Knitting Olympics (and some Spinning)

Firstly - thanks for the comments! It is nice to know that SOMEBODY likes my blog, other than me.

OK – I promised to write something about my Knitting Olympics entry today. Actually. I meant to write something yesterday but I got carried away with my daughter and the mittens. BTW – they were a GREAT hit, and, much to her delight and my disgust (I have laundry that needs to dry) it was rainy and cold this morning so she got to wear them to crèche. So much for Sunny South Africa.

I am planning to knit Zauberflote – I was initially planning on doing the whole thing in 16 days, but after I set up my tracking spreadsheet I realised that I’d need to knit for about 6 hours a day to manage that. As I currently get about 2 hours a day if I’m lucky – thanks to work and kids – we all know the drill, I decided to revise my target and will aim to have the body completed up to the point where I need to start knitting the armhole steeks.

The picture on the left is the current view of the project. The swatch is below it. It would also appear to be upside down but that will distract you from the mistake I made when swatching because I forgot there was an edge stitch to be knitted at the EDGE and included it in the PATTERN. I can’t tell you how long it took me before I realised what a twit I’d been. AH well, better it happens when I’m swatching than when I’m knitting.

I will, however, be less likely to make mistakes when I do the REAL THING as I will be using LOTS of the thingies in the picture on the right. Aren’t they pretty? I got a pile of beads and made myself 100+ stitch markers. I know little loops of yarn would be cheaper but I can knit without looking at my hands. This comes in handy when knitting Fair Isle as I can look at the chart and let my hands follow what I see instead of constantly looking from the one to the other. If I use loops of yarn I can’t always tell the difference between a marker and a stitch and have a tendency to either drop them or knit into them. This leads to much unladylike language.

Now, as today is Tuesday and I have my weekly ONE mostly uninterrupted hour of TV tonight I am going to follow the example of the Yarn Harlot and spin. Tuesday night is “Reality TV” night and I’ll spin while watching “The Amazing Race”. The question now, naturally, is what to spin? It’s been such a LONG time since I’ve done any spinning so I am spoiled for choice. I could spin this fiber :










Please note the snazzy "before" and "after" pics. Very yummy stuff this – from Grafton Fibers if you are interested. HMM - wonder if there will be a rush based on this?

Or else I could spin some of this which is a 12-step rainbow I dyed from the top row of colours. This is getting spun on a drop spindle.

Decisions decisions decisions. I’ll tell you what I choose tomorrow. SEE – not just random stuff – you get suspense and mystery too.

Before I go, here’s the other cat, Princess, hiding in her cat cave. YES, it IS a crap picture, she was HIDING. Just after this photo was taken she ran away to hide in a convenient cupboard. Princess, despite her tender age (she is barely two), is the veteran of two cautionary tales, “Why you should NEVER take your 4YO to the vet” and “Why cats and plastic bags DO NOT MIX”. These will be shared with you once I run out of other things to say.
Ta Ta for now.