Long run, and turtles

This was a short long run week--12.5 miles instead of 20. It's like we hardly even had to work out at all. Hurray!

I've been working away (except when distracted by the mystery stole and my new socks--more about the socks in a sec) on Turtle 0.2, which starts with three hexagons and grows downward to the rim of the shell. I was really happy with the hexagons by themselves (and may actually make the hex coat from Knitting Nature someday, because it was the hexes which I thought I'd hate), but I'm not so sure about it now that I've worked down a ways.


Turtle 2

It may not be clear in this picture, but there's a row of reverse stockinette around each of the hexagons, to make the shape stand out more. And once I picked up stitches around the hexagons to knit down to the edge of the shell, I purled the stitches at the joins and corners to continue those lines down the edge.

I think it's a little more realistic, but I'm less happy with it--maybe because it's trying harder to look like a real turtle (but not actually looking like one), whereas the other one was clearly a cartoon turtle? And you can tell even in this picture that it's flat with 2 bumps, instead of flat with 1 point. Not exactly progress. So after some consultation with Emily at SnB last night, I'm going to try a simpler shape, with an overall texture pattern.

While trying to decide, I knit a toe warmer (which will eventually grow into a sock) that's more or less the Solstice Slip pattern from the June club shipment from Socks that Rock. More or less because I decided to do my usual figure eight cast on toe, on my usual number of stitches, instead of following the directions exactly. I am using their stitch pattern though, and I like how it mixes up the colors a little more. Of course, I haven't taken a picture of it yet--who do you think I am?

And a Vespa update: we've driven it to work all four days so far this week, and once we even left at the same time we would have left if we'd been walking so we got there early! It was especially nice not walking yesterdayafter the long run. And I've taken to calling it Vespy. (To go with the scooba, who's called Scooby. So creative with the names!)