trucking along

Ten days after my family left, I've got half a sock for my dad:



I'm a little nervous about the fit - my dad has big feet and biggish calves. (I've got plenty of yarn, though!) I'm hopeful it'll work out. I'm going to finish it, mail it to him to make sure it fits, then, if all goes to plan, I'll cast on for the match.

I took a couple hours on Friday, my day off, to read. I never do that anymore. I don't know why, it's so relaxing! I'm in the middle of "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult and I read "Knitting without Tears" by EZ, cover to cover. She is so lovely. I wish she were an old aunt who I could visit and knit with. She makes me feel like I could be a knitting superhero. I've never had any desire to knit sweaters - too darn intimidating - but her percentage methods make so much sense. I really want to make a seamless raglan or a seamless hybrid (for some reason, raglan looks less intimidating to me). I love her patterns because they *aren't* patterns. That's how I learned to knit socks, after all. Unlucky for me, I own neither a sweater's worth of wool nor any circular needles to cast on for a sweater. That's an aspect of my stash I have yet to delve into.

In other news, the past week of running has been pretty good. Last week's bad news somehow turned me into a running queen - I ran six miles at a really good pace Thursday, simultaneously trying to comprehend everything and turn my brain off. I ran longer than normal on Saturday, but it was a bit slower pace. It feels good to get some higher numbers on my running log for once. On the downside, I slept really oddly on my neck Thursday night and have had some major neck and shoulder pain since. I've been using a heating pad and Icy Hot but it hasn't helped much. I must have pulled something for the pain to last so long.