Tag Archives: knitting olympics

Contemplation

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I have been contemplating ripping out my 2006 Olympic sweater.  I had knit Knitting Pure & Simple’s Neckdown V-Neck Shaped Cardigan in Rowan Felted Tweed.  Amazing enough I managed to finish it in the 16 days of the Olympics, thus winning myself a gold medal (unlike this last time when failed miserably).  Here’s a terrible cell phone picture of it the first time I wore it.

It was a nice enough sweater, but it had some problems.  The sleeves, although I had measured them diligently and multiple times, came out short.  The confusing part there is they are the length of other sleeves I have worn (I had measured a sweater I liked), and yet when I wear it the sleeves are too short.  The sweater length could be a little longer, too.  There is way too much fabric in the underarms, and yet, somehow, not quite enough for the bust.  I’ve also never been happy with the bottom portion of the sleeves — I didn’t switch from the circular needle to DPNs at the right time and there’s a section of knitting that is wonky with stretched out stitches.  But, most importantly, I just don’t wear it anymore because of all of these problems.

I still have 4 unused balls of the Felted Tweed that I didn’t use when knitting this sweater.  Not enough for a sweater on their own.  But, if I were to rip out this poor, sad, old sweater to add to the unused balls, I do believe I would have enough yarn to knit myself a Tempest.  This would be good, because I need a nice, simply cardigan that fits to wear for work.  (I have my Ribby Cardi and my Mr. Greenjeans, but they both need repairs and are showing some age; plus both are raglans, which I am beginning to believe are not a good fit for me.)

I have been inspired by Deb’s recent reknit.  I want to give this good yarn a happier future (and myself a wearable sweater).  It might even give me something to blog about.  🙂

Move along

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No progress to see here; please move along.  I have been so tired from slinging boxes at work the last few days that I’m unable to bring myself to even knit in the evening.  So, my Ishbel and my spinning both sit where they were at the beginning of the week.  The Ishbel may actually get finished since I just have the lace section left to do.

Tomorrow is for Stitches West.  I’ve signed up for Janel Laidman’s Getting the Most from a Painted Roving.  It goes all day on Friday, so hopefully, by the end of the day I should have some idea of what to do with the handpainted fibers I have slowly piling up in my fiber room.

I plan on just having lunch at the bar/restaurant in the hotel so that I don’t have to drive anywhere.  Then, into the market.  I’m not planning on returning for the rest of the weekend, so all shopping needs to be done during my lunch break and after class ends.  This year’s shopping theme is going to be tools/books.  I was in my fiber room cleaning it up so my BIL could stay the night and realized I truly do have quite a lot of fiber and yarn and no time to do anything with it.  (And I just got into The Loopy Ewe’s sock club for this year and am considering signing up for another year of infliction sock yarn from the Mean Girls Yarn Club.)  So, something will have to be truly amazing for me to think about getting it if it isn’t a tool or a book.

I also have the mission to buy a couple of skeins of sock yarn and a sock book for my MIL’s birthday, which is in a couple of months.  She’s getting back into knitting and the pair of socks I knit for her has inspired her to have more handknit socks of her own.  I think I’m going to get her a skein from Abstract Fibers and perhaps one from either Pigeonroof or Lisa Souza; I like the idea of getting her something rather local.  The book I’m thinking of getting her is Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks.  I think she’ll like the historical connection as well as the simple, but pretty patterns in the book.

I’m not entirely sure where my Ravelry name pin has gotten too; I’ll have to see if I can find it.  I do plan on wearing my Brandywine shawl tomorrow so that I can show it off to Romi in person.  See you there!

Cleaning out the cobwebs

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Time flies when life is crazy.  International travel followed by the introduction of a new family member (see right) along with the stress of an archival collection move to prepare for at work has kept the days rolling by without note here.  But, mostly, the addition of a puppy has taken up most of my time.  There hasn’t even been a lot of knitting, and there’s been no spinning since we got her in October.

Her name is Lily, and we got her from a rescue that takes dogs out of kill shelters in SoCal and brings them north for adoption.  Lily’s mom was the one actually rescued and then discovered to be pregnant.  Mom was a white cockapoo, and there have been many guesses as to what dad may have been.  The general consensus is either wire-haired dachshund or some sort of terrier.  Lily’s nickname is Troublebutt — she’s 7 months old as of last week and has been having loads of fun finding news things to make a mess of.

With the Winter Olympics (and thus Ravelympics and the Knitting Olympics) about to commence tonight, I thought it was time to do some spring cleaning in the old blog.  I’ve done away with the large gathering of dust bunnies Russian spam and installed a shiny new post.  Of course, I have no idea if there’s anyone out there still bothering to read.

Now to decide on projects.  For the Ravelympics, I’m on Team Suck Less, and my project is going to be to spin for a complete project.  I just haven’t decided yet if I will be spinning for socks or a lace shawl.  Decisions, decisions. I have some superwash corriedale from Spunky Eclectic in a pretty colorway called Soul Windows that would make nice socks.  But, I also have some Dark BFL also from Spunky Eclectic in a colorway called Myrtle that would make a pretty Bitterroot.

For the Knitting Olympics, I’ve put my name in and said I’d be knitting an Ishbel shawl with some of my handspun shetland romney laceweight yarn.  (Oops, signed up saying it was shetland, oh well.)  I haven’t really done a lot with my handspun yarn because I sometimes upset myself by only seeing the imperfections in the yarn as I’m knitting it rather than the loveliness of the project.  So, my challenge is to knit a project with my handspun… and actually finish it.