More fun with scissors and paper

I finally gave up on a perpetually unfinished knitting project last night. It was quite satisfying. I've already started a new project with the newly liberated yarn, so knitting related updates are coming soon.

In the meantime, I've done a bit more scrapbooking. A page for Maddie's puppy album and two more pages for my running journal (one of which is still really about my dog):

Like mother, like beagle. I used to sleep with a security blanket every night too. Of course, Maddie has 4 security blankets, but then, she's kinda spoiled.

Training Partner #1: Peggy
Likes: Hugh Laurie Doesn't Like: pulmonary hypertension

Training Partner #2: Mads
Likes: belly rubs Doesn't Like: baths

Oh right, knitting!

I remember when I used to do that. After an alarming amount of procrastinating, I have finally finished the pink scarf I started over the holidays.

Perfect timing seeing as it is about 70 degrees here today, so you want to be sure and bundle up with a nice warm scarf...

Here it is stretched out to re-block after I crumpled it up for 2 months until I finished the fringe. The scarf itself actually knit up very quickly. I used Karen Baumer's pattern for the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf on US #10.5 needles. I don't think that this was the best yarn to show off the pattern, but it was a great pattern to show off this yarn, which wanted a nice loose knit. Learning short rows was an added bonus and kept me more entertained than just a loose garter stitch or something. In real life, you can see the triangles and the direction change a bit better than my photography would indicate.

The big needles made this the skein that would never end. After blocking, the scarf measures 5 inches by 7 feet - which is why it didn't all make it in the photo.

I actually finished the knitting part back in January. But my decision to use a beaded fringe stretched this out into a multi-month project. Threading the little suckers on there was a colossal pain, but I'm quite pleased with the end result.

I've been on a scrapbooking kick lately, but now that there isn't a pile of pink beads and yarn taunting me from the dining room table anymore, I think it's time to play with yarn again.

Low Fat Banana Hockey Pucks

sounds tempting, right? Actually they weren't that bad.

Since I can never seem to match the number of bananas I buy at the store to the number of bananas I actually want to eat, I frequently end up baking with them.

(I can't help it - even when I buy them in different levels of green, they all seem to ripen at the same time)

Anyway, over the weekend I made low fat banana muffins using a hybrid of the "Banana Nut Muffin" and "Low Fat Banana Muffin" recipes in The Joy of Cooking.

I understood why they left the nuts out of the low fat version, but the cinnamon and nutmeg? C'mon now. Just because they are low fat, they can still be tasty. Hence, the hybrid.

I also left in the wheat & white flour combination from the full fat recipe, which may have contributed some to the hockey puck phenomenon.

For the record, when they first came out of the oven, they were delicious. Very soft and moist. Alas, the next day they were a little tough. Like if someone hits the last ball off of the roof of the Quick Stop, you could sub in one of these and keep the game going tough.

Twenty seconds in the microwave and a bit of butter softened them up and made a nice breakfast the next day, but the butter pretty much kills the whole low fat thing. Oh well. Sad brown bananas are no longer sitting on my counter.

I would make these again if I have enough of a crowd to actually consume 12 muffins in one day. Or, if I find a recipe that performs better on Day 2, I'll post that recipe.

I could go running...

or, I could play with paper and scissors.

Yeah, paper and scissors. I finished a few more pages for my running journal with the scrapbooking toys Emily sent me.

This is the first page of the album. A washed out picture of the women's winner from the 2006 MiniMarathon, when Peggy and I stood on the sidelines and said "Hey, we should do that."

Technically it wasn't the winner that inspired us, but the regular people who finished an hour or so later. If they could do it, so could we - or at least that was the thought process at the time. Anyway, that's why I went with the washed out picture - I wanted it to be a little non-descript.

This page was a lot cooler in my head. I made the scale out of cardstock then added the vellum overlay. In the category of superfluous details, you can spin the arrow back and forth from "in shape" to "out of shape." I don't love it, but it details the bet Peggy and I made. Whoever could lose the most weight at 3/6/9 months got a mani/pedi/massage.

This page and the next one I'm pretty pleased with though. I love the yellow running-themed paper Emily found. This is the couch-to-5k training program we "followed." The eight week program took us way longer than that, but eventually we got there.

I'm not sure if it is because I am cheap or impatient, but I didn't have any black cardstock when I was working on this and really wanted something to make the 5K stand out. So I colored a piece of seafoam green cardstock with a black marker to make the starburst and little dots.

This page is part of the reason the couch-to-5k thing took so long (the other part of the reason is because I was much more fond of the "couch" part than the "5k" part). Anyway, Peggy got sick. Scary sick.

But she's better now, so I can joke about it. Actually, I joked about it when she was sick, but I'm a fan of gallows humor.

The "seriously?" title probably reflects the influence of Grey's Anatomy on my use of slang, but it kind of fits since the heart/lung image is from the 1918 edition of Gray's Anatomy. (the cartoon swearing is probably the influence of Beetle Bailey in my life. what can I say? not eveything has to bookend together)

Didja know?

March is National Craft Month

So why are you just sitting there? You could knit a hat...

or sew a bag...

or refashion a t-shirt...

or make someone a present...

or learn something new...

or support another crafter. There are lots of great folks out there covering the world in kitsch and glitter and just generally spreading the crafty love.

Let the world know you're crafty.

(okay, so that last one was a little self-serving)