Sunday, March 28, 2010

Woosh

March has just flew by this year. I can't quite believe its nearly over. Its been a pretty busy month all round. Work has been mostly busy and I really feel I'm settling in to my new job.

The big thing this month isn't work related though. Over in the side bar of this very blog, there is a Just Giving widget. I had one last year for my sister who ran the 5km Race for life for cancer research. This year, the widget is marking that I'm running the Race for life. I'm not entirely sure it was a completely sane thought but I'm partly doing it in solidarity with my mum and sister who are running it also. My mum was diagnosed with diabetes several months back and has done a tremendous job in changing her lifestyle to attack it head on. She now goes to the gym 3 times a week and has lost loads of weight. So when she said she had thought about running it, I really had to agree to do it too. Cancer in all its forms has touch my life both personally and professionally over the years so its a good cause.

I'm planning some prize incentives for donations, which I will reveal soon and if you are reading this and would like to donate a prize, please get in touch via the comments. Any donation of any sort is very appreciated and if you aren't in a position to donate, then good thoughts for a successful and safe run are helpful too.

I've been knitting away most of the month but alas I can't share some of things just yet as they are presents. I did finish a pink version of the snapdragon tam that I knit for myself. This one is for my sister.

Pink snapdragon tam

Right its time for the gym and some more training. I do have some fairly snazzy shoes to wear.

Running shoes

Monday, March 01, 2010

Hello March

February has been both a good and bad month for me. The bad was mostly my body deciding to let me down with the fall and the thumb injury and then on Wednesday, I was struck with a particularly nasty bug which I'm only just getting back to normal from. Throw in lots of cold weather plus yet more snow and this all means I'm so ready for spring now.

However there were lots of good things. The Winter Olympics was just fabulous and I loved watching so many of the events. Britain didn't win a lot - just one Gold in the Skeleton Bob but Winter sports aren't so big here. I know there has been a lot of press in Canada about British criticism of the games hosting but that was mostly just the usual nonsense that the nasty British Press spouts. Everyone I have spoken to about the Olympics over here though Vancouver put on a fantastic games and I really think it showed Canada in general in a great light. My Cousin and her family have just moved from Scotland to Lake Country in BC so a trip over there will probably be on the cards at some point, via Ontario as other family stay there.

As I mentioned before, I was taking part in the Knitting Olympics and I managed to finish my socks.

Socktopod socks finished

The pattern is called Socktopod socks by Cookie A. Its called after the shop that ran the Sock club, Socktopus run by the lovely Alice. I was lucky enough to visit the shop in September shortly before Alice decided to stop running the shop. A lot of my sock yarn stash and sock inspiration came from the shop so it was sad to hear that the shop was closing. Alice is, however, running a big Knitting event in London during the summer, Knit Nation, which I'm planning to attend.

The stash reduction plan continues. This month, I did have quite a bit of yarn in - 4102metres. I had a splurge at 100pure wool with some lace yarn and yarn for another hat or two for me plus I had the remains of my leaving present from my old job in vouchers for John Lewis so I bought yarn for a Summer cardigan.

However all was not lost as my knitting group had a Swap night, where I managed to trade/sell quite a few skeins of socks yarn. Added to that, I gave some leftovers to a friend for a blanket project and I finished two pairs of socks. That all added up to 4117 metres, meaning I ended the month with 15 metres less yarn than I started with. Now that is a good result.