Karen Squared

In a nutshell: I like to make things and I like to run.

Longer version:

I am a wife, mother, grandmother, crafter, and runner from Connecticut. In another lifetime I used to be a smoker and in 2000, I finally quit smoking after many failed attempts. My body has never been the same since. In the first 6 months or so after quitting I put on about 30 pounds and so I started running to try to take off the weight. I ran for about a year, and once I lost the weight I never ran again and never missed it. My metabolism was totally different now though and I had to be much more careful about what I ate. I want my 20 year old metabolism back, damn it!

Fast forward to January 2008, I had just had a big milestone birthday a few months prior, quit a good paying job that was making me miserable, and hadn’t had any kind of exercise since my one year of running 8 years ago; so I decided I would start walking. After walking for a couple of months, I switched to a walking/running type routine because walking by itself seemed to take so long. I’ve never been a patient person. For reasons unknown to me, I really enjoyed running this time around. A lot! Before long, I decided it would be fun to run a 5K race and started trying to train for it. My knees were not very happy with that decision. My knees have bothered me for many years but the more I ran, the more my knees complained. I finally went to a doctor and was diagnosed with chondromalacia patella, aka runner’s knee. The treatment has been physical therapy and doing strengthening exercises and both seem to be helping a little bit. I missed the goal of running my first 5K at the end of August but there are races in CT every month, so I just moved the date for that goal up a bit. I’m not very good at running yet, but I hope to be. I feel like a runner inside. Now I just need to get by body to understand that.

I had another blog called Needles and Wool for almost 5 years. When I started it, knitting was my one and only passion and that is mostly what that blog was about. A few years ago I started spinning. A little while after that, I decided I wanted to learn how to sew. And most recently I have discovered that I love running. So I thought it would be best for me to start over with a new blog that would encompass all the activities that are now my passions.

In case you were wondering where the name Karen Squared came from… my name is Karen Caron. Both names are pronounced the same. Not too many people forget my name once they hear it. My brother-in-law gave me that nickname years ago and it just stuck. So when I was trying to come up with a name for the new blog that was more about me rather than just knitting, well Karen Squared just seem right, because it’s me.