Olympic Dream

Hello blog,

it's been awhile since I last wrote. The knitting Olympics started almost too weeks ago, and I cast on with ready enthusiasm. But my olympic dream quickly began to fade. I thought it would be a little hard, sure, but it's not a hard pattern. It's just big, that's all. I figured I could handle it. But I began to fall behind on my schedule, days behind. Between my homework and the endless-seeming pattern repeats I started to think that I would never see that olympic gold. Then, on monday I decided to pull an all -nighter and get something done. (A personal bout of insomnia initiated this idea, helped along with seasons 3-5 of Babylon five, available at theWB.com). I actually did 'catch up' to the place I wanted to be by that date, but knitting at 6 AM I dropped a yarn over, and in my attempt to fix that mistake, ended up dropping even MORE stitches. At first I thought I'd be all fancy and try to do 'yarn surgery'





But then I got over my delusions of grandeur, bit the bullet, ripped back 7 rows, and got on with life. Now I'm less than half way through the 6th repeat. I need to do 9 total and there's pretty much no way that I'll finish by the deadline, but I'm not going to let that get me down. The knitting Olympics is about challenging yourself, pushing boundaries and finding out who you are as a knitter. To that extent I feel as if I have succeeded, and I will have an extremely pretty lace shawl to wear once the weather gets a bit warmer, and that's what counts. For those of you who are still in the running: Hold in there, it's almost over.

Knitting Olympics 2010 - Cast On

Hello Blog.

Today is the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics, and also the start of the Knitting Olympics as envisioned by the Yarn Harlot. I have to admit that I don't know much about the Olympics. I've never so much as watched it before (with the exception of the opening ceremonies hosted in beijing, which I did see a recording of like, two months after the fact ). I'm not much of a sports person, and I don't even know what all the sports categories are in the winter Olympics, much less who is competing. I've never really been one of those people who expresses their patriotism through sports either, but, I've seen the Yarn Harlot blog about the knitting Olympics in the past, and she really inspired me with the way she talked about the Olympics. It made me think about it from the point of view of the athletes and the countries they represent, and for the first time I actually respected them for their hard work and dedication. So I'm going to participate in the knitting Olympics for the first time this year, not just as a proud knitter searching for a challenge, but as an American and a member of the Global community. In addition to actually knitting on my project, I've decided to make it a point to try to follow the real Olympics a little. I may not watch it all the way through, but I want to see for myself what it's all about, and develop a greater sense of awareness of the world outside of my own interest, and borders. Oh dear, that doesn't sound too pretentious does it? ;)

I've done all of my preparation - except photograph my preparedness.
The pattern is printed, the yarn wound into balls, the needles set out. I'm ready.
The pattern I'm knitting is Diagonale, a lace shawl. I don't know if it's something I can finish in two weeks, and I don't know if it will be a challenge or not, but I picked it because it looked big and relaxing. I don't like stress in my knitting, and I hate it when I have a deadline to knit something and I come across a part in the pattern that I don't know how to do. So I decided I didn't want a pattern that was going to be technically challenging. I wanted to be able to fully enjoy the process of knitting, and also I didn't want my participation in the Olympics to get in the way of my progress in school. So instead of difficulty I picked something that was nothing but simple yarn overs and decreases, and decided to let stamina be my personal challenge this year. Can I pace myself and knit a consistent amount every day, so as to finish on time without any series problems? That's my goal.

Stacked eyelet scowl

Hey blog,

Today we're talking about the stacked eyelet cowl. I actually finished this project a few weeks ago and, fortunately, took pictures. I only managed to wear the thing once before I lost it. I loved it, it was pretty, it was soft, it was a bit floppier than I excepted, and - possibly - too warm for the weather here. I hope I find it, I'm sure it's in the house *somewhere*



Pattern : Stacked eyelet cowl
Yarn : knit picks comfy sport (2 skeins)
Needles : US 5
Cast on : Jan 22
Cast off : Jan 24

Haven't really been doing much knitting. School has been keeping me busy, I hate the birthday hat, and the scarf is all but in hibernation. On the plus side I *did* cast on for the second sock, and have just finished the ribbing. The winter olympics are mere days away and I'm starting to feel really excited. More updates to come!

Cheers
Theo