Pretty things

I got some fuzzy blue unlabeled yarn at a yard sale 10 days ago, and quick as a wink made this little triangle.


It will block out a bit, and go to the Children's Aid for someone to snuggle up with. Why can't I do that with the yarn I actually go to the store and choose myself?

not bacon, but quartz!

Yesterday I took Elaine and a bunch of kids to the ROM. Their class was going on a field trip to the Cadbury chocolate factory, but the chocolate people wouldn't let in anyone with food allergies or sensitivites, so there were a few who were unable to go.

Luckily we had 3 parents for 5 children, so that worked well. No chocolate, but we had fun, and since the class is studying rocks and minerals, we got to see all these pretty things. (No flash, museum lighting.)

my favourite, malachite!

One day I will put all my whitish wool into a blanket like this. Must remember that a touch of gold will set it all off nicely!

Such fun

I still go in once in a while to knit with the kids at Arthur's school. Some are coming along fine, but our dream of a blanket of squares will not be realised this year!

A while ago, I took in a few Knifty Knitters, giant knitting spools, because some of the students found it hard to manipulate 2 sticks.


However, I neglected to take in protective casings for them, and somehow they became completely and uselessly tangled up! The little balls of thin acrylic yarn, which is pretty useless on these giant things anyways, just exploded all over the knobs, and it was a giant mess.


Lucky for everyone, I have a compulsion to disentangle things like this. The thin yarn will go to a swap tomorrow (if all goes well) and the hoops will go back to school next week.

The best thing about this whole exercise was using the editing tool on the photos -- who needs to vacuum if you can just erase the cracker crumbs?

Number 2

My second cable swatch! This is fun.


I haven't cast off, and will keep going for a while. We can't have everything the same shape and size, now, can we?


The background is garter stitch, as you can see, and I purl all across the wrong-side rows, and purl the garter stitch bits on the front. I can see a whole garment in this, or one or two of these panels in a more elaborate design.

It's from the VK 2010 calendar, April 21, and called Tower of Song, for some reason!

Cable swatch #1 and other gems

This is the pattern for March 9 from the VK Stitch-a-day 2010 calendar. They call it Firefly, for some reason. Columns of 4 knit stitches, separated by a purl, and off-set pairs of cables. I'd maybe use it for a blanket where sheer size would be impressive, but wouldn't be too tempted to make a sweater with it.


It is my first item in the Cable-a-day KAL I have joined on Ravelry, though I am only aiming for a cable a week! It's in Twilley's denim cotton, and perhaps I should have done another repeat of the pattern to allow for shrinkage, but we are just trying to be free and easy here!

I have also been working on my carefree la-de-da cotton scarf. Elaine says she will make her own pink scarf, thank you very much, so I hope to get this off to the Children's Aid. It will only take one of my two skeins, so I might just whip up another sometime this summer and send them both off.


It really is that pink! I changed the stitch pattern from the one in VLT -- that one had only k2tog as a decrease, and I thought the fabric wanted to slant, and would be a big ol' pain to block out. So I switched to this: k2tog, yo, K1, yo, SSK, K1. Rinse and repeat, ad infinitum.

And I'll end with a show of what I am not knitting! I got a book out of the library called Knitting Lace, by Barbara Abbey. Full of delicate gorgeous things, made in what I would call crochet cotton. However, I would need to rewrite the patterns, or learn a whole new language!

I did catch on that / means "knit two together" and 00 means a double yarnover. Hoo la. For now, I'll just look at the pictures.

Plans for the future

At the beginning of the year, or maybe in the middle of the flurry of activity at the Knitting Olympics, I had the notion to knit a biggish thing per month. Now that my 2 big long-time unfinished projects are out of the way, or almost (!), I'm thinking of what to do next, and can't quite commit to a large project.

So. I have joined a group on Ravelry to make swatches of cable patterns. I think I will try for one square a week, and heaven knows I have enough inspiration around the house. Plain old stitch dictionaries, Alice Starmore's Aran Knitting, decades of VK back issues... That should keep me busy, actually.

I also have the unfinished socks, and the multitude of blankets in progress! I won't start anything big for a while, I think. My mom's birthday is in July and she will need a pair of socks, but I am not making teacher dishrags or anything like that! I shall try to be carefree yet productive. Does that sound possible?

And now for something completely different! It is Britain's Got Talent time again! So far this year there are three women singers, ranging in age from 10 to 80, and they are all excellent; a man who can sing but apparently doesn't have great stage presence; some world-class gymnasts; and a dog.



Stay tuned -- there are still several weeks of auditions to go, so maybe Chandi will be eclipsed, but right now, I'd say she was the front-runner in my books.

Yarnbomb the Textile Museum

The Textile Museum downtown, hidden away just near Dundas and University, is yarnbombing itself! And asking for donations! They'd better be careful or they'll have to cover the whole building.

lockers at another museum -- blanket inspiration

And speaking of yarnbombing, did you see that Nona reappeared for a moment? And has been knitting tags, among other things...

Something new

Progress so far: I looked at the ol' denim cardigan and wondered, "Maybe I washed and shrunk this already. Otherwise, how did these ends get so darn tangled?" But, I noticed that really it was practically all done. The buttonbands were on! So, I trimmed some ends and threw it in the washer, perhaps for the second time. Didn't dry it bone dry in the dryer, so it is lying upstairs on a rack right now. I have to decide whether to fuss about having preshrunk yarn to sew it up. I wonder if this is where I stopped the last round! In any case, we're well on our way with that project!

I thought I should have an easy portable fun project, instead of starting a new sweater.


So I got out this hot pink cotton that a friend gave me, and have embarked on a simple lace scarf from Victorian Lace Today. The yarn is not at all as fine as suggested, so I am hoping for a wider wrap than the 8" scarf in the book. I once got these wooden needles at a yarn swap and they seem fine for this job. So far, so good.

New month, new list

I accomplished one of my goals for April, and finished the Skiers sweater. So, yay me. I wonder what to do with the almost-4 balls of black Shetland Chunky I have left! Black baby blanket seems like not a very good idea.

The other thing I was going to do was finish up the Acres of Mesh. In fact, I didn't do this by the end of April, but looky here:


Somehow it doesn't fit quite the way it looks in the magazine... but it'll be fun in the summer.

For Stephen's birthday on the weekend I made Coq au Vin, which is dead easy -- cook some chicken, pour on wine. Cook some more. Throw in mushrooms. Ta Da! Looks funny, though -- a very lovely dark pink from the wine. But it tasted great. I don't have a picture of it, but I did snap one of the birthday cake. Guess how old he is?



He got a shirt from one of his grad students.



I'm pleased to say that physicists great and small were debating what exactly that equation is all about!

So, plans for May...

1. Sew up the Denim cardigan. This has been sitting around for a long time, but I just need to do buttonbands and other fiddly bits, I think. It's a mind-over-matter issue.
2. Work on a pair of socks. I have 2 different partially knit socks somewhere around here, and I'd like to have at least one pair by the end of the month!
3. Start something new -- and right now I'm not committing to anything in particular, since I change my mind every half hour.
4. Tend my herb garden, including this lemon verbena. I wish Blogger had smell-o-vision! It smells like lemon candies!
   

All but the buttons

Fits like it was made for him! Well, that's because my loosey-goosey calculations turned out to be bang on for once. The sleeves are a good length, and if he can hold off on the growing for a bit, we'll be fine.

(That's not a giant red bow in his hair, that's a big red kite hanging from the ceiling!)


"Look like a skier!" Too bad the loony grin was too much for public viewing.

I am afraid that I have not been as successful with the Chia pet. It is a dud, I have to say. I will look for some fresh seeds, but for now, it's a big ol' zero.

And now I have a few days to sew on the buttons for this sweater and attempt to sew up one more! But we are gearing up for the last birthday party of the season this weekend, and I have Coq au Vin to make (it starts at the bottom of that page), as well as a cake and all that other party stuff. So we shall see about sweater seaming.

Tonight, buttons!

Unfinished business

I see by my sidebar list that I have not finished anything since February*! I guess if you count bits, I may make my "52 items in 52 weeks" deadline, but it does seem a bit cheating to count a sleeve as an FO!

I have made some pieces of stocking stitch in scraps of DK wool that I mean to sew together into a blanket one day. Does that add 2 or 3 more items? (Reason #1 for disliking stocking stitch -- the dreaded curl!)


I did pledge to have two finished sweaters by the end of the month, and that could still happen -- I've got about a week, I think!



Just a few billion ends to sew in and a collar to knit. And some seams to sew and some buttons to acquire and apply. A breeze....

* ETA: I forgot about my H! So, now I say I haven't finished anything since March. Much better...

Care and feeding of the Chia pet

My love of the totally crazy led me to adopt this dinosaur Chia pet when my friends were getting rid of it.









After gleefully taking it home, it occurred to me to ask how old it was, and I got the answer: "...been sitting around for years - you might sprout a few cobwebs."

Caveat emptor indeed.






But, undaunted, I soaked my terra cotta dinosaur in water for 24 hours, and I soaked my ancient seeds in another bit of water.

This turns them into some sort of gelatinous muck which will stick to the grooves on the planter.

And it seems to have worked -- they were certainly mucky!


They appear to be sticking.

The instructions promise sprouts soon, and a lovely coat in one to two weeks... though they say nothing about seeds that have been sitting around in a package for several years.

We shall see!



I was dismayed to find that there was no Flickr group especially for Chia pets, but I did find some gems.

We have the Barack Obama Chia.

The unidentifiable but very luxuriant Chia.

Now, this is amazing... The chronicle of the Kurt Vonnegut Chia.

I'm not sure I'll give you such excellent coverage of the dinosaur's progress, but I'll do my best.

Here's something special

Ha!
I did not win that medal from the Boston Marathon, but I did knit the trophy dishcloth for my friend KT, who ran the whole darn thing in four hours and 6 minutes! I was over there this evening celebrating with champagne and cake (killing two birds with one cake, since her son's birthday is tomorrow) and took the opportunity to get this photo!

And, since she is cleaning out her basement, a task that even marathoners must do once in a while, I also got a cast-off Chia pet! The dinosaur! More on that in days to come. I've never ever had a Chia pet in all these years...

Couldn't stand it

I had to delete Dolly -- couldn't handle her face at the top of my blog page day after day. Perhaps I could write something new...

Quickly: I knit some, I did some stuff, I'll write more later.

Back in the saddle

Thanks for all your kind words. I have recovered from that little setback, and while I am not yet showing off a finished sweater, I think we're well on our way again.

Here is a photo I took a week and a bit ago, when I was cruising along on the yoke.


April Fools! It was all wrong, even then... But I was so pleased with my two skiers zipping down the back!



I took the whole yoke out, and decided, maybe rightly and maybe not, that it would ultimately be better if I worked on all the little bits one at a time.


So now I have two complete fronts, and two complete sleeves. I knitted the two sleeves at the same time and followed the slightly boggling raglan decreases in the pattern (a stitch at each end every 3 rows for a bit, then every 2 rows, but up at the top, decreases every row!) so I know they are the same, and should fit!

The back still looks like this, with the second skier's torso all in a mess! There's not even a knitting needle holding him together!



Onward and upward! I won't shock you even further with pictures of the inside, but I've got lots and lots of ends to hide before I can breath easy.

One likes to have those monthly goals written down, even if they are rarely met, so I'll tell you now that by the end of April, I will have a finished Skiers, and a finished Acres of Mesh! How's that for "onward and upward"!

Now I'm sad

No inspirational photos today, folks.

I got to the very top of the yoke of the Skiers cardigan. I cast off at the front necks, decreasing away... Then the bright idea popped into my head to count some stitches.

I had more stitches on one sleeve than on the other!

I had more little knitted tree motifs on one sleeve than on the other!

I had neglected, way back at the underarm, to cast off a few stitches before beginning the raglan decreases.

I am a big dummy and the creator of this stupid mess, and now I have to frog and reknit the whole frickin' frackin' yoke.

Luckily there is chocolate in the house.

So what's with Ravelry these days?

I was looking at one of my project pages on Ravelry today, and found a button that says, "Share this." I noticed a while ago that Ravelry is no longer in beta, and I guess I missed any fanfare they may have made about that. But I think that I can now share my projects with any old passer-by, just by clicking.

Let's try, now, shall we? This should lead you to my page about the Skiers sweater.

I guess I can only share my own things, as is reasonable, so anyone who is not yet a member should surely still become one. Then you can see who else has made such crazy and delightful things.

I will soon have a picture of the Skiers that will knock your socks off, but for now, I leave you with the wallpaper we found under all those tiles in the basement bathroom.



I won't show you what else we found, but I'll give you a hint: The tub was sitting on rubble. There doesn't seem to have been much of an actual floor. It is verrrrry scarrrry, and once we figure out how to get the tub up the stairs and out of the house, I will show you the completely empty room. Don't hold your breath.

Funhouse mirror

I picked up this abandoned teapot the other day. There was a big line of ancient masking-tape glue across it, which we took off with alcohol, and I gave it a nice polish with Twinkle. Now I think it will sit on our shelf looking delightful.

Some pictures

You may remember that Arthur's spring break job involved bathroom demolition. Well, he managed that! We had the great big cousins here for a bit last weekend and they helped carry stuff out and take down the little wall at the end of the bathtub.


Anyone want a bathtub -- Free, you carry it out of the basement! Take the harvest gold toilet, too!

Also last weekend (and I mean 10 days ago, last last weekend!) someone gave me some tulips.


I love tulips when they are on their last legs! I took this indoors, and then tried to move operations outside but a) my camera battery failed and b) the petals fell off when I lifted the pot!

I will attempt to keep these bulbs and plant them in the fall, but I have bad luck with such enterprises.

And that's all that's happening around here, folks.

A note from the archivist

About that crocus picture.... I had to check to see if I really take the same picture every year!

Last year, the crocus picture was on March 26.

2008's was not until April 7.

In 2007, the crocuses are nowhere to be seen, but we had pansies in April.

In 2006, I was in Cambridge, the land that is overwhelmed with crocuses at a certain point in the year, and I posted a picture on March 28.

So, in fact, I don't take the same picture every year, but I am always glad to see a flower or two, and this year's are early.


Here is the general scene -- no leaves on the trees, but the old guys are taking advantage of the warm days to rake out the bocce pit in preparation for the season. Last week, they could do this; this coming week is supposed to be cold and damp.

I take the same picture every year

Crocuses. Yay!

How controversial

An ad for talk radio. Do that many people really care!? Apparently we knitters do rule the world.

Tasty treats and headless skiers

I've been knitting, but I've also been experimenting in the kitchen, and I've had a spectrum of failures and successes there.

Failures:

1. I made a chocolate banana bread, but I had to go get Elaine from school just in that crucial 10 minutes, and took it out too early and it was uncooked mush in the middle. Not the fault of anything but bad timing.
2. The bread machine came with some recipes, but the plain white loaf recipe is for a slightly different model. We've had moderate success with that, but another recipe -- written for my model but on the "rapid rise" setting -- turned out to be a lump of tasty, pasty half-baked dough. It also was supposed to be ready for the next day's breakfast, but one must press the buttons in just the right order, which apparently we failed to do, so it was done at 10 pm. I think there might also have been a shortage of yeast in that loaf.

Successes:

1. I followed the recipe on the bread machine for Cheesy Cheese loaf, which uses cottage cheese, Swiss (we used cheddar) and a bit of Parmesan cheese. This was to show off at my birthday party, and it worked perfectly! Phew.
2. You may remember that I started to read the Julie/Julia project blog. A few of the recipes really intrigued me, so I put the book on hold at the library. (One can also find it here!) Unfortunately another hundred or so people also had the same bright idea, so I haven't seen it yet. However, I knew that a friend had it, so I got her to read me the recipe for Roquefort crackers over the phone. She read it correctly and I wrote it down correctly, but when it came time to actually make it, I used 1/4 cup of butter instead of 1/4 pound. They were fine, if not truly artery-clogging. I discovered my mistake and made them again, but couldn't handle more 35% cream, so used 18%. And now I present you with my delicious interpretation of Julia Child's Roquefort Galettes:
   

Mash up with a fork in a 2 quart bowl, 1/4 pound of Roquefort or blue cheese (I made it once with an $8 piece of cheese, and the second time with a $4 piece of cheese, and both were fine. Guess which I would use again).

Beat in 1/4 pound of softened butter (1/4 cup of butter will make you decent biscuits, but they will be much drier and more biscuit-like than crackery, if you know what I mean), 2 tablespoons of whipping cream (I even toyed with the idea of using milk and think it would be fine, but I had good success with 18% cream) and an egg yolk. Must get your daily dose of fat somehow.

Knead in 3/4 cup of flour.

Form the dough in to a ball and chill until firm. Roll it out very thin, cut with the rim of a small drinking glass (Julia says, 1/4 inch thick and 1.5 inch rounds) and bake at 425F for 10-15 minutes.

They are super good. As one might expect -- stinky cheese, tons of fat, and a bit of flour to hold it all together. Yummers! These were also served at my party on the weekend.

I must include one more thing in the culinary adventures chapter here. Arthur found a book at the library called A Field Guide to Candy. So we had to try to make caramels. All went well; we boiled cream and sugar at enormous temperatures, and then we poured the mixture into a pan to set. They said to line the pan with parchment paper, but we didn't have that, so used tinfoil. Ikes! The delicious candy goo stuck to the foil like crazy, and now one truly has to work to defoil the treats. Next time, parchment paper!

And now for knitting!


I have done the back, both fronts and a sleeve of the Skiers sweater, up to the underarms. One more sleeve to go, and then a ton of decreasing around the yoke and all will be well.

It's been perfect weather for this sweater the last couple of days. The gloom has gone and we have a few days of sun and warm temperatures. I even saw some snowdrops the other day.


I also saw on the streets of Toronto a Mary Maxim curling sweater! I take full credit for the new fashion trend of Mary Maxim picture sweaters, though perhaps the Olympics had something to do with the popularity of curling! I saw that some totally smitten person paid $26 for a curling sweater pattern on Ebay the other day!

Today, more March Break fun -- perhaps I'll take the kids to the grocery store to stock up on provisions! We're out of cream!

Back to seasonal gloom

We've had nice March sunshine lately, but today we are back to normal March weather. Some birds were passing through, which we haven't seen for a bit.


Make me a blanket like that!

No thoughtful reflective post for you today

Hello dear blog-readers,
Today is my birthday. It's a big one... a really big one, with a zero at the end and a five at the beginning.

Nothing earth-shattering is happening here. I've been told not to go into the shed, but when I suggest to the kids that there is a motorcycle in there for me, they assure me that is not true. Who knows?

Some people get mushy about the passage of time and all that, but things seem much the same today as they did yesterday. I do get a nice dinner out tonight, and a party on Saturday, but perhaps the idea that I am now over the hill and on the downward slope just hasn't sunk in yet.

Arthur and I went to the Textile Museum this morning, and saw some wonderful quilts and shawls -- shawls that really wrap around a person, huge things! Paisley, woven, printed, light, heavy... not knitted, though! I knew there were quilts, but I got mixed up between the Textile Museum quilt show and the Royal Ontario Museum quilt show. I'll hit up the ROM sometime soon.

Since Arthur is off school this week, and since we are having a party here this coming weekend, I thought he could do some prep work, and asked Stephen to provide him with chores, like buying potato chips or sweeping the floor. Stephen's mind was clearly on other things, and he gave Arthur the following list:

• take everything out of the basement bathroom
• take all the tiles off the walls
• smash out the tub
• take down the little stub of a wall between the tub and the toilet
• smash out the floor tiles
• replace the sink and vanity

So, needless to say, this will not all get done in a week, and the basement bathroom is presently unusable. We hadn't used the tub in ages, and it was holding a 3-level shelf, full of paint cans, children's artworks, a humidifier, a lamp, with a spare mattress tucked in behind... Now all that stuff is in front of the washer and dryer.

Anyone want some tiles? There are two walls not in the picture, also covered in these tiles. We'll think of something, but I'd love to learn that someone just down the street wanted to mosaic their whole house. Meanwhile, the demolition is proving to be kind of fun!

And that's what happens when one turns 50, I guess!

ETA: It was a bread-making machine, not a motorbike at all! Much more useful -- stay tuned for rhapsodic posts about bread!

I Hope and wisH it finds a good Home

My H is done. I shall mail it off to England where it will end up sewn to lots and lots of other letters, in the Poetry Society's second knitted poem.


I would love it to be in

• Hope, Happy, wisH
• Hero, Heroic, Heartfelt
  
• Health, wealtH, birtH, deatH
• migHt, figHt, pligHt, sigHt
• tHink, tHougHt, tHunk (I would love my letter to be anywhere in a poem with thunk in it!)
• HurraH! oH! aHHHH!
  

But, I bet most Hs end up in tHe or tHis or some other necessary but nondescript word.

Good luck, my H, and go serve where you are most needed!

After the games

Thanks to Franklin for making this lovely medal!
And thanks to all of you who commented on my Birch! I'm quite pleased with it, of course!

I found myself digging in the stash to find another skein of laceweight yarn, but will not cast on a new anything until I get a few UFOs out of the way, and even then, I doubt a rational person would jump right in to another lace project.

One thing the Knitting Olympics shows us is that knitting monogamy (or monomania, as some would have it) gets things done. I think one doesn't have to set such a crazy pace, but certainly it would be interesting to try to knit 12 things in a year. Not 12 dishcloths, but a few sweaters, a few pairs of socks, maybe a few hat and mitt sets. Sounds totally doable -- if we can knit shawls and sweaters and blankets in 2 weeks with only minor stress and injury, think how breezy it would be if we had a whole month!

Last year I started doing 52 things in 52 weeks -- there are a lot of tiny objects on the list, and though I was ahead for much of the early going, I am now at 39 weeks and 33 projects. But maybe when the 52 weeks are over and {ahem} I have finished all those things I have started, I might just try to think of 12 major things to make in the next 12 months.

I could probably come up with a short list right now:

1. something with my Felted Tweed. I have a couple of sweaters from Rowan 44 in mind. Fear of colourwork is holding me back a bit, though.
   
2. the cardigan from Rowan 47 I didn't make for the Olympics -- I was going to switch and use the Kureyon Sock yarn, but perhaps it's not a decent sub for KSH!
   
3. the cardigan I've sort of started with the Kureyon Sock. Maybe #2 and #3 will end up being one item, and maybe two
   
4. a classic denim sweater -- maybe Sunday Best or Whitby or some other gansey-esque item. First I have to decide if I dare make it for Arthur, who continues to grow and grow, or for someone else
   
5. I have so much sock yarn, let's add a pair of socks
6. and another pair of socks
7. Something with that skein of laceweight I dug out today!
8. I have some lovely grey Cascade wool that would make a fancy-pants cabled scarf and hat (hat and mitts?) or maybe a giant shawl
   
9. I have some pink cotton that begs to be made into a swanky summer wrap, maybe a Clapotis
   
10. Can I come up with twelve off the top of my head, from stash? I could make one month "hats from stash" month, and likely whip up 3 or 4 in various weights.
11. I have 2 blankets that will not be finished by the end of this 52-week business. The Louvre floor needs at least 8 or 9 more squares,
12. and I have a few squares of a sock-yarn-leftovers blanket. When I get more leftovers, I'll make more squares.

There! Now, let's see what happens in the next 13 weeks while I finish up my 52 in 52, and we'll check in on this grand scheme again.

In the middle of writing this I realised that I'm not going to start polishing off UFOs right this minute: first I have an H to make for the Poetry Society. I got this far before getting distracted...


Getting distracted is the one major danger to plans like this, I find.

So, for the immediate future, I will finish the Skiers and my H. That's all I'll say just now!

La la la la LA la

Let me tell you, this is a proud moment!
I ktog'd the last three stitches yesterday afternoon, hid my ends, dunked 'er and stretched 'er, and this morning we're all dry and ready to go!

Knitting gold for me!

(unblocked)

Let me give you the full details of this accomplishment:

I started Birch in December or January, and by the 4th of January I had knit from 299 stitches down to 279. Then it sat around for weeks, and I meant to get it done sometime before now, but was distracted by the Skiers and those pre-Olympic socks!

I had planned to knit children's socks for the Olympics, but then I realised I had to finish them and mail them to San Francisco for March 1, so I did them first, finishing them on the 13th, the day after the Olympics started.

In the days leading up to the opening ceremonies, I toyed with various ideas, and finally put myself on Stephanie's list as knitting a really nice cardigan which I fully mean to knit one day, perhaps after I've swatched and got more appropriate yarn! But my coach (the good angel who sits on my shoulder occasionally) directed me to stick with a sport I knew something about, and not go running off to become a figure skater when really I'm a snowboarder. Or whatever.


And so I knit on Birch again! And knit and knit and knit, and the rows did get shorter and shorter and shorter! Once you're down below 100 stitches a row, things do happen fast. The repeats fly off the needles, as it were.

Whoo hoo! (Also, the Canadian athletes are doing really well, and we got 3 gold medals yesterday, 13 golds all together so far [one more to come, I'm sure] and any one from any country who can ski in those gloomy, damp, wretched conditions of a wet February day up Whistler deserves an extra medal!)


See you all at the game this afternoon! A little more cross-border rivalry for the hockey gold... Bring it on!

Indeed, there is a light up ahead

You can't really tell, but there's only about 79 stitches left. That's about 65 rows, give or take. And they really are short now!

Can we do it? Yes, we can!

And of course, Canada will be in the gold medal hockey game tomorrow. Too much excitement!

The blob

Here it is, my Olympic shawl:


Not a pretty sight, is it?

We have a few more thrilling hockey games to go. Elaine is having a friend over tomorrow morning, which may give me more or less knitting time -- hard to predict these things. Arthur has to be taken to a party tomorrow afternoon, which will take someone an hour. The kitchen is really a disaster. It has finally snowed a decent amount, so I think we are going sliding in the park after school.

And a shawl is not finished till it's blocked, so I have to get it finished a wee bit before the very last minute.

When is that last minute, anyways? Ah, it looks like the ceremonies start at 8:30 pm TO time on Sunday, so that's just loads of time. Right, loads of time! Right??

If I were the betting sort....

I'm not sure I would be betting on myself to finish this Olympic challenge!

I feel like the women racing in the giant slalom right now, in the snow. We all know that when it's snowing, the proper thing to do is head to the hot tub, but they are out there racing and falling through the muck, with zero visibility and icy faces.

I don't have an icy face, but conditions are not perfect for Olympic knitting. Like, for example, I should not completely ignore the needs of my family to eat, in relatively clean surroundings.

I just tell myself that though I have 140 rows to go (more or less) the rows do get shorter, so all is not lost. However, if I find myself with 100 rows still to go and no time, all will be lost.

Okay, enough dithering. I'll go unearth a kitchen counter and then resume knitting. And then I'll have to watch another hockey game tonight -- ack, no, I'm supposed to go out and actually socialize with other humans tonight -- oh, where's that hot tub?

Added some time later: Oh, was that a game! The USA-Switzerland game was way more exciting than I had expected! I just saw the last period, but hooo-boy that was thrilling hockey!