February 26, 2006

Go Team Wales - The Finish Line

It's not Chariots of Fire, but still.

The Spit is Exhausted.

It has performed its tast admirably, and I will return to it again and again. But not for this project! For I have finished! I have... SOCKS!

Continue reading "Go Team Wales - The Finish Line"

February 24, 2006

Go Team Wales - Day Fifteen

You know those mini tornadoes that you would get in the middle of the street or on the blacktop, in that place where no bushes grew but where the chip bags and twinkie wrappers lay scattered, and the fall wind would come out of nowhere, it seemed, and there would be this inverted cone of dust, leaves, and lightweight trash that rose into the sky and danced, no, moseyed across the playground or down the street and you would just watch and watch, because it was like a magic trick and the blessing of a miracle that was visible from your second-floor fifth-grade classroom was too wonderful not to stare at?

Continue reading "Go Team Wales - Day Fifteen"

February 22, 2006

Go Team Wales - Day Thirteen

Feeling the heat.

Charlotte Lucas has just accepted Mr. Collins, and I have just begun the foot of the sock (part two). The days are counting down to the completion of the union of the two (socks), and I am feeling the pressure, though I admit my own happy occasion must be one of more perfect joy than that insensible pair.

Guess what I've been listening to?

Continue reading "Go Team Wales - Day Thirteen"

February 20, 2006

Go Team Wales - Day Eleven

The pattern's the thing.

Chris has taken the camera and flown away, leaving me with the old camera with which to document my progress. The problem is that the old camera will not take photos unless the lighting is full natural light. As I tend to photograph and post at about, oh, 11:30 at night, tonight's entry will be entirely descriptive.

By the way, I'm working on the heel of sock (part two).

(Warning: knit-technical content to follow. Wink wink.)

Continue reading "Go Team Wales - Day Eleven"

February 19, 2006

Go Team Wales - Day Nine

Keeping the romance alive.

Tonight, I knitted while Chris contemplated importing labor from Romania.

Continue reading "Go Team Wales - Day Nine"

February 16, 2006

Go Team Wales - Day Seven

Tion Medon
No post yesterday, because I sat down on the sofa last night and whimpered. I was tired. I knit about four rows. But that wussy knitter is gone now. I knit a lot today, listening to an audio reading of Pride and Prejudice from Librivox.

For those of you counting, there are nine days to go. To be precise, as of this writing there are 9 days, 11 hours, 54 minutes, and 10 seconds to go. Nine seconds. Eight. Seven...

However! We have documented progress! Behold:

The completed sock (part one).

Pretty special, isn't it?

Continue reading "Go Team Wales - Day Seven"

February 15, 2006

Go Team Wales - Day Five

The view from here is pretty good.

The sock, a work in progress, as adorned by Hershey:

This is the only shot in which he did not a) lick the sock, b) chew the needles, or c) grab the sock with a deadly-inaccurate claw. If it had been alpaca, y'all would be reading a somewhat expletive-heavy account of the official Knitting Olympics cat toy.

Continue reading "Go Team Wales - Day Five"

February 14, 2006

Go Team Wales - Day Four

A true athlete looks beyond the pain.

So today began the fourth day. I'm feeling it in my upper arms. You laugh? You try to grip sticks of wood half the diameter of chopsticks in your fingertips and maneuver string with them for hours at a stretch.

Sorry. I'm a bit testy. You see, it's 12:31 in the morning. In five hours I will begin nursing a child who will pop up, bright and shiny-eyed, and demand, "Time for a snack? Pretzels and cheese and crackers?" And yet. I am sitting here, writing this, after performing what, to my untested mettle, was the scariest task so far.

Sock surgery.

Continue reading "Go Team Wales - Day Four"

February 12, 2006

Go Team Wales - Day Three

So the Spit moves. That's a good thing.

And, see, progress:

I seem to be keeping up with my Documented Plan with regards to progress on the Knitting Olympics socks. They have reached the end of the requisite three-and-a-half lace pattern repeats and, though I was skeptical, I measured. The pattern said it should be about 6.75 inches; the sock was about 6.75 inches. Okay, so it was closer to 6.65, but set your logic aside and be here with me: I followed a pattern. It worked. I got gauge. For those of you for whom this means nothing, I cannot explain how rare and wonderful an occurrence this is. This is the thing that will keep me indefinitely in the land of Garments That Kinda Fit.

So, I'm an up person tonight. I knit lace. It's supposed to look all wrinkly and squooshed, and it does. I set my goal for the day and I met it. And, I got gauge. If I had the energy this late in the evening, I'd do the happy dance. Ooo!

Now, I need to figure out how to block these socks, which, being lace, will be needing blocking. Perhaps I should visit the box stash again...

Go Team Wales!

A few weeks ago, a woman named Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (a.k.a. The Yarn Harlot) posted the idea that during the Olympics we all can be Olympiads, in our own way--for us, it's the Knitting Olympics. Each of us sets our own goal, to be a knitting challenge for the individual, to be cast on sometime on February 10, 2006 (the day that the Olympic Torch is lit) and completely finished and ready to wear by the day the torch is extinguished, February 26.

Seems like a silly idea?

Continue reading "Go Team Wales!"