goal!

Posted on annePosted in designing, food and garden, projects

here we are in a brand-spanking new year; doesn’t it feel great?

i’ll tell you what’s great—accomplishing goals. and we have so many to celebrate. first i want to thank and congratulate everyone who pitched in to make our knitspot red scarf scholarship happen

SCORE—WE DID IT!

as of midnight on december 31, 2013, we sold a total of 424 fall line scarf and cowl patterns for a grand total of $2968.00, surpassing our goal by nearly $500. YAY! david and i rounded the amount up a little more, bringing our 2013 scholarship in at $3500. we are so pleased about this increase; this will mean a lot to a student who is their own.

in other news, our holiday week has been very busy on several fronts—we’ve had more snow here in ohio during christmas week than i ever remember, haha.

i think this one is from the day after my last blog post, when i woke up to yet another fresh snowfall.

we’ve had four in one week that required shoveling; that’s kind of a lot for us.

but good exercise; you can’t argue with that. i actually like shoveling; it’s refreshing to get out of the heated house into the winter air and joke around with the neighbors and mail carrier.  it only gets hard when we are pressed for time, which is often. but i tried to let this week NOT be about time.

which means not a whole lot of serious work got done. but i’ve been knitting and working on patterns at a relaxed pace in between shoveling and cooking; i  finished a pattern for a secret project on saturday, and most of the pattern for this creel winter set put together as well.

and actually, i have a pattern to release tonight, after this blog post—the isadora scarf, which i designed for the woolen rabbit club earlier this year and is now ready for general release. look for that a little later this evening.

i spent most of sunday in the kitchen, getting ahead on home cooked meals—some to eat this week and many for the freezer. first i made a huge pot of black bean “kitchen sink” chile (i put everything i can think of in it)

followed by another big pot of red and spicy fish chowder. both came out really good. it’s great to have those kind of meals tucked away to thaw and heat up on cold days when i don’t have time to cook.

the finishing of my bloch ness sweater is moving right along— i’ve got all the seaming done now (though in this photo, the underarm seams are still not sewn). i don’t know if you remember, but as i was knitting up the pieces, i got very concerned about how much the selvedges were buckling. they wanted to be longer than the fabric of the main stitch pattern and i was really worried about whether they’d go together smoothly.

so, of course i just barreled ahead without test them. and they do pull in nicely when sewn. the raglan seams are quite smooth in fact, even before pressing.

the side seams were even more curly looking than the raglan edges though, and that’s where i was really concerned. they are pretty flat though, after seaming and i believe that a good steaming will perfect them.

once i get all of those pressed, i can do the pick up for knitting the neck and front bands—hopefully tonight. the bands are very deep—about six inches, giving the fronts sort of a double-breasted look. once i had it on the dress form, i also got the urge to add pockets in front. still not sure about that, but boy, it would be nice to have them, don’t you think?

here’s a view of the back—my dress form is a size bigger than i am now, so it looks a bit stretched out near the shoulders; on me, it should look better, but i won’t know til the garment is complete (ooh, the anticipation of it all).

and doesn’t that polwarth/silk DK yarn look amazing?? love that color; i don’t have any green sweaters in my drawer—why?? i’m told that indigodragonfly has been busy dyeing up batches of curse your  sudden and inevitable betrayal, to be posted on her site after her holiday in anticipation of the pattern release (which is still down the road a bit, obviously).

one thing i have not considered—believe it or not—is buttons. i realized last night that i had not picked any out yet. i’m pretty sure i have something that will work well in my button boxes, but i really need to look. i’ll update you on that in the next post . . .

and i really must get cracking on this pattern as well; it’s only in skeleton from at this writing. i need a couple of focused work days to get my current pattern queue whipped into submission.

yesterday i got together with beckie for an afternoon of cooking and chatting at her house, in preparation for our new year’s even get-together. just a few close friends to gather, but we had quite a list of finger foods to prepare to go with the soup and bread she made.

we didn’t have smelt for christmas eve this year, so i made them for new year’s; i know it’s a favorite of beckie and mark’s. sure enough, they pretty much disappeared.

this is but a preliminary sketch of what the table looked like when we were done; we all had plenty to eat and no one went home hungry. it was so nice to spend a relaxed evening with friends, just chatting and catching up. we don’t do it often enough.

it snowed throughout the evening so that we drove home through a brand new 3 inches or so of powder—after they’d just cleared a bit if the street to its actual surface, haha.

this morning, i got up early to make it to the first run of the year here in town, a 5k just up the street at the local university. haha, but first i had to run to beckie’s house to get my phone, which i left in the pocket of the apron i’d been wearing last night. DUH.

the streets were snowy, but thankfully, not slippery—yet.

not only has it been very snowy, but it got colder by the hour today, beginning in the high 20s. so the event was much smaller than the one i ran on thanksgiving, maybe 300 people? but also more difficult—two laps around the college campus over snow, with some serious uphill climbs thrown in (haha, i know it’s impossible but honestly, the whole course felt like it went uphill).

still, i did ok, beating my time for the last event by several minutes. i came in ninth of all women who ran and—are you ready for this??

i won first in my age group—a gift certificate for our local running store!
which, BTW, was NOT the smallest group of runners today (there was one lone runner in the 20-29 group; i guess the young had better things to do this morning than run in the cold, huh?)

no one was more surprised than me. you’ll be relieved to know that i managed to refrain from waking david when i got home to share the news.

so that gets us all caught up, i think. i better get cracking on putting that pattern up in the shop; it will be a nice refreshing new year’s project in a beautiful icy blue/green colorway.

happy new year everyone and thank you once again for your support of our scholarship; we’ll keep you updated on our student’s progress later this year.

25 thoughts on “goal!”

  1. What a wonderful start to your year – an evening of good food and friends, topped off with a 5k in the snow and first in your age group – awesome!

    We spent today celebrating my littlest one’s third birthday, but I am really looking forward to a good run tomorrow – even if I have to bundle him up in the jogging stroller to go. 🙂

    Happy New Year!

  2. What beautiful snow pictures! Here in east TN we have had the rain side of the storm. Only got flurries last week so its hard to believe Christmas and the New Year has come and gone. Maybe it would be more believable if the weather had cooperated and given us some lovely snow:) Though the shoveling and sidewalk-salting is one aspect I am not too fond of. At least it HAS been good knitting weather and my goals this year are to use stash yarns and finish several longtime WIPS (one that has been in that status since 1998 is on the needles now). Love the sweater and can’t wait to see how the button band turns out.

  3. Oh wow!!! Congratulations Anne for winning! I’m so proud of you! And I’m not at ALL surprised you won! You are a speedy girl. And I love the Bloch Ness. I always love when a sweater has a pocket or two. . . . Looks like you and Bckie had a great time, too!

  4. Way to go girlie!! Hubby and I enjoyed a wonderful New Years Eve with Padraig, I believe that was a perfect way to start my New Year!

  5. Congratulations on your win. I am sooooooooo jealous. Years ago when I was running and Florence Joyner Kersey was a big winner in the Olympics, my husband quipped, “Now the world has FloJo and SloJo?”. Sadly, he was entirely right, and I think pretty darn funny! Happy 2013!

  6. YAY, Anne! First place in your age group in the 5k! That’s a great accomplishment. You go, girl!!!!

    Love how the Bloch Ness is looking. Another must knit. It’s going to be gorgeous on you. And love that yarn!

    Happy New Year to you and David.

  7. Congrats on the road race – woot! That’s a great accomplishment. We’ll be waiting for the 1/2 marathon next. The one race award I won was for being the the only (local) resident female finisher in my age group (30-40 at the time I think). Kind of a select group, haha. I won some locally made ceramic bowls which I still have and use.

    Love Bloch Ness. Your seaming is an inspiration as always.

    Happy New Year to you and David!

  8. I swear my Mum has that same Stitch a day perpetual calender. And I love the little stash of swatches just waiting for their turn to become a full fledged garment. Congratulations on the running and winning. I remember how proud my son was off the six blue ribbons he won at school athletics till he had to admit he was the only one in his age group!
    You’re braver than I am (And it’s nice and hot in Australia – no snow at all).

  9. What a fantastic way to start the New Year – your success in the race and the scholarship funding. Brilliant news! Here’s to a wonderful 2013 for all knitspotters.

  10. Looks like a lovely start to the new year! Congratulations on the run, too–how exciting! I’m not anywhere near running yet….and may have even just talked myself out of walking to work on my first day back since before Christmas; the current temp is 16 with a wind chill making it seem like 10. Tomorrow, maybe…

    Happy New Year to you and David…thank you for sharing bits of your life and your talent with us!

  11. Congratulations on the run, Anne, way to go!! Great way to kick off the New Year – Happy New Year to you and David! Isadora was one of my favorite designs to knit, and I wear it a lot. Looking forward to a year of more beautiful patterns and fun knits:) Thank you for creating them for us!

  12. Congratulations on the run!!! Well done! And thanks to you and David for a wonderful FIFC (my first knitspot experience). I love your style AND I love that you run! I’ve got a half marathon to do in 2.5 wks and am woefully behind on my training. Worst case is I may have to walk some of it. Have a wonderful New Year.

    Looking forward to the Bare Naked Club :).

  13. Wow, Anne! That’s great; what a fun way to start your year!! I love that “new” scarf pattern that you just released; I had forgotten about it but remembered the edging as soon as I saw it. Gorgeous!! Happy Healthy New Year to both you and David!

  14. Congrats on your win! I’m so impressed. I can barely walk in snow and the fact that you ran in snow boggles the mind! Sounds like you had a wonderful start to what I hope will be a wonderful year for you and David. Thanks for sharing your life with me, a faithful follower.

  15. Congratulations on your running win! That’s a great way to start the new year!

    May I ask how you prepare your smelts? I’m kind of intrigued by them, but the only time I tried to make them, they were really bland!

  18. Wow what an achievement…first place. You go girl. Loved Isadora but used the yarn for Frillibet. Have to find another for Isadora.

    Looks like you had a great New Years get together. Thanks for sharing your life with us. I love seeing the pics of the house, gardens, food, friends, and, of course, the progress on the knitting.

    Your blog is the first place I look when I get up in the morning and settle down to the computer with my coffee.

  22. Wahoo! Congrats Anne! That’s awesome!! (and I’m sure you would have been faster on the Turkey Trot if you weren’t too busy trying to be nice and wait for my slow self!)

  23. Happy New Year! Congrats on doing a 5K in the snow and for coming in first in your age group! I did a 5K on New Year’s Day as well (although I was no where near first in my age group, I’m sure) and we didn’t have snow but it was super cold (I think 10 degrees). This was the second 5K I’ve done in such cold temps and I need to figure out some way to keep my legs warm (especially my quads – they don’t thaw out until I hit mile 2).

  24. Congrats on your win – how exciting!! Love the snow and your sweater looks awesome.
    Happy 2013!!

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