Good weekend, crummy week

Hubby finally had a Saturday off so we decided to take the canoe out on the St. Croix river. It runs between Minnesota and Wisconsin.

We had a great time. We saw four bald eagles. I had never seen one in the wild before so it was great to watch them fly around. During the morning we had the river almost to ourselves. It was so pretty. In most places you could see down to the bottom of the river. We stopped for lunch by a stream running into the river.

That water was cold! It felt like the runoff from a snow packed mountain. But Hubby and I still walked up it so we could explore a little bit. We found these beautiful small blue flowers growing everywhere. I wish I knew what they were called.

The trip took about 4 hours, and I was so tired when it was over. I think I was a little dehydrated as well. I'll have to watch that next time. I think we are going to try an overnight trip on the St. Croix river to prepare us for our Boundary Waters trip. I think I am going to have to build up some upper body strength before either of those trips. I did barely any paddling and my arms were tired!

I also got some knitting done this weekend. I finished the middle strip of my little sister's blanket. Here is a picture of it still in progress. I wanted to make sure I had enough natural light to get the colors right.

Just as a refresher this is the baby blanket pattern out of Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I substituted the yarn called for with Brown Sheep's Cotton Fleece. I'm not sure if I'll have enough yarn, but I'll soon find out! I'm thinking about making a sweater out of the Brown Sheep's Cotton Fine (same yarn, much smaller gauge) in the darkest red color (second from left). I'm not real sure how the cotton will work in a sweater, but the original pattern (of the sweater) calls for hemp, and I can't afford that!

I want to send something for my niece when I send the blanket, so I started on the knitted bear pattern in LMKG. I had some brown cotton yarn that I originally had planned to use in the blanket, but ended up using a second red yarn instead. I didn't even check gauge and just started in on the pattern. I figured if it turns out a little smaller or larger it doesn't really matter.

The two things on top are the arms. The pattern says after you have knitted the legs separately to use two circulars to join them together and knit the body and head. I think it is the same method used to knit a sock with two circulars. I tried that and it did not work. I had huge gaps where the circulars met. So I switched to double pointed needles. It looks much better now.

I haven't done any running this week. I woke up on Monday with a horrible headache that has lasted three days. I can finally really function today. If I wasn't going out of town next week and there wasn't so much to do at work I would have called in sick. My head pounds every time I take a step, so I decided to not run. I think I feel well enough today that tomorrow I should be able to go for a run. Here's hoping!