Finishing & trying: Win and Win

My day has finished up earlier than expected, so I'm heading home to knit.

I didn't finish my abandoned sweater, but by knitting along with the knitting olympics, my oh my did I win anyway.

The first week of the Olympics saw the finishing of two gift projects (photos/links to be inserted here later), as mentioned in the last entry. I made headway on two new pairs of socks, zipped halfway through an indulgent bit of scarf for myself, AND that was the portable knitting.

I finished knitting the single cable sweater with Rowan Bramble and had it blocked and half seamed by the closing ceremonies (Torino time).

AND by the end of NBC's late night Sunday broadcast, I had reclaimed, as self-challenged, the peace fleece & Noro sweater. Both sleeves have now progressed up through to the elbow, the body is within two inches of the underarm. Today I found some good resource patterns on Knitty for working out the shoulder questions (raglan, drop, etc.)

These weeks could not have seen any other type of knitting challenge in the home of towering textiles, but this indeed was the perfect match. I did finish things, and like walking the marathon, I'll enjoy finishing the rest while I get there.

The packages landed, I'll wear the Bramble this week, and I can't wait to get home tonight to get over the elbows on the Peace Fleece. Congratulations to the knitters who gave it their all. I'll enjoy admiring the projects and stories I'll find over the next weeks. And I'll enjoy that kind of knitting intensity when school is out. The past 16 days I gave the knitting what I had to give, and that suits me just fine.

Can't post - Must knit

What a crazy week it's been. I've done a little mid-day blog hopping to see the Olympic projects and updates. Impressive knitters, the lot of them!

Me, I'm tooling along. Worked a bit on a sweater. Finished up a pair of socks since I couldn't be at home with the sweater on opening weekend. Packaged up the kid poncho and the grab-bag socks for mailing. (From the sounds of it, I could be keeping fine company with the assortment of FO and UFO knitting teams!) Did some other small knitting on jury-duty day. (Knitting in the assembly room only, but since that's the ONLY place I WAS, I got a bunch done.) Since I couldn't be at home to see much of the Olympics this week, either, I soothed myself with a little extra sock knitting, two types, both (ahem) for me.

No pictures today. Must grab a bite to eat and then go to a rehearsal where I will be knitting one of those portable projects, WISHING I could get home soon enough to work on the sweater.

Can't stay. Must knit.

Remembering and forgetting

Such a goofy day today is.

I left home feeling like a packhorse, toting everything I needed to transfer to work today hoping I was remembering everything. I remembered the tote bag with work projects needed for the day, vowing to remember not to take so much tomorrow if I won't actually use it. This was the case last evening, and the bag was impossibly heavy. SO.

I remembered the items I promised I'd photo for some knittyheads. I remembered my lunch and supper, packing a lovely thermos of squash soup and a container of two not-quite-ratatouille filled spinach tortillas. On my mother's recent visit, she brough leftovers of some basque influenced recipe using thin slices of celeriac. We tote food a lot. (Hey, she was going to be away from home for more than a week. Waste not, etc.) I must say it made a lovely little lunch, now that I've wolfed down the tortillas and saved the soup for supper.

Where was I? Oh, I remember.

I remembered to bring some knitting for some between things waiting I have later this evening. Remembered to turn off the stove, lock doors, etc.

Forgot to dress for winter. Hat? Scarf? Boots? Snow?!?

But I do have the moment to act upon remembering to post this yarn for a knitty's perusal. Extra bonus? I actually have yarn pR0n for a Wednesday.
This would be CTH Glitter Alpaca Java:



This would be CTH Glitter Alpaca African Grey



And I was careful to be candid with another knitty about whether or not she'd want these very small metal dpns. She's declined and was glad for the candour which helped her determine her needs - but I'm posting them anyway - because I couldn't BELIEVE how tough it was for me to consider parting with them. I am SUCH a keeper and rememberer. I like that these vintage needles lived for a long, long time in Minnesota. They probably heard a lot of Swedish or Norwegian. (Found them in St. Peter.)

They also serve as an interesting and stained reminder of exactly why stainless steel was such a big deal. (That's a half strip of staples, snagged for hasty effort to provide scale...)

And I've remembered to bring the niece poncho to mail, but I've forgotten the card. Ugh.

Athletic metaphors on my terms

I've been bemused by the swoosh of activity to prepare for the Knitting Olympics. Nothing like a finite time-table for a creative challenge. Heck, that's why I like the regular rhythm of theatre tech weeks. I was hesitant to jump in, though, as I DO have a tech week that will overlap the first week of the Olympics.

What to do? Look for more athletic metaphors.

Yoga's my kind of athletic engagement. Hiking ranks there, too. I am a process fiend. So an Eddie Along is my kind of Team Olympic participation.

I'll be tackling, then, an abandoned sweater. This will be a sweater I started a good while back. It will be a sweater which had the challenge of an engaging process. It will have been put aside long enough that it has been moved into safe keeping - a plastic box or a large zip bag - and stored temporarily with the stash. I have four candidates. There's this bit of beaded Cambio, for which the knittyboard KAL has been deleted for want of recent activity. This photo was in May. I'm twice as far, or more.

There's this monster. Training will call for frogging and swatching. It may be an over-reach.

There's this little friend from the summer. I'd puzzled over stripes through chest, armscye, and sleeve, so I paused to puzzle more.

And there's an aran sweater of long-ago frogged for re-sizing delphinium blue Galway. The pattern has been lost in the boxes I must purge, through two moves, mind. I'm starting to lean toward using this vintage Brunswick pattern. This could be a mighty two week goal, but I'm worried about the time available in that one tech week.

In the spirit of the Olympic endeavour, I'll pick up with the flame and go for the 16 day stretch. In the spirit of Eddie-ing along, I'll enjoy the process and knit as I'm able.

Here's to all the teams and the pursuit of so many grand goals!

A blogger's (silent) poetry reading

My mother will be sharing these words aloud this week with children.
I hope they have snow.

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

- Robert Frost, "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Found this at My Fashionable Life.