Knitting fiend

I’ve been a knitting fiend lately. Every spare minute after work has been taken up by yarn. I need to keep knitting, as fast as possible, because I have 5 days left to finish this current project. Why 5? Because I need to finish before the end of the closing ceremony of the Olympics.

When I started following the Yarn Harlot and read a bit about the Knitting Olympics, I was inspired (as I frequently am after reading her posts). After joining Ravelry, that event continued to be in the back of my mind. I wasn’t sure if the Knitting Olympics would be a go again for Vancouver, but I knew that the Ravelympics were in the planning stages. Here was the perfect opportunity to take a break and knit something for myself while also challenging me a bit. Don’t get me wrong, I love making things for other people, but being a bit selfish once in awhile is okay too!

First I found the yarn – Malabrigo sock yarn in the Solis colorway, a great mix of blues, greens, and teal. Then came the project, or at the least an idea for one. I wanted to do some kind of wrap – maybe lace, maybe not – in the form of something shawl-like. Triangular shawls don’t really appeal to me, for whatever reason, so that took a lot of patterns out of the running. Originally I was going to try for the Candle Flame Shawl. The idea of doing a flame pattern in a blue-green yarn just really appealed to me. But a free copy of the pattern was elusive and in the end I would have to alter too much (the edging, style of ends, etc) to suit me, especially considering this would be my first lace-style pattern. I knew I had to do something that didn’t specifically need lace-weight yarn, both because I had already picked up the Malabrigo, and because I wanted something with a bit more heft than normal lace.

Finally I found the Leaf Lace Scarf pattern and I was hooked. I made a minor alteration, repeating the pattern five times so I would get a wider, wrap-sized piece. Needle size I kept the same – 4 – because after a quick swatch (training for my event!) that seemed to be giving me the size I was looking for. Gauge really isn’t an issue; I just wanted to be sure I was getting the right width with five repeats.

So now, here I am, a member of Team Tardis and entered in the Short Track Shawl event for the Ravelympics. Right now I’m just over 60% done and hoping that I’ll finish just in time – it’s going to be a close one. The catch? I want to watch as much Olympic coverage as possible. The winter games are my favorite, and I’ll watch pretty much anything from curling to skiing to, of course, hockey. Although I can’t technically do both at once – I have never mastered the ability to knit without watching what I’m doing – I’m very used to listening really well and looking up at the important parts of TV shows, movies, and now Olympic events. I love watching athletes come out of nowhere and win medals, sometimes the first for their countries; or athletes who have no real chance of winning – but compete with such hope and joy that you’d never know it. I’ve been cheering for Georgians, Latvians, Slovenians, and Jamaicans right along with the Americans. My heart breaks for the Dutch speedskater who listened to his coach and was DQed from a gold medal, and for the Canadian figure skater who just lost her mother. I’m a sucker for the stories and for the competition.

But for now, before coverage starts again tonight? Must keep knitting . . .

Old t-shirts, your days are numbered!

I tend to be a keeper. As a part-time historian (I say that because my interests in lit and history are usually 50/50), I keep anything that has a memory attached to it - because stuff has a history behind it and I honor that history.

But this backfires, frequently. I have stashes of pictures and postcards, touristy type guidebooks and drink coasters from several different countries, t-shirts from trips taken and groups I've been in and - almost a category of its own - things from my undergrad university. All this stuff is mixed in with the plethora of things and hand-me-down furniture from my family, mementos from childhood, stashes of crafting materials . . . I could go on and on. Over the past couple of years, closely tied in with a couple of moves, I've truly tried to pare things down. As I was talking with a friend the other night, however, somethings will be with me until I die. Mostly this has to do with books - favorite books and series are like old friends. Unless my apartment complex burns down, these are going nowhere. There are certain small things from relatives, particularly from my mom's side of the family, that may be all I ever have to remember them by. Those mementos, too, are with me for the long haul.

Then I come to things like t-shirts. There are so many old groups, vacation spots, friends, etc., that I have t-shirts from. The shirts don't fit anymore, are dingy from repeated trips through the wash, and now languish in the bottom of my dresser and an old steamer trunk. What is the purpose of that? Keeping them in that state doesn't help preserve the original memories associated with each shirt. I have pictures and old journals for that. I've seen patterns for t-shirt quilts, but I have enough blankets and quilts to last me a long time. Today, stumbling across this site - a rag knitting tutorial from cocoknits - I finally have a good solution. Old t-shirts - your days are officially numbered. One more item on a long list of stuff is taken care of, and another cluttered corner is cleaned up.

Happy and colorful feet are in my future

I went to the yarn store yesterday at lunch, and a couple of things just happened to follow me out and come home with me:
While my wallet is a bit lighter, they are so worth it. The green, or Zauberball from Schoppel Wolle in colorway 1966 ombre, first caught my eye in a yarn shop across the state. I had investigated Ravelry to see if anyone was swapping or selling some of these magic balls (the translation from German), but then I stumbled across some in the yarn store here and snagged one right away. The picture is a bit dark - the green is pretty lively, with variations from light to dark - and I can't wait to play it up with a fun sock pattern. There was another ball in slate blue that might also sneak into my stash once I see how this knits up.

The blue makes my heart sing (cheesy, but true). It caught my eye from the bottom of a pile of sock yarns, and the skein just jumped up and stuck to my hand like glue. I had to play a bit with the color tones in this picture, in order to really show what a vibrant cobalt this yarn is; this is I think the closest I'll get. It's Cascade Yarns Heritage Sock Yarn, in color 5636, and will also need a fun pattern.

First on the needles though is this:

Here, because the colors vary so much I'm sticking to a plain and simple pattern - Wendy Johnson's Slip Stitch Heel Basic Sock (Ravelry link here). I just got Johnson's Socks from the Toe Up and this is my first attempt at socks that are both toe-up and being knit two-at-a-time. The two at a time is a bit of a challenge and I had a few false starts casting on; but I'm used to the magic loop method and this is basically taking that one giant step up (I hope - this is optimistic, pre-heel talk). So far so good though, and I'm hoping to be mostly done in time for the Ravelympics cast on. I can't wait for all of these colorful socks!