Friday, February 12, 2010

Let the Games Begin

The Knitting Olympics start this afternoon when the Olympic Flame is lit.  Stephanie Pearl-McPhee had a cool idea four years ago and this year marks the second Knitting Olympics.  For her post on the start of this wondrous event (and to get yourself registered if you want to join), click here.  The Knitting Olympics Athletes Pledge is here on Feb 10, 2006.


Last time, I made my first socks.  It was the whole idea of challenging myself as a knitter that gave me that first feeling of fearlessness.  This time I am going to attempt to fix/finish what started as a wool vest (brown) knit in the round.  When I realized I would not have enough yarn for this I bravely stupidly continued on by spinning a second color (cream), splitting the knitting into front/back and doing colorwork.  This then became three colors (brown, cream, and turquoise) as i continued spinning.  Then, when the back was finished, it turns out that it is (1) too long and (2) a bit too tight.  So, I ripped out the in-the-round part.  I will knit the front as one piece (adding stitches to fix the too tight part) and incorporate steek stitches up the middle.  So, that I can for the first time ever steek something* AND also for the first time ever sew in a zipper.  Oh, and I almost forgot to mention... I spun all of the turquoise roving I had and it clearly wouldn't be enough.  So, I dyed some cream yarn turquoise to match.  I also spun the yarn for the steek (a golden yellow).  This thing is for Carter who (thankfully) loves color.  But he also had a request for pockets.  Shoot me now.

So, here is a gratuitous picture of this thing (before I ripped out the in-the-round part) just to give you an idea of what I am doing.  I bought the zippers a couple of days ago (red) so I think I am ready to go...


* A steek is when you CUT your knitting in order to separate two sides of a cardigan (zippered, buttoned, or plain), to add sleeves, or any time where it is easier to knit a design as one piece and then make it two.  Extra stitches are added where the cut will be made.  They are fortified with one or two lines of sewn stitches prior to "cutting the steek".  The knitter is usually fortified with a small amount of alcohol (more could cause steek and/or knitter impairment instead of fortification).

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