An Update for the Masses

It's not surprising, but it is somewhat amusing to read the different accounts and experiences with the knitting olympics. I know everyone is just dying to know how it's going for me, and far be it for me to disappoint.

I didn't actually get to cast on until about 8:30pm Friday night. (I did the right thing.) I had planned to leave work at 1:00 that afternoon and be home in plenty of time to cast on at 2:00. Instead, I had extra work responsibilities and didn't get to leave work until 3:00. (I did the right thing.) I also had to run some errands and make sure that a certain sickie had her yarn from the stash and some knitting accoutrements in order to be successful. (Wouldn't you agree that was the right thing to do?) By the time I got home, I had about 20 minutes to straighten up, take out the trash, and pull out the pattern before Brenda showed up. (Woohoo!!!) We met above-mentioned sickie for dinner, then went back to my place for the opening ceremonies and the much-anticipated cast on.

I think I got about 40-some rows done that night before my eyes threatened to quit reading the pattern correctly. Saturday morning Brenda and I went to sock club, where I worked on my Raindrop Lace sock and helped two ladies with their socks. We hung out a bit, Brenda bought some yarn (muhahaha!), Joy showed up, we went out for McDonald's for lunch, then went to Joy's house for a while. We continued the olympic knitting there for the afternoon, then Joy and her hubby got ready to go out for the evening, and Brenda and I went back to Chez Drunken Monkey to knit for the night.

I had only worked a couple of rows of the shawl Saturday night before realizing I had messed up. I didn't know how I had messed up, but I tinked back about 35 stitches and restarted the row, only to realize I had missed a stitch somewhere. I put the shawl away. I cast on for a new sock with some KnitPicks sock yarn, worked on that for a bit, picked up the Samus cables, worked on that for a bit, and laughed with Brenda about how ridiculous the whole knitting olympics thing was to begin with. Like anybody could really focus on one project for 16 days. Like anyone would actually have any steam to continue after a few days into it. Pshaw.

Sunday I picked up the shawl again, fixed the error, and got more steam. I have a drunken diamond in my shawl, but that only seems fitting for a drunken monkey, don't you think? In fact, I might be a bit disappointed that they aren't all drunken diamonds. The picture at the beginning of this post shows the progress as of this morning. I've completed 95 rows. There are four complete diamonds down the vertical center of the shawl. The pattern calls for eight complete diamonds, but I'm pretty sure I have enough yarn for nine, so my goal is nine. I'm really looking forward to the magical blocking at the end, as I already like how it looks when I pull it taut on the needle. I won't be able to do that much longer, as it's already stretching almost the length of my needle.

In short, I'm enjoying the pattern, still not able to focus solely on one project at a time, feeling confident of success, and pondering a worthy recipient. Any ideas?