Whitin Five Road Race

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am still up in Mass visiting my sister for Thanksgiving.  I leave on Monday.  In the meantime, we ran a road race on Thanksgiving.  My sister, Vince and I ran the 24th Annual Whitin Five Mile Road Race in Whitinsville, MA.

It was freezing, literally.  It was between 35-40 degrees out.  I had did a practice 3 mile run the Sunday before Thanksgiving and I got a serious side cramp that was painful.  I walked about a quarter mile home, then when it subsided, I jogged the rest of the way.  In sum: it was a horrible training experience.

Then my sister, Kathy and I ran a 5 mile loop in her neighborhood on Tuesday, which went very well.  I think it was because I did my stretching and deep breathing outside, in the cold, to acclimate my body and lungs.  It must've worked.

So, Thanksgiving day came and we got all suited up in some cold-weather exercise clothing and went out to the race.

My goal was to run the 5 mile race in 45 minutes or less.  Vince did it in just over 41 minutes and Kathy did it in just over 43 minutes.  I did it in just over 46 minutes.  I'm not upset about that, because it was cold and I did get a slight cramp at mile 3, but I'm not making up excuses!  I'm proud of my time.  It is just under a 9 and a half minute mile - That's better than many of my practice jogs at home!

Here is the preliminary time sheet posted after the race.  I came in at 504th place out of over 800 runners.

Once the race was run, we got some water and some coffee and was off to finish the Turkey Day lunch back at home.  It was fun, even though I complained about the cold, it was a great time!

Thank you, Kathy!!!  Love you for making me do these things!!

Aloha Maddie Baby Blanket

I'm so happy to write about my latest finished knitted project.  This is the Aloha Maddie baby blanket.  I started knitting this blanket while on vacation.  The last day I was in Hawaii, we were just relaxing by the water and decided I had enough full-on blazing sun; I chose to start a knitted gift.

I moved under the tree after this pic was taken!

My friend from Mass just had a baby.  She named her Madeline "Maddie" Rae and I wanted to make something special for her.  Maddie's crib colors had gray in it, so I chose to knit a baby blanket in a light gray-silver color.  The yarn I used is called Spa by Naturally Caron in Misty Taupe (75% Acrylic, 25% Bamboo).  Baby blankets need to be machine washable, so I chose an acrylic blend.  The bamboo gives it such a soft silky feel.

A "green" yarn - Bamboo blend

The blanket pattern came from Lion Brand, called "Treasured Heirloom Baby Blanket," but since I started it in Hawaii, I like calling it the Aloha Maddie baby blanket.

The construction of this blanket sounded so easy: knit, purl, and yarn overs.  I used size 8 bamboo circular knitting needles.  I knew that I was going to have lots of stitches on the needles, so choosing circulars is the best way to handle a large number of stitches.  I started at a corner, casting-on two stitches.  From there I increased one stitch at the beginning of each row until I had 148 stitches.  Then I decreased one stitch at the beginning of each row until there were only two left.  Then I casted-off.

Now, doesn't that sound so simple? Well, it was a simple pattern, but I can always find a way to make an easy pattern difficult.  The blanket is essentially garter stitch and knit eyelets made by yarn overs.  First, the garter stitch:

Garter Stitch

A garter stitch is when you knit every row.  It produces the above look.  This is also what it looks like on the back, or "wrong side" of stockinette stitch (knit is the right side and purl is the wrong side).

Then after several rows of garter, you change to stockinette stitch.  That is when you knit one row, then purl the next row, alternating knit and purl rows.

Stockinette stitch with yarn overs (eyelets)

The rows that made the eyelets were the rows that I made the most mistakes.  Once I figured it out the repeat across the row and how to line up the next eyelet so it lines up in between the previous row's eyelets, it became much easier.  I finally figured it out without looking at the pattern when I was half-way through.  Better late than never!

Garter and Stockinette Stitch

Here is the blanket midway done:

Midway - Working on the Diagonal

When the blanket was on it's last garter stitch stripe, I had more than two stitches, so I had to improvise and end it another way than how the pattern was written.  It worked, whatever!

Aloha Maddie Complete!

The blanket stretches, so the pic shows the stripes a bit inconsistent with their width, but it can be stretched to any width.

Big enough to warm my legs!

Some blankets are adult size, and some blankets are preemie size.  This one is in between.  It was enough to cover my legs as a lap blanket.  Perfect, in my opinion.  I hope baby Maddie likes it!

PS
Check out Baby Maddie in Mid-Week Mini - Baby Maddie!

Hawaii

Aloha!  Happy 4th of July!  Did anyone miss me while I was gone?  I took a break and went on vacation to Hawaii with my family (the Florida fam).  I just got back on Friday and I am still reeling with jet lag.  Hawaii is a six hour time difference and it was a little hard acclimating when we got there but 10 times as bad now that we are home.

The thought of me actually writing a blog post about crafting today makes me want to go back to sleep, so instead, I will share just a few photos (these are only eight pics of literally a thousand we took) so you can see what I've been up to.

First we flew into Honolulu, Ohau.  What a busy city!  For an island state, I did not think it would be so bustling! 


Waikiki Beach from Diamond Head


On Ohau, we stayed on Waikiki Beach; during the days we explored the island by car and in the evenings by foot.  We went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation and got lost in the world's largest hedge maze.  We ate so much pineapple...even pineapple ice cream.  We also hiked Diamond Head State Monument, which is where the above and below pics were taken from.  We visited Pearl Harbor, Aloha Stadium Flea Market, Hanauma Bay nature preserve, hiked Manoa Falls, went on a dinner cruise, and got plenty of Hawaiian sunshine on the beaches.

View from Diamond Head

As I mentioned above, we went to Hanauma Bay nature preserve where we snorkeled.  It was awesome!

Hanauma Bay reefs

The gray colored parts in the water are reefs that are only about 2-3 feet below the water level, so snorkeling was so cool.  We saw the state fish which is named Humuhumunukunukuapua'a.  Yup try saying that three times fast!  It is also called the Picaso trigger fish.  They are protected so forget putting this in your fish tank.  But they are all over when you go snorkeling.

Humu

We walked to dinner each night and popped into some of the fun stores that lined the coastal streets.  One was Teddy Bear World and it was so fun!  Who wouldn't love bears that are just as tall as yourself?

Hula Teddies, anyone?


The next island we visited was Kaua'i.  This is a much more relaxed island.  There is no need to rush on this island because there is only one major road that goes around the coast of the island and it doesn't even do a compete circle.  Only about 80% of the island's circumference is accessible by the main road.  The rest is mountainous so I guess it is too treacherous for the average car.  Some roads are not even allowed to be driven on by the rental car companies.  Off-roading with the rental car was out of the question, then!

Puddle jumper

Above is the plane we took to get to Kaua'i.  A bit unnerving, but it turned out fine.  On Kaua'i, we were just as busy.  We did more snorkeling on Ke'e Beach and Anini Beach, visited a botanical garden, hiked Nounou Mountain Trail (aka Sleeping Giant) and Waimea Canyon State Park.  We did a few side stops into the Kaua'i Coffee Company, Hanapepe Swinging Bridge and had dinner at more local restaurants / cafes.  The big thing we did on the island was a luau.  Very entertaining!

I am not really a hiker, but we brought our sneakers and went anyway.  For the most part, they were easy trails, only about one to one and a half miles round trip.  The one that kicked our butts was the trail at Waimea Canyon.  There were a few different trails in the canyon, so we chose the five mile loop.  Holy Moly!  First, some background on this canyon.  They call it the Grand Canyon of Hawaii.  It is a canyon, so we drove to about 2500 ft elevation and then hiked down to the water.  Going down took us about two hours, but coming back up, it took two and a half hours!  We were completely exhausted!  There were several areas where it didn't even seem like we were on a trail, but we found water and thought, "This is it?  A stream?  Where are the waterfalls?"  No waterfalls on this hike...but we did see wild goats.  Very funny when you are in the woods and you hear the "maah" of goats.

I have to say that I ate a lot on this trip.  There was so much good food!


Stuffing my face!


Another thing that was so funny is that there were wild roosters everywhere!  They are on the side of the road, in the woods, and even on the beach.  Crazy!  The Hawaiians blame the Filipinos for the roosters but the Portuguese for the goats.  Ha, glad we could help!

On our last day in Hawaii, we relaxed by the beach at the hotel, but we also figured that we had gotten enough sun, so we just chilled under a tree.  Very relaxing.

Last day in Paradise

Even though I did a lot of eating, we did do plenty of exercise on this trip, in addition to reading and knitting.  I had brought a knit project on the plane with me (no, not the glace shrug - more on that another day) and did not pull it out again until the last day.  Next week you will see what I worked on.

I would like to end with a little lesson in Hawaiian:

Aloha: Hello and Goodbye
Mahalo: Thank you
Hoaloha: Friend
Ohana: Family
Pupu: Appetizer; small snack (seen on every menu)
Wahine: Woman; lady (seen on every bathroom)
Kane: Man (again, seen on every bathroom)

Aloha, hoaloha!  Mahalo for reading!