A fun knit

This is a hat to wear when out running and I was inspired to knit it when I saw a friend of a friend wearing one when yes, you guessed it, out running. It is bright and cheerful and can be changed to accommodate any color scheme. Each stripe of color for the rainbow palette only takes a portion of each skein so multiple hats are encouraged. I’ve been thinking of fingerless gloves too.

The hat was cast on and knit to achieve the rolled brim in single strand of the worsted weight yarn. After 4 rounds to allow the rolled brim to develop, the yarn was doubled to give a thicker weave and denser fabric. Yarn was double-stranded for the rest of the hat.

Cast on 77. Join round and knit 4 rows in single strand. Join in second strand of same color and knit approximately 2” (7 rows of double stranded knitting for me). With next row, knit in new color (double-stranded). The following row, purl the entire row. Continue knitting 6 more rows (the band of color will be approximately 1”). Continue this pattern with the next 2 colors (4 rows of color total).
Start crown decreases after approximately 6” of length depending on head size. You may have already started the next color band before starting the decreases.
To decrease:
Row 1: Knit 9 sts, K2Tog (repeat to the end of round)
Row 2: Knit one row even

Repeat these two rows, decreasing by one before the K2Tog for each repeat. Knit 8 will be next, etc.
Continue until you have 6 stitches left. Break yarn and draw through remaining stitches. Weave in the many, many ends.

Spring Plans

Life does go on. We'll be paying our respects to our friend this coming week. Meanwhile plans are in place for training (a post for later) and the garden.

Snap peas and sugar peas are ready to go and planted in between the spring showers we had this weekend.

RIP

A friend passed away last week unexpectedly. We'd traveled together in 2012 to Scotland and last year to Ireland. This seemed fitting as he was buried today. RIP PSW. To those grand memories we made. You will be missed.

The sun is torturing me.

Oh sure, the weather is beautiful. And i'm not running. Boo! And the garden is about a month ahead of schedule so I have to be out there weeding and thinking I'm late to be planting some veggies. It is still early march though so we can still have frost so don't get too crazy out in the garden. It's still too cold for me and my easily frozen toes to be out on the bike for longer than about 40 minutes. 

This works though as I ride inside on my trainer for 1 hour, 90 minutes and then do the last 30 or so outside in the sun. Lovely. But no, it's not running. 

A good physical therapy appointment this week. That cranky heel? Well I can understand why it is cranky as it is having to do the work of the entire hip/glute. Silly butt. It stopped working. Again. Why yes, I had noticed that i was weaker and unsteady on that side which I attributed to the broken knee cap from last january. I'd done what I could to build strength on that side and had held on through marathon training and even the marathon.

I'm taking another week off of running to restart that hip. Fortunately there was lots of good distractions. I've been catching up on my foreign films (reading subtitles is the perfect focus for staying on teh trainer) and taking my mom out for a birthday cruise. yes, the perfect weather made the day!