2/11/2006

The Passion of the Games

The Koigu sock event is off to a respectable start. Cast on was without incident, and I've completed 2" uneventfully. I figured out that I need to average 2" a day to finish the pair in 16 days, so I'm already a day behind – but I'm not in bed yet. I'm keeping my spirits up and optimistically imagining that I'll be able to catch up through a combination of days with more knitting time and becoming more familiar with the pattern, so faster.

The Koigu is excellent to work with and the colors are jewel-like and exciting. I'm having pangs of regret that I'm using a fussy pattern, as it's not ideal for showing the colors to their best advantage, but overall the effect is pleasing enough so far. I do want to do a future koigu project with a simpler stitch pattern to really revel in the colors.

2/07/2006

Behold, the completed legwarmers!








































Never mind that now that they're done, the same girl who asked me to make them - yep, refuses to wear them. I tried to put them on her once, and triggered a tantrum complete with leg-kicking and screaming "take them off! Take them o-o-o-o-o-off!!".

So be it. Life is like that, I knit for the knitting experience. Also, now they're done. I am working on start #…4? 5? Of the Anna yarn socks. I ripped back again, and had to start over, again, despite the use of a lifeline. It was just all too wonky (to borrow a technical knitting term from Cara, my birthday buddy) to try to resurrect from the lifeline. It's going along swimmingly now, though, and I think I've already made it further than on any of my previous starts, so I'm optimistic that I'll actually create a sock this time. I'd better, because the yarn is starting to be the worse for wear. Lots of fuzzing. Some spots that are starting to seem …thin. I am in fear and trembling that having used the word 'swimmingly', I will now be sunk. But I'm here as a reporter, and as of now: all is swell.

However, I have figured out using the brilliant mathematical technique of subtracting 7 from 10, in addition to actually knowing what day it is today, that the Knitting Olympics begin in 3 days. Which means that all progress on the Anna socks is going to screech to a halt. And I'll get to start on – Koigu!

I am still too pathetic to get buttons on my template, so here: Woven into the post. Ethereal, temporal, fleeting. Buttons:








I'm considering all my Anna experiences training for the Knitting Games. I have done no other preparation thus far. But I'm not worried. I have to wind the yarn, and I have to buy the needles (my #1 dpns being otherwise engaged with the Anna sock, and there's no chance in heaven or earth that they'll be free by Friday). I suppose I should peruse the pattern again.

I should be honest with myself at this juncture. I have no illusion of finishing these socks in 16 days, but I don't feel bad about that. I'm participating with the spirit of the Olympics, to challenge myself, to see how I do. I'm not in it for a medal, but for the personal satisfaction of testing my limits, and in worldwide solidarity with knitters of all nations <…cue Olympic anthem…>.