Friday Mishmash

Ever have one of those days, where things just startle and scare you?  It began during our early morning run - Julia and I both jumped when we heard something rustle behind us.  Turns out it was a heavy piece of plastic that was put out for the trash.  Then, a few minutes later,  the street light cast our shadows in front of us and I saw something move right next to me and I jumped (but didn't scream, which is unusual for me, lol).  I quickly realized it was my running skirt making that movement.  Then Julia started questioning if the streets were darker than usual, and suffice it to say that our run, which was speedwork anyway, became particularly fast.  So yeah, you could say we were on edge.

Later on, I had a meeting to go to at night.  Now, when I know I'm coming home to an empty house, I leave the lights ablazin' both inside and out.  And I make sure to tell Paco to guard the house (instead of going to hide in my closet, which he is known to do when I leave).  But when I came home, I was still feeling a little jumpy, so instead of putting Paco in his crate for the night, I had him sleep on the bed with me.  You'd think that having nearly 30 pounds of dog laying on my legs (his preferred spot) would have meant a night of bad sleep, but nope.  I slept like a rock.  Best sleep I've had in a long time, in fact.

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I knitted another cowl - what can I say, this winter is the season of cowls for me, apparently.  Not only are they great for keeping me warm (but not too warm since the heat is concentrated on my neck and chest area), but I love all the different colors and styles of my cowls...I feel slightly fashionable when I wear one.

This one was a new design by Liz Abinate, who also designed the Saroyan shawlette that I knitted last fall.  Her patterns are very clear and well-written, and I really enjoy knitting them - I can safely say I've had no frustrating, want to throw the piece across the room moments while knitting her designs.  The pattern called for a little more than one skein of yarn, but I decided to go for broke and make it with one skein...which is mostly because I only HAD one skein of the yarn I wanted to use, but also, I figured I'd get pretty close.  Turns out, I managed to do 16 out of the 17 pattern repeats, so I was right, woohoo!

Pattern is Forest Park Cowl, yarn is Madelinetosh Vintage, colorway is Fragrant.  I went with the pink tones because of the heart-looking design in the cables, and because I started knitting this just before Valentine's Day.

I like how the pattern flares out - this makes it drape nicely, without having to fuss too much with arranging it.  Hopefully I'll get a picture of me wearing it soon so you can see what I mean.

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We have running plans tomorrow - first, of course, will be running.  I'll be doing my last week of my 3 mile experiment.  And later, several of our JFR Crew have plans to watch a movie about running - McFarland USA.  Should be fun!

Have a great weekend!