stitches, but wanted to make it into a reversible cowl. I went ahead and bought yarn according to the suggested yardage of the Fino Circle Scarf with a good idea in mind of how I wanted to alter the pattern.

I made my way around the shop again, this time with a true purpose. I wanted fingering weight yarn in a neutral, yet still exciting color. I found the perfect yarn in Loop's sale section, and it felt like fate since I'd been wanting to try Spud & Chloe. I was debating between a dull brown and a burnt orange. After consulting Lauren, I quickly agreed with her and opted for the latter colorway. Yes, buying several skeins of a boring color of yarn is more expensive and not as exciting as picking out a single skein of brightly colored variegated yarn. But, at least I know it will actually be used and worn.

I decided to stick with the basic concept of the Fino Circle Scarf pattern, endless stockinette stitches. It took some frogging, but on my second attempt, I cast on 200 stitches via the provisional cast on, and knit in the round for 530 rows (thank goodness for row counters). This created the perfect sized cowl that I can comfortably wrap around my neck twice. Once I knit to my desired length, I blocked my super long tube of yarn, and then kitchener stitched it together. For added texture and detail, I added two twists in the cowl. I had a few issues using the kitchener stitch- the first time I completely missed a stitch, the second time two of my stitches were very loose and left large holes. But, I was able to macgyver my yarn and create a wonderful, simple cowl which will get plenty of wear come late Fall and Winter!

Start Date: April 23, 2015
Finish Date: June 15, 2015

Yarn Used: Spud & Chloe Fine 3.75 skeins used (approx. 930 yards)
Colorway: Orangutan
Needles: Size 2 Boye circular needles on an 8-inch ChiaoGoo cable

WIP Wednesday

I haven't been knitting as much this week as I normally do. Instead, I fired up my sewing machine and finished a few projects that have been on my to-do list for quite some time. However, I couldn't go too long without spending time with some precious yarn.

On the 4th of July, I spent over five hours sitting on a blanket in a baseball field, listening to a very long outdoor concert just to watch the fireworks at the end. You can bet I brought knitting with me to keep me entertained. Unfortunately, there was on and off rain which meant that I kept needing to putting my knitting away so it wouldn't get wet. Despite this, I managed to knit about ten rows on my Laylow shawl. The following day I went to my LYS and knit two more repeats (each repeat is six rows) at the KAL meet up. I actually finished the entire main section, but decided to continue working that same pattern until I run out of yarn. I tend to like larger shawls and I figured I mind as well use all of the yarn instead of saving a small bit that would most likely never get used. I can probably squeak out several more repeats with the remaining yarn, and then it's onto the border! I had hoped to have this shawl completely done by the end of this week, but that's definitely not going to happen. I'll be taking this with me when I travel to California on Monday and it will be my plane project!

This past week also marked the beginning of July, meaning the Home & Away Woolful KAL officially started. With plans to knit the Boothbay sweater, I eagerly started gauge swatching on July 1 only to realize that I would have to make two more swatches. I finally came very close to the correct gauge on my third attempt and hope to cast on tonight. This sweater will also be coming to California with me and will get a lot more attention once I finish Laylow.

I've been loving sharing my knitting works in progress via Ginny's yarn along. It makes me motivated to knit even more!