I made it to Gen Con for the first time for real (I've been in the convention center before, but not had a badge).
It's quite an experience, I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance.
I finally learned how to play Dungeons & Dragons. I've always felt like not really knowing how to play D&D was a huge hole in my geek cred. I'd tried to learn way back in the 80's but the guys who were playing were kind of assholes so I quit. But really, as huge of a fan I am of the fantasy genre, I really should at least know HOW to play.
Jumping in to the game was intimidating, I've got to say. I was under the impression that I'd be playing with other beginners, but when we sat at the table everyone else was all "Oh I've been playing every week for 30 years". Great. It was a little like knowing the knit stitch, being given a lace chart without a key and told to knit a shawl. It had me feeling quite stupid for about half an hour and I really don't like feeling stupid. But I did get it figured out eventually.
We got to watch Wil Wheaton and creator Mike Selinker play Unspeakable Words at the TableTop Table.
Someone said something funny as Wil was taking a drink and he spit on the guy next to him which was pretty funny. I wonder if he's washed his face yet.
I still haven't played Unspeakable Words but it looks really fun.
There are all manor of weird and awesome things to be seen at Gen Con. Like this Wookie/Klingon/Pirate/goth fairy band. They were pretty good.
There's a Settlers of Catan van (being driven by 2 sheep). (Got wood for sheep?)
And Sun King made a special Flagon Ale which was part mead. It was good if you remembered it was part mead, but if you forgot it was a little like drinking a Sprite you expected to be water.
They turned a local restaurant into Munchkin Tavern which was awesome. One of my favorite games, too.
Requisite TARDIS picture
On Saturday Rob went and played D&D for 13 hours.
Sunday we brought the kids with us. We played the same D&D game I played on Thursday (Candlekeep), but a different scenario. This time was a lot better and Caity and Sean are now dedicated RPGers.
Rob won a contest on Twitter and got to play Munchkin with one of the creators who's name I can't remember (sorry!)
About the only thing Molly liked at Gen Con was the Doctor Who America booth.
She really liked the Dalek on the left, which moved and talked, and there was a TARDIS pillow that she hugged a lot. Otherwise she didn't like it much at Gen Con at all. She went home with my mom for a while and we spent the rest of the day looking at the huge expo, playing lots of games and picking up some things.
We had an impromptu game at dinner before heading home.
Back in May when I posted my Iron Maiden shawl I mentioned that I'd post more about the yarn later.
Well it's a lot later, but I've been reading The Lord of the Rings to my daughter this week. For a good many years I read this book every year at Christmas break. I own all the books and accessory books. I may have made a database of Elvish languages (and have a printed out dictionary on that continuous feed computer paper with the perforated holes on the side from 1992). I spent the better part of a year working on an enlarged detailed map (with corrections to the book map based on reading plus notes from Christopher Tolkien). Yeah, I'm a Tolkien geek.
Which is why it should be of no surprise that I combined 2 of my favorite obsessions and created a Middle Earth yarn and fiber collection!
I'm rather proud of them, I think I managed to capture the richness of the colors of the world Tolkien created.
Each color is stocked on specific bases that I think pair well with the colors, and can be found here. Each has a laceweight, fingering weight, and fiber, and some have a heavier weight as well. All can be special ordered in different bases if you have a different idea in mind. For a long time I couldn't keep the Mithril Silkie in stock (but there's some there now!)
I'm also pleased to be announcing there will be a bimonthly There and Back Again club beginning January 2014. Signups will begin in November.
I started spinning back about 6 years ago. I didn't have money to buy a wheel, so it was all spindles.
I heard more than once something that basically said spindle spinning is inferior. When was I going to move up to a wheel. Wheels are better, spindles are just for learning. Someone told me I wasn't a real spinner because I didn't spin on a wheel.
Seemed like I was making yarn, I don't know why she thought it wasn't "real".
One of these that seems like it's still hanging around is that you can't spin long draw on a spindle. Can't be done.
Oh Really?
So I guess that's totally NOT what I'm doing here.
In fact I've been spinning in some kind of hybrid/modified long draw for years. At Stringtopia last month I finally got to take a class from Abby Franquemont on spinning long draw on spindles.
I already had a pretty good base idea but this class really gave me new wings. I learned some ways to make the whole process faster, and some tricks to getting out slubs by slacking the yarn and then re-tensioning it.
And I'm learning about myself that I really like doing things I'm not very
good at (yet). I've started swimming which I am TERRIBLE at. Just really really bad, I've never learned how to freestyle swim at all. I started out a month ago with this long draw things at a pretty beginner place. There is
so much room to learn new things and the learning curve is so steep at
the beginning, there's nowhere to go but up. And I have no expectations, so I can't beat myself up for not being better yet.
I bought 4 ounces of the class fiber, some brown carded wool, strictly for the purpose of practicing. I didn't really care how it came out, I wanted to be able to spin automatically. I intentionally practiced during tv shows that I wanted to look at, instead of my hands. I did not micromanage, because I learned from several exercises that the yarn comes out a lot better than I think it is. I spun for efficiency.
In no time at all I had 2 full spindles.
And a day later I had plied yarn.
Which washed up into this really squishy 260 yard skein
Which is really pretty amazingly even considering it was a learning skein, and I wasn't really even trying for evenness.
As a newborn I was hospitalized with respiratory illness that would today probably have been diagnosed as RSV, though it wasn't called that in 1971. For most of my childhood whenever I got a cold it went straight to my lungs and I spent a lot of days in the hospital on oxygen. As I got older I was just sicker than everyone else but haven't been in a hospital for it in decades.
My first 5k - Wine at the Line 2011
I've never been able to run or do any other sport that includes running. Getting to first base left me winded. Soccer was right out. I was constantly told that I was terrible, that I sucked, and also, mostly by my dad, that I should try harder, suck less (at other things too but this post is not about that).
The year that I was about to turn 40, I decided that I wanted to try out a couch to 5k running program. I definitely had some extra weight I wanted to get rid of, and as my youngest was 7 years old it was time to stop calling it baby weight. And it was a year of trying new things. A few of my friends started C25K too. We signed up and some Brew Miles, one mile runs here where you end at a brewery and get a free beer for running. I was terrible, but that was ok. Janet and I did Wine at the Line which I'm pretty sure was my first 5k. (Apparently I will run for alcohol.)
832 65 MANDIE HARRINGTON INDIANAPOLIS IN F 40 16:34 51:29.9
2011 Run Like Hell Halloween/costume 3 miles
Pretty bad, but at least I made it.
I knew I wouldn't be able to do it in the 9 weeks the program takes, but I really thought that if I just stuck to it, I would make tiny incremental improvements and after several months I'd be able to run.
Well, I was wrong. I don't think I ever made it through week 5 of the C25K program. I asked for advice. I tried running slower. So slow I could walk faster, slow. Still could never make it through the 8 minutes, not even close.
Talking to some runners on Ravelry I decided that I should give up on the idea of running continuously, at least for a while, and focus on running intervals. One in particular had run some pretty fast marathons by running intervals, and people pointed me to Jeff Galloway.
That was great, I got a little faster, and more importantly I liked it more. Running SOOOPER slow isn't any fun.
In November Janet and I did a 5k at the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon.
2011 Monumental Marathon 5k
810 65 MANDIE HARRINGTON INDIANAPOLIS IN F 40 15:20 47:39.0
2011 Drumstick Dash
Lots better! Still, you know, really slow, but improving. And we were really inspired by the slower marathon runners we watched finishing. They didn't look like elite athletes, they looked like us. Some were walking, some were running slow, but they were still going and we thought what the hell, we could do that! So we signed up for the half marathon next year.
I don't know how many times in the next 12 months I wondered what the hell I was thinking. There's a 15 minute/mile time limit and we were very worried about being picked up by the bus.
2012 was terrible for many reasons too personal to share here, but through it all I kept running. Some days running was the only thing that kept me going. It almost always made me feel better when I was having a breakdown.
I don't think I got much faster over that year at all, but we sure upped our endurance! And had a little fun, too.
2012 Color Me Rad
And then the Monumental came and we totally did it!
4793 326 MANDIE HARRINGTON INDIANAPOLIS IN F 41 1:27:15.2 15:00 3:16:43.9
4794 450 JANET DALZELL INDIANAPOLIS IN F 33 1:27:15.5 15:00 3:16:44.1
Caity and Rob did too.
Jingle Bell Run 2012
So I felt pretty good about myself, and I didn't care how fast I was because it was my first one.
I got kinda lazy over winter and when I went to start training for the next half marathon (the Indianapolis 500 Mini Marathon), I had lost some. And my life was getting hard again. And this time I was doing it on my own. Up until this year the farthest I had EVER run alone was 3 miles.
I really had dreams that I was going to be SO much better at this one.
That I was going to finish in under 3 hours, and I was going to run more
than 45 seconds at a time. It became apparent this spring that I was really not going to be able to do that. I was really worried about even finishing. Running is hard enough that my higher brain functioning goes straight out the window. I can't do VERY simple counting math (like to figure out if I'm on lap 8 of 10 that I have 2 laps to go. Or is it 3?) Apparently that's the same part of my brain that tells me it's ok that I'm slow and can't breathe. I start telling myself how much I suck, and that I should be able to be better. That I should suck less (sound familiar?).
I was out running 3 miles one day in April, trying to finish in under 40 minutes (a long time goal) I was half way through that run, and beating myself up about how TERRIBLE I was, pushing myself past feeling like I was going to throw up for at least 10 minutes before it dawned on me that it was HOT and VERY humid. That this was *maybe* not the best weather to try to break a record and there's NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. Like I said, my brain doesn't function.
Running alone is really hard. There is the kind of struggle that you have to will yourself through. Leg cramps, shin splints, blisters. And there are things you CAN NOT will yourself through. No amount of will power will make up for shitty lungs, and this is something I've only recently started to accept about myself (which is ridiculous as I would never feel that way about someone else). I cough and sputter and wheeze when I run.
Crowd at the start of the Mini Marathon
So the morning of the 2013 Mini Marathon I was really nervous. I really came very close to not going. But I'd told a bunch of people online (Hello TLM!) that I was doing it and they were sending me so many amazing cheers. It was really unbelievable to me, still chokes me up a bit to think about.
The Mini Marathon is HUGE. It's the largest half marathon in the country, with over 30,000 participants. For reference, the start finish line is waaaaay up there past that blue building.
I started off and I felt like maybe I was ok. Maybe I could make my 3
hours. I was on pace to do it for a few miles. When we got to the
Speedway and I heard someone say this is half way and sure enough, 1
hour, 30 minutes exactly.
EXCEPT. I felt like shit. I was never going to finish the way I was going. There were people cheering all around the track (which is 2 1/2 miles around) and I kind of hated all of them. Seriously shut up with your "you can do it!" YOU DON'T KNOW.
OK I can't keep on like this. And I had to pee. I ducked in to a portapotty along the route and I kinda gave up. Not on finishing but on my 3 hours. Screw it, it's not worth it. And while I was taking my break I remembered all my friends who cheered me on. And a shirt I saw at the expo that said I got thisI got thisI got this I got this I GOT THIS. And I said to myself:
I've got this.
I've got this.
Fuck it! It doesn't matter if I break my record. It doesn't matter if my dad thinks I suck. It doesn't matter if I'm fast. I'm NOT going to kill myself, I'm going to finish and that's good enough.
I've got this!
The front straight at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
I entered the speedway feeling terrible and by the end of the 2.5 miles I had had an epiphany.
I more or less kept my same running intervals, but if my time to run
came up and I didn't feel like I could, I didn't. An extra 10-20
seconds of walking made all the difference. Sometimes I ran 40 seconds
instead of 45. (Sometimes I ran longer!). I GOT THIS.
And this song came on my play list
This song is amazing. It brought me to tears and kept me going.
If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone
Carry on
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground
Carry on
Really there's just nothing better than this song when you're 11 miles in to a half marathon and you don't think you can keep going.
We are shining stars
We are invincible
We are who we are
On our darkest day
When we're miles away
So we'll come
We will find our way home
OH YES WE WILL
And in the end I totally did it. I made it. I don't believe I have ever been more proud of anything I've ever done in my life.
Finishers! Mini Marathon 2013
17575
Mandie
Harrington
5K:
42:12
Brickyard: 1:47:59 11M:
2:34:52 Finish:
3:04:46 Pace:
14:07
In the end I didn't break my 3 hour goal but really, I was not that far from it considering. I was the only one in our family that had improved from last fall. But none of that matters. I don't think I would have cared if I hadn't gotten faster. I came out of this feeling like a runner.
So today, on the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500 I was thinking about this and thought I should blog about it. I was talking to someone the other day and I was saying I am a terrible runner. She kept trying to tell me I'm not, and she's wrong. I mean I AM a terrible runner. I can't breathe, I cough and sputter. I don't have a good stride. I have apparently very short legs as I was just measuring myself for a bike and my leg length was NOT EVEN A CHOICE because it's so short.
But I was trying to actually say something positive about myself and failing. I am a terrible runner. But I AM a runner.
And the pattern does have a sort of chain mail look to it.
So I set about in my dye pots and made myself some yarn. Silk yarn, obviously because what's better than silk? NOT MUCH.
You could see me wearing the finished shawl in some of the Stringtopia pictures from the last post, but Caity is a better model (and I am a better photographer than my husband, but I love him anyway).
She's channeling her inner elven princess:
The pattern is a really quick and easy knit, once you get over some weirdnesses in the chart. Kind of like potato chips. I could easily see myself making another one.
I'm warning you now, this is a picture heavy post.
So for my birthday every year at the end of April Abby Franquemont and some of her friends throw me a huge birthday party:
OK, so not really, but it IS a big spinning and fiber arts event and it HAS been on my birthday for the past 3 years so, I choose to think of it that way. This was my third year and the first year I've had very many pictures. (Also the first year I brought my husband. Not a coincidence.)
We came in Friday afternoon and didn't take any classes on Friday (I hear they were great).
But we did attend the Bash. This year there were spinning games. One was distance spinning, how much can you spin in 2 minutes. There were several spindle rounds
This is a picture of my friend Janet (who has way better pictures of her classes of which I have none)
I *think* Devin won.
There weren't as many wheels in the room
Hey that's me:
(that's WAY farther than it looks like it is)
I didn't win, but it was a really interesting thing to do because I thought I was spinning the most terrible, lumpy, awful uneven yarn, just for speed, and it turned out to be really not bad. I should spin faster.
On Saturday I took an Andean backstrap weaving class from Abby which was really fascinating. It might have to be it's own blog post later, but I learned a lot and didn't quite break my brain (but almost did). I am now equipped to weave like an Andean 5 year old, apparently.
Saturday night's party had more games. This one was longest long draw - teams. The teachers demonstrated:
This team made it all the way around the corner and down the hall:
Janet and Carol and I failed miserably after about a yard, we overspun our yarn and it snapped. There is no photographic evidence but we totally went really far and around a corner when we were practicing.
Team spindles did really well, I just don't have a picture of it.
Janet and I talking about knitting apps with Sandi Wiseheart, one of my favorite people.
And someone dared Abby to spin on an 8 pound boat anchor they brought along.
Which she totally did.
So. Many. Jokes.
I took a spindle long draw class on Sunday which was excellent and I got a lot out of it. It's the main thing I've been doing since I got back (more about that later). I have no pictures of that class, either, but if you ever get to take it from Abby I highly recommend it.
The one thing I notice from all these pictures is that my husband is in none of them. Lebanon, OH, where Stringtopia is, is a really cool small old town, and he is a history nerd so he had fun exploring town while I was in class, and hanging out with the fiber weirdos at night. I even got him to spin a very little.
Going to Stringtopia is like finding my people, people who get me. Can't wait for next year.
