Falling (back) in love with red

  Autumn is a particularly good season to appreciate red. I used to adore the color red. When I was a student, it was my signature color—I had a favorite red shirt and a terrific red felt hat that I wore a lot.

More recently, I have had a problem with red because of its increased pervasiveness in Madison. On any given day a significant percentage of Madisonians dress in Badger red, the UW's official team color. It's a very specific red (PMS 200) and there are official guidelines on how to use it. On football game days, there can be over 80,000 people in the stadium dressed in red—if the opposing team is Ohio State, which also has red as their color. That's just way too many people to be wearing the same color, especially the identical shade of one color.
   And yet...red is a lovely color that can light up the scene.

 Let's not forget that red comes in many varieties.

I can't stay mad at a color forever, so I just knit some red socks. They remind me of raspberry jam, not just because of the color but also the nubbly texture of the lace when not on the foot.

 I'm not ready to buy a bunch of Badger gear, but I do love my new red socks.

Knitty-gritty: I knit my socks with Cadmium Red Inspire yarn by Blissful Knits and Dyeworks of Portland, Oregon. The socks were knit on size 0/2mm needles in my standard toe up pattern, using a 4 row/6 stitch lace pattern sometimes called Stem Stitch. You can find instructions in

More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch.

Running to Chicago—or the end of the block

   I like watching runners. (I gave up running quite some time ago when it started to make my knees hurt.) There seemed to be a lot of running going on this weekend.

 Friday we saw many runners as we took our morning bike ride. They were in the Madison Chicago 200 Relay in which teams of 12 people took turns to run 200 miles (322 km). They started the teams according to expected times which varied by up to 10 hours. The slowest teams started first so that teams would finish at about the same time in Chicago. (Some of the runners we saw in the morning didn't look like super athletes. I really liked the spirit of the relay that it encourages people to try something so impressive and with the emphasis on having fun. The relay generates funds to support the Special Olympics of Wisconsin and Illinois.) Each runner had to run 3 segments totaling between 11 and 21 miles during the 36 hour long event. They limit the race to 250 teams (3000 people)! We biked past the starting point so we stopped and talked to some participants who were waiting their turn to start.

    Also this weekend was a big festival in the park by our house to benefit the neighborhood school. Besides a 10 km. and 5 km. race, they had a special Dandelion Dash (100 yards or 91 meters) for really little kids.

 Some of them were so little they didn't understand what all the fuss was about and had to be pointed in the right direction at the turnaround place and urged on.  Sometimes a parent ran alongside to show the way. They were definitely the most adorable runners we saw this weekend.