Finished!

Rudy's socks that is. Sorry about the quality of this photo - I am blaming it on the incredible meal that proceeded finishing these socks.

Up next:

• finishing touches on Baby Surprise Sweater 1 (sew up shoulders, sew on buttons)
  
• continued work on BSS 2 (had to rip out about 10 rows this morning when I realized I failed to read the directions and missed a critical step)
• start some socks for a christmas gift (What? You think I have left this a bit late? Maybe... though these are not knee high and will be a nice, soothing K2, P2 rib for the most part. Nice challenge to attempt to finish these in less than 30 days)
• Pederson Benefit Run

I have started looking at the race calendar for next year (and pushing at least one race director to set a date as I have a major family event pending next summer - and they are trying to plan around my race schedule). In looking at the various options I have determined I am a bit of a homebody and don't really want to travel more than 3-4 hours. Lucky for me there are lots of ultras to choose from within a few hours of Duluth.

Rumor has it the ski trails are groomed! And my skis were just returned to me with a fresh coat of wax (Thanks Ron!). Hoping the temps stay on the cool side and the snow sticks around. I am looking forward to including some cross-country skiing into the mix.

EZ's Baby Surprise Sweater

Sorry, running friends very little running content today.

For my knitting friends:

In addition to Rudy's Socks, which has turned into a rather long project, I have also been working on a baby sweater. I have two friends expecting this fall/winter and I have a firm belief that all babies should be swathed in wool so off I went to my Local Yarn Shop (LYS) to find the proper yarn for one of my favorite patterns: Elizabeth Zimmerman's (EZ) Baby Surprise Sweater.

It is a relatively easy to knit sweater with a lot of soothing garter stitch and the need to only really pay attention at a few points, perfect for working on while reading, watching a movie, visiting, etc. Initially I had thought I would knit it up in some sock yarn, but in light of my long relationship with some size 0 double points and fingering weight yarn (aka knee high socks at a gauge of 9 sts/inch) I opted for worsted weight and some size 4's.

I was steered towards a lovely swedish yarn - Jarbo Garn that is 70% wool/30% nylon and machine washable (nice features for little ones). The yarn is quite soft and a delight to knit with. Two skeins will make a sweater that should fit a 6+ month old. I have found this sweater "grows", and can be worn for quite some time.

Despite having knit many of these sweaters I still think of it as rather magical. You knit back and forth, decreasing, then increasing and you end up with this funny shaped piece:

which, with a couple of folds

turns into a sweater!

I just need to sew up the shoulder seams and find some buttons and the sweater will be finished.
Button shopping is rather tough where I live, but I have high hopes that the LYS will have something appropriate.

In the meantime I have cast on for a second sweater and continue to work on the third sock of a pair. I have started the calf shaping which means that soon I will be working on fewer stitches and the knitting should start to fly by!

On the running front:

Recovery from Wild Duluth goes well. I made it 6 days before I had to head out for a run. The weather was fantastic and my legs were getting "itchy". I only made it 30 minutes as my right quad was still tight and let me know it had had enough. Since then I have run a few races (finished up the NMTC Fall Series) and even got out for a long run this past Saturday, tacking on approximately 18 miles to my 5K race that morning.

Gardening:

This past weekend's weather was so lovely and I spent part of Sunday prepping a new bed for garlic. My daughter S came over to help

prepping garlic cloves for planting

She also spent a good amount of time helping to clear out the other beds and later that evening (and the next day) helped process the two deer that were given to us (a relative who likes to hunt but does not like venison).

All that is left to do before the winter snows fly is to get straw onto the garlic and strawberry beds, finish up the sauna door project (it was torn out of the concrete wall by winds this past spring) and get the wood pile in order. I am looking forward to good snow, time to ski and sauna season!