Knitting Olympics update

You might have guessed from the complete lack of fanfare that I did not manage to bring home gold in the Knitting Olympics. At midnight on Sunday with 3 and 3/4 hours to go until the end of the closing ceremony I was some back neck shaping and a neckband short of my goal and my numbers for the back neck shaping weren't adding up. I think if the numbers had been right I might have pressed on but it seemed wiser not to turn up for work on Monday morning completely exhausted just in order to meet a fairly arbitrary and self-appointed goal. Especially as I had already missed the rather more concrete deadline of finishing in time to actually give the thing to my brother whilst up in Bolton that weekend.





Anyway, it's done now barring the blocking and the snipping off of a few woven-in ends. I do love turned hems. They're just such a neat way to finish off any project.

So, one EZ hybrid raglan down, another one still on the needles. For me(!) this time. Knitting for myself, I can hardly believe it. I think this sleeve just needs another inch to hit a nice point somewhere between 3/4 and bracelet length then there's just one more sleeve to go before I can join them both to the already knit body and get started on the yoke.



[note the paired left (lalinc) and right (larinc) (see Cat Bordhi's New Pathways book) increases on the inside of the sleeve - hurrah for tiny knitterly details that only I will ever notice]

Hopefully the shirt yoke should give a neat square neckline to be set off nicely by another turned picot hem, have I mentioned that I like those?

btw if you haven't already seen it do pop over to the Yarn Harlot to see her absolutely magnificent Whistler sweater with which she won gold, rounding off an already splendid games for the Canadians.

Knitting Olympics - day #10

We're talking to Liz now who's aiming for a gold medal in the two week sweater reknitting event.

So Liz, this is your first attempt at knitting a whole sweater in two weeks, nervous?

Well, I've been training hard. Last month I knit a much larger size sweater in just under three weeks.

There are just over 6 days to go, are you confident about completing on time?

I've finished the body up to the armholes and I'm 7.5 inches into the first sleeve. From here the target's looking very achievable.

And you're working with yarn that's been ripped out once, are you worried about any difference in gauge between that and the yarn that hasn't been ripped?

Well now I am! Still I'm pretty strong at blocking and I'm sure it's nothing that a good soak won't even out. Now I really have to get on I'm afraid.

Just one more question ...

Oh for goodness sake, can't you see I'm on a schedule here?

We just wanted to know ... OK, we're going ... you can put the needle down. Well that was Liz, obviously very focussed on her sweater. Later we'll be going over to the sock knitting arena to see if the GB team can break that Olympic record but right now it's off to the slopes for the freestyle crochet.

Marathon girl - Week #5

Day #7 - long run

Distance: 15.74 miles
Time: 02:11:15 hours
Average time (per mile): 08:20 minutes

This week's run was a lot less complicated than last week's and considerably more scenic. 5.5 miles out along the A44, 4.5 miles around Blenheim Great Park, and 5.5 miles back again. I wasn't completely sure of the mile points, as mapmyrun.com has a nasty habit of adjusting the figures when you save your run, and suspected that we might have been heading out a bit on the fast side but both Kate and I were staggered when we looked at the end time. At this rate there should be no problem with achieving my aim of a sub 4 hour time. Luckily my next long run isn't for two or three weeks as my legs felt like they were about to drop off at the hips by the end of the run.

Once I'd recovered (thanks to a bath and copious quantities of tea, toast, and Nutella) I headed back out to Blenheim to enjoy the afternoon sunshine. I managed over an hour of sitting and knitting and listening to the footy on the Olympic sweater on the Water Terrace before retreating inside for more tea and to get some feeling back into my fingers. The body is now done (hurrah) and I'm several rounds into the cuff of the first sleeve. That Olympic gold medal is still a possibility.

Rip back and think of GB

I finally sucked it up and ripped out the original, over-sized EZ hybrid sweater whilst watching the women's curling (GB vs. Russia) this evening. I'm down to the last ball of new yarn for the reknit and I knew there was a chance I'd have to reskein, soak, and hang the ripped out yarn and I didn't want to run out of yarn before it was dry.



Thanks to the ball winder and the fact that it was a seamless sweater the whole process was fairly painless. Physically painless, that is. I'm sure I'll bear the emotional scars for years to come. No, I'm kidding. There was an initial wrench as I picked out the darned-in end of the neck band but really I'm so far along on the new sweater that I don't mind too much.



I was right about having to reskein and soak this stuff though. Check out the sproinginess. It would be like trying to knit with phone cable.



I'll post an update on my Knitting Olympics project tomorrow.

Citius, Altius, Fortius

I'm so excited that the Knitting Olympics are underway. I will be reknitting my brother's birthday sweater, an EZ seamless hybrid raglan, (which turned out just a leetle on the large size) as my challenge. The original sweater took three weeks to complete so reknitting it in two is a geniune challenge - at least I know it will be smaller, hey.

I have been training like the dickens. All those hours of knitting stockinette in the round mean that by now my magic loop technique is nearly flawless and I've knit 5 turned hems in the past month. The only thing that fazes me now is the thought of ripping back all this!



Maybe a job for during the football tomorrow.

I can't wait for the Olympics

Literally can't wait. I had intended to use the Sublime Angora Merino which I scored at the yarn swap last Saturday to be my Knitting Olympics or Ravelympics, or whatever we're referring to them as, project. For those of you not familiar with the concept, during the winter Olympics (after all knitting really is a winter sport) knitters all over the globe will be casting on in their chosen event and trying to complete their projects before the closing ceremony in just over three week's time.

The trouble is, I'm missing my sweater. You'd think that after three weeks of stockinette in the round, knitting in every possible minute* in order to keep on schedule, not knitting on any other project, I'd be quite keen for a change, but no! Last night I cast on for the swatch in the round (pre-competition swatching is allowed, it's like training), washed it, dried it, did the maths, and cast-on. I just couldn't help it.



I'm now 8 rounds into the turned picot edging of the sweater and I'm really looking forward to my train journey later this afternoon - three and a half solid hours of stockinette in the round. Of course I will look like a walking fluff ball afterwards - even as you knit it the bunny fibre wafts off the yarn in little white puffs - I so should not have worn black jeans today!

* my dentist and I seriously discussed whether I could knit whilst he was replacing my filling. He seemed quite keen on the idea but I really didn't want him distracted during that job! I did, however, knit in the chair whilst the anaesthetic was taking effect.