2010 Knitting Olympics

*Edited to fix the time-travel, date error.

Buttercup

I finished my Knitting Olympics project on Friday February 26, 2010.  I worked on this sweater a little bit every day from the Opening Ceremonies until it was finished, except for one sick day.  That’s a sweater in fourteen days for anyone keeping track.  I still can’t quite believe I finished it.  I’m not happy with the bottom hem.  The picture demonstrates that hem’s lack of cooperation in staying-flat.  I am going to pull out the hem, and about an inch of overall length, and knit a smooth hem instead.  The top fits great otherwise, and the pattern was clear and easy to follow.  

Buttercup by Heidi Kirrmaier.  Yarn: Spa by Caron, Ocean Spray colorway (3 skeins).

My 2012 Knitting Olympics project: a Buttercup Sweater made from Caron Spa yarn in Ocean SprayTempest

As a bonus, I also finished my Tempest Cardigan during the Olympic Closing Ceremonies on Sunday February 28.  I didn’t work on this one for much of the Olympics.  When I was sure I’d be able to finish the Buttercup in time, I started working on this one a bit more.  The hem of the button band gave me trouble, and I pulled it out one-and-a-half times.  I had to use a size 8 needle and a very relaxed hand in the bind-off, but after steaming generously, that finally worked.  The bottom band was a piece of cake in comparison.  I had been operating on the notion that I needed ten buttons for this sweater, and managed to squeeze out ten matching buttons from my button stash.  When I looked back at the pattern (always a good idea), I noticed the number “14” sitting there plain as day.  Fourteen.  After briefly considering MIS-matched buttons, I dashed out after the USA-Canada hockey match (a match for the ages folks) and found fourteen lovely green buttons.  

I love this sweater.  It is soft, it fits well, it is so decadent.  Between the two yarns there is wool, silk, and alpaca in this one.  The pattern was well-written (you know, when I remembered to READ it) and easy-to-follow.  

Tempest Cardigan by Weaverknits, Knitty Spring 2008.  Main color is two strands of KnitPicks Gloss Lace (a wool/silk blend), Celery colorway.  Contrasting color is a strand of the Celery and a strand of AlpacaWare fingering weight in Pale Pink.  I used almost every bit of three-and-a-half hanks of celery and three (or was it four?) skeins of the pink alpaca.  A very gracious knitter in Ohio sent me her half skein so that I could finish the second sleeve and button-band.  I will think of this lovely Kelly in Ohio whenever I wear the sweater.  Knitters are awesome.  

A finished Tempest Cardigan in green and pink with green buttonsSonar X9 tried it on and really liked it.  The stripes suit his build.  I may make it for him, with a black and grey-heather blend.  Oh, and much shorter sleeves.  Much shorter.  

Books are coming.  I promise. 

The 2010 Winter Olympics and Some Knitting

Sonar X5 has an infamous obsession with American football.  Surprising for such a young kid, I know.  I wondered what he would do when the NFL season was over.  I wonder no more.  He has seamlessly transferred his football obsession to the Winter Olympics.  We’ve watched Luge and a lot of Skiing.  He’s not crazy about Figure Skating, but he’s fascinated by Curling.  I don’t completely understand Curling, but we are figuring it out.  

While he watches sports he never knew existed, I am working on a Knitting Olympics project.  For background on the Knitting Olympics, please refer to the inimitable Harlot herself.  For my project I am knitting a Buttercup Top by Heidi Kirrmeier (Ravelry link requires login) using a bamboo blend yarn called Spa by Caron.  The colorway is called Ocean Spray.  The Sonars gave this yarn to me for Christmas.  

This is a raglan sweater, knit from the top down in the round.  On the fourth day of knitting, I separated the sleeves and body.  Today, the fifth day of knitting, I’m chugging away at the acres of stockinette stitch ahead of me.  

The shoulders and sleeve-caps of a hand-knit sweater, the day five knitting progress on my Buttercup top for the Knitting Olympics

I love the acres of stockinette.  Some knitters complain of boredom when knitting large swaths like this, but I find it very meditative.  I have to maintain a pace of 9-12 rounds of knitting per day to finish before the Olympic Closing Ceremonies.  I have been a little overzealous here at the beginning, knitting more than is perhaps healthy, and I am suffering with a sore left hand.  I plan to ice the hand and pace myself a little better.  I am confident that I will be able to finish though. 

In other knitting news, there is one, ready-to-knit-the-toe sock hanging around in the car for waiting times.  I may have mentioned this stress project in a previous post.  

I also received backup yarn from my Ravelry Hero and finished knitting all of the pieces of the Tempest Cardigan.  I tried wet-blocking the back piece, but was unhappy with the result.  The pink stitches were just not relaxing and lining up the way I had hoped.  I have used this pink alpaca yarn in a couple of projects and have always found it fiddly for both gauge and blocking.  So for the other pieces, I decided to try steam-blocking with my iron.  I spread out the pieces gently, set the iron on Maximum Steam and sort of blotted the pieces with the iron, spending extra time on the curling edges of each piece.  

The results here were stunning.  The stitches emerged in the most gorgeous rows, the delicate sheen of the green silk and wool popping out.  Three cheers for steam-blocking. 

Hours of seaming went off without a hitch.  The pattern suggested slipping a stitch at the beginning of every row to create a selvedge edge for ease of seaming, and I am so pleased with the result.  That selvedge, and the bold stripes made lining up the pieces so much simpler.  Here’s a poorly lit (late night) shot of the sweater during the seaming of the second sleeve and underarm. 

A nearly complete hand-knit Tempest Cardigan in green and pink stripes, pictured during seaming.

After the seaming I picked up and knit the 210 stitches for the button band and collar.  That knitting went surprisingly quickly, but the bind-off befuddled me.  I started to bind-off loosely with the working needle, but after a few inches, it became clear that it was too tight.  I picked that out and moved up a couple of needle sizes and set off again.  This was Friday morning, the same day as the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, and my eyeballs were on the yarn for my Olympic sweater.  I obliviously bound-off the whole edge and held it up to find that it was obviously STILL TOO TIGHT.  Ugh.  I left it for a couple of days, then picked out that edge.  That’s where it waits, while I work on Olympic knitting and contemplate bind-off options.  I’m thinking that I’ll use Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewn bind-off and see if I can carefully and continuously control the tension that way. Incidentally, that bind-off reminds me of kitchener stitch, which—contrary to its reputation among some knitters—I really love to do.  I’m hopeful that I will enjoy the process.  

In the meantime, I can choose buttons (I need ten small ones).  There is a bottom-facing still to be knit, but unless something very strange happens, that shouldn’t be too terrible.  

The most amazing part of that sweater is that I have four of the tiniest little balls of green yarn left right now.  Two are the size of regular marbles, two the size of shooter marbles.  If I blend them with the pink for that bottom band, I should just about use them up.  Talk about a close call. 

Deploy

Olympics Stealth Project The Second is 98% finished.  It lacks some weaving in of yarny ends and some minor functional embellishment.  I’ll save those bits to finish up during knitting breaks on the next project to take center stage.  

Which would be: Deployment Sock for Brother-in-Law (BIL).  Here’s what I have so far on sock one.  About three inches of cuff (why yes, that is a Shiner Bohemian Black Lager bottle—it seemed somehow appropriate).  

This is a basic black sock.  Knit from the top down, it will have ribbing down the whole leg, a heel-flap heel, and smooth knitting down the foot.  But I just can’t bring myself to leave all of that lovely smooth knitting blank.  I want to do some kind of decorative embellishment.  BIL is a biker-boot wearer during his off-time from a job as a U.S. Marine, so embellishments will likely be seen by no one but me and you and my sister and BIL.  But it’s the the sentiment that counts.  He once admired the Shambones socks I made for Brother:

That would be the tough Irish skull-and-crossbones socks in honor of a St. Patrick’s Day Birthday.  

And closer in. 

So, what embellishments would be appropriate for the socks of someone about to go off to (and we hope to come back whole from) war?  

I have considered some red flames around the feet.  Or some other such power graphic that could be simplified.  Or perhaps some words.  Maybe “home” on one foot and “safe” on the other.  Maybe his initials to make sure no one steals his socks?  

Embellishments will be added as duplicate stitch (an embroidering that imitates the knitted stitch), just like the Shambones.  Any ideas and suggestions you might have would be greatly appreciated.  I’ll ponder and take suggestions until I finish knitting the socks and then choose some decoration in consultation with Sister.  

The Spirit of Sport

Ok, so Partner Sweater is finished as of about ten o’clock this morning.  [grand cheering fills the stadium]

Stealth Project Green is 70% finished (I told you, it’s small).  

As part of a greater project to move the garden beds in the back yard, Partner gathered the remaining onions and carrots from the back yard.  So I’ve been doing things like this:

And this:

These carrots look a little slimy, I know, but really they’re just wet.  And then I decided I needed one of these (because I am always ruining shirts by leaning against oily things on the edge of the counter.  This one is big enough for Partner as well, who is wearing it in this picture):

And I needed one of these (because the plastic bag I was using just wasn’t cutting it anymore):

These last two were made out of some fabric I inherited from a neighbor (and which was almost given away in the famous not-cleaning-out of my craft closet earlier this summer.  You might recall that I filled a trash bag with fabric I was sure I’d never use, and I was worried I’d not be able to get it out of the house.  And lo, here I am digging through the not-given-away fabric bag for something very handy.  Sort of implies that my efforts to get rid of the excess fabric are doomed to fail, huh?).  It reminds me of old-fashioned mattress ticking, and truth be told, I have enough of it to make a small mattress.  

In between all of this, we watched bits and bobs of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies which we recorded last night.  We haven’t made it all the way through yet, so there may be other moments worth comment.  The ceremony has been incredibly beautiful so far.  We really loved the boxes popping up and down, and just as the plum blossoms popped out and we were thinking, ‘what a cool computer/mechanical coordination,’ I got totally choked up when the People popped out from under the boxes.  People, who must have popped up and down about eight-hundred times in the beautifully choreographed presentation.  Amazing.  

The Sonars really loved the bit where people were walking around on the globe/lantern thing.  Oh, and the giant LED screen on the floor.  Very cool.   

But was anyone else totally creeped out, when the kids in ethnic costumes were carrying the Chinese flag across the stadium (which was very sweet), and then the Chinese soldiers goose-stepped in and took up the flag to put it up the pole?  The bobble-heads on the tv suggested that it symbolized the Chinese state’s ability to ensure the future of their children.  Sure.  

Progress at the Flame

At 7:00 a.m. GMT -5 (my local time), when the Olympic Opening Ceremonies began in Beijing, I was sleeping.  Partner Sweater had one completed sleeve and one 4-inch sleeve nubbin.  

At 6:30 pm. GMT -5, when the Olympic Opening Ceremonies began on our local NBC affiliate, that second sleeve was this long:

If you embiggen the photo, you’ll see that I’ve just a bit over 13 inches there.  I had to slow down today.  No more than 15 minutes of knitting at a stretch, with at least a half an hour rest in between.  I’m working to stave off long-term knitting injury here.  Liberal icing has also occurred.  

There will be more knitting tonight.  And there is the slimmest chance of finishing before I go to bed.  Maybe.  

Peeking out of the pocket is the next project.  Stealth Project I, a felted lovely made with one of my favorite stand-by yarns, Patons Classic Wool.  They call that color Leaf Green, but it looks a bit like overcooked pea soup to me.