Let the Games Begin

8/8/08                                           

Today is the day we’ve been waiting for … when the world’s attention turns to marvelous feats of athleticism, sacrifice, sportsmanship and triumph, as well as agonizing disappointment, failure, dashed dreams and lost hope.  Yes, it’s time for RAVELYMPICS 2008, seventeen days and nights of backbreaking, finger-cramping, shoulder-twisting, wrist-wringing nonstop knitting and crocheting on Ravelry.

          

Your intrepid blogger, representing Team Blue Sky Alpaca and Team Junkie, will be going for the gold in the following events:

Sweater Sprint:  I’ll be casting on Friday at 8 a.m., as the opening ceremonies in Beijing begin, with my first entry, Blue Sky’s Eyelet Cardigan in Blue Sky Cotton, color Graphite.  Entry 2 will be Ysolda Teague’s Liesl, also in Blue Sky Cotton, color Periwinkle.  Entry 3 is the Betty Shrug by Kristen Griffin-Grimes from Vintage Crochet, crocheted in Blue Sky Alpacas’ Alpaca Silk, shade Blush.

Bag-n-Tote Backstroke:  My entry is Vintage Crochet’s Hipster Tote by Bee Clinch, crocheted in Malabrigo Organic Cotton, color Turquesa. 

Designer Discus, Pets Pommel:  Mmmm-Bop, my own surprise creation, a luscious, cuddlesome dog sweater knit in Malabrigo Merino Worsted, shade Cuarenta.

Homestuff Hammerthrow:  Both entries from Vintage Crochet. Entry 1 is Emma Seddon‘s Shelf Runner, and Entry 2 is Kate Samphier‘s French Press Cozy.  Both entries will be crocheted in Blue Sky Alpaca’s Sport Weight, colors Natural White and Natural Streaky Brown.

After I’ve knocked out these little items, I’ll wrap it up with several entries in WIPs Wrestling, attempting to finish up my Angelina Cardigan from White Lies Designs, on the needles coming up on three winters; my top-down Lily Cardigan by Marie Grace Smith, knit in Rowan Purelife and close to being done; my Brighton Cardigan by Martin Storey; and my Soda Bag, also by Martin Storey.

I’ll be posting each finished project, with at least one picture and (I hope) details, as the games progress.

Wish me luck!

8 a.m. EDT:  Cast on Blue Sky Eyelet Cardi simultaneously with real-time opening ceremonies in Beijing.

 

 

 

 

 

8/9/08

I’ve completed about 20 percent of my Blue Sky Eyelet Cardigan.  You’re looking at the back here, and I’ve just begun the armhole shaping.   Tonight I’ll try to get to the 40% mark (end of second of five balls of yarn), then on to WIP Wrestling with my Lily Cardigan.

           
 

8/11/08

Halfway through the Eyelet Cardi!  I knitted my little fingers off over the weekend on this thing, but I am loving how it looks and how quickly it’s going.  Today I’ll keep forging ahead, but also working on my Hipster Tote, a crochet project that’s a good break from all this eyelet knitting.  I got about a third of the way through one side yesterday.

In Sickness and in Health

MY TURN

We had quite the surprising week. Not a good surprise, but an opportunity nonetheless for me to give back, and I always appreciate that.

Michael, my healthy, robust, always giving partner, contracted a couple of hernias this month. The day he remembers feeling “something” was a day he spent with the leaf blower outside trying to outmaneuver the mounds of spring goodies that have fallen from the giant live oak between our house and our neighbors’.  It’s a losing battle ~ you rake or blow away this stuff, and the porch and yard are filled with it the next day.  But he tried.  Then Michael took on the bathing of our squiggly, wiggly Yorkie, Willie, with his rapidly expanding girth ~ the dog now weighs 13.2 pounds! By the time that day was over, my husband was doubled over with pain and on his way to the doctor.

This past Monday morning Michael was scheduled for a couple of minor hernia repairs, laparoscopic, quick and easy.  Wrong!  One incision is the simple laparoscopic kind, an inch or so right at the belly button.  The other, however, is a good 4 or 5 inches long.  The result:  My poor sweetie has been bedridden all week, in terrible pain, unable to eat, entirely dependent on me, and in a hazy Percocet delirium.

So, I’ve had to go from being well cared for since my shoulder surgery to suddenly being the caregiver myself ~ and I am exhausted!  Needless to say, the 16-year-old has been little help.  I’ll be glad when my sweetie is up and about and back to normal.  It’s hard to see someone you love hurting and not be able to make it go away.

OUR GARDEN GROWS

Last year we planted dozens of exotic daylily bulbs, and I could kick myself for not writing down what everything was.  But the first of them started blooming this week in our front bed.  This magenta darling will bloom only once this year, but what a glorious sight when she does!

 

 

We’ve also got every kind of herb you’d want, plus cucumbers, lettuce, strawberries, zucchini, Meyer lemons, spinach, arugula and a new crop of heirloom tomatoes shipped from Laurel’s Heirloom Tomatoes.  For 18 years I lived downtown in the historic district, with only a courtyard and no earth of my own ~ and prior to that, five years in Manhattan preceded by five years in downtown Boston, so you can imagine how much I love being able to literally put down roots.

GOING GRAY

Coming from that New York state of mind, I’ve been all about the black for a long, long time.  My closet looked like a funeral director’s.  In the last year or two I ventured a little toward the browns, but they just weren’t me, and I kept drifting back to black. 

I’ve found a new niche in GRAY, ironically well-suited to my station in life as part of a retired, fixed-income couple.  (Too bad my taste doesn’t lend itself to that income.)  You may have noticed a trend in my recent knitted items, from the “Charlotte” wrap, knitted in charcoal Rowan Ribbon Twist, to “Grey Gardens,” my luscious Cascade Cloud 9 triangle wrap in dark gray, to even the ill-fated “Nightfall Cropped Top” from Twinkle’s Weekend Knits in dark gray and ivory Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece.  The wardrobe is filling in with lovely gray items by Eileen Fisher and Garnet Hill.  And what about these cool shoes (the pewter ones, left) by Palladium?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They’re comfy comfy comfy from Garnet Hill, and I adore wearing them with GH’s Knit Layered Skirt in dove gray, their Elbow-length Scoop-neck Tee in warm gray, and ~ soon ~ this amazing Martin Storey striped cardigan sweater I am almost finished with, from Rowan Classic’s “Colour of Summer” book, which has quite a few terrific patterns.

         

The sweater calls for Rowan Cashcotton DK, but I’m using Wool Cotton (probably my all-time favorite Rowan yarn) in two shades of green, elf and citron, along with Rowan Cashsoft DK in mist, which is ~ what else? ~ a lovely, soft gray.