Flying High Again

After the hellish week I had last week, my Monday was spec-frickin'-tacular! Let me tell you about it, Gentle Reader.

I Run, Therefore I Am
So the boy was out of school yesterday, and I was prepared to have a good day nevertheless. We hit the gym, and I'd already decided to cut my weight work a bit short so I'd have plenty of time to run. And given that I'm still not back up to 7.0 MPH, I need extra time to get in what I consider a decent run.

And run I did! For the first time since my right ankle started smarting, I was able to put in 10 miles. Boy oh boy, it felt so good to run that far. In fact, I only hit the 'ol pause button once so I could adjust my knee band. Before the ankle ouchie, I typically stopped every 3 miles so I could swig a little from my water bottle and fight the slight dehydration all my various allergy and asthma meds cause. What's even better is that I felt full of energy for the entire run. Gotta love that!

If I can repeat that feat tomorrow, I'll have logged 900 miles since the end of July. Woohoo!

Look What I Made out of a Piece of String!
Okay, technically I finished this little project this morning, but I wrapped up most of the concentration-heavy work last night. But I'm very, very proud of this scarf, which I knit for Mum from yarn she bought, because the pattern wasn't a simple garter or stockinette thing. Nope, I was knitting and purling in the same row, and the pattern in each row changed practically every row--and I didn't screw up royally!

Okay, sure, I probably could have paid more attention to the tension so my gauge was more even. I still consider myself an early beginner, and this project, like the others I've completed, is a learning experience. This pattern certainly gave me plenty of opportunities to practice my knitting and purling, as well as particular combinations of those two basic stitches. The end result, I think, is quite lovely:
Maybe with a bit more practice and, well, attention to details, I can revisit this pattern and make something that ends up looking like the picture above.

My next project is another blanket, this time for the boy. The lovely blue, purple and black wool yarn I scored for half-price that he initially liked turned out not to be good enough. He picked out some blue and red on our second trip to Michael's and directed me to make him a striped blanket "with blue first. Remember that," he warned me. The FSM help me if I forget!