FO: Bright red socks for May

Pattern: Lanterne Rouge, by yours truly, part of a set of four Tour de France inspired anklets I designed a couple of years ago
Yarn: Cascade Fixation in really, really, really bright red, 1.8 skeins, approximately 180 yds total in the socks.
Needles: US 1/2.25 mm for the foot and heel, US 1.5/2.5 mm for the leg
Start/finish: 1 May - 28 May 2011
Comments/mods: As this is my own pattern, I certainly can't own up to it being anything less then stellar. However, I did modify a few things (and found a few boo boos in the pattern that I'll fix once RAB is over and done with). First off, I knit the medium size for stitch counts, but used the length measurement for the large size. I did this because I was worried that the lace pattern stretchiness might make the size large too loose around the foot.

I knit the pattern as written for the first sock, tried it on, and realized I needed some adjustments for the leg - it was impossible to get on! So I increased 4 stitches after finishing the heel flap (instead of decreasing) and switched to slightly larger needles. That did the trick.

Finally instead of making these short, ankle-length socks, I kept going until I was almost out of yarn. I really like how socks made from Fixation fit and feel, but I hate hate hate knitting with it. It hurts my hands like nothing else. Sadly, there are now several partial balls of Fixation in my stash (as well as a couple of whole ones!) that I may just have to get rid of.

So, I am absolutely thrilled that after five months of 2011, I have five finished pairs of socks to show for it. I'm a bit worried that June is going to throw a spanner into the works however, what with this silly 953 mile bike ride I seem to be doing. But I think I've come up with a possible solution: Aran weight socks.

To be fair, using aran weight yarn seems like a huge cop-out, on many different levels. But here's my rationale: for at least 10 days next month (and probably more like 12 or 13), I will be too tired from riding my (lovely new, see in first picture) bike up and down the myriad hills that make up this damned island, or too busy lying on a beach in Cornwall trying to recuperate (please don't let it rain!) to knit a single stitch. And I'm also going to design these socks myself instead of digging in to the pile of SISC bags waiting upstairs (deadline is early July). So that seems fair, doesn't it?

Maybe?

Bueller?

There's been a lot of spinning going on

But it's mostly been of the non-fibery type. I.e. my butt has been on my bike quite a lot in my spare moments over the last few weeks/months. There's a good reason for this...

See that point up there at the top of the map? The one with the green arrow? That's John o'Groats, the northernmost point in mainland Scotland.

See that point at the bottom of the map? The one with the red arrow? That's Land's End, the southernmost point in England.

On June 11th, I climb on my bike and start riding at the green arrow, with hopes of making it down to the red arrow more or less in one piece by June 19th. Ooof. 953 miles, baby - that's a lot of spinning.

If you're reading this, and are inclined to assist me, I'm fundraising for ParalympicsGB for the ride. My online donation page is here, more info on ParalympicsGB (who are amazing) is here, and I'll be blogging each day of the ride here.

Thanks!

Things that happened this weekend

1. My children and their Halloween Trick-or-Treating friends bounced around like pink/purple/blonde bits of fluff scavenging easter eggs out of our backyard.

2. We had really, really good Thai food and Guiness for dinner on Saturday.

3. I finished spinning up the first half of 1 lb of dyed Corriedale for my first major spinning project.

4. Ironman got a new bike,

which means...

5. I now have a new bike*! Well, new to me anyway. 

Hopefully this will motivate me to actually do something with said new bike, thereby getting my generous rear in gear. So to speak.

In any event, yippee!

*Both my wheel and my bike are now Canadian. Awwww.

I got nothing

OK, that's not entirely accurate, but I don't have anything of note to show you. I have two almost finished socks, which, unfortunately, are not of the same pair. I have a Summertime Tunic that looks mostly the same as last time, only most of a hank of Premiere longer. I have a baby blanket that is trapped in intarsia hell, and probably needs a time out, but if I do that it won't be done by Devil's birthday. Oh hell, who am I kidding - it's not going to be done anyway...

It's springtime here in Houston, which makes for longer days and really nice weather for working out. I've entered a couple of races, so I've been trying to get in some consistent training in preparation. Running is going OK, swimming is fine - if I get in the pool twice a week I'm happy - but cycling has really been taking a hit. The problem is that cycling is time intensive; ideally I'd be riding at least three times a week, but that means at least an hour and a half out of the day, if not longer. Finding that time is tough with the kiddos around. Until the last few weeks, I've been bonding with my trainer, but since the time change, it's possible to ride after work. Tonight Ironman took the kids home and I went for a ride.

The only downside is that the number of clueless folk on wheels dramatically increases this time of year, not only because of the weather, but because of an impending physical challenge that a lot of people (upwards of 15,000) participate in every year. It makes for fun times out on the bike path - tonight I had the honor of being in the front row for a lovely bike-on-bike collision at a T intersection on the bike path. Thankfully everyone was going pretty slowly and no one was hurt, but harsh words were thrown and things got a bit testy (kind of like the Rav MCY thread). But I rode on home, thankful to have been paying attention, and glad that the bluebonnets are blooming and it's really spring.

Of course, the downside to that, is that summer is just around the corner...