Wool & Words

Knitting Olympics

I feel a bit cheesy claiming victory. I think if I won any medal, it would be a very tarnished bronze.

I finished the sleeveless top last night, and by "finish" I mean that I completed all knitting and 99% of the seaming. I haven't yet tried it on, and I'm not exactly stylin' in a manner currently that would make for optimum blog photographs.

Things I learned/tried in this project:

--dyelots can vary within themselves. I constantly forget this little fact, but every time I've worked with Homespun, I've taken care to get skeins from the same dyelot. Invariably, some skeins are brighter than others, so I end up with shadings in the projects. Since this one took 1 full skein per side, I can live with the (very subtle) difference.
--Seaming this stuff is always a real pain for me. Bumpy, boucle-ish yarns like to hook into themselves, and this one is no exception. This go round, I used some TLC LusterSheen in an oyster color (double stranded) for the seaming and it went like a dream. I will remember that for future Homespun knits.
--Patterns aren't always meant to be followed. If I'd been thinking when I began this project, I would have adjusted the measurements on the sweater. I can tell that it will be on the short-ish side, and while I'm sure that I won't much care when I'm wearing this over a turtleneck with jeans, I will care just enough to be annoyed with myself.

Thus ends my Olympic Knitting. I can honestly say that I would have been much more productive if I had stuck with the plan. I kept putting off finishing this top, which meant that I didn't start the baby blanket that was waiting. I did get a bit of knitting done on the other tops, but not so much that I feel further along on those projects.

Of course, the real truth is that I had a visitor most of this past week (Hi Emily!), and so I've been engaged in many non-knitterly pursuits. I've got pics and will upload those in the next day or so.

Enough update...back to the dissertation salt mines...

Olympic Knitting Update

I wish that I could say I'd been utterly faithful. As it is, I'm lucky to say I've finished the front and back bits:

The finishing shouldn't take more than an evening's work--seaming and then knitting the neck edging. My sister is visiting, though, so my knitting time is curtailed by more social events--and I'm not complaining!

Day 4

That was yesterday, right? Day 4?

I finished the back of the tank and cast on for the front. I barely knit on Sunday, so I'm hoping that an hour or two at night will get me through this quickly enough to cast on for another project o' Lion love this weekend.

I'm so glad that this was my challenge. I spent the better part of Day 4 playing with data files. I'm doing that again today. And tomorrow, and so on. So this is just the low key knitting I need.

Of course, the other projects have been calling to me with their siren songs. I want to touch wool again. I'm amazed that I've made it this far without faltering.

Knitting Olympics, Days 2 & 3

Day 2:

Got to the armhole decreases on the sweater back. Steve cooked a great dinner and we tried to see a local production of Henry IV (both plays together). We didn't get seats, so we returned home to delicious dessert (Steve again). What did he prepare? Emeril's New New Orleans Pasta (a personal favorite--all that cream sauce!) and Dark Chocolate Mousse with whipped cream, raspberries, and toasted hazelnuts. Mmmmm.

Day 3:

Furniture moving day. I got a little more done on the back, but we've really just been doing house related things. Oh, and we went to see the play--3 hours and delightful. Well, as delightful as three hours of treachery, mayhem, and swordfighting can be.

Olympic Knitting, Day 1

8 inches in and I'm moving! This top is going lickety split, which is to be expected when you're knitting at 3 stitches/inch. Once this is done, it's on to the big baby blanket in Pound o' Love. That will be slow going indeed.

Unexpected challenges? Well, the yarn is what it is. Homespun is soft and kinda fluffy; it's also splitty. If I've been struggling with one thing, it's been the splitting. When I knit with other splitty yarns, I can usually compensate for it. This one, not so much.

An upcoming challenge will be pattern matching. I chose a shade of Homespun that is variegated--bad move. I thought about knitting the front and back together, but realized I would then have some strange color movement when I got up past the armhole decreases. I figure it will be like the challenge to match socks, but different. Yeah. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

And, despite the siren call of the Jo Sharp, I'm sticking to the yarn. It's nice to breeze (in a manner of speaking) through my knitting as opposed to the slower crawl when I'm working with a DK weight.

Knit on, Olympians!