Inspired by the olympics

I went for a walk. It wasn't for very long but it was more about the principle of exercising every day to get back to fitness for running. I can't help being inspired by the Olympics - I've been glued to it since it started but I can't help thinking that it would be a shame if I spent the whole two weeks on the sofa watching it, especially as I spent the two weeks prior to it on the sofa feeling sorry for myself. I woke up last Friday, feeling the most miserable I've felt for ages. Not quite crying into my cereal a la Toni Collette in about a boy, but far closer than I feel comfortable with. I think the combination of poor weather, stress at work and lack of exercise came to a peak but since then I've been buoyant.  The opening ceremony was electric, I went for a walk on Saturday, a swim on Sunday and then a walk every day since.  The sunshine from last week must have filtered through to my brain and the cooler nights mean I'm sleeper better and waking up before my alarm.

I think I've done 13 repeats on my Echo Flower Shawl but I decided to work an extra repeat so I could use all of my Olympic RingOs. I even managed to use the in the correct (but reverse) order.  I'm now using three whole sets of ten for the pattern reps and 4 to make the edges and centre.  I'm currently having a minor mental battle about whether to buy some more, after a lovely message from their creator letting me know a new set is in stock.  I think I'll have to miss out this time as I'm sure they'll be plenty more temptation in future.

Each row is taking ages now and if there's exciting sport on, I switch to my sock.  That backfired today during the gymnastics though as I forgot I was still decreasing for the gusset. I had to tink a few rows, keeping one eye on Uchimura winning gold, with Kristian Thomas missing out due to not landing his vault properly.  I'm enjoying knitting with 100% silk but it is causing some aching in my arms and hands.  I was anticipating problems based on experience with cotton in the past, the lack of elasticity in the yarn being the culprit, but I managed to get far further through before it started. I'm pleased as I'm a much looser knitting than I used to be, dude, and this seems to be helping.