Knitting Olympics

For your reference:

http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/olympics2006.html

Planning to enter today. Undecided on project. The contenders?

1. A pair of socks.
I can never finish socks. I buy sock yarn, I start them, and then....I get bored.

2. A shawl
I like shawls, but it probably doesn't count as a challenge, since these are my default knitting.

3. Stranded Mittens
My newest obsession. If I do these, it'll be my own adapted design, for my sister-in-law (who is going to the Olympics), which I'll post here. Braids will be involved. This is the chief contender at the moment.

Thoughts?

Projects on the Go

An attempt to take stock of everything I have (i) on the needles, (ii) yarn for, but not cast on, (iii) yarn on order for, and (iv) patterns I want to make but haven't gotten to yet. Your patience is appreciated.

Lotus Blossom
Oh, how I adore this pattern. A lot. I have at least two versions on the go at the moment, in various stages of finished. The first one is in Baby Silk, a pretty aubergine. I'm just about to start the second part of the shawl on it, the "blossom" bit, having finished the stems. It is soft and lovely, and I can't remember why I stopped knitting it. The second version of it is an adaptation I've been playing with, knit in very soft Aussie Merino birthday yarn. It's...not nearly as far along, as my interest has been recently stolen by....

Kiri Shawl
Beautiful falling leaves, so perfect for October knitting! My in-laws were kind enough, on a recent trip to the Maritimes, to pay a visit to Baadeck Yarns, and pick up some beautiful Fleece Artist for my wife and I to molest knit with. Hers is a lovely green merino/silk, and the skein I got was the DK weight Bluefaced Leicester, in a stunning autumn palette. It's definitely hit the black hole stage, but every time I finish a pattern repeat, I get this giddy high that makes me lay it out, pet it, and demand it recieve the admiration of whoever is unfortunate to be around me at the time. Usually my lovely wife, who, bless her, is even more of a knitting addict than I am (we debate this).

There may be some cashmerino somewhere about the house that has also snuck onto needles in this general pattern as well. It may well turn into something else, though...

Flower Basket Shawl
Having finally found a copy of this shawl in my LYS, I clung to the copy I found, refused to put it down, and snarled at anyone who came too close jumped at the opportunity to bring it home. I've discovered that there are some patterns that just strike me as beautiful, and this is definitely one of them. Having played with the cast-on (which I think is nifty) for about five different "versions" of the shawl, I finally settled on knitting it in dove-grey Lacey Lamb, an incredibly soft lace-weight lamb's wool that would make cashmere blush with envy. It will be my first foray into knitting laceweight, and I think it's a good yarn to ease me in with. The hand is incredible on it, and it is only my wife's wisdom ("It'll tangle!") that keeps me from cuddling it like a teddy bear when I go to bed each night. Not very far on this one, since I've only been playing with it for a week or so, and then, only when I'm feeling patient.

Mohair Purgatory
Each time I take up a project, I learn something new and valuable, not just for knitting, but for life. Last Christmas, I recieved the book Folk Shawls from my lovely wife, and in a fit of optimism, offered to make her a shawl from it. Not just any shawl, the Irish Diamond shawl, which is, I have discovered, more of a blanket than an article of clothing. Furthermore, when we went to pick out the yarn for it, I foolishly generously declared that I would make it out of whatever yarn she liked, knowing her taste tended to be close to my own.

Stop laughing. I realize that this was opening myself up to the mocking punishment of the Yarn Gods, that pride goes before a fall, all that. To be fair though, when she held up a ball across the store, I almost danced with glee. A beautiful deep crimson, my own favourite colour. No worries about hating the colour.

Then I got closer. And realized that the ball she was holding was, in fact, mohair.

I have since discovered several things about mohair:

• It is not a good yarn to knit your first openwork project on. The finished product looks stunning, but it is merry hell to tink.
• It creates a very warm fabric, and makes one's hands sweat while working with it in warm weather. Which leads to...felting!
• While I like the appearance of the finished product, I would rather spork out my own eyebals, than knit with mohair.

Despite this, I love my wife enough that I nevertheless intend to finish her shawl.

Regardless, with the advent of cooler weather, this one deserves some attention, neglected as it's been, the poor dear. Because, once it's finished, I will never have to work with mohair again.

Rogue

You may be noticing a bit of a trend. While I'm not in the habit of wearing shawls, I am very much in the habit of starting them. They are fun to knit, I don't have to worry about gauge fairies sneaking into the house at night, and they show off handpainted yarn to nice advantage.

But, I have a confession.

I don't actually wear shawls. I want to, I'm trying, really....

...but I want to make a sweater. And cables fascinate me.

Every time I build up enough courage to try this pattern, which I've owned since February, something thwarts me. I'll be unable to decide on a colour, finances will be a bit tight, a new pattern will catch my attention or the perfect yarn for another project will whisk my attention away.

Someday, Rogue....

Someday you'll be mine.

Me Like Hockey

So my dear wife and I were at the in-laws over the long weekend, and decided to sit down and watch the hockey game (Ottawa vs Toronto). While doing so, a few things became apparent:

Hockey is perfect to knit through

Project this game was the Kiri shawl. I think it'll be very pretty when done. The pattern knits from the neck down, and so gets rather large at the stage I'm at right now (about 250 stitches/row), and so is perfect mindless "black hole" knitting for watching the Sens play.

I like the new rules

I'm hardly a rabid hockey fan, I do enjoy watching the Sens play, but my understanding of the game itself is hardly extensive. My opinion is based purely on observation, not on any guru-like technical comprehension. The new rules do seem to result in more scoring, as promised, which I have mixed feelings on. I feel a little bad for retired players whose records are going to get broken....but that is, I suppose, a relatively minor point. I like that more penalties are being called...the rules are seeming to actually mean something, at last. And I think it's very good that the rule change is favouring faster, better offense and goaltending, which will (I hope) cut back on the "thugging out" of teams that was happening.

I don't like hockey announcers

While I'm generally fairly tolerant about the abuse of the English language by some members of the population, I have rather higher standards for those who are, presumably, earning a living by using words. And, like it or not, sports announcers fall under this category. Two particular gems stood out in the game last night:

"He's got the puck! He's all alone! He's converging on the net!"

Converging: approaching each other towards the tip

By definition, to converge on the net, there would have to be at least one other player. While hockey players are indeed large, even very large men cannot converge all on their own. But nice try.

"He's a goal scorer. He scores goals. He knows where to go to score the goals"

There is an amusing element of "See Spot. See Spot run. Run spot run" in the structure of this eloquent commentary, but it is the content that interests me the most. We are watching a hockey game. With, yes, hockey players. I assume that it is a minimum requirement of playing in the NHL that players...even those who are not goal scorers....know where to go to score the goals. For those unfamiliar with the game, the answer is, of course, the net. Not the parking lot out back, not the stands, the net.

"He doesn't have as much confidence as he thinks he has!"

This confounds me. It is either a statement of profound idiocy, or an incredibly deep zen meditation statment that is simply beyond me.

Confidence: assurance: freedom from doubt; belief in
yourself and your abilities.

Stunning.