Sweater Chosen

Thank you all for your great suggestions as to what my Rhinebeck Sweater should be.  What is fantastic is the ones that were mentioned are ones that I had been mulling about the past few days.  The lucky winner will be Wicked!  I have been enjoying watching Shameka's Wicked grow closer to completion and thought maybe if I made it, it would be half as flattering on me as it will be on her.

February Lady came in a close second.  She will be on my needles at some point closer, or after, Rhinebeck.  I'll probably wait and see what yarn I may be able to purchase for it at the Festival.  So Yvonne and Kim, I'm not messing around with your bet on the Lady.

I hope everyone has a fantastic Labor Day weekend!

Decisions Decisions

Ok folks Rhinebeck is around the corner. It will be here before we know it. This will be my first Fiber Festival Event ever and I am super excited. Here is my dilemma. What should I knit for my Rhinebeck Sweater?!?!? I can't decide what to knit. I'd like to maybe do something top down but have yet to find something I like. Help! Any suggestions of what I should knit? I am open to anything that can be reasonbly knit in the next month and a half.

Also in my earth shattering knitting news, I picked up my Tilted Duster tonight. I finished the collar. I am done with the knitting. I just need to seam the sleeves, attach them and block the skirt out. I am determined to get this one off my list so I can comfortably cast on for my Rhinebeck sweater.

Ok my knitting friends...suggestions please?

There Was Knitting

Finally I am getting around to a knitting content post. Life has been a little crazy for me with all my marathon training going on. It is absolutely true when people say preparing for a marathon is like having a second job. It takes alot of time and commitment. However, I actually have some knitting progress to share.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned that everywhere I looked around my apartment I saw piles of knitting begging out to me to be picked up and worked? No? Well I did and the other week I brought them all together for a little photo shoot. Once everything was together I realized the situation wasn't all that bad. Two projects just need to be blocked and seamed (will happen when cooler when is here to stay). One has 5 more rows to be done on the collar and then we just have seaming to be done. One just needs to have a bit more done on the shoulder straps, a few rows on the back and then it is complete. Another needs to have stitches picked up for the front sweater bands and collar, install zipper and seam everything together. Three are really needing attention and the last one may get frogged and started all over.

The other week I decided I was going to make some serious progress on at least one of these projects. The lucky winner was my Diamond Lace Top from Verena Knitting Magazine. I introduced her to you back in early July. I started her while I was on vacation at Myrtle Beach in June. Once I got home she was put to the backburner because the heat didn't allow the yarn to slide across the needles.

Well I decided that I was going to transfer the project to my Knit Picks Harmony Needles so I could possibly get her done for Labor Day. Unfortunately one of my size 4 needles had a split in the wood. Knit Picks immediately sent me a replacement but I didn't get it in the mail until this past Monday. I lost a week of knitting on it but within three days I had the back complete.

I worked on the front piece this weekend but only have gotten through the first pattern repeat. It will look exactly like the back in the picture. After that I just have the ribbed collar band to do. Even if I get the knitting all done this week, I won't have time to block and seam it for Labor Day.

At last here is a picture of my last SOS08 sock. It's number six and hopefully I can get it and it's mate done by Friday. I am knitting the Uptown Boot Sock from our lovely 25 Favorite Socks book. Found out last week my sis is knitting the exact same one right now. Funny how we think alike across all the miles. Anway, I am at the toe on sock #1. I'll give all the specifics when I post the completed pair.

Another Year Older

Yesterday I turned another year older. 37 to be exact. So what does one do on their birthday? I got up at 6:45am to do laundry, headed to the gym at 9am to get my daily run and workout in, showered and got ready in 30 minutes to be on time for my birthday lunch at Carmine's with a good friend of mine and ended the day with birthday wish filled conversations with loved ones.

Very little knitting was completed this weekend. I started my 6th pair of SOS socks. I am currently halfway finished with the leg. I'll post a picture this week. I did a ton of running on Saturday. I covered a 12.5 mile long run for my marathon training. Getting to the 10 mile mark was very comfortable for me since I had already covered that mileage the week before. I knew it would be a push to get through the last scheduled 5 miles I was suppose to cover. I was happy that I got 2.5 more miles out of myself before having to stop. I did walk the last 2.5 miles of the 15 mile run though. This coming Saturday I'll be covering the 15 miles for sure.

On other news I am totally into the new Stephenie Meyer book, "Breaking Dawn". I finally finished the other book I was reading so I can now solely focus on this one. I had a hard time putting it down last night to go to sleep. It's just so good!

Thanks to everyone who sent me happy birthday wishes yesterday!

Summer of Socks 08 - Pair #5

Finally! My fifth pair of socks for Summer of Socks 08 are complete. The knitting was completed yesterday and I just kitchenered the toe 15 minutes ago. I am yet again happy with my new socks. Here's the stats:

Pattern: Charade by Sandra Park
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Thin; Colorway - Blueberry Sorbet
Needles: Knit Picks Fixed Circs Size #1.5
Started: July 29th
Finished: August 15th

The only modifications I did was to make the leg of the sock longer and then when it came to the toe decreases, I did the same amount of decreases but just in less rows. If I had completed the toe as written, I would have needed another half a foot to fill these babies. I love the color of this yarn. The pooling of colors makes me want to get some sorbet right now!

As true to form, I have already casted on for my next pair. Hopefully I will finish these sooner than three weeks now that I am back in good knitting form.

Thought I'd Play

I've seen this mosaic around on a few blogs and thought I'd finally play along. Here's a little about what makes me, me....

1. First name - Deborah
2. Favorite food - Pizza
3. High School - Athens Drive
4. Favorite color - Burgandy
5. Celeb Crush - Harrison Ford
6. Favorite drink - Mellow Yellow
7. Dream Vacation - Italy
8. Favorite Dessert - Ice Cream

9. What I want to be when I grow-up - Professional Runner (Nothing wrong with dreaming)
10. What I love most in life - Enjoying the company of others who mean the world to me
11. One word to describe me - Loving
12 My Flickr name - Angelny29

Now it's time to put yourself together in pictures. Here's how it can be done:

Copy and paste the URLs for images that answer your questions into fd’s mosaic maker. Copy pictures from the internet or flickr. Save the mosaic image and blog all about it. Find images that match your answers to these questions...

1. What is your first name 2. What is your favorite food? 3. What high school did you go to? 4. What is your favorite color? 5. Who is your celebrity crush? 6. Favorite drink? 7. Dream vacation? 8. Favorite dessert? 9. What do you want to be when you grow up? 10. What do you love most in life? 11. One word to describe you. 12. Your Flickr name.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Well what can I say? I don't have any knitting FO's to show. I actually didn't pick up my socks at all this weekend. I could have taken a picture of the yarn to share the delicious color with you, but that would just have been a tease. As I look around my apartment I see a couple of piles of knitting calling out to me to be picked up and given some attention. It's just still too warm in my apartment to do anything but socks.

So what have I been doing with my time? I've been doing a boat load of running! This is what happens when I am training for a marathon. My long runs on the weekends just get longer and I am usually too tired afterward to do anything but rest. I am doing something new this year with my training. Since I don't work Friday's, I am adding a split run day into my routine. I run only 1 mile in the morning as fast as I can at race pace and then run an easy 2 miles in the evening. This will help me with my speed, not that it is really about speed for me in a marathon, but it will definitely benefit me in the long run. This past week I have run 6 days and logged 30 miles. Saturday was a 10 mile long run. I have resumed my running along the Hudson River in the city for these runs. It's scenic and usually has a great breeze first thing in the morning.

Maybe next post will actually have knitting content!

MIA

So I've been MIA since the end of July. Some of you may have noticed, others may not have. This doesn't mean I haven't been productive though.

This past weekend I took an extended weekend to take a little trip. For those of you who called me, you now know why I wasn't returning your calls. I wasn't avoiding you. I promise. Anway, I visited Indiana for the first time in my life. I have a friend who lives there and had a fabulous time. It was wonderful to escape the city and be in the country (and I truly mean country). Farms everywhere, lots of trees, green grass, stars and the moon at night....heaven to me.

We even ran a race while I was there. Friday night we headed to Madison, IN for a 4.3 mile race at 10pm. The course was actually along a golf course and was lit by candlelight. What an awesome experience! This was the first time I have ever run a race at night and I will never forget it. Of course my finish time wasn't great for me, but that's ok. I had to remember I ran a 13.1 mile race just 5 days earlier. My friend however, knocked it out of the ballpark. He finished in roughly 32 minutes and placed 2nd in his age category. Too me that was fantastic! I've never placed in anything other than in my own mind.

What was really nice about this trip was that we drove around alot and I got to see the sights of several towns, even spent a day in Indianapolis visting with my friend's family. I had a nice relaxing time and had a hard time getting on the plane to come back to NYC and to the daily grind of city life.

I didn't bring my knitting with me on my trip. The week leading up to it though, I did make good progress on my 5th SOS08 sock #1. I had worked halfway through the heel flap before the trip and yesterday morning I finished it and started sock #2. It will probably be a couple days before I finish it and share it with ya'll. There is no point showing a photo now when I know it will be done soon.