Not Much Knitting So Far

Not much schoolwork either. I've got part of a toe, and that's about it. Only knit for like half an hour yesterday. I'm also partway through a book for class, and by partway I mean the reading equivalent of "part of a toe". Sigh.

My best friend's coming to visit on Thursday. This will be nice. Anh and I have been snarking at each other for a bit today. I hope we both stop soon. Also, I need a shower. >_>

I'm baaaaack...

At least for the Knitting Olympics. It'll be awesome. :D

I'm making a pair of toe-up socks, using a heart cable pattern, and the construction of Chevrolace, with minor modifications. Obviously I'll screw with it. I do to every pattern, especially the ones I make up myself. Since I've knit Chevrolace before, and enjoyed it, I think this is a good fit. For the yarn, I'm using Artyarns Ultramerino 4 in color 115 (basically a valentine's pink/red mix). I'm balling it right now. That's allowed, right?

The reason for the hearts is the pink yarn, and the reason for the pink yarn is twofold: it's been sitting in my stash for too long, and Valentine's day is this Sunday. I just realized I haven't updated this blog since I started dating Anh, so this will be interesting. I've also stopped blogging so frequently, what with college and all. It'll be nice to return to it.

I think it's fitting that my return to knit-blogging corresponds to the start of the Knitting Olympics. Very fitting.




The Knitting Olympics Athletes Pledge

I, a knitter of able hands and quick wits, to hereby swear that over the course of these Olympics I will uphold the highest standard of knitterly excellence.

I will be deft of hand and sure of pattern, I will overcome troubles of yarn overs and misplaced decreases. I will use the gifts of intelligence and persistence (as well as caffeine and chocolate) and I will execute my art to the highest form, carrying with me the hope for excellence known to every knitter.

I strive to win. To do my best, and to approach the needles with my own best effort in mind, without comparing myself to my fellow knitters, for they have challenges unique to them.

While I engage in this pursuit of excellence and my own personal, individual best, I also swear that I will continue to engage with my family in conversation, care for my pets, speak kindly with those who would ask me to do something other than knit, and above all, above every stitch thrown or picked, above every cable, every heel stitch, every change of colour, I swear this:

That I will remember that this is not the real Olympics, that I'm supposed to be having fun and that my happiness and self-worth ride not on my success....

but on my trying.

Let the games begin!

The Bode Award

For the many who have described a comparison between Bode Miller and themselves, I present to you....



The Bode Miller award.

And a more knitterly version, but more of an avatar.







Enjoy.

The sock's going. When trying on the other sock, I realized I just might be allergic to wool. Annoying for a knitter, eh? Maybe I should knit silk socks.....hahaha.

I had an idea, that for the Paralympics, I could not buy any yarn/knitterly stuff, and donate the money I saved to disability research. Or knit something.
I don't really know.

DNF

I am basically the Bode Miller of the knitting world.

Without the beer belly.

I'm finished with the gusset decreases on the second sock. That's all. SSS hit me bad, and it was hard to recover. It's like Bode on the giant slalom (or super-g) where he hit a gate and had to ski on one ski, and missed the other gate and left the course.
Right. I'm going to sneak out, defiantly and all that.

Before I do, though, I'd like to quote someone on the Team USA KAL yahoo group, who I admire.
"Congratulations to those of you who finished your projects and especially to all of you who dared to dream and cast on in the first place. You may not be winners, but you will always be Knitting Olympians and no one can ever take that away from you."

Going for the Silver

Haha. I'm buying some time by going by the NBC coverage of the Olympics. Closing ceremonies start at 7 pm.

Otherwise, I totally missed the 2 pm finish time. So no gold for me.

I will survive

despite the fact that I've still got the entire foot, and the heel, and about 2 more inches of leg to go.

Argh.

In the Spirit of Things

The Olympic Spirit is all about going beyond. Beyond your limits, beyond nationality, beyond fear and panic and doubt.
I feel as if the Knitting Olympics honestly allow so many people to accomplish that. One person posted on the Team USA KAL Yahoo group that she had been knitting sweaters for 15 years and had never knit a sock. Now, the KO (Knitting Olympics) allowed her to go beyond that mental block (or whatever it was) and knit a pair of socks. Now she plans to knit more socks.

I think that's amazing, and I think many people are going through that same smashing of barriers now. It is bringing people together, giving us all a sense of unity, teaching us that no matter how limited we think we are, we can rise to the occasion. We are rising to the occasion.

And I'm rising to smash the panic button. I count four days left. (hush.)
However, I am knitting pretty fast, with much support and love from the people in school and at home.

I feel proud, of myself and of all the Olympic Knitters in the world. We are amazing. We continue to prove our amazingness.
It's just a happy, fuzzy feeling that has nothing to do with finding an amazing pattern or some amazing yarn. It's deeper, and, dare I say it, better.

This is sad.

I'm stuck in a rut. Haven't knit a stitch today, but I might really honestly give up on homework and knit during the Olympics.

I learned to knit from my mom at age 6, and then from memory and friends at around 11. I basically knit left-handed backward, so my knit stitches look like English purls if you're facing me, and my purls look like English knits. It's not even combined; if anything, I think it's Eastern. That would make sense, considering my mom learned in Turkey when she was in uni. (She knit herself a cardigan like the scandinavian ones--in the round, with pretty colors. I'm amazed.)
Sometimes I feel like every pattern I see is written for someone else, and it's so much easier to just knit "properly" and conform to everyone else.
So as it happens, I can knit about 4 different ways, and purl about 4 different ways. It's 8 each if you count the fact that I can knit "backwards" or left-handed.

Not bad, eh?

And all that knowledge doesn't help me one damn bit, because I have no motivation. >_<

We Shall Overcome

Second Sock Syndrome is being beat into the ground by a combination of external motivation, procrastination, and button-making. I've got like 3 rounds of the second sock done. *le huge sigh*

Anyway, here's a Team Turkey button I made (really late, too...), because I don't think there's a team turkey and i'm sure I can't be the only Turkish knitter out there. Cheering for the figure skater who is like the whole team. (Kind of reminds me of our school track team... >_<)

Argh. Just lost a sentence. Oh noes.
You know you knit too much when someone blogs about computer issues and says "I need to buy a cable" and you think "Wait, they come seperately?"

Warning: Rated R language ahead. If you're a little kiddie, cover your eyes but don't scream.
Good night. If you happen to be homework, I'd like to say "Fuck you" and go away before I stab this hairbrush up your arse. :)

Second Sock Syndrome Sucks

Like the alliteration?
I was going so well, and then I bound off horribly, and lost all of my momentum. Here's the second 400, and I really don't want to do it. With motivation and support, however, I will succeed and prevail and all that crap.
I had lost the other ball of yarn for a while, but I just found it and it is ready to go. Tomorrow, perhaps.

Oh, here's a random pattern for a beginner scarf I designed/made a long time ago. It's really simple, and the ribbing makes it look sort of like stockinette on the RS, but it doesn't curl.
26 stitches on straight needles, pick the yarn and the needles that you feel best show off the cables. (Oh yes, there will be cables.)
CO 26 sts
K 1 row (RS)
K 1 row (WS)
*RS: K3, P2, K2, P1, K1, P1, 6 stitch braid cable (*), P1, K1, P1, K2, P2, K3
WS: P3, K2, P2, K1, P1, K1, P6, K1, P1, K1, P2, K2, P3*
Repeat these two rows until the scarf measures as long as you want it to be, end on a RS, K1 row (on ws), K1 row (on rs), bind off all 26 sts.

Of course, you could leave off the garter stitch, and just CO, go in the pattern, BO. Whatever you want, really. And you could replace the middle 6-stitch braid-cable with something else.
(c) 2006 Ayse

6-stitch Braid Cable (definitely not of my own creation, though I'm not sure where I first learnt it. I think my friend explained it to me verbally when we were 12):
Row 1 (RS): put the first 2 sts onto a cable needle, hold the cable needle to the back of your work, k the next 2 sts (they will have been the middle 2 sts), k the 2 sts off the cable needle, and k the last 2 sts. (the first four sts will look as if you did a 4 st twisty cable, while the last 2 will stay in their spot.)
Row 2 (WS): P all 6 sts
Row 3 (RS): K first 2 sts, put next 2 sts onto a cable needle, hold cable needle to front of work, k next 2 sts off regular needle, k 2 sts off cable needle.
Row 4 (WS): P all 6 sts
Repeat Rows 1-4, ending wherever you want.

Almost...There....

I'm so incredibly close to finishing the first sock. I have about half an inch more, and then the toe. Argh. I was going to finish tonight, but then I decided to sleep (haha).

Just a quick progress update. I think Second Sock Syndrome won't strike so badly. *crossing fingers*

Definite Progress

I've turned the heel and I'm on the instep. Woo. This is on the first sock, obviously. I'm not that good. :P Anyway, it's going well. I'm pretty on schedule; I figure 8 days for the first sock and 8 for the second, and it's been what, 4 and a half so far? I should be done with this sock by saturday.

This feels like an 800 (meter run). You get all excited toward the end of the first lap, and then you realize that you've still got a lap to go and you shouldn't waste all your energy now. Obviously, this is more fun than an 800. It would have to be, or else all these people wouldn't be doing it, least of all me. (I get enough masochistic runningstuff from track.)

Anyway. I'm having fun knitting in school, although I only get like 6 or 10 rows done. One at a time, through the day. It's awesome, though, because I get to fill up those wasted minutes at the end and beginning of class. And I get to see progress.

It feels like a major milestone, the turning of the heel. I'm filled with all this creative energy right now: before, when I was bored or lethargic I'd just waste time thinking about knitting, but now, every spare moment can be used for the Sock project. I can channel all this energy as opposed to wanting it to go away.

Don't get me wrong, I still want to sleep a lot. But it's different, because my free time has a purpose.

Progress?

Yes! Run #1 of the finals is half over: I'm at the heel shaping. (Almost typoed that as "hell shaping" :P) It's really long because my ribbing is so big, I have to make it reach my calf. Sad.

Kelly Clark's run was bloody amazing. *shakes head* I felt so bad when she fell, because that was surely a gold-medal run. So sad....

Opening Ceremonies

I have knit an inch of the cuff of sock one. Woo. We have progress and the descent into madness. It's fun, I swear.
US1s, Lion Brand Magic Stripes Regatta Blue. I'm using the tennis-ball container again, to keep the needles and working yarn all nice.

Now, the big debate is whether I should bring my knitting to the movie tomorrow. It might get really screwed up, and it might not. We'll see. I will probably be bringing it to school for the next week, though, despite the fact that we've got way too many tests. Argh. Actually, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday should be fun. And we might get a snow day on Monday: There's like a 2% chance, probably.
Soccer practice tomorrow, so no knitting time. And Sunday will be knit/study day.

Uhh, not much else to say, besides the fact that at the rate I'm going, it will be quite hard to finish by the end. I smell a couple all-nighters. And perhaps cutting back the definition of finish Jaywalkers to finish a Jaywalker. :P Not yet, though. I'm an athelete and a physlete and a knitlete, and I will not lower my expectations. *triumphant smile* ;-}

what have I done?!

I signed up for the Knitting Olympics. You can see my name on the Yarn Harlot's list. AAAH!
Help!

I'm doing Jaywalkers. It shall be fun and stressful. ^__^ Je suis la reine de stress.

G'night, more info tomorrow. Maybe.

Citius, Altius, Fortius

I don't know if I'm actually going to do it, but it seems like a nice challenge. I'd do Jaywalkers in Lion Brand Magic Stripes Blue Regatta.
I also want to knit Picovoli (again from magknits, and again by Grumperina) in my pretty blue cotton. It's so the kind of thing I'd wear, besides the not-wearing-knitted-stuff thing.
Oh my. I adore Magknits now. The tunic-thing looks amazingly gorgeous. And I'd SO wear that. *drool*

I dislike being impatient, sometimes. I'm glad it doesn't carry over fully into my knitting. (although I do get second sock and second glove syndrome....)