Friday, October 10, 2014

David's off again!

You may remember David, from across the pond in the USA, who I wrote about last year, Well he's doing something even more amazing this year - he's running the New York marathon whilst knitting but not with needles but with his fingers.

Yes, you did read that correctly, with his fingers. How awesome is that!

The reason he has to adopt this method is that for reasons of security he has only been allowed to take part and knit as long as he abides by these restrictions: he can't use knitting needles or carry any tools such as scissors, he isn't allowed to carry his yarn around his waist or in a bag and he can't wear any clothing that obscures his body.

Undeterred, David has devised his own cunning plan to achieve his dream of taking part in the NYC marathon (and I am soooooo jealous 'cos it's always been my dream to run it one day!), sponsored by Lion Brand.

I actually chose to use Lion Brand Hometown USA for my crochet antics at the London marathon earlier this year. I hadn't seen it before but deramores generously donated the yarn for me to use as I fell in love with the fantastic range of bright colours. The 2 lap blankets I made out of the crochet chain were so soft and were well liked by the recipients.

Even better, he is again supporting an Alzheimer's charity. In his own words:
"I'll wear all of the yarn that I use. The start of the NYC marathon is cold. A knit hat and scarf, of normal length, is a common sight. So I plan to knit up some warmness to wear at the start and then unravel them and pull the yarn from an existing knit item to make an entirely new knit item. I love the metaphor. What better way to draw attention to Alzheimer's than making something out of an unraveling hat."
Isn't that a brilliant idea? Even better, he's linked the concept of unravelling the yarn as a metaphor of those whose memories are unravelling.

You can read about his training etc here on his website where you'll also find a link to his sponsorship page.

Here he is with a scarf he has finger-knitted on one of his training runs.


As he hasn't got the pressure of going for a Guinness World Record this time he's going to try and beat his previous best time for a marathon (and he's a speedy runner too). This would be impressive if he was just running but add in the knitting and it's awesome! I can't wait to see how he gets on.

I'll be catching up with David soon to see how he got on. In the meantime we did a short Q & A session together which you can read here on the Lion Brand blog.

This weekend is pretty exciting here as this morning I'm off out to run marathon number 37 and on Sunday I'm off to the Knitting and Stitching show at Alexandra Palace. I'll write about my adventures after the weekend.

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