Yesterday, I ran the marathon in 4:30:49. This is *one minute* faster than last year. one minute! Man, it sure felt like a stronger effort. It was a great race overall. There is something magic about the marathon, maybe its the energy of the crowds, or the running masses trying to accomplish this goal.. Whatever it is, I am already thinking about next year. I really want to finish in the 4:20s!

Thanks for all your wishes of good luck! I so appreciated it.

One of the best parts of marathon training is the post race knitting! Today I took the day off work, rested the legs, and started a Jaywalker sock.

The yarn is Mountain Colors Bearfoot in the Firestorm colorway. The colors are sooo rich, and the yarn itself is soft. It is rivaling Koigu as my favorite sock yarn. At first, I thought it was going to pool in a very unfortunate manner, but after a couple inches into the pattern, it seems the result could be quite nice!

*the double decreases in the above photo are wrong.. I was slipping the two stitches to be decreased separately instead of together. but its fixed now!

The only consideration is yardage. Bearfoot comes in a 350 yd skein... and the Jaywalker pattern calls for 465 yards. So the cuff will be shorter. and maybe the toes will be a different color. hmmmm.

Ah Jaywalker sock, what wonderful things you do to this yarn..

well, on the cuff that is. Once past the heel, the yarn gave up its nice striping and broke out in all sorts of pooling.

Pooling, side A:

and side B:

70 stitches on size 1 needles is apparently the *perfect* number for pooling with Bearfoot. or maybe just this skein of Bearfoot. Whatever the technical details, all the blues lined up on one side, and all the reds on the other. Then, just before the toe, the pooling mysteriously up and moved.

I thought about undoing it, and finding a non-pooling pattern, but the nice cuff striping is so lovely, its enough to excuse all later color convergence.

The Specs:

Yarn: Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Firestorm

Pattern: Jaywalker socks, by Grumperina

Size: the smallest size offered in the pattern. I knit the cuff to 6" because I was concerned about yardage, but based on the leftovers, I probably could have gone to 6.5".

Needles: Size 1 DPNs

These socks are great. The yarn is quite soft, and has wonderful deep colors. They fit great, and I even sent them through the wash (dryer too!) without incident. Thanks for a rockin pattern, Grumperina! I'd totally knit these socks again, maybe toe-up next time.