MMM14: Week 3

And it continues. . .

 

I wore my first Colette Parfait on tuesday with a pair of Steven Madden pumps.

 

 And I wore my red skirt on Wednesday with a black boatneck from Gap and leopard print Adrienne Vittadini shoes.

I'm off to run a badass 10K mudrun in a few minutes!  Wish me luck!

Orange Beach Sea Turtle Half Marathon February 15,2014

The Sea Turtle half was my February race (obviously).  I think I mentioned before that I am going to run a half marathon every month this year?  So this was #2 for the year.  My time was not that great--I think I ran it in 2:40 or so.  My hip flexor was being weird and I ended up walking most of the last 5 miles.

A little about the race:  The race started and ended at The Hangout in Orange Beach, AL.  This was the first time the event organizer has added a half marathon run to the already very popular annual Sweetheart 5K they have every year.  I paid $35 for this race, which is pretty low in raceland.  I could tell it was the first half by how unorganized the race was.  I guess it's hard to get enough volunteers for such a small race?  The course map only had 3 water stations along the 13.1 mile route.  Even if you aren't a runner, that's NOT ENOUGH water.  I tend to only drink water 3-4 times along the race, but if I'm thirsty, I want to be able to count on water being around.  I bought a running belt with add-on water attachments for when I run at home and I brought that with me for the race.  I'm very glad I did.  It was kind of like a safety net along the course.  I normally drink water after mile 5, 8, 10, and sometimes the last water stop around 11 or 12.  There was water at around 2, 7, 9, and one other mile I don't remember, so not terribly off my normal mileage.  I sucked down my gatorade at mile 5 with my first ever GU (that stuff is weird by the way).  After the race was the best part.  FREE FOOD!  I also got a pretty sweet medal.

 

Minutes after cross the finish line, probably looking like I just ran a half marathon.

 

 

My bib and medal.

WIP Wednesday: Clouds & Rainbows

It's been a long time since I've done a WIP Wednesday post.

I'm making crazy-fast progress on my rainbow socks.

 

One of my knitting friends persuaded me to try the fish lips kiss heel pattern  (which I usually call fish lips, fish sticks, or fish kiss because the thing is too many words).  The designer has a special formula for the knitter to follow in order to get the PERFECT fit.  This involves having a partner trace your foot on a piece of cardboard and marking the heel hinge line on the cardboard.

 

I made my socks toe-up because I thought it would be the easiest way for me to see if my heel fit my foot when I was finished with the heel portion of the formula. The photo here represents the heel hinge line and the point where you are supposed to start your heel is marked with a dpn from end to end.

 

Here's my sock so far.

 

After following all the designer's notes and instructions exactly, my heel is too big. 

 

It's too big by quite a bit.  I've had this problem with heels and ankles on socks I've knit for myself before.  I don't know if I have a more narrow heel or thin ankle or what, but it's quite frustrating to make a sock and have the heel and ankle just bag  up on me.  I thought I might need an hourglass set of increases and decreases while I was knitting the top portion of the heel pattern and I posted some pictures on the designer's forum.  I won't say too much because I'll get really pissed off, but the designer justified every single portion of her sock formula and said that if I had a problem with my heel, it's because I did x, y, z, and alpha things wrong.  It wasn't because the heel was too big for me.

  

And you know what?  The heel was too big for me.  I frogged back and used a smaller needle size for the heel and that worked famously.  I could still decrease 2-4 stitches on the ankle, but that's less of a big deal.  I'll try that on my next pair of socks.