Wednesday, April 9, 2014

FO: Alaskan Cowl

Last night I cranked out the last part of the Alaskan Cowl for my friend Amanda!  She's heading up to Alaska in 2 days to spend her summer guiding kayaking adventures, and she asked me to knit her a little something to keep her warm, preferably a cowl.
The only slight problem was that she asked me barely a week ago.
Knit a cowl in less than a week?
Challenge accepted.
I cast off last night and blocked it today!
It spent the morning on the heater since it was cloudy, then when the sun finally began to shine and things warmed up I stuck it out on the back porch for a couple of hours of last-minute drying.  It's now wrapped and ready to be gifted at her going-away party tomorrow night!
Pattern: My own!  I based it off of a couple of different patterns for the look and the number of stitches to CO, but essentially I just added in a little lace between garter rows and did what I thought looked right.  Pattern is as follows:

CO 180 stitches 
P 1 round.
K1 round, P1 round 4x. 
K 1 round. 
YO, K2tog for a round.
Repeat the italicized part until the cowl reaches the desired length. end with the K1P1 rounds.
CO with Jeny’s Surprisingly Spring BO.
Yarn: Brown Sheep's Nature Spun in Worsted Weight, colorway is Stone.  Got to do a little de-stashing with this particular cowl...
Needles: size 8 on the Denise Interchangeable.  They're starting to wear out a little bit, which makes me sad.  Those needles have served me well for years.
Timeframe: April 4-8.  You guys- I knit this in four days!
Worst Part: Being worried that I wouldn't meet the deadline.
Best Part: Meeting the deadline with two days to spare, and winging a pattern and liking the results!
This morning Scott and I both accidentally slept in past our alarms, and he raced up to work in the truck- our only vehicle between the two of us that I normally have dibs on.
I was pretty okay with it this morning, though, because he helped me pump the tires up on my bike for my first day of bike commuting!  
I'll admit, doing an hour of hot yoga followed by a completely uphill bike ride wasn't the greatest first bike commute of the season, but it didn't feel as hard as I thought it was going to.  My legs were already stretched out, and I didn't get truly sore until I was home and grading (sitting) for awhile.  
Another reason I think the biking feels all right is because I'm deep in the first week of training for my half marathon!  I won the lottery to get in the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon on June 21st, and my name was chosen!  This week was my first week of training, and so far I've done two runs, both over 3 miles.  It helps that Scott has done most of those runs with me- he pushes me a little, and makes me not cheat when I want to be done and go back.  
So far no major running issues besides dealing with side aches and sore feet (I have really high arches), but I'll keep you posted as training continues...

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