Another Round of Training

Olympic swatching took place today after another round of stash diving. Turns out that a lot of my sock yarn stash logs in at a gauge of 28 sts over 10cm on 3mm needles. Who knew? It's not like I've ever checked gauge before knitting socks. Seriously.

Anyhoo, after a desperate call to my dear friend and advisor, the AliP, I saw the light at the end of my tunnel. She provided advice. I listened. I swatched (a real swatch with actual pattern!). I had success. She was 100% right.

Pandora approves and agrees.

Training for the Olympics

Knitting Olympics that is. I'm even revealing my intended pattern.

I have a bona fide swatch in random colourwork. I got gauge. No, not with the Lana Grossa Lambswool. (God help me, but I actually looked on eBay for possible back up were I to run out of yarn. Then I realized how ridiculous I was being considering that the Olympics begin in 4 days and there was no possible way to get yarn here in time were I to actually order some, and then there was that whole breaching the yarn diet deal, but I am rambling...Ignore me.) I went stash diving, which in itself should be an Olympic event. My opinion. Anyway, I resurfaced with Yarn Treehouse 100% wool, Melody and Classic Wool. Both at gauge of 28 sts on 3US. I swatched on 3mm straights and got the 28 sts. A minor miracle.

Now, my concern is this: how the heck can I expect myself to complete a sweater at the gauge on those itty bitty needles in just a couple weeks? Have I lost my mind? I told myself I wanted a challenge worthy of the Olympics. This resembles Mission Impossible! What am I getting myself into? Is this self-doubt or pure panic? And the fact that I'm considering using beads instead of the third or fourth colour... Complete lunacy? Or ridiculous optimism?

Swatching

Besides reading for most of this snowy Sunday (Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs), I started swatching for my Olympic Knitting project. Six swatches and counting with different yarns and couple different sizes of needles. I might have to look through my patterns again tomorrow and perhaps choose a different one. I had settled on a pattern from Dalegarn No. 121, Lotus. The gauge is quite fine though and there lies the problem. 28sts on 3mm over colourwork pattern is a lot finer than a good portion of yarn in my stash. I am determined to use stash yarn for this Olympics. I do have some Lana Grassa Lambswool that comes quite close at 26sts so I'd just make a smaller size, but I will have to see if I have enough of each of the four individual colours. That and whether the colours I have in my stash would go well together in one sweater. Hmmmmm

BTW, did you see the sweater that the Yarn Harlot is planning on knitting for the Olympics? Gorgeous. Naturally everywhere I looked the pattern book has been sold out. Might have to start trolling eBay again. I may be on a yarn diet, but I didn't say anything about patterns. Not like I don't have a sizable library already...

Pheasant Crossing

There should be traffic lights on Nova Scotia roads for these critters. I had just picked up the kids this morning from 4-H Outdoorsman where they had gone snow shoeing, and I was driving down the mountain to head into town for groceries. I ended up coming to a complete stop while this guy strolled across the road, without a care in the world. Pheasants are beautiful and plentiful here, and they'll stay that way if they learn to stay off the roads. Foolish birds.

Friday Night Knit Club

How the weeks fly. Our knit group meets every other Friday and so we all gathered at the Middleton library on this frigid night. How tempting it was to stay home but the kids and I bundled up and walked over. I love living in town and the convenience of having every necessity within walking distance (as I may have mentioned once or twice before...forgive me).

We had two new ladies join us tonight, Karen and Valerie, and Paula made an appearance after a prolonged absence. Then there were the regulars: Kathy, Debra, Brianna and I. Colin was there against his will, persuaded with a bribe of extra computer time. Whatever works. Hubby is in the city tonight with his best friend and I wasn't going to leave him at home alone.

Once again 8:30pm and closing time arrived before we knew it. Paula finally conquered a mitten thumb. Yeah! Valerie and I put away our respective socks, Kathy gave up on the black toque, and Karen tucked away a lovely lace KnitSpot scarf she was working on.

Another most pleasant and productive evening in delightful company.

Photo Thursday

I love the ocean.

Early Bird

Sometimes it pays to get up early. Even if you don't have to. I usually don't have to because hubby is the morning person in this house and he gets the kids out the door on school days. (Mind you that comes to an end 1st of March when he goes back to work. Damn.) Anyway, yesterday I asked him to wake me up early because I wanted to get up to make a hot breakfast for the kids since it's been so bloody cold. So he did. Coffee in bed and all. When I came downstairs, he had stepped out for a cigarette (I don't care how cold or wet or miserable it gets, he smokes outside!) and next thing I know he's waking at me like a lunatic and trying to get me to come outside. Ha! I think not. He opens the door a crack and says, "You gotta see this!" Curiosity peaked, I slip on a pair of his boots and join him in my jammies on the porch. He's pointing into the big oak on our property line. I might have looked at him like he was smoking something other than plain ol' cigarettes, but he kept pointing and finally I saw what the fuss was about. A great horned owl had decided to roost in our tree. Very cool. See the very crappy photo proof below. It was still quite dark and that was the best shot I could get. He must have got annoyed with the flash though because he took off and landed a few feet away on top of a power pole at the end of our driveway, scaring the birds sleeping in the huge spruce right next to it. After another couple snaps of the camera he flew off across the street and out of site. All in all a nifty experience since I've been hearing him hooting late into the night all last summer. Nice to know that I wasn't wrong in my assumption that it was an owl and not the mourning doves calling to each other.

Confused

Mother Nature is, that is. Doesn't she get it that the Olympics are only 10 days away? Doesn't she know her geography? Vancouver is on the other coast. Where she's seen fit to give them temperatures above zero degrees Celsius. Where they are trucking snow to the Olympic venues, for crying out loud! That just seems wrong to me on so many levels. The earth is screaming with discomfort over global warming and here she has the power to do something about it, but does she? Oh no, can't do that. Must put those Nova Scotian into a deep freeze, show them who's boss, shove them around a little with some gentle winds so they really feel that cold crisp air, teach them about discomfort. What's a little wind chill? It'll toughen 'em up some.

Bitch.

Can You Believe It?

It's been 25 years since so many (young) music stars recorded We Are the World. There will be some of those same ones as well as new stars that will re-record the song once again, for the world.

Did you watch the Grammy's last night? Although the performance was absolutely stunning, could Pink have possible worn any less??
And the mess that was Lady GaGa? OMG! Gag me!

Slacker

Although I've been getting small things done around the house, like projects that have been sitting around collecting dust for months and years, such industry has cut into my blogging. Maybe not. Time to call a spade a spade. I am a slacker and a procrastinator. An accomplished one at that.

A week and a half into the Lion Brand knit-along? I've got the ribbing done, the set up rows and a couple rows of body. That's it. My excuse has been the lack of charts that were hinted at being available last Thursday but that didn't happen. The only reason I started knitting from the written instructions is so I wouldn't look like I've been sitting on my hands while everyone else has already posted about having completed at least one set of repeats. They're making me look bad. Also providing incentive, which is precisely why I join these knit-alongs. No pictures until I finish at least one set of repeats.

To combat my slack ass blogging? I joined the NABLOPOMO for February. Giving you a heads up so you don't fall off your chairs when you see a daily post at least one month this year. HEH

I finally finished Brianna's quilt. She loves it and threatens anyone who dares touch it. It was my first quilt and I'm just happy it's done. There is lots I am not happy with but I'll just chalk it up to a learning experience.

The border blocks were done by Brianna's friends on her nineth birthday, and one by Colin and another couple by me. Daddy designed couple smaller ones, including the beaver.

On the reading front, I just finished another of Jen Lancaster's books: Bitter is the New Black. Funny, funny woman. She even blogs at http://www.jennsylvania.com/. If you don't mind snarky and need a good laugh, she delivers and then some!