S.W.E.A.T. and Sweaters

I'm still here!  Over the last couple of months, I've been absent from this space as I've been busy with a variety of things, but most of all because lately I've traded in my knitting needles for running shoes.

My good friend Tera, who originally taught me how to knit, has now motivated me to take on a new challenge.  We plan on running the Redding Marathon in January.  When I sent off my registration form and fee, I had to make the check out to "SWEAT" which is just so appropriate!

If I had realized 2 months ago that practice runs would suck up all the free time I usually devoted to knitting, I may have hesitated even more than I did.  However, now I am committed and I'm thoroughly enjoying the process of becoming a runner again.  Even though I ran on the cross country team in high school, and continued to take long runs just for fun during my college years, it was one of those hobbies that fell by the wayside when I became a parent.  That was 15 years ago, and it is high time I got my feet moving again!

I think I've established a routine of regular training, and I am now trying to squeeze knitting and blogging back into my daily life.  I have some knit gifts to finish up, but I have also allowed myself some selfish knitting to reinvigorate the passion for the stash.  I dug in to my yarn boxes, and cast on for not one, but two CocoKnits sweaters that have been in my queue for ages:  Silke and Maria.  I hope to wear these cosy sweaters to Stitches West in February.  At the moment, I am off to exercise, but I will be back soon to tell you more the knitting, the yarn dyeing, and maybe even a few posts about the running.