Finally out of the starting blocks...

So. Friday night I was out for dinner, but made it home in time to catch the parade of nations, and cast on as Ireland was entering the stadium. Luckily, this begins with only two cast on stitches, and you increase one at each end for about 20 rows to form a triangle. Two triangles form the top of the bag, and are then joined and knitted down to form the main body. Easy, right? WRONG! I am so inexperienced with both charts and intarsia (hence this being chosen as a good olympic challenge) that I have frogged and reknit the first 10 rows of the first triangle SEVEN, that's right SEVEN times. After throwing it down in disgust on Saturday, I finally picked it back up tonight, hoping that I could channel Lesley Kildow's guts & nerves of steel as well as gain further inspiration from Dale Begg-Smith in the Moguls. It mightn't look like much from the photo, but I can assure you, we've picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off, and are now cruising. Thank goodness.

Knitlete in Training

You know, watching athletes practising for their events has never been that exciting for me (unless you are talking about the Australian cricket team circa 1982/3, when, as a starry-eyed 11 year old, I watched Geoff Lawson practising in the nets at the 'Gabba- but I digress). So, practising atheletes not very exciting. Neither is a practising knitlete. This is all I have to show. BORING! (But don't you love my addi turbos? Purchased especially for the olympic kit).



Only 24 hours and the torch will be lit...

Olympic Project

Almost two years ago I bought the book Folk Bags, with an eye to making Napramach. I have been looking for a new project to give me a bit of a challenge, and when I read about Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics, I thought it would be the perfect chance to finallly give it a go. Hopefully if all goes well it will be someone's birthday present this year. Here is the picture from the book, and some of the yarn.




Many of the colours are discontinued, but I've managed to put the full set together a ball or two at a time. I'm swatching tonight, so I'm ready to go when the flame is lit on Friday...I can't wait to start!!

Housekeeping

Obviously, it has been a while since I've posted. To be honest, I really go hot and cold on the blog idea. I read a handful of blogs on a regular basis, but when it comes to my own, I find the idea quite strange. I know people have written about the ego of blogs before, so won't go into it. In any case, I will be updating regularly for the next couple of weeks, due to Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics. But first, some housekeeping.

Looking at the sidebar to see what I could update...really, only the regia socks are finished:



I completed half the collar for karis, but then decided I couldn't handle it, so it has been languishing in the basket ever since. recently, I have been inspired to try again/continue.

I'm about 15 shades into the 100 shades I need for the paper lanterns from AlterKnits.

I have had one false start on the Loop-d-Loop paisley carpet bag.

I'm one mitten short of a pair for a friend.

I've knit one swatch for the master knitting course.

The Diana beaded evening bag looks exactly as it did about 8 months ago.

I've a new spindle and rovings ready to try spinning for the first time ever...(why finish anything when I can start something new altogether??)

The list goes on. Maybe restarting the blog and the Knitting Olympics will get me going again!