CANADA ROCKS GOLD!!

14 GOLD medals for Canada! How incredible is that?? And how about that hockey game? So close to blowing it, but Crosby came thought at the last moment.

So. Canada is GOLD tonight. Not so here. I'm a DNF. Again. But I can live with that. There is always 2014. I'm a lot like our Men's Hockey Team, slacking off when it mattered most, except they managed to pull through in OT. My OT will begin once the flame goes out and I will have a sweater by which to remember these Olympics.

I did knit yesterday on the way to Halifax and managed to get to the neck cast off stitches at which point I had to start knitting back and forth. What a nightmare. Yes, eventually I gave up because I was tinking back more than making progress. I'll start to figure it out tomorrow. Don't get me wrong, though. I had a fabulous afternoon with my Sunshine, AliP, and our families. She even brought me a present of two balls of the new Nordique and St. Denis Magazine. Lovely! Thanks, Sunshine!

Here is a record of my progress.

Currently, the body of the sweater is a little over 20" long. It's going to be so beeeautiful...

Playing Catch-Up

This is how far I was at the end of Canada/Germany Hockey game last night. Good thing Canada won, I tell you.


And this is where I am as of 2pm:

Back to knitting very shortly. Turns out that when I started knitting today I wasn't even half done on the body. OMG! The pressure. My goal is to get most of the body done today, if not all of it. I will quit by midnight. I shall watch more Dexter, and tonight I will watch hockey. I may fortify myself with wine. I will try to avoid knitting injury. I shall attempt to knit like the wind. I will attempt the impossible. I will aim for GOLD, damn it!

Slowly

Unless I put in a couple full days of knitting this cardi is not going to be done by the time the flame is extinguished. That would not be an ideal situation. March Sweater Madness is just around the corner and I don't want to be working on this sweater as yet another UFO.

Now for the excuses: see, I've been reading some really good books. I've tried to limit the reading to the morning and right before bed but somehow I haven't been able to restrict the reading to the self-imposed schedule. So the knitting has been losing out. By the way, John Sandford's Rough Country is really good, Tasha Alexander's And Only to Deceive was difficult to put down, and Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is absolutely gripping and deserving of all the high praise it's been receiving. Which is a problem in that it's cutting into the knitting time and interfering with my aspirations for GOLD.

Stalled

Well. It's starting to look like that GOLD may be out of my reach. At my Friday Night Knitting Club I only managed to knit a couple rows, and not only that, we all got a bit overly loud and there were complaints to the librarian. I guess this means we either have to keep the giggling down to a delicate roar or find another venue. That's what we get for enjoying ourselves. Hee hee hee

Yesterday I didn't knit a single stitch and the fact that we attended our club's 4-H Speeches and Demonstrations Day isn't much of an excuse.

Notice the lack of posts the past couple days? Yup, blew the NaBloPoMo too. Oh well; there's always March.

So Far

Canada has 3 Gold, 3 Silver and 1 Bronze medals.

I have this:

So Glad

That I have the option of staying in the house all day if I so choose. With a rather respectable snow storm outside, and no school, it was easy to stay indoors today. The kids were eventually booted out to shovel the drive when they wouldn't stop fighting with each other, and hubby did drive to the post office. Me? I stayed in and finished reading Rough Country by John Sandford, puttered around a bit, and after supper picked up my knitting. This is today's progress so far and I'm quitting early for the night. These late nights are taking their toll on me.

Another Gold!

Yeah, Canada rocks! Another gold, plus a shutout (8-0) in men's Hockey after an unimpressive start. But I ask you: curling an Olympic sport? I don't buy it. Whatever happened to "Faster Higher Stronger"? Curling faster, higher, stronger? Not so much. But it did provide me with perfect knitting time, during which I may have glanced at the TV less than a dozen times. Watching the hockey and knitting on the other hand? Not an ideal situation. Too much action.

Here is how far I got before I decided it would be wise to set the knitting aside...you know, before the knitting didn't resemble the pattern any longer. (Ignore the date stamp...hubby changed batteries in the camera and obviously didn't set the right date. I'd adjust it and take another picture, but it's late and I'm calling it quits for the night.)

Slow Progress

First a confession. Although 600 stitches sounds like a great deal of those itty bitty stitches, it only equals to two rounds. Seriously. Thanks for the life line tips, but I am definitely not putting them in every row. Each round has 303 stitches if I don't count the four stitches that mark my steeking line. Missing one yarn over was purely accidental and I chalk that up to trying to knit too late at night, trying to knit "just one more row". Dumb. I don't plan on doing that again unless we're at the final couple days. As for the colour work goof up? That was my mistake of not reading the chart carefully enough. I assumed that the colour change happened every five stitches which is what I knit, instead of alternating between five and seven stitches. At least I caught early enough before it caused me a major headache, as the stitches didn't line up on the second colour work row.

Anyway, although I didn't make major progress today (totally slacked off), I love watching the pattern develop. I love colour work. Honest! Much more so than cables.

As for the Olympics, I was overjoyed watch the medal ceremonies tonight and Alex being awarded his gold medal. GO CANADA! On the other hand, I swear Begg-Smith has ice water coursing through his veins. (So glad he didn't win gold, the traitor!) And must I point out what a huge disappointment the pairs figure skating has been. Bleh! Falling at the Olympics level? Seriously??

After Several Set Backs

I'm back on track, having suffered time penalties during the tinking. I missed a yarn over early on that threw the count off and so I tinked back over 600 stitches. Not that I counted or anything. Heh. Then into the second round of colour work I realized that I didn't pay close enough attention to the chart and ripping was in order to set up the colour work row again. Hopefully there won't be too much more ripping back in my future as it's terribly time consuming and the Melody is proving laborious to get back on the needles without splitting. Also discovered that these darker colours are harder to work after the sun goes down.

I'll have to work on this sweater more during daylight hours if I want to make any progress and of course to achieve my Gold! Have you guys been watching the Olympics? I loved the Moguls. Admittedly the men's were much more exciting than the women's for the sheer speed!

Cast On Complete!

Let the Games Begin!

Let the Games Begin!

Just waiting for the Opening Ceremonies to begin. Have all my knitting equipment, drinks to keep hydrated (Rum Runner and water!), and camera to record my progress.

On a very sad note, I was devastated to hear about the Georgian Luger, Nordar Kumaritashvili, that lost his life in a training run earlier today. I was extremely angered that TSN and CTV chose to televise footage of his final moments. To say it was graphic and highly disturbing is an understatement. May he rest in peace.

Olympic fare assembled by Brianna and Hubby, we loaded up our plates and headed down to the family room and positioned ourselves in front of the TV for the pre-ceremonies show.

GO CANADA!!!

Officially Registered

I am now an honest-to-goodness Knitting Olympian. At the time of my registration, 1624 other knitters had already committed themselves to this grand challenge. So very thrilling!

Now let me share a most pleasant surprise:

Olympic Warm-Ups

What better way to warm up for the great Knitting Olympics than knit with the intended supplies. Sock knitting qualifies nicely for me.

I finished socks for Hubby on Monday, recorded for posterity with a goodly portion of sock yarn stash. Here is a sock I started this morning for myself. Nice, light, spring-like colours. Surely all those groundhogs didn't know what they were talking about. 6 weeks more of winter? I hope not!

And finally evidence of my masterful avoidance of the Fisherman Sweater Knit-Along. I am so not in the mood for cables. Always could use another hat though.

Movie watched while sock knitting: Sunshine Cleaning. Very good.

Current book being devoured: Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jen Lancaster.

Indulgence: Pie!

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!