Quiet day getting ready for a hectic one…
Today I woke with a headache, which I haven’t been able to get rid of. I actually feel fragile, which isn’t me at all. Not good when I have my last race of the season tomorrow – the Greifensee half-marathon.
It’s also cool and rainy, so I’ve just had a quiet home day. No work or doing things on the computer or even much sewing. Instead I’ve been knitting a little on my Juliet Shell ( by the Green Mountain Spinnery using their Sylvan Spirit yarn) and pottering around doing light housework. The Juliet Shell is turning out to be very pretty – it’s another top down pattern, which of course I love. I did have a bit of a tussle trying to join the shoulder seams – I had cast on provisionally into crocheted chains – I’m sure that the chains were supposed to just unravel beautifully before my eyes, releasing the stitches so that I could do a three-needle bind off. Somehow it just didn’t seem to work like that – but I’ve read on various blogs that this may be a perennial problem – I have no idea what I did wrong, but it certainly wasn’t a piece of cake to unravel everything. At the end of the day though you would never know – the shoulders look great – at least it was only my nerves that ended up frazzled and not my knitting!
I’ll try to get an early night and hope that I’ll wake in the morning full of verve and feeling race fit. And if I don’t, well I guess it isn’t the end of the world. The race is one that I’ve taken part in many times before – and as half-marathons go it doesn’t get easier than this one – totally flat around the pretty lake my house looks down on. Here’s a photo from last year – I guess I’m somewhere in the mix. Last year it was a beautiful day, tomorrow it will rain, but that’s OK, I like to run in the rain!
It is coincidentally the Swiss national half-marathon championship and there will be a big field of international runners (although as there are about 14,000 of us running I’m not very likely to encounter anyone famous – I might see a cloud of dust as they run away from me at great speed!). Still it’s always nice to say that I’m racing in the same race as Viktor Rothlin the Swiss guy who just won the marathon at the European Championships this summer!
I’m working on the principle that I’ve run enough this summer that my legs will get me round OK even if my head isn’t right with them! Still it would be nice to run well and enjoy it! So cross your fingers and toes for me and if send me some ‘go fast vibes’ if you feel so inclined!
Have a great weekend!
Helen
September 17th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Hope your head is better by tomorrow and that you’ll enjoy the race. Thinking of you! Vreni x
September 17th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
My husband did the Greifensee half-marathon in ’08 and it was a huge achievement for him! Beautiful around there – we married 20 years ago in the little church in the old part ;))
The best of luck to you tomorrow, and I hope the weather is just right!
Although I’ve never actually had the courage to do that crochet cast-on, I think you have to pick up the back loop or something for it to unravel nicely, I know I’ve seen it described somewhere, possibly on Knitting Daily/Interweave?? You’d probably find it online…
Love the colour of your knitting! Just finished a top-down cardigan in a blackberry colour this week and am convinced it’s quite simply faster!
September 17th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
I have always used a provisional cast-on where you crochet right onto the knitting needle. I learned it from Charlene Schurch’s first sock book, but masondixonknitting recently had a link to a video of the same thing. Works perfectly every time.
Good luck with the race. I’ll be racing too, only it will be driving from child sporting event to child sporting event, with groceries fitted in between – not nearly so good for one’s health!