Really Knitting ... and It's about Time

If I were a speed skater, I would have been disqualified for a couple false starts.

If I were a bobsledder I wouldn't finish well because of my slow start.

I even swatched and started and stopped one more time–with a yarn that I knew had less than the required yardage for that beautiful shawl pattern.

Then, I did a little stash diving one last time and came up with this Alpaca Sox yarn ... of which I had twice as much as I should need.  I cast on last night.

It seems unlikely that I'll finish in time for the closing ceremony in Vancouver . . . but after a few stumbles, I think I've finally found the rhythm of this pattern.  I already am thinking of making another in white cotton for summer.

You can't really appreciate it before it's blocked and the triangles along the edge and lacy pattern are revealed, but here's an in-progress photo. (The yarn photo has more accurate color).

I think this will be the project that prompts me to go looking for a yarn shop with some blocking wires.

Four Years Ago

Four years ago Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, on her blog the Yarn Harlot, organized a great event for knitters–the Knitting Olympics. Knitters across blogland, including me, decided on a project for themselves that they would begin during the opening ceremonies and complete before the end of the 2006 Olympics.

I joined a local team and met a couple of local knitters and enjoyed the real life company of other Olympian bloggers. I completed the cabled shrug on the left and was awarded the medal on the right for my accomplishment.

I woke up this morning wondering if the Knitting Olympics would be revived for the 2010 Winter Olympics. The recent cold weather in Dallas has me wanting to get back to knitting and what could be better than a quick project feverishly knit over a fortnight while watching the Olympics that are just around the corner?

Because I've fallen behind on the knitters' blogs I follow, I was hoping that if I went searching, I'd find it fully launched and lots of buzz . . . but it seems that the knitters on Ravelry have taken the Yarn Harlot's concept and are running with it.

I do have a Ravelry account, but I'm just not (yet?) entrenched enough to join them there. So it seems my own Olympic knitting this year will be a solo event.

I'm thinking my project may be what my hairdresser described as the way to dress in Winter in Dallas: a short-sleeved wool sweater. I have some wool that's been languishing in my yarn stash for far too long . . . now I just need to get busy swatching and decide on a design.