A little less knitting, a little more biking.

I used to be a pretty hard-core cyclist.  A serious commuter by bike.  When I lived in Chicago, I biked ten miles each way to work from the far north side down to the Loop.  Biking became a primary way to get around.  For a long time I didn't even have a halfway decent bicycle, just a department-store "mountain" bike, and I still just...rode and rode.
As time went on, I acquired a nicer, faster (used) bike, a 1982 Schwinn LeTour (which is currently taking up space at my sister's house).  I rode the hell out of that thing, and eventually converted it to a single speed, added a coaster wheel, changed the handlebars...yadda.  Yadda.

After I moved out of Chicago and into Minneapolis/St. Paul, I alternated between biking daily and taking the bus/train.  I did own a car for a short while...um...it's long gone, so no need to talk 'bout that.

When J and I first started dating, we biked everywhere together.  Hell, we met 'cause of bikes.  We first became acquainted on Mpls Bike Love, a local website devoted to Twin Cities culture complete with advocacy, forums, et cetera.

Lately, I've been very public transit-reliant.  Nothing super wrong with that, yeah, but at the same time I get so weary of waiting for buses and trains, dealing with noisy passengers and crowds, having to rely on departure schedules, the works.  I've been riding public transportation for 18 years, so...I know what's up.  I know.

This morning, I decided to ride my bike to work for a meeting. My job is 10 miles from my apartment.
Not only that, I also decided to bike to my school after the meeting.  That's another 6 miles.
Then I had to get home,  According to Google Maps, I live 10 miles from my school.
So, I biked 26 miles today.  Not bad!

My new goal is to bike to work as much as possible.

By the way, my current steed is a souped-up 1979 Raleigh Twenty.  It's a folding bike.  The guy I bought it from on Mpls Bike Love added a 7-speed internal gear hub, light alloy wheels, and high-pressure tires.  It's a pretty nice ride, even if this picture ain't so nice...

This is not the interior of a garage.  This is inside our apartment.  Sad, sad, sad.



Lately I have been spending more money than usual.  I've been buying clothes and shoes that are cold-weather specific, like merino wool base layers and socks, warm boots, even a new parka with a detachable liner.  I've heard rumors that this coming winter ain't gonna be a wimpy one, and I don't intend to stay indoors for the whole season.  I wanna bike, hike, ski, and basically do what needs to be done.  I'm also going to have to shovel lots of snow.  Why?  Because...
...J and I are moving within the next month into the house right next door to my sister's!
Long story short, the owner of the house has become disabled and is staying in an assisted living facility for the time being.  J and I are going to be the live-in caretakers of her house, probably just for the winter.  We'll take care of her two cats (we'll be up to four felines), shovel, winterize, and pay the utility bills.  We won't have to pay any official rent.
It's pretty exciting, yet I know we have a lot to do in the next several weeks.  (Pack, clean, minimize, oh crap...)

I finally finished the Grape Loop socks...

I'm going to be doing a little less knitting in the near future.  I still have projects lined up the wazoo, but since I have rekindled my interest in biking, I am gonna have to make some cuts to my knitting time.  I am also going to devote more time to schoolwork.  Ain't got no choice anyhow, since my final paper is due in a month and the big exam is a bit after that...
...add to this pile the moving situation.

Happy Halloween!

Upcoming blog idea: my favorite pizzas of all time.

What next...?

It's been a little while since I've had a moment to write.
Sadly, Bella passed away early last week.  Her health declined to a very low point quite quickly. She stopped eating and hardly had the energy to get up.  J and I made one last attempt to try to help her, which entailed giving her IV fluids daily and feeding her with a syringe (all this in addition to her multiple medications).  Nothing worked.  The vets we took her to believed she had a serious disease underlying her hyperthyroidism and her kidney problems.  I agree-- she most likely had liver failure.  This past Monday the 17th, Bella was so ill and in such bad shape that my aunt and I took her in to the vet one last time.  It was so the right decision.  She died in my arms... :-(

She was such a good girl.  So beautiful. 

It's been sad around here, without Bella.  At the same time, I am relieved that she is no longer sick or suffering.

So much on my mind...

On a different note, J and I went camping on yet another lake way up in northern MN yesterday evening.  It was very secluded...quiet save for beavers splashing into the water and owls hoo-hooing...just right.  It rained hard during part of the night, but J and I remained snug in our cozy tent and new sleeping bags.

This morning, dark and early, J and I packed up and drove a bit further up the road to the town of Ely.  We were on a mission: to purchase Steger mukluks.  I wanted two pairs and my sister wanted two pairs.  She was unable to come up north with J and me, so she made her request before we left for the trip.

Believe me, going to the mukluk store was no whim.  My sister and I have been wanting mukluks from Steger for two years now!  They are expensive, but supposedly well worth it...very warm, durable, and cute to boot (pun totally intended).  Plus, they're made right in Ely, and we don't get a chance to go that far north too often.  I bought myself a pair of the Apache moccasins and a pair of Little Muks, both black.  My sis wanted chocolate-brown Apaches and tall Ojibwas. 

J did not purchase any muks today, but he tried some on...he's strongly considering getting his own.

Gosh, a part of me would like to live on a small parcel of land up north in the lake country, have a small cabin, some sheep & goats & chickens...

My sister dreams of this as well.

J is fond of the idea, but of course he keeps bringing up the fact that gainful employment opportunities are scarce in the northern part of our fair state.  He's from Grand Rapids originally, so he knows.

I'd like to write more, since there is a lot circulating in my head, but I am getting tired and I still have unpacking to do.

Recently off the needles:

Cotton socks, Peaches & Creme in Colonial.

Winter cowl, Mountain Colors Twizzle in Headwaters.  Blurry photo taken this morning in Ely.

G'nite.

Monday Monday

I am trying to do it all today-- clean, launder, grocery shop, study, spin.
So far, so good, except for the studying and spinning part.  Well, the day ain't done yet.
I finished the "mystery" project yesterday...slip-stitch cable arm warmers.

I used leftover Cascade Heritage Paints in blue and green, and stranded those colors with some stashed black Elann Sock-it-to-me 4ply that I was never gonna make into anything.
I like 'em, I really do.  Glad they're done, because warmer #1 was, for some reason, just a big nuisance.  #2 was a helluva lot easier-- in fact, I cast on for that one on Saturday morning before J & I went north and I was 90% finished with it by the time we set up our tent on Saturday evening.
Speaking of camping...it was great.  The campsite was a rather secluded Itasca County site on a pretty lake.  J has a knack for finding these off-the-beaten-path places.  We like to camp (for free!) in remote, hike-in or canoe-in sites where we don't see anyone (or hardly anyone).  I like the state parks in Minnesota, but they're often filled with at least some folks. 
I didn't take any great photos from the weekend, unfortunately.  Just these dumb (and mostly blurry) ones.

 Lake, sky, tree trunk.

 Um, same.

Lake.

Me in the tent at night.  Woot.

Anyhoo...

I am worried about Bella-cat.  She was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism a while back, and she continues to get more skinny.  She was off her meds for a bit because the vet gave me a new Rx food that's supposed to help, but it's not doing much.  Bella barely eats.  So, back on meds she goes.  She's been so lethargic.  It's sad.  She's 13, getting older...I know.  I know.  What do I do, other than try to get her to eat and force those medications down her poor throat?

Oh, here's that handspun 2-ply I mentioned before (quick change of subject, yeah).

It'll look better when it's actually knit into something.  I think.

Okay, I gotta go.  I have to study.  I must!  I have a midterm in less than two weeks and I have to read four chapters by then.  Yeah, all righty, it's not really that much, but oh boy, have I been slackin' since the start of this semester.

So.  Yes.  I must crack open the textbook.

Willow sez: "Study?  Why study?  Take a nap in a window!"

Going Up North Today

J & I are leaving this morning to go camping overnight on a lake about an hour north of Grand Rapids.  Neither of us have been to said lake before, which is exciting.
J is still abed.  Our drive north will be nearly three hours, and we also plan to stop in Grand Rapids for eats and to browse our favorite camping-goods store.  I'd dearly prefer not to pitch our tent in utter darkness, so I better make a move to get J up and at 'em very soon.  We still have to load up!  Boy, nothin' like winging it, eh?
My sister still has my camera.  I am having some separation anxiety about this, as I have plenty of new things to take photographs of.  I might pick it up from her house on our way up north today so I can take photos of the woods, the lake, & the like.

Lake shot from a camping trip a year ago.  I needed some eye candy in this post.

By the way, I have been suffering from a sort of "knitting sickness" lately.  I can't seem to put my needles down, but when I knit I am rife with worry.  My latest project is truly beautiful (no joke), but every few rounds I make another error and have to rip, rip, rip.  My color choices have given me slight concern...I can't decide if the scheme is magickal or a mess.  To top it off, I'm using leftover sock yarn (stash-bustin') and ye Gods, I hope I have enough to finish this thing!  Maybe it's because the design is a mishmash of a published pattern and my own insanity...?  In any case, this mystery project is halfway done, so pics will arrive soon!

Till next time...

Stash-busting projects, et cetera.

Just a nice day here at home.
Laundry and dishes done.  Right now, avoiding schoolwork by playing with yarn.
I'm frogging a red & blue hooded scarf that I made a few years ago and winding the yarn into skeins.  I also finished a pair of socks and started two new pairs in the past day, continuing to make a firm dent in my yarn stash.
I dearly wish I could post new photos of all of these wondrous projects, but alas, I lent my camera to my sister yesterday.  I don't know when I'll see her next.  J's two digital cameras are damaged beyond use, unfortunately.
I have decided to start knitting a new sweater sometime soon.  The pattern I have chosen is Roam by Laura Chau, and the yarn I want to use is Peace Fleece worsted in Patience Blue.  I'll order my skeins within a week or two.
I also want to knit some fingerless mitts before winter starts.
Here's one of the socks of the pair I finished yesterday at Craft Club.  I call them my "commuters", since most of the knitting was done on the bus to and from work.

A basic, rather mindless pattern.  I used leftover Mirasol Chirapa.

For the remainder of today, I'm going to:

*put laundry away

*study

*make soup from scratch (sweet potato-coco-peanut)

*knit & spin, of course!

Wish wish wish I had my camera.  I have some handspun that I plied last week (2-ply) and I wanna show it off.  I used Corriedale (white) and Coopworth (brown) roving, and the effect is marvelous. 

There's been some discussion lately about the possibility of J and me moving into my sister's house in St. Paul.  The house, which is dubbed the Black Lodge, is technically owned by my sister's partner's mother, but my sis and her partner (or fiance/boyfriend/dude, all the same thing) live there and maintain it.  I used to live there too, over a year ago.  It's a 3-bedroom, not huge, and somewhat ramshackle.  However, the rent is insanely cheap, no lease, chickens and ducks live in the backyard, there's a garden, the neighborhood is very quiet, and there's a lot of freedom to do what you want.  J & I would be able to have my old bedroom, which is a nice space.  When I lived there, I painted the walls a deep blue and stripped the old carpets to have the original hardwood floors.

The apartment where J and I live right now is okay.  We've done some work to it lately, like cleaning/organizing and putting in some new shelving.  It's garden-level, near the Wedge co-op and countless cafes, but also next to a highway entrance ramp, as I mentioned before.  It can be noisy (as I type this, a motorcycle is revving its engine).  :-(

We'll see what happens.