Swim Bike Run

I'm totally sucking in my gut

 So my friend Janet talked me in to doing a Triathlon this year.

I have never been able to swim so that seemed like the big challenge to me.  I still can't swim in open water because I need a wall to grab on to every 100 meters, but I spent the summer practicing and I can at least make it through the water.

 It turned out that the swim was actually the easy part.  It went pretty much how it's gone in practice.  Other than one woman who kept back stroking in to me on the last lap, it was smooth and I had a good time (for me).  400m in  15:27, that includes getting in and out (diving not allowed).







Transition was pretty good.  After we left I realized I FORGOT MY SHIRT.  I had the triathlon t-shirt so I used that but note to self: bring the shirt.

 I was already breathing hard from swimming and running through the tunnel and to the transition area so that made the bike harder than expected.  Also the first almost 4 miles were very slightly uphill.  So little that you barely notice it but , it's just that tiny bit harder.

10 miles in 48:52.  Tiring, but pretty good, I'll take it.

The RUN, which was where I was the most confident, was where I really struggled.  Coming off a bike and running is really hard.  It's so bizarre but your legs just don't want to go.  They don't even want to walk.  I felt like I was barely moving and it was hard to breathe and not fun at all.  I also really hated running without my iPod.

I was pretty sure I was last after the last woman I could see passed me half a mile in.  I kept up with her and actually caught and passed her once but she passed me back and then she never stopped running. My first mile was 15 minutes.  The second was around 14, the third was something like 13:20, so I did finally get my legs back, but man was I exhausted.


Caity found me a little before the end and ran along with me.  She is a fantastic cheerleeder.  Coming in to the stadium you can see the woman I could never catch up with, and me and Caity.










She sang to me the whole way around the track which was my favorite part, because I was really dead. 

 

Run time 42:59 for 5k/3.1 miles

Overall time 1:53:23.  It turned out I wasn't last, there were a couple people who were way behind me and I couldn't see them at all.  Janet beat me by about 9 minutes.   She's a faster swimmer and biker, and this was her second tri. 

I haven't decided if I'll do another one.  If I do it will not be while I'm training for a marathon (I'd run 16 miles 2 days before - really bad planning).

Feeling like fall

I finished this vest last spring right when it got too hot to wear it.

This is a vest designed by Elizabeth Zimmermann and published posthumously in the book Knit One Knit All. 

This particular pattern is called the Waistcoat Vest and I spent almost the whole time I was knitting it saying "That's so cool!"  It's really an ingenious design.  All of the icord edging is knit as you go. The entire thing is knit in one piece, and except for the shaping, every stitch is knit.

The icord edging is knit on as you go.  There's  great waist shaping that you can see in this picture.

The finished vest is very flattering, and I expect to get a lot of wear out of it this fall and winter.

The yarn is Bartlet Yarns Fisherman 2-ply in Mountain Berry, which can be gotten from Schoolhouse Press, and other places.  

Blocking Summit

I get a lot of questions about blocking Summit, so the last time I did it, I took pictures.
 

Normally I use blocking wires, but there's really no good way to do it here.

I soak (and wash if necessary) the shawl, the spin most of the water out.  I like to block it right side down, since the tendency for it is to curl backwards.  I start by putting one pin at the corners and then pinning the short sides.

Then starting in the center I'll put one pin in an outside curve, then one half way between that one and the side, then continue until every curl has one pin.


Then go about adding pins until the curves are smooth. 

That's it, really.  It's not difficult, just a little time consuming.

Speaking of being a nerd....

I made it to Gen Con for the first time for real (I've been in the convention center before, but not had a badge).

It's quite an experience, I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance.
 


I finally learned how to play Dungeons & Dragons.  I've always felt like not really knowing how to play D&D was a huge hole in my geek cred.  I'd tried to learn way back in the 80's but the guys who were playing were kind of assholes so I quit.  But really, as huge of a fan I am of the fantasy genre, I really should at least know HOW to play.

Jumping in to the game was intimidating, I've got to say.  I was under the impression that I'd be playing with other beginners, but when we sat at the table everyone else was all "Oh I've been playing every week for 30 years".  Great.  It was a little like knowing the knit stitch, being given a lace chart without a key and told to knit a shawl.  It had me feeling quite stupid for about half an hour and I really don't like feeling stupid.  But I did get it figured out eventually. 

 We got to watch Wil Wheaton and creator Mike Selinker play Unspeakable Words at the TableTop Table. 

Someone said something funny as Wil was taking a drink and he spit on the guy next to him which was pretty funny.  I wonder if he's washed his face yet.

 I still haven't played Unspeakable Words but it looks really fun.

There are all manor of weird and awesome things to be seen at Gen Con.  Like this Wookie/Klingon/Pirate/goth fairy band.  They were pretty good.

 There's a Settlers of Catan van (being driven by 2 sheep).  (Got wood for sheep?)

 And Sun King made a special Flagon Ale which was part mead.  It was good if you remembered it was part mead, but if you forgot it was a little like drinking a Sprite you expected to be water. 

 

 They turned a local restaurant into Munchkin Tavern which was awesome.  One of my favorite games, too. 

 

 

 Requisite TARDIS picture

 On Saturday Rob went and played D&D for 13 hours. 

Sunday we brought the kids with us.  We played the same D&D game I played on Thursday (Candlekeep), but a different scenario.  This time was a lot better and Caity and Sean are now dedicated RPGers.   

 Rob won a contest on Twitter and got to play Munchkin with one of the creators who's name I can't remember (sorry!)

About the only thing Molly liked at Gen Con was the Doctor Who America booth. 

  

 She really liked the Dalek on the left, which moved and talked, and there was a TARDIS pillow that she hugged a lot.  Otherwise she didn't like it much at Gen Con at all.  She went home with my mom for a while and we spent the rest of the day looking at the huge expo, playing lots of games and picking up some things. 

We had an impromptu game at dinner before heading home.

 

Yeah, we're geeks. 

I am a Tolkien nerd

Back in May when I posted my Iron Maiden shawl I mentioned that I'd post more about the yarn later. 

Well it's a lot later, but I've been reading The Lord of the Rings to my daughter this week. For a good many years I read this book every year at Christmas break.  I own all the books and accessory books.  I may have made a database of Elvish languages (and have a printed out dictionary on that continuous feed computer paper with the perforated holes on the side from 1992).  I spent the better part of a year working on an enlarged detailed map (with corrections to the book map based on reading plus notes from Christopher Tolkien).  Yeah, I'm a Tolkien geek. 

Which is why it should be of no surprise that I combined 2 of my favorite obsessions and created a Middle Earth yarn and fiber collection!  

 

 

 

 

I'm rather proud of them, I think I managed to capture the richness of the colors of the world Tolkien created. 

Each color is stocked on specific bases that I think pair well with the colors, and can be found here.  Each has a laceweight, fingering weight, and fiber, and some have a heavier weight as well.  All can be special ordered in different bases if you have a different idea in mind.  For a long time I couldn't keep the Mithril Silkie in stock (but there's some there now!) 

I'm also pleased to be announcing there will be a bimonthly There and Back Again club beginning January 2014.  Signups will begin in November.

Actual yarn content

I started spinning back about 6 years ago.  I didn't have money to buy a wheel, so it was all spindles. 

I heard more than once something that basically said spindle spinning is inferior.  When was I going to move up to a wheel.  Wheels are better, spindles are just for learning.  Someone told me I wasn't a real spinner because I didn't spin on a wheel. 

Seemed like I was making yarn, I don't know why she thought it wasn't "real". 

One of these that seems like it's still hanging around is that you can't spin long draw on a spindle.  Can't be done. 

Oh Really?

So I guess that's totally NOT what I'm doing here.

In fact I've been spinning in some kind of hybrid/modified long draw for years.  At Stringtopia last month I finally got to take a class from Abby Franquemont on spinning long draw on spindles.

I already had a pretty good base idea but this class really gave me new wings.  I learned some ways to make the whole process faster, and some tricks to getting out slubs by slacking the yarn and then re-tensioning it. 

And I'm learning about myself that I really like doing things I'm not very good at (yet).  I've started swimming which I am TERRIBLE at.  Just really really bad, I've never learned how to freestyle swim at all.  I started out a month ago with this long draw things at a pretty beginner place.  There is so much room to learn new things and the learning curve is so steep at the beginning, there's nowhere to go but up.  And I have no expectations, so I can't beat myself up for not being better yet. 

I bought 4 ounces of the class fiber, some brown carded wool, strictly for the purpose of practicing.  I didn't really care how it came out, I wanted to be able to spin automatically.   I intentionally practiced during tv shows that I wanted to look at, instead of my hands.  I did not micromanage, because I learned from several exercises that the yarn comes out a lot better than I think it is.  I spun for efficiency. 

In no time at all I had 2 full spindles.

And a day later I had plied yarn.

Which washed up into this really squishy 260 yard skein

Which is really pretty amazingly even considering it was a learning skein, and I wasn't really even trying for evenness.  

I really like this long draw spindle thing.