April FO: Roza Socks

This is the last pair of sock I have knitted, they are also the last item I have completed in a long time. Finished in April during my water fasting experiment are Roza Socks by Grumperina from IK Spring 2007.



I have shamefully taken the yarn and colour idea from Navi (I really like your version much more than the original). More info on Ravelry

Cross roads

my work sucks big time right now, there is soooo much politics involved, there is no time or energy left to actually do science. And when you do it gets blown into pieces. Do you guys ever have days when you just do not want to leave the house and would prefer to quietly hide in the distant corner? It has been tough here for the past 2 weeks and I have to push myself every single day. Why or why I take work so closely to my heart... I think I might go for a looong run today just to clear my head

What I really need though is a long weekend away hiking, just like we did this summer

CRUK 10K in Cambridge

I've run my second race today and oh boy was it a difficult one for me! For starters I do not like running on the grass particularly if it rained the night before, I also do not enjoy running on the grass where cows roamed... It is very difficult to believe but here in Cambridge there are cows roaming large public grass land. Since it is "public", animal right activists think they have the right to put their cows there and apparently they do. I've been a vegetarian for the past 9 years now but even I cannot stand them, they block the path and they do their dirty business everywhere... So imagine 2000 people running on that field, I was not impressed. But some of the path was through colleges and fellow gardens and that I have to say was amazing, particularly once the sun came out.



By the time I've done 5K I thought I would die and during the last one I was literally counting meters down. I thought that was strange since I always do 10K on my practice runs now and this Tuesday I went all the way to 10miles... so I was pleasantly surprised at the finish line to find out I run my fastest 10K ever with just over 60min (usually I am 10-15min slower!). I have another 10K race coming in just under one month in London, so hopefully I will improve my pace even more...



And on the knitting front I am slowly but surely sticking to my sweater, I am now about 25% done (based on the overall number of yarn); I am knitting the main body in the round since I do not like sewing parts together (particularly stripy ones) and it must be about 1/2 of the length...hopefully in 2-3 weeks it will be finished, so I can finish Camden sweater for my DB birthday

Back...

It's been a long time since my last post and I was around all this time, just not writing. In the beginning I was too busy with summer and not knitting. Really this non-knitting for about 6 months completely demolished any desire to write.
My last post was on cross-stitch and since then I have not done a singe stitch, I am not allowed to due to recurrence of visual problems. When you spend a lot of time in front of the microscope or even worse a confocal microscope, cross stitch is not the best idea.

Also I discovered the joy of outdoor activities such as hiking, scrambling and running. Running is a separate topic since I am seriously getting hooked on it. I used to be one of those people who hates runners or just not sees the point in that. In fact if anyone had told me I will be running 4 times a week 6 months ago I would have laughed. But ever since loosing weight in the spring my body was aching for exercise, so I started running once or twice a week. I am slow, really slow but it doesn't bother me any more; I do my 10-12K in over an hour with every single other runner overtaking me and I like it. I run for myself for the joy and freedom it brings. And today I did my first fun run of 4.5K. Running a properly organised event is a completely different experience, it has it's ups and downs but it is simply great. I am running a 10K race in Cambridge for Cancer Research UK next Sunday with friends, so hopefully large crowds will not scare me any more.



Oh and now the most important part ;).... I am slowly starting to knit again! That's right I am still a knitter. To get back into it I even bought more yarn and started a new project!