Gold!

I bound off the last stitch of the body of Forecast a few minutes after the Olympic flag was handed over to my fabulous city's mayor for the 2010 games (!!), during the live broadcast around a quarter to 1, PST. There was a hairy bit there, when I realized I needed to wind up a new ball of yarn a mere four rows from finish, but I did it. Gold!

This photo is crap; I'll take better ones as I progress toward finishing the rest of the sweater.

Things I learned:

• Cabling
• Bobbling
• If I prioritize it, I can get a lot of knitting done in a short time
• I really do prefer knitting to purling

A secret I kept from all the internets: I gave up caffeine in the last week. Bad timing? Possibly. But since I was into making commitments, I figured why not go for broke.

I should have knitted a pedestal

Here's a quick post about the Closing Ceremonies party I had today... now I'm off to watch the actual ceremonies. But what to knit? ;-)

I'm happy to keep the blog going to see how everyone progresses on their projects. Thanks to everyone for participating!

Amy

My French Market Bag Olympic Gold

I was having serious doubts that I would ever finish my bag, but I stuck it our and finished it just a mere hour before the closing ceremony! I dumped the bag in the washer as I emerged from my self-imposed exile and headed into town to find some food!

Well here it is, my French Market Bag in all of its glory before and after the first felting attempts:



I will be re-felting the bag at least one more time before I am satisfied, but to have it done this far has seen me reach my Olympic goal! I had serious doubts in my mind about knitting on the circulars, grafting the straps together, and being able to knit something more challenging than a simple scarf! But in the end I was able to over come my fears and create a wonderful bag!

I am already plotting what to knit with the remainder of the wool that I have in this colorway......and plotting what to do with the 10 skeins of a different color I had sent to my parents house in the US to use while I am on vacation in 2 weeks!

Congratulations & Good job to all of my fellow knitting hookers!

Thanks Guys!!!

Thank you Kim and Amy for putting Team Hooker together. It was neat to be in a group with crocheters who knit. I enjoyed watching everyone's progress.

Here's where I ended up

Teal Hogget from Wendy Knits:
19 inches finished on back. (Finished back will be 25 inches. I added an extra inch to the length.)

Armhole shaping

I'm actually happy I got that far, and am going to keep on with it until finished.

Thanks so much to Kim and Amy for starting this group!

Olympic Gold!!!

(Reposted from my blog)

Wheee-haw! Another knitting olympics gold for Team Canada / Team Hooker! I finished my Canada sweater! (Seams sewn, ends woven in and everything.) I can't believe I actually knit a *whole* sweater during the olympics. :) Here's pictures:



(Yep, that second one is a crappy auto-timer photo taken after midnight. There's even a few flash-bulb pixies come to admire the sweater. I'll get better photos on my blog one day...)

Wow, armhole shaping!

(Cross-posted to my blog ).

It's been so much fun looking at everyone's Olympics projects! Congratulations to those who have finished or are finishing by tomorrow!!

I decided to work on my knitted sweater awhile because I had another problem with the crocheted one. I now have 15 inches completed on the knitted sweater back, and have gotten past the part where I bind off for the armholes. I realized this is the farthest I've got on a knitted sweater in about 4 years.

Even though I know I'm not going to finish either sweater by tomorrow, I do feel good about my progress on this knitted one. I'm going to keep on with both sweaters after tomorrow and now have a goal of March 31 for finishing them. I'm on the Yahoo Crochetolympics list that was started by Sara. Anyway, after the Olympics, the list will be converted to a challenge group where we work on finishing our choice of items (knitted and crocheted) by the end of each month. This is cool for people like me who tend to get bored and put things down--I'll have incentive to finish things so I won't have to keep putting the same project on the list month after month.

As soon as I get a photo of my knitting, I'll post it.

Forecast, Day 16

Fewer than 30 rows to go. I've always loved knitted ribbing, and I'm enjoying the mindless go of it. By all indications, I'll finish the body tomorrow and the sweater will fit. My only worry is that I'll feel so satisfied for having earned my gold that I'll slack off on actually finishing the sweater. Must. Maintain. Momentum.

[x-posted all over the place]

Olympic Socks Complete

I have crossed the finish line and my Olympic socks are DONE!!! YEAHHHH! Gotta busy day today with the grandkids' baptism this afternoon but I HAD to get this posted. I go back on my threat to wear my new Jersey to the church but you're damn tootin' I WILL be wearing my new socks! I am so happy with myself to not only completing the socks, but completing them on time!!!
Special thanks to Yarn Harlot for challenging us with the Knitting Olympics :)
Here's the pics.

The End is Near

(Reposted from my blog)



Shoulders are seamed. Sleeves need 1-2 more inches. Then there's just the roll collar and seaming. :)

It has sleeve(hole)s!

Moving along nicely on the Tank Girl tank, my new Knitting Olympics entry. I'll at least finish the back.

And I had to laugh at the math required to adapt the pattern to the new gauge.

[x-posted to my blog]

No Time to Knit Today!

Gotta surprise tonight from my husby and my son! Ok well not quite a surprise I knew we were getting them but I they were here when I got home. ! Yes our .Team Canada Jerseys! Now I am just waiting for my Knitting Olympics Canadian Team Jersey to arrive and I am good to go!

Ok I was out shopping pretty much all day for Baptism gifts for my four (yes I said four!!!) Grandkids. *Think I should wear my new jersey to the church? (wink)* And yes I totally broke the 'Bank of Granny' Oh well gotta love it! after all they are my darling grands and this will only happen once in their lives. I am just so happy it will be a very special day for them.
My problem... NO KNITTING TODAY! and ya it's all their faults! and yes I am pouting! is this where I say Na-na na-na na na ???? LOL
Well I am off to knit now for the rest of the 'until i fall asleep from doing the mall for so long today'! I am so glad that I am actually ahead of schedule on the second sock event. Oh ya a pic... hang on brb.......

second sock.... SOCK where are you.....
hmmm it wandered off on me!

oh there you are ...keeping DH company! ROFL! (much to large a dose of mall today)

ok here ya go a pic...
see I am almost done!

Canada Sweater Update

(Cross-posted from my blog.)



So, there I was last night, knitting madly away at my olympic sweater, cheering on the Canadian speed skaters, and coming to the conclusion that the aerial skiers (and many of the other athletes) are certifiably crazy. My tongue was still irritated, and my eyes were acting up too. However, I wasn't thinking about that. I was thinking about my wonderful Canada sweater, and how I'd finish the front and back that night. I was also admiring the yarn, which I had read a review on the day before that said the Araucania yarns were dyed using natural dyes. What could possibly achieve such a wonderful red colour? Was it a plant dye? Mineral? Insect? I had flipped through a natural dye book recently, and that stuff is fascinating. Did they use a metal...

...metal? Um, I'm allergic to lots of metals...

My swollen tongue and itchy eyes prodded me. My tongue had started swelling shortly after I began my olympic knitting project, where I worked exclusively with this yarn.

Some of the dye had come off on the stitch markers I used while doing the intarsia.

Could I possibly be allergic to the dye, or some other substance used to treat the yarn? Nooooooooo!

So here's the plan: I'm nearly done this sweater. The front and back are done, the sleeves are getting close, and then all that's left is the seaming and collar. I am going to finish this sweater, and then wash and rinse it until all bleeding of dye stops. Then I'm going to pack away all the leftovers, vacuum the couch, wash the sweaters I've been wearing while working on this yarn, and avoid contact with the yarn for several days. If the swelling finally goes away, I think I have my answer.

To test my conclusion, I'll then wear my sweater. If my tongue doesn't swell, either the washing worked, or the yarn wasn't the problem. The next step will be to use the leftover wool, to see if my tongue swells up again.

If I get results indicating the yarn is the problem, I'm going to use the "contact" form to see if the yarn company is willing to tell me what they used to dye and treat this particular colour.

Either way, I'm ahead. I've either solved my tongue swelling, or I'm still allowed to use this yarn. ;) (And if the yarn is the tongue-swelling culprit, then I can have orange flavoured craisins again!)

Socks Soc.....

Ok OK I am getting there! I will be done in time I know it but the second sock isn't finished yet. Soc... yup about 3/5ths the way there is a good guess. I am working on the foot but still have a quite a few inches to go. Hoping tomorrow night to be nearing the toe region and finishing up on Friday. I will post a pic tomorrow. Camera is in the dark dark bedroom and my Husby is sleeping....shhhhh.....
night night.

Back on the horse, or whatever

After some serious frogging, I tried tried again. I'm now working on "Tank Girl" from Stitch 'n' Bitch. I don't know if I'll finish by closing ceremonies, but the Olympic spirit prevails nonetheless.

French Market Bag...update!

Hi everyone! I am still around and working towards my goal...if it will be reached is anyones guess! My computer hard drive crashed once again, and of course I lost everything....luckily I had made a back-up of the imporant things (i.e. Crochet and knitting favoritse, links and patterns) a few days before!

I am probably about 60% done with the bag - I have the bottom and 5 of my intended 12 inches done on the sides! I am going to dedicate the next two night to knitting before heading back to my crochet project which is about 75% done...typical me in leaving it for the last minute!!

Here is the colorway from the side and the bottom of the bag:

Setting my jaw and bending into the wind.

Well, kids, the jury's out on whether I'll be able to finish this sucker in time. I'm guardedly optimistic. As you can see, I've put the sleeve stiches on holders, so my progress has definitely picked up a bit. I have a couple more hours to go until I begin the ribbing; then my pace should really quicken. Any hopes I'd had in the beginning that I would surpass my goal of just finishing the body have been smacked back down to reality. I'm going to have to set aside a lot of time for knitting in the next few days...

[x-posted all over the place]

Quick Update: Olympic Socks

We are interupting this program to bring you a special report. We will now cut into the event already in progress.....
...and Lyz is turning the heel on sock two........
now we take you back to your regularly scheduled knitting and blogging.

This is all I've got so far...

I haven't made very good progress on my sweater, though no one's fault but my own. See?



It's just a scan, and doesn't show the color correctly (it's more purple). It also doesn't show the whole thing, just as much as I could fit in the scanner. But it does show how uneven my stitches look. I'm not making gauge either, but it will be the size I want it to be. I just don't like going down more than 2 needle sizes and having to dig into each stitch.

I know I probably won't get this done by Saturday, especially since I'm also crocheting, but I'm not going to give up. I might get one side done, anyway. I won't have met my goal, but will have done something, and it's better than just quitting, I think, especially since I do want to make this sweater!

Weekend Progress

(Repost from my blog)


Canada Sweater Progress

I've finished the maple leaf on the front of the sweater. I stayed up way too late to do so... I was just soooo close, and wanted to finish before bed.

Of course, then I slept way too late this morning. *sigh*

I can tell where I changed balls on the back, but at least that's on the back, and not the front. ;)