No Knitting Olympics for Me
Like everybody else, I wanted to take part in the Knitting Olympics organized by the Yarn Harlot. Unlike everybody else, all I wanted to make during the sixteen days of the 2006 Torino Olympics was a damn scarf. After more than three months, The Scarf That Time Forgot was still unfinished, so I figured that it would be a major accomplishment for me to make a scarf in sixteen days. I wasn’t going to do another garter stitch scarf, though. I was gonna go a baby step up from that and try ribbing or something. I also planned to finish The Scarf That Time Forgot before starting the new scarf in the Knitting Olympics.
To say that things didn’t work out exactly as planned would be an understatement.
I didn’t take part in the Knitting Olympics at all because I wound up in the hospital. The hospital might sound like an ideal place for knitting, because you have no obligations, nothing but time on your hands, nothing else to do but sit/lie around and knit. Unfortunately, I was in the kind of hospital where they don’t let you have sharp objects.
So I did not get the chance to start the new scarf project I had tentatively planned. I watched the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics on TV in the hospital, unable to cast on a project. Luckily, the needles for The Scarf That Time Forgot do not by any stretch of the imagination qualify as “sharp objects,” as they are 12 mm (slightly smaller than US 17), made of plastic, and quite blunt, so after a few days my mom did bring TSTTF to me and I did knit some more of it. But no Knitting Olympics for me.
When I got out of the hospital, there were quite a few days of the Olympics left, but I had a lot of stuff schoolwise and householdwise to take care of (and my mother around to make sure I did so and did not waste any time), and no time for knitting. I caught up on my shirked responsibilities. My mom left town to go back home the morning of the Olympic closing ceremonies. I got back to work on The Scarf That Time Forgot. I completed the number of rows I had planned to all along, 168, but I realized that the scarf is not nearly as long as I thought it would be after 168 rows. It’s a little over four feet, but I’d like it closer to six. So I’m going to keep working on TSTTF until it’s about six feet long. I’m almost out of yarn, so I had to buy more, but, predictably enough, I couldn’t find the same dye lot. It’s not like I care much, though. It is My First Scarf™ made out of 100% acrylic Red Heart yarn. It’s gonna look kind of crappy no matter what I do. Might as well use two different dye lots.
There is no point in posting another picture of The Scarf That Time Forgot at the moment. It is a garter stitch scarf; it looks exactly the same as the last time I posted a picture of it except that it’s twice as long. Instead, here is a picture of yarn I got at LK Yarns that I swear I will turn into a scarf someday.
It is Katia Mexico, made in Spain, 75% acrylic, 25% wool. I don’t think this colourway has an official name, but I’ve seen it referred to as “Easter” on several sites, which I think is apt, as it’s rainbow-y and slightly pastel-y.
I watched Murderball tonight, and I think I might try to do the New Scarf Project during the ten days of the Paralympics. (Yes, despite technically having a “permanent disability,” I’m entirely able-bodied, but I was ill during the Knitting Olympics.) I couldn’t knit for Team Canada in the Knitting Olympics, but hey, it’s not like they needed me. I’d like to do this for myself and give my inability to finish things a good kick in the ass. I like challenges like NaNoWriMo, so maybe a time limit is what I need here. It’ll be my own one-girl knitting mini-Olympics, also known as just plain knitting a scarf, only with a deadline.