Day Three, Knitting Olympics

I was a little distracted on Day One of the KO. I spent most of the morning trying to distract myself from a serious case of startitis. Well, joining in the Knitting Olympics feels like an attack of startitis. I've got other projects, but for the next fortnight, my focus is on the yukata project. I even had a few last rounds on my top-down raglan sweater to prevent me from giving into the temptation to start early. Things were really starting to move on that project. Or, as quickly as they can on a sweater knit at six stitches to the inch on size four needles! The neck shaping is done now and it's joined in the round. I'm glad that the designer included a photo of the project at this stage with the pattern, because it looks seriously strange. When the ribbing is added at the neckline, it pulls in the neckline. As is, it's a pretty slatternly look!

The shipping info on my eBay purchase bag indicated that it would be delivered on Friday, so I was counting on that as a distraction. How long I expected to be amused by a piece of luggage, I am unsure. It didn't arrive with the regular mail, so I silently cursed my long-suffering mailman. Oh well. It arrived in a second round of delivery (how exciting!), just ten minutes before I planned to cast on my sleeve. I was sufficiently diverted. I am very satisfied with my purchase and believe it to be jus the thing that I was looking for. The sender even managed to send it in a standard size flat-pack priority box! With some room to spare! Perfect. Also, check out the fun print. Lesportsac calls it "stereo". How could I resist?

So far, so good on the Olympic project. My mother described it thusly to the owner of a new LYS we were exploring. It was assumed that I am making a Dale of Norway sweater. God, I wish I were that good! It's also been assumed that I'm knitting a scarf (no, it's a sleeve). It's nice working at four stitches to the inch again, on big old circulars. The pattern calls for fives, which really makes me wonder about the natural gauge of the designer. The needles I am using to get that gauge, with the same yarn, are twice that size! About the LYS: I liked the owner, but I doubt that I will become a devoted customer. The store isn't near my house (not that great a deterrent, honestly) and the prices are all over the place. I was very tempted to buy some amazing space dyed alpaca yarn, Atacama, but I was glad that I didn't when I saw it in a catalog for ten dollars less! Yes, profits are an expense of business, but that is ridiculous.

Since I had an evening show on Friday (day one), I taped the opening ceremonies of those other Olympics, planning to watch them after work and knit. No, no. I decided to go out for a drink, thinking that I would stay at the bar for "an hour". That was not the case. Very little progress made that night, or the following morning on the train, as I desperately wanted additional sleep. Great leap forward on Day Two, as I knit at work, then while watching my tape of the opener. Sadly, I didn't factor in all the padding put in by the network and missed what I really wanted to see: the torch being brought into the ceremony and Pavarotti singing.

Day Three: Knitting in the morning, a matinee, and more knitting. I am done with the first sleeve, except for casting off, and already have a good start on the cuff for the second. These sleeves are really wide, so it looks like it's large enough to be the back piece. It isn't. Wide sleeves are a little self-indulgent, but I can't complain about the shaping. There isn't any, so once the cuffs are finished, it's clear sailing. The little old lady ushers at work exclaim over my knitting prowess. They can't believe that I don't have to look at my work while I knit. Well, I glance at it occasionally, but this sleeve isn't taxing. At this rate, I think that I will be on track to finish this project before the closing ceremonies. Or at least, cease knitting. I recall the seaming up of this project to be quite challenging from the last go-round, but I am wiser now. Here is a picture of the sleeve, lying across my sadly neglected raglan sweater. Look how luscious those colors are together! I'm such a design student. Also pictured: one of my favorite toys, a really great cheap retractable measuring tape. It's like a cross between a contractor's tape and a tailor's tape. And it only cost $2.50! My Grandma mentioned that she didn't have a good, handy tape measure right before xmas, so I bought one for her as a gift. As they were so cheap, I got one for myself.

I really like the hand of the cotton yarn in my Olympic project, but as I look at that photo, I know blocking is inevitable. It has great stitch definition, which is manufacturer speak for "this will show the slightest wonkiness in your gauge really well". The color is really great too. I bought the yarn online, so I had only an educated guess about its real hue. I was pleasantly surprised.

I'd like to give a big shout out to the Team Wales team captain, Brenda Dayne. Listening to her podcast makes knitting feel less nerdy. I feel like a big dork sometimes when I'm excitedly telling non-knitters about a project. I should be used to that, though. Sound engineers are part dork, part hipster. We have great record collections, but know way too much about Radio Shack. Friday, I was really ebullient about the KO and my upcoming trip to Europe. It was refreshing to feel so excited about something and not care how uncool it was. I haven't felt so passionate since college. Sometime in the past five years, I became much more guarded about my life. I don't know when or why, but I think I lost something in the process.
Too much typing, not enough knitting. I'll check in again tomorrow.