Autumn Gloom, FOs, and Explanations

The past few months have been full of constant change around these parts.

First, I got a job up by my parents' house. Second, I had to move away from LA and up to their neck of the woods. Third, I've ended up living back at home so I can save up some money (and start paying back some stupid student loans) so that I can get a place of my own once I decide whether I'm sticking around here after my one-year contract is up.

I must admit that I'm still trying to get used to this new schedule-- I wake up before dawn and typically get home around 7 or 8 each night. I'm awful at going to bed before 11pm, which is bad for me since I need 8 hours of sleep to function like a normal human being.

I haven't gone running in about 2 weeks. =(

I have been enjoying quite a bit of gardening, however:

And I can't wait until these babies are ready for plucking and pie-making:

I've also been busy, knitting away on some projects:

I absolutely love this yarn that I bought back in Montclair, NJ, intending to learn entrelac with it-- I tried figuring it out on my own, but I got frustrated and turned it into this simple twisted drop stitch scarf and super loose hat (perfect for when I've got a bunch of clips in my hair... which is 90% of the time).

I also finished up a couple of shawls: Summer Flies in a beautiful Malabrigo sock yarn (colorway Agua) <-- this is probably my favorite Malabrigo colorway to date!

And a modified Multnomah -- I hate garter stitch, so I alternated between sections of garter stitch and sections of stockinette. I still have to block this shawl out.

With the cooler weather starting already, I have a feeling I'm going to need all of these knitted beauties. 

My mom has already nabbed my favorite pair of fingerless gloves. My sister  asked me to knit hats for my niece and nephew-- so weird to knit things for my family this year.

I miss summer already...

Garden Updates

One of the few things I lament about living in an apartment in Los Angeles is the inability to garden. That's why I absolutely love playing in the soil whenever I visit my parents.

First, I found this big, beautiful eggplant waiting to be plucked!

Then, as I looked around a bit more, I saw all these baby squashes hiding underneath their leaves...

...and slowly starting to escape their bed.

 Our fruit trees are also heavy with ripening fruit: peaches

...and apples!

And finally, my lovely mother holding our crop yield of the day. 

No running for me today since I ran 5 miles yesterday. I'll be back on the road tomorrow for more training!

Running, running, running!

In 228 days, I'm going to run the LA Marathon!

I'm pretty excited about the whole thing... I've done a bunch of research on training schedules, nutritional guides, cross-training and so forth. My best friend, Noah, is going to train for it while in NJ and we're going to run it together during his spring break. 

I've been running relatively consistently for the past month or so, made more fun with the Nike+ application on my Iphone, which tracks all of my runs. I can easily* run over 3 miles without stopping, so I'm confident that I can build up to marathon distances in the next 8 months. 

In knitting news, I've got several projects on the needles: Multnomah - I'm actually about 80% done with this shawl now-- just working on the fan and feather repeat at the bottom of the shawl.

I also started a rasberry chocolate braided scarf, though I have no pictures of it yet. =(

The garden has grown considerably in the past few months:

 Yielding beautiful tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, eggplants, and squash, thus far! There are a few more eggplants, a whole bunch more tomatoes, and some cucumbers in the works, too.

We also had an adorable visitor to the garden yesterday afternoon-- a tiny hunter, stalking and then capturing a lizard in the rose bushes. I really, really, really miss having a kitty!