A Little Yarn On The Side

Ron:  With less than 24 hours until the 2010 Ravelympics kickoff, we're here with one of the contestants .  Ms. Sutton, what you can tell us about this year's competition? Toni:  Well Ron, to date there are more than 8300 knitters from around the world signed up and ready to compete.  Some will be competing on multiple events--such as perhaps the Scarf Super-G as well as Sock Hockey--while some of us are tackling a single, larger project. Ron:  So participants have 16 days to complete their events.  That's a lot of pressure for what many of us would consider a grandmotherly-sort of sport. Toni:  Don't let the stereotypes fool you.  Anyone who has ever witnessed the carnage at a 50%-off sale of cashmere yarn can tell you, knitting is not for the timid. Ron:  You're signed up for the Sweaterboard Cross and the Stash Compulsory Dance, which--let me get this straight--is an ENTIRE sweater made from stash yarn within 16 days.  Is...

Ravelympics (and, I suppose, the Olympics) kick off Friday at 7:00 PM in my time zone.  And I will be out having dinner with friends.  I know--where's my dedication?  Where's my team spirit?  Obviously, I may not be cut out to be a professional "knitlete"  (You've heard of poetic license, right?  This is blog license--I can make up any words or terms on my knitting blog that I want, provided they have something to do with knitting.  This is one of the perks of ignoring reality) as I have no intention of changing plans.  But I do promise to cast on the moment we get home. I am getting ready, though.  I have lined up audio books, movies, we have lots of spaghetti sauce in the freezer, and the ingredients for white chocolate martinis are in the refrigerator (which won't really help the knitting but WILL make attempting to knit a sweater in 16 days seem less crazy).  Just under 2 days until the kickoff.....maybe I should be doing stretche...

One of the things that I hoped the "100 Projects" project would do is to force entice me into finishing some of the sewing and knitting WIPS laying around.  I mean, let's face it--the idea of starting and finishing 100 projects in 365 days is a bit crazy....even for me.  While it seems to have had no impact on the knitting WIPS, this weekend I did finish I apologize for the rather bad picture--I didn't realize it was that bad until I had already thrown the jacket into the washing machine.  I'm about 50% happy with it.  The thing is supposed to have shoulder pads, but I have really broad shoulders for a woman, so that part looks fine without them, but the sleeves are unbelievably long--and not in a way that would be fixed by shoulder pads.  In stocking feet, I am 5' 8" tall.  I don't have short arms.  In fact, I have rather long arms.  So, what Amazon tribe are the psychos at the pattern company using for models??????? Not that I'm not thrille...

Make sure one is actually WEARING the wrist pin cushion before jabbing the pins at one's wrist.....

which Theo thinks is quite disgraceful. I did finish the front of the cowl-neck sweater and I think I moved the neckline up far enough so that the world will have to continue to wonder whether my belly button is an "innie" or an "outie." The sleeves have been started, so I'm hoping to finish it before the Ravelympics start on Friday.  Of course, I'm hoping to finish a whole dang sweater in 17 days, so I am hardly one to be trusted on such things. I was really hoping to finish this fleece jacket today but since this project had been started more than a year ago, there was a good hour devoted to finding all the various pieces and parts.  I think my original plan was to do some sort of decorative stitching on this somewhere, but now I'm almost wondering about some sort of embroidery? It's going to be a bit dull otherwise, don't you think?

The lid to the lace weight bin will almost close without having to set something heavy on top of it!!!!! In my world, we learn to celebrate small achievements......

So last night--after posting my totals for the month--I finished the "WIP Celebration Scarf:" which was intended as a long scarf that would go in the gift bin, but somewhere along the line I got the idea to make it a shorter scarf to be worn tied at the neck--ascot style, I think?...and to keep it.  Unless I really, really, really need a gift before I get the chance to wear it.  (I lose a lot of scarves and socks this way) So, 11 projects done in the first month!!!!!!  Of course, after that I was so excited that I immediately cast on and if you're thinking that yarn looks suspiciously familiar, you would be correct!  It's the same yarn I used for the WIP Celebration scarf....which was left over from the Kimono shawl.  I'm not sure exactly how much of this stuff I have, but let's just say I'm in no danger of running out on this scarf.  It's going to be simple, but a wide, drape-y scarf for Andy to wear with his nice winter coat.  I've been looki...