Idea

This blog has been a little boring lately- so I'm struck with an interesting idea to jazz it up a little.  I have a whole laundry list of tasks that I'm supposed to be doing that are knitting related this week.  Why don't I list them here and when I complete the task I'll update the post with a picture of the completed item?  Let's see how many of these items I can get done!

1) Charity Oddball Blanket Section (Tis the Season)

2) Charity OddballBlanket Section (Chocolate Indulgence)

3) 2 Baby Hats from "the big ball"

4) Block the Umaro Blanket

5) Knit swatches for the "25 Tricks" Class

6) Knit swatches for the "Fantastic Finishing" class

7) Begin charting out Stampede Project (sorry no pictures, I gotta keep this a surprise for a while)

Olympic Nail Biter

Well, I finished.  I would have posted this yesterday to commemorate the end of the actual Olympics, except that I was really REALLY tired from getting up and watching TEAM CANADA WIN HOCKEY GOLD!!  (Obviously pretty happy about it!)  I'm lucky enough to have a toddler who sleeps late (8:00 am) so getting up at 5 was a foreign concept... but worth it in the end.

I actually finished Umaro late Friday night, much to my relief.  A) I was getting sick of the pattern.  Umaro is a great blanket there is nothing wrong with the pattern, but as usual I just hit that ennui part of the knitting and my mind starts going "let's make something else that's not this."  B) I was cutting it close to having enough yarn.  My goal was to use as MUCH as the yarn as possible, and so I did my best to work down every skein as well as I could.  At the end I wasn't sure I was going to have enough to get through my border and cast off.

I was looking at this ball of yarn and going- "can I get 21 rows out of this?"

Nothing motivates quite like panicking if you have enough yarn to actually finish your project.  Here we are with just the border remaining and my heart is really pounding.  In my head I'm thinking "that isn't enough.... that ISN'T ENOUGH".

I start telling myself that if need be I can use the small leftovers that I had from each ball because they wouldn't actually knit up a full row.  "There will be a lot of ends to weave in" I tell myself, but I'm really pretty sure at this point I'm screwed.

Except that I wasn't.  I finished with just that much yarn above to spare.  WHEW.  I wove in the ends and declared myself finished!

I didn't include blocking the blanket as part as being done- so that will need to be done this week so that I can take some glamour photos of the blanket and post it here.

Looking ahead this is going to be a busy week of little things.  I'm finishing up a section on a WCOBB charity blanket and have another blanket expecting to show up soon as well.  Also, I want to knit 2 hats, to stay ahead of my hat project.  And, most importantly, I need to knit several swatches for my Vogue Knitting classes that I signed up for.  On top of that, I'd really like to kickstart my Stampede project, which I'm doing from scratch- I need to chart out my design and begin thinking about what I'm going to do there as well.

The next few weeks will be busy, but it feels good to just revel in the fact that I'm done this big project!

Sochi Knitter

Well, progress is progress- it's somewhat hard to see that I'm progressing and I'm really over this pattern.  (Typical pattern ennui.)

 It's a little hard to feel like this is Olympic knitting, because when I knit, the Olympics are airing repeats, as most of the events of the day have already happened and I know the results.  I usually knit in the afternoons and evenings when my little "big guy" is sleeping.  I really haven't actually watched any Olympics and knit at the same time.

I've been really proud of Canada so far- we've done really well.  Although, there's a little part of me would like us to pick up the medal winning pace again.  ;-)  Hopefully we'll add another medal today in figure skating.  NO PRESSURE Patrick Chan.... except.... PRESSURE PRESSURE PRESSURE.

I really regret not noting how far I was prior to the Olympics on this blanket.  But Progress is being made.

Here's BEFORE the start....

Earlier this week.....

And Yesterday....

I'm at about 22" into this project.  I started with 6 balls of yarn to work through, and am down to 3.5 remaining.  I'm working at a decent pace but will need to continue knitting furiously if I hope to have a gold medal finish.

You can keep updated on my progress at this link, which gets updated earlier than this blog.  (Sorry- need to knit frequently, so updates are going to be brief.)

GO CANADA GO!

Late Breaking Olympic Update

I hmmm'd and haaaa'd a bit over what my Olympic entry would be this time around, and even gave serious consideration to not entering anything.  BUT, I decided I still wanted to compete, I just had to be realistic about what I was doing.  I knew I could not knit a whole baby blanket in 2 weeks, I KNEW that.  But I also wanted to finish the one I had and move on to other things and so... without further ado, I'm happy to announce:

I'll be participating win WiP* Dancing at the Ravellenic Games on Team Canada.  I'll be taking a project that I began PRIOR to the Olympics and setting my goal to finish it during the Olympics.

Hear that Umaro blanket?  I'm going to try to finish you.  This isn't an easy challenge, but I'm hoping that it's something I can do.  Watch here for daily updates during the Olympics as well as blog posts that will update you as to how I'm doing.



_______________________________________
*Works in Progress

Further notes: I will consider a gold medal finish if I use up all of my yarn and weave in the ends.  I am not going to count blocking as part of a "finish".  Blocking can occur after the Olympics, but the most important thing is that the yarn is all used up and the ends are all woven in.

Still Here, Still Knitting

Oh Hi!  You may have wondered where I was, or if I had gone over to the dark side after the quiet book and become a full time felt crafter.  (HA)  Not to worry... this little hiatus was much more relaxing.

Our annual trip to Maui warmed me up for 10 days and reminded me what a warm sun feels like.  Sadly the weather wasn't as perfect as it sometimes is, (always a risk going in January),  and we had a few rainy days that forced me inside and kept me knitting.  I always lament that I never knit on vacation, well, this time I did!  (It probably helps that MiL was there and was also knitting so she sort of "put me in the mood" to pick up the needles.)

(Blurry sock, clear view... sorry about that!)  It's not a tonne of progress, but it's just enough of progress to make me feel like I did something crafty while I was there.  I ventured off the course of just a "plain Jane sock" this time and decided to do the "Vanilla Bean Striped Sock" just to add a little bit of interest to the game.

Before we left, I wasn't able to squeeze in another blog post but there was some knit "excitement" here.

My beautiful Wollmeise arrived, even after I swore I wouldn't order anymore.  (I was weak!  It was my birthday... it was like a sign that I had to just order the damn thing!)  The color, as always is beautiful and I hope that I actually knit with it.  To be honest though, I'm kicking myself a little because this is very close to another Wollmeise color I already have... and I should have maybe thought my purchase through a little more.  Oh well... one can never really have enough red so I'll make due!

I also, on a whim, decided to squeeze in another little hat to add to the collection, I just made up the pattern as I went.

Now that I'm home, I've dived back into the Umaro blanket, which I can work on again without any distractions.  Progress is moving along at a decent pace, but I'm already finding myself thinking about other things to knit instead.  (I have the attention span of a gnat apparently.)  I'm liking the pattern, but I had a better idea of something to knit for my friend this was intended for and now I'm feeling less inspired by what I'm doing.  (Friend is pregnant with their "flood baby" [they were flooded out and "consoled each other" - 9 months later flood baby is set to make it's arrival] and I kind of wish I had done a water themed blanket for them.  I'm toying with the idea of changing up my project mid knitting here.... but I'm not sure it's the best idea.  I want to be cheeky, not insensitive... they are still not back in their home and likely won't be for at least the remainder of this year, that's a TOUGH pill to swallow for anyone.  I can't decide it will be funny, or SO NOT FUNNY.)

I need to decide what I'm doing- by TOMORROW at NOON at the latest.  I have yet to commit to something on the Ravellenic Games (knitting challenge during the Olympics).  I'm smart enough to realize that I can't knit a blanket in 2 weeks.  I just can't.  It's not even ok for me to think that it could be a possibility.  I'm fast... but I'm not insanely fast.  But truthfully, starting another sock, or a pair of mittens when I have a large number of babies coming up isn't practical.  I need to knit blankets.  I just do.  So I think what I'll do is set a certain "inches" goal instead.  Like I need to be 30 inches on the Umaro blanket or if I DO change my plans mid knitting here, a certain number of inches on the new blanket.  (Am I insane to even be considering this?)  I'll let you know next week what I decide.

In the mean time- I thought I'd catch you up on the goings on here and assure you, I'm still here and I'm still knitting.