txplumwine knits

10:24pm: Thoroughly uncompetitive
I wouldn't say I'm admitting defeat, per se, but even with my revised goal, I do not expect to earn a Knitting Olympics gold medal this go-round. Hampered by a slow start and continued interruptions, I now realize I was underprepared altogether. This doesn't bother me as much as it might have a week ago, as I now have an FO

( behind the cut )

to show for my time. Plus: happiness - and this may be tooting my own horn too much, and if so, I apologize - but this was a sold piece in a silent auction on Friday. Final price was at least $30 (possibly more; I left before it ended), and considering that it only cost $5 in materials (a skein and a half of Light & Lofty, by the way) and a lot of fun, that's saying quite a bit.

On the Olympic-project score, I have not progressed any further. I may now decide to start over fresh and not have any funky accidental increase-decrease stuff going on; that seems reasonable.

And on the Dream Business front, I spent some time scripting Nefarious Plans today. (I don't want to share details until I know it's coming to fruition, but it's definitely knitting-related.) I was happy to realize that I actually have a great deal of this thought out, at least according to the parts with which I have the proper experience.

So. Injured? No. Defeated? Absolutely not. Even just the idea of the Knitting Olympics has inspired me. Lighter, fluffier, lacier...I'll get there in the end.

5:54pm: No, really - I won't give up.
Even though I've barely touched the damn thing in two days. I'm going to try to roll on it this weekend and see how it goes. I'm not going to scrap the project, though, even if I don't have any progress during Olympic time.

On Monday, I did receive the Silk City Bounce I ordered from Elann. The black is very rich and it has a nice sheen; a bit elastic, but not so much that I think it wouldn't work for another shawl.

Part of my problem is that I've been easily overwhelmed by too many little things for the last several days. No need to go into detail, but I will say that I'm proud of myself for not feeling guilty about it; instead, I am honestly assessing what comes up each day, and detailed, pay-attention knitting has not fit into it, so I'm doing what else I need to do, and finishing a mindless project in the meantime.

( Photo behind the cut )

I'm adding a crochet border tonight; it has to be done before I go to work tomorrow, because I have to take it with me.

So. Inspiration - Must.keep.moving. And now, back to a bit of work before Stitch 'n' Bitch tonight.

11:14am: I *will not* give up. I *will not* give up.
If I keep saying it enough, maybe I'll mean it. I'm only about 10 rows in; still have to do 10 more rows in garter before I even start on the lace pattern. At one point I realized that I was two stitches short, and I don't know how that happened; I tried to add them invisibly, one on each of the next two rows, but at least one of them will probably leave a bit of a gap. I just couldn't face frogging back; it took me so long to cast on.

I think I might have been willing to switch projects if there was anything else I *wanted* to do that would still be a challenge. I know I'm not ready for socks (or anything in the round, for that matter), I don't have any *specific* babies to knit for so there's no point to baby garments (and I do blankets all the time), making a *garment* for myself would require far more yarn than I want to buy.

Plus, I'm really a shawl chick. I love to make them, I love to give them, and when I've done a few more, I'll love to wear them. And lace is really the next step in becoming the Ultimate Shawl Knitter. Annnnd, what little I have done feels really nice, and I think it will have a gorgeous drape...the color (a muted cornflower blue) is lovely too.

OK, I've talked myself out of a doldrum. Whew. I'm going to aim to finish the border and at least one pattern repeat tonight, and post photos of that when I do.

2:03pm: Day 2 (or Day 1, as the case may be)
So, due to timing issues, lack of yarn, and feeling ill, I didn't start Friday. And when the yarn I'd ordered by mail didn't arrive Saturday, I made a trip to my LYS and managed to walk away with something workable.

Last night I managed to cast on - slowly - and get halfway through my first row. I'm working with a Silk City synthetic wrapped lace yarn, not entirely unlike LB Homespun (fluffy acrylic roving with shimmery wrap), but obviously much, much finer. It's a bit tricky but not too bad.

At this point, I think the major things slowing me down are:

- My needles. I picked up a pair of Inox, as I didn't have anything in a US5 and prefer metal, but the points are roundish and I think bamboo (much as I don't usually like it) would hold on better, too.

- The size of my materials. I'm one of those who tends to consider worsted/aran a bit *light,* and I like stuff like Homespun and Light & Lofty on US13s and 15s (my other WIP is a baby blanket in L&L on 17s). I have long, thick fingers and while I planned this as part of the challenge, I'm not sure I was fully prepared for what laceweight on US5s would be like.

- My technique - that is, the one I *normally* use. I'm a "Combined" Knitter; my normal knit is through the back loop, yarn in left hand. I wanted to do this project in "normal" Continental so that my pattern wouldn't turn out wrong, but I'm starting to wonder if I should just take my chances...knitting into the front loop just doesn't feel natural to me, and I'm starting to think it will seriously impede my progress.

I'm cross-posting this in part to knit_olympics to see if anybody has any advice. Updates later.

3:18pm: Team Texas signs on
Well, OK, admittedly I'm (I think) the first knitter to fess up to being a member of Team Texas for the Knitting Olympics. We have to start somewhere...

I finally got my hands on a copy of Folk Shawls this weekend and spent several hours going back and forth through the patterns. It's a lovely book with 25 very well-written patterns, all of them shawls, many of them lace.

I'd originally planned to go for a triangle shawl, but I don't think I'm up to the challenge of any of the lace triangles I've seen so far; most of them involve borders or circular starts or any number of other techniques that I'm just not yet solid enough to attempt. This also contributed to my inability to work a pattern from one of the cultures most closely involving my ancestry.

So I decided on the Kimono Shawl, which the author says is inspired by the delicate heirloom shawls worn by Japanese women with formal kimono to tea ceremonies. Challenge 1: tiny yarn and needles. Challenge 2 (shaping and bordering) will just have to wait.

My biggest problem now is finding a lace-weight yarn that wasn't once hair or fur. Silks seem easy to find...but while I'm not poor, I'm also not inclined to spend $120 on yarn for my first-ever lace project. All suggestions are welcome.

The Harlot reports that there are now more Olympic Knitters than Olympians. Quite frankly, this rocks my world...and a lot of other folks', apparently. I continue to seek out appropriate userpics and to consider making some myself, especially since it seems Team Texas (I know you're out there) is focusing on preparation rather than buttons.

I'm also considering starting Team BUSTie. Any takers?