Ran and walked the Zombie 5k last Saturday. To summarize, you are wearing 3 flags on a belt and you run through “kill fields” where zombies try to steal your flags and do obstacles (crawling under things, going through a building with live electric wires hanging down, wading through water/mud). If you get to the end with at least one flag, you “survived”. If not, you’re a Zombie! It seemed like a good thing to do just before I turned 35 to say, I’m hip, I’m young, I’m in good shape and if there’s a zombie apocalypse, I’m at least partially ready.

I was able to check a few things off my life list:
1. Shower in muddy water with 30 other mostly clothed people. The guy shampooing his hair in the muddy stream of water will forever mystify me.
2. Change clothes in a tent with 30-40 women I don’t know.
3. Use a port o’ potty in the dark.
4. Get electrocuted (I did not realize the very last obstacle was electrified, so, as I crawled on the ground under a fence, I felt something and thought, “was that barbed wire against my back?”. It happened again and I realized “nope, that’s what electricity feels like”)
5. Complete the majority of Zombie 5k with my plastic-bag covered wallet in hand (I just could not be comfortable leaving my credit cards, drivers license and cash at the gear check).

6. Make peace with the fact that I’m like that.


I also learned a few things:
1. If you’re running in mud and you want to pull your foot out without losing your shoe in the mud, turn your foot from side to side to loosen it/release the suction before pulling it out.
2. As a child, I climbed trees. I did not practice running up steep muddy hills where there is nothing to use for traction. If you plan to survive the Apocalypse, this is a skill you should work on. Also, cleets and gloves are not a bad idea.
3. I thought that I was going to be really competitive, but it turns out that when faced with the choice of giving up a flag and thus maybe not “surviving” the race, or certain bodily harm, I opted for “death”. Thus, I lost all my flags by the end of the second mile and finished the race having left no blood on the course.
4. I wore all red to try to hide my red flags. This strategy did not work. I think it attracted the zombies….just a little tip for the apocalypse from me to you.

5. Trying to meet up with friends in a place with no cell phone reception is no picnic. Thus, when I saw them (they were screaming my name), there are a lot of pictures of me running towards them looking like I’ve just won a gold medal. Also, they were nice enough to take my wallet prior to this.

After a mud-shower and fresh clothes, we got a bite to eat. Turning into a zombie made me hungry…for BRAINS!!!

Tags: Run for your Lives, zombie, zombies

Ok, I really am going to try to knit something other than gnomes before the people that know me IRL check me into some kind of gnome rehab, but before they catch me and cart me off, I have a few random things to say.
The day my gnome yarn came in the mail, I couldn’t resist a picture before I got started. I love the colors!


Doesn’t this gnome remind you of Ivan Vanko from Iron Man 2?


If all of a sudden while you are weaving in the ends, a gnome is suddenly missing a leg, don’t despair. You can use the brown yarn you’re weaving in to kind of create a couple of loops that look like part of an i-cord and then make a loop through those to create the end of his leg, and then weave in the yarn you have left, then bippity boppity boo, you’ve created a leg after the fact. (This is much more clear when you have a leg there to try to match.) Ask me how I know.

Also, don’t worry if same gnome happens to look like Hellboy from some angles. This particular gnome had a bit of an identity crisis. He wanted to be different than all the other gnomes, so I let him be, although I did sew in his eyes.

Ps. Check out what others have finished at Tami’s Amis and Wisdom begins in Wonder and Natural Suburbia

Tags: FO Friday, gnomes, knit, pattern by Anna Hrachovec

When the assembly line was invented, I’m sure it seemed like a grande idea. However, when applied to gnome-making, it got kind of monotonous. The good news was that I’d woven in the ends as I went, or I might have gone off the deep end.
Step 1. Make gnomes.

Step 2. Add beards.

Step 3. Add eyes (cause they look Creepy McCreeperson without them)


Step 4. Decide that the gnomes are just too cute and what you really need is a full set (whatever that means) – you must have more.

I think I might have a problem.
Ps. To see what other folks are working on, check out Tami’s Amis.

Tags: gnome, mini gnome, pattern by Anna Hrachovec, WIP Wednesday