In preparation for tomorrow night I have been knitting madly on a sweater made of this yarn I bought at Stitches West last year. It's blue and has little flecks of color and sort of looks like someone attacked the sky with an entire box of crayons, and some of the colors have a little bit of sparkle to them and even though I suspect it might have been more appropriate for someone whose age is only one digit instead of two, I really do love the yarn and how it is knitting up into nice, drapey sweater parts, just for me.
But the point is, it's a very simple pattern (thank you Sweater Wizard software) and I have already finished the back. If I work extra hard I am hoping I will have the front finished as well, before the official start of the Knitting Olympics, and then, depending on how good a start I get, I might even be able to fit some sleeving and seaming in around the lace knitting, since I am still clinging to the faint hope that I will get this thing finished in time to wear to this year's Stitches West. I am beginning to have my doubts about the wisdom of committing to both a rather large lace shawl that must be done in 16 days, *and* trying to finish a sweater by the 17th, but hope springs eternal, and sleep is for the weak, and by golly, if I can finish a sweater in one week and a large doily on size 0 needles in 4 days, then surely I am capable of other feats of similar knitting insanity. Right?
But speaking of my Olympic knitting, and preparations thereof, I have printed out the errata for the Irish Diamond Shawl pattern so I will have the correct version at hand. Luckily the book provides both chart and written instructions, since I do not do well with charts unless I can translate them to text myself (which I do any time I run into a chart that has more than a few rows of incomprehensible squiggles that I have to look up every stinking row because my brain simply does not process images like it does numbers and words), so I do not need to do any pre-project prepping of the pattern itself.
So really, the only thing left to do (aside from the zipping through the remainig 40 or so rows of knitting for the front of that sweater) is to make sure I've got the right sized needles, a large quantity of dark chocolate, something to distract the cats so they will not try to eat either yarn or needles while I am knitting, and then just sit back and wait for the flame to be lit so the knitting can begin!
Posted by Jenipurr at February 9, 2006 12:04 PMI was doing the sme thing--trying to finish a sweater I started 2/2 by 2/10. I think if I didn't have to wait for the rest of the yarn to arrive in the mail (I ran short on yarn), I would've done it! Do you plan to knit exclusively on one or the other during the olympics?
Posted by: Renada at February 9, 2006 03:17 PMThe plan right now is to work exclusively on the shawl (my Olympics project). But if I feel like I've gotten a really good start on it, I may take an evening or two to try to finish off that sweater. I've got the luxury of two days off from work week after next, so that'll be lots of time to play catch-up on the shawl, if I need it. Heh. A lot depends on how far I can get this weekend.
Posted by: jenipurr at February 9, 2006 03:47 PM