Archives for December 2006

Thanks for all the comments on the last post! I  LOVE THEM, and y’all. So much.

Happy New Year! This post is about running, although it has only to do with health, NOT resolutions. I only make one resolution every year: I will not stab ANYONE this year. I’ve done well every year with it, so I feel no need to change it up.

But the running. I’ve been running again. I had been, even before I got my new Nike+iPod toy, but now that I have it, I’m unstoppable, people.

So here it is: Wanna run with me? Wanna prove that knitters can get off the couch and into the streets? Show ‘em how sexy, strong, and fit we can be?

Wanna pledge to run 100 miles before April Fools Day? Three months, a hundred miles, that’s nothing, really. That’s a little less than 3 runs a week, 3 miles apiece. You can do that. Or if you can’t, you can get near it. Or do your best?

If you have the Nike+iPod, I’ve set up a running group on the Nike page – just go to the site where the device automatically takes you at login, and search for Runagogo  in the forums and join me.

Or just join me in spirit: send me your name and I’ll make a list of those of us doing it.  Keep me up to date with your progress. At the end, tell me how you did.

And if you finish, I have no great prize for you, but you can steal my idea if you like, the prize I’m giving myself – I’m going to allow myself to buy enough yarn for a sweater with no guilt, with no online price-comparisons, just shopping for yarn I love to make the perfect sweater. Because the next sweater is always the perfect sweater, right? Until then, I’m stashbusting, but if I make a hundred miles, I’m shopping.

Now! Champagne for everyone! Happiest!

Two days after Christmas, my sister Bethany left my parents’ house in order to drive home to the Bay Area. The folks live about 4 hours south, on the Central Coast. She drove a bit north, and pulled over in San Luis Obispo for a tire rotation and a lunch.

We’d been having wicked winds, and while she was waiting for a sandwich to be made, the wind blew over a heavy metal table.
Bethany’s dog, Boonie, was spooked, slipped her collar, and ran.

Now, what you have to know is that Boonie BELONGS to and with Bethany. Boonie’s a Thai fighting dog, a rescue straight from Thailand. She’s named after the jungle dogs that lived on Saipan when we lived overseas — the fast packs of dogs that act as intelligent units.

Boonie’s almost feral, not threatening, but certainly not tame. She’s the kind of dogs who can, and has, lived on street scraps. She runs faster than any dog I’ve ever laid eyes on, and she won’t be touched by anyone except Bethany and Bethany’s roommate. I’m allowed to give her treats (to Boonie, not to Bethany’s roommate), and every once in a while I graze her head with my hand, but that’s only allowed because I see her all the time (Clara is a favorite chase-buddy of hers).

But Bethany – Bethany is HER person. When nervous or feeling threatened, which is often, she climbs Bethany like a tree.

When Boonie slipped her collar, she left her tags behind, obviously. She’s microchipped, but apparently the Thai chips don’t talk to our machines here. This is a dog that would take months and months for animal control to snare, if they were ever able to. This dog would run, completely unapproachable.

Bethany was beside herself. She had to leave – had been heading out of town when it happened – to get back to work on the railroad. She managed to wrestle some time from her job to stay and search, and my other sister Christy and my parents threw themselves into the search, driving the neighborhoods and calling.

They papered the neighborhood with fliers, sparing no pole.

But Bethany finally had to drive herself back up north for a job run, inconsolable. When I called her, her voice broke my heart.

Then someone called her cell and reported seeing a dog matching Boonie’s description running fast in the area. Bethany borrowed my folks’ car to head home for work, and left her truck in the area (even though it wasn’t in exactly the same area as where she’d originally been lost) gate open, bed and food in the back. She didn’t hold much hope.

But Dad, yesterday morning, went to the truck and staked it out.

He saw Boonie jump into the bed of the truck!

He approached the truck, and of course, Boonie took off hell for leather in any direction that didn’t have a person in or near it. Dad called Bethany at 11am, and she was in the area by 3pm.

She went up to the truck, looked inside. No Boonie.

She called Boonie’s name.

A small head popped up from the cab.

Boonie had scrambled through the window into the cab of the truck and had been resting on the passenger seat, just waiting for Bethany to come find her.

Isn’t that the best story? Almost three days later, reunited. And Boonie had found the truck, on her own, not even at the sandwich shop where she’d been lost. And she just waited there, for Beth to come. Which she did.

I’m so damn happy for them.

Santa listened to me this year and sent (via Lala, who calls him the Christmas Hippie) me the Nike+iPod kit. This thing is awesome. There’s a little do-jobber that you fit into the end of your iPod Nano, and a remote sensor chip that you’re supposed to fit into the base of specially designed Nike shoes. Welp, I love my New Balance 855s, and I don’t need to buy the special, expensive shoe. There are a bunch of do-it-yourself hacks out there (I found a good list here), but I didn’t see any instructions on how to knit yourself a sensor cozy, so here you go.

It’s dead easy, and took about 20 minutes. You should be a bit versed in sock construction, since I don’t go into details.

Grab some leftover sock yarn (you’ll only need a bit) and 2 circular sock-sized needles, whatever you like. I used size 1US, but I knit looser than anyone else, so you might need a 3US, or whatever gives you a nice dense fabric. I chose a bit of KnitPicks merino.

Following the instructions for a toe-up sock found here (I used, as I usually do, the figure-eight method) to cast on twelve stitches, six on each needle. Do one row on each side, and then increase to eight on each needle by knitting into the front and back of the first and last stitch on each needle. You now have sixteen stitches total. Work six or seven more rows.

Now try it on for size. Slip the sensor in. You want it pretty snug, but don’t worry about getting it super tight. If you like it, now is a good time to turn it inside out briefly and weave in that tail end.

Keep knitting around until you can just about close the top of the pouch over the top of the cozy with a small tug.

Break your yarn, leaving a long tail. Put the sensor inside, and then graft (kitchener) the whole thing shut. (Kitchener video HERE.)

Mine is a little wonky, but come on, it’s going on your foot! It’s okay if it’s wonky. Isn’t it weird to sew your new toy into a closed cozy? I think so.

Use your needle to continue weaving in that long end, drawing it eventually down to the middle of the back (the side of the sensor that’s rounded).

Pick a place near the toe of your shoe that looks likely, and using the same long tail, sew it on. Don’t worry about being neat — make sure it’s on there tight. You can always cut it off later and make another one if you change running shoes.

Keep sewing it. It won’t fall off (and if it does, a voice tells you the sensor and the receiver are no longer in communication after two minutes), but you want to make sure it won’t, right?

Look! Cute! Knitting!

Yay! Thanks, Santa!

(How much do I LOVE that when you link your Nano back up to your computer that it automatically dumps your info to the Nike site that tracks your progress? Tells me my speed and calories burned and average pace…. Awesome. Some would argue that it’s too much information that can be gathered, but come on, if you want to track me with a running shoe, you’d be better off just buying a video camera and going full stalker-mode, since the shoes aren’t on that much, anyhow.)

Cost: $29, minus the cost of the iPod Nano and the special shoe.

We went to my parents’ house — there was some talk of going to the in-laws’, which would have been fun, but poor Lala only got Monday and Tuesday off, and that’s not enough time to get to Idaho and back…..

But it was awesome — one of those perfect holidays where no one fights (I got bratty over a game of Taboo, but that’s to be expected, right? Those rules are so VAGUE and I LOVE to win), where the turkey is perfect, and the gifts are FANTASTIC. I mean, really, I ended up with a Tiffany necklace (from sister Christy), gorgeous earrings, new computer speakers, and the Nike +iPod running device, all from Lala. (iPod running! It charts your distance, just by clipping into your shoe! Woot!) And the new Jon Katz from Clara. Talk about a thoughtful border collie. And a spinning wheel which I’ve already enjoyed, from Mom and Dad, and a bunch of other wonderful gifts that I can’t remember now that I’m tired and ready for bed. We spent the day driving up the coast, stopping once in Paso Robles to look at fancy western shirts at the Boot Barn (where a couple of Very Straight women looked at us with slightly quizzical gazes — why was I so comfortable smoothing the shirt lines along Lala’s front? Hmmm).

A short, two-day trip, made perfect by the fact that Motel 6 allows dogs and doesn’t seem to mind how many you have as long as they’re quiet, which they blessedly were (although you’re technically only supposed to have just one, the desk clerk only said "whatever" with a shrug when I mentioned she might see us with more than one dog). And out of all the people I saw coming and going out of the Motel 6 rooms, only one room didn’t appear to have a dog in tow. People with pet allergies, beware. Pet lovers, take heart.

And who would want to leave Harriet behind, anyway?  Not us, that’s who.

    Lala would like me to add that this is not what her hair normally looks like — the camera distorts things, friends. Better coif-representation can be found elsewhere on the blog.

I got my wife one of the most un-romantic gifts EVER, a spice rack. But she had been begging for one for Christmas, and she was DEEELIGHTED to receive it. Magnetic, and everything! She actually said that I would have been in trouble had she NOT received it. And here I was feeling stupid about getting something so prosaic. She loved it, taking it out of the box immediately and playing with the lids like she was six and they were tinker-toys. Cute as hell.

I also did well with sister Christy:

I gave her a shiv. Yep, a knife. A wooden one, carved by one of the guys from the Old Crow Medicine Show. He carved it backstage when they were playing in Tahoe with Lala’s band, and while her bandmate Camilla had her hands on it for a while, it was headed for the trash when I lifted it at the end of the night. It was meant for Christy. I loved her reaction.

Bethany is getting a stereo for her truck from all of us:

And the little Mama is getting a dryer from us kids. For the first time in her WHOLE LIFE, my mother will use a dryer to dry her clothes. She is pretty happy about it, as she, ahem, hasn’t gotten any taller, although I will not say out loud that she has shrunk a tiny bit, and the clothesline that Dad put up in the backyard fifteen years ago, well, those trees are quite a bit taller now, ain’t they? Yes, they could lower the clothesline. No, we don’t like that solution and approve of Mom staying indoors in the inclement weather. Yay!

And she got socks:

Please ignore Miss Idaho in her party dress, trying to steal the limelight away from the possum/merino socks that the little Mama got for Xmas (patten: generic toe-up, with a lace rose-leaf panel thrown in once the toe is done). Soft, soft, soft, and just what Mom needs — she had darned the last pair I made until they were screaming for mercy. Just pathetic, for the mother of a Knitter.

And then, of course, we had to go for a Beach Walk. It was a lovely sixty-eight degrees in Pismo Beach, and the dogs were happy to feel the sand between their toes, although they were sad to have to wear their leashes (stupid laws. Whatever).

The sisters were there, too:

Of course, a better, more accurate picture of the proceedings can be seen HERE.

Lala found a quarter! Hooray!

Okay, we’re home now, and I’m listening to my FABULOUS new Joan Osborne CD, Pretty Little Stranger. No, really, go check it out. Besides that unfortunate God song that was so unreasonably popular, she has an AMAZING voice, and this is her country/Americana album, produced by Dolly Parton’s guy, with backups done by Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, and Dan Tyminski. It’s really great stuff — old-country sounding, with the warmth and strength of her voice at the front. It’s awesome. Another gift.

Yay for Christmas and family and holidays and drives with dogs, especially long drives with small dogs who keep your lap warm. Enjoy the rest of the week, won’t you?

The holiday Google graphic that’s been changing has been SO CUTE. I mean, come on, knitting kangaroos? What could be better?

Graphics can be seen HERE. (As I post this, only the first four images have gone up, and it looks like Mama and Baby Roo were doing a little knitting, and then gave a strange-looking sweater to a kangaroo friend. Do you think she’ll be seen wearing it in the next image, with two heads, a big mama one and little baby one, poking out?) (Hey! I think Reader Garnprinzessin is right — that IS a Kangaroo Papa and Baby Roo knitting FOR Mama. Oh, that’s even CUTER. And say hello to Rachael’s gender-stereotyping. Sheesh.)

Okay, I’m home for the holidays in a few hours, so enjoy your family and whatever you’re doing this weekend, hug on someone, knit a little bit, and laugh a lot. Be kind. Knit a sweater for a kangaroo. (And a special hello to Reader Maria who hugged me at Royal Coffee yesterday — you made my day.)

Yay!

Found via Jill, I leave you for the weekend with this. It’s brilliant. A second-violinist joke! Hahahaha! Never not funny! Plus, the end is wickedly funny. Good music-geek stuff.