Too Much Matching?

Look!  A picture of a sweater!
I bought this yarn on a previous visit to see my parents in Ithaca, so finally taking pictures of it there (while visiting for Thanksgiving) seems appropriate.  Let's see, what do I remember about the sweater?  I made up the pattern--it's knit from the bottom up, then I used the neck shaping from Manu for some pleats at the neck (not that they show here, under the gigantic cowl I made from the leftovers). 
I thought I'd wear it as a tunic over leggings, but it turns out I mostly wear it with jeans and dresses.  I try not to wear the cowl with it, on the grounds that different items of clothing made from the same yarn and worn together (DIOCMFTSYAWT) are a step closer to just wrapping myself in yarn and thinking I'm dressed than I like to be... but on the other hand maybe it's ok because it might be mistaken for a cowl-necked sweater.  (For future reference, these are exceptions to the no DIOCMFTSYAWT rule for pairs of things and sets of accessories.) 
I have delegated all of my facebooking to Kevin, so if you are friends with him there you know that I survived my marathon (nearly 10 days ago now!).  I finished in 4:14:06--very close to my speediest times (I ran Chicago in 4:11:something, in 2 consecutive years), and about how I was hoping to do, so I'm pretty happy with it.  But wow, was the last 8 miles long!  The course is basically a 13 mile loop followed by a 13 mile out and back, but the out and back has forks, so it seemed like I'd never get to the final u-turn to really, truly go back.  Then when I finally did (sometime in mile 20, as I recall), it wasn't nearly as energizing as I'd hoped it would be!
Despite all that, I'm contemplating another one... next year.
Good thing I'm thinking about next year, because I haven't run yet--and only started erging yesterday (the Concept2 holiday challenge is underway... mustn't fall too far behind, or I will have to erg for 24 solid hours on December 24th to make up for it!).  I was thinking the other morning that I have a lot of workout clothes all of a sudden... and then I realized this was the first time in months (maybe years?) that they've all been clean and put away at the same time!

Semiannual Report

I give up... I'm never going to write about the past 6 months in detail, so I will sum up:

I ran a lot (including a marathon in Iceland in August, and I'm going to run the Philly marathon on November 18), rowed a lot (including a bunch of boats at masters nationals in Worcester, and an 8+ in the Head of the Charles--which finished 6 out of 17 so we have a guaranteed entry for next year, hurray!) and probably in consequence, feel like I have knit less than usual.

 Even knitting less, my sweater collection is outgrowing its allotted space--if I make too many more, we will have to move.  The situation with shawls, socks, hats and mittens isn't much better.  Oh, and cowls!  Not good.

In response, I have been trying to give away or fix things that never quite worked out.  I turned one of the sweaters from Problem Sweater Week (the purple one) into a shrug (this one, but with slightly shorter sleeves because I didn't quite have enough yarn for long sleeves).  I like the new incarnation, and I think I've worn it more in the past couple of months than I every wore the original.  Maybe I will remember to take pictures of it, some day.

And I'm currently reknitting the lower body on my Summer Solstice sweater, in order to remove the front extensions.  I like the front extensions on other people's sweaters, but I think my fabric was a little thicker, so it didn't drape well and I always wanted to fidget with it.  I'm hoping the regular version will be a better match for my fabric.  It feels a little silly to put more time into this yarn (it's turned out to be very pill-prone), but I really like the color.

Also, HURRAY!