Redemption

So as much as I despise the Bob dominated coverage… I have to admit that the 2010 Olympics were the Olympics of Redemption.  2010 was the year the Bode Miller finally got his gold.

The similarities between us are a bit striking. In 2006 we were both cocky – thinking we could easily cruise to victory, partying the whole way. We didn’t know how hard you have to fight to make it to the top of the podium.

And we both ended up with a DNF.

Tempting II. It almost defeated me. I eventually achieved victory, though. Or on Rav here: Tempting II

This year we returned. Refocused and determined. Now parents our partying days are mostly in the past.

I wanted the gold so bad I could taste it.

But the whole point of this project was to knit something epic. To challenge yourself. To compete at a higher level.  So I chose to knit something that I honestly didn't think was possible in 2 weeks. Something classic, something pure: An Elizabeth Zimmerman seamless yolk sweater with an Icelandic inspired colorwork pattern.  You can't get more entrenched in knitting than that.

And after staying up way later than I’m going to admit more times than sanity would dictate I have a finished, blocked, photographed sweater:


In 17 days.


That is Epic.



That is what the Knitting Olympics are about.



That is capturing the spirit of the games in yarn.


That is a gold medal performance.

I don't know. I was following what my Photographer told me to do.

The specs:
On Ravelry:  My Olympic Sweater
Pattern: Combo of the Hela short cardigan and an Elizabeth Zimmerman percentage sweater
Yarn: Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran. Blend of merino, silk, and cashmere. Total luxury.
Colorway: Venitian. With bits of quartz and cream
Mods: Um yeah. Knit the whole thing do a different gauge. Added in 4 short rows at bust for shaping.
If I could do it again: Would probably add a few more short rows, would add a few more rows of seed stitch to the bottom to keep it from rolling. Wouldn’t attempt it in such a short timeframe.
Verdict: WIN. GOLD. YAY. LOVE. HEARTS and BUTTERFLIES and  FLOWERS and SUNSHINE.

So I have enough yarn leftover to make the baby her own version of this sweater…. Should I do it or is that cheesy? I kindof want to do it just so that I can knit this chart again:

Hmmmmmm…..

Something the swatch was good for

So the Big Fat Liar Swatch was good for something (other than taking away about 15 hours of my life that I’ll never get back)… it gave me a really good concept of what the colorwork was going to look like:

And honestly I was kindof meh on it.   I just didn’t like it as much as I thought I was going to. Problem is that this yarn is discontinued. It’s Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran – a squisy butter soft blend of cashmere, merino, and silk – and I bought it years ago when a local yarn store went out of business. Also this yarn has a very different feel from anything I’ve got in my stash (probably the cashmere. Don’t usually work with anything that luxe) so it’s not like I could just throw in whatevcer.

To the Internets!

After a bit of digging I found some of what looked to be a decent colorway on ebay and took a chance.

My colorscheme went from this:


To this:

Much better.

The result is subtle – but I like subtle:

Sleeve 1. V3.0

It took me 3 tries to get going on this sleeve. The first time I rounded up from the pattern repeats and started w/ 42 stitches. WAAAY too big. The second time I rounded down and was happy with the result at the cuff. Then I increased every 7 rounds and created a sleeve with about 3 inches of negative ease. Sexy. So I ripped that back and increased every 5 rounds and was finally happy with the result.



Last night I finished the second sleeve. Sleeve 2 also took 3 tries to get started. Once b/c I forgot the seamless join. Once b/c I’m apparently unable to count to 34. And one more time because I forgot to do the seamless join AGAIN. I blame the wine.

I’m about here on the body:

I need to decide what I’m going to do for bust shaping, knit about 3 more inches, join everything, knit the yolk and finish it.

I have 6 days.

Impossible? Probably. But I’m going to try for redemption* anyways.  And if I skate clean I might just make the podium.

*Has anyone else noticed how redemption seems to be Bob’s fav. Buzz word these games? It always seems a bit like a backhanded compliment. Like “well they won gold this time… but last games they SUCKED.” Shut up, Bob.

The story of a swatch

With an Elizabeth Zimmerman sweater the whole thing is based on your measurements and your gauge swatch. It’s all math from those 2 elements. So I knew I needed to get them right. Plus this is for the Olympics. This is for Glory. There could be no “good enough for government work.”.

So instead of a normal swatch I knit this:

Just a simple baby hat. But it’s knit in the round – my gauge might have been different knitting flat. Plus I used part of the colorwork pattern for the edging just to make sure my gauge was constant for that part, too.

5 stitches and 7 rows per inch across the whole hat.

When I cast on I was confident that the sweater I was knitting would fit me perfectly.

Confidence angers the knitting gods.

The first weekend went well. I knit and I knit and I knit and I was through the waist shaping and getting very close to thinking about the arm. I was easily on track for gold.

Over confidence really angers the knitting gods.

When I finished the last increase row of the waist shaping I held up my sweater to my almost finished Heather Hoodie to compare the shaping. The hoodie fits me great (just needs ends tucked in and buttons bought and sewn on and it will be finished!) so I wanted to compare….

I believe my twitter stream probably sums up what I found best:

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK my gauge swatch was a dirty liar and my #olympic sweater is 10 INCHES TOO BIG.

10 INCHES too big.

10 INCHES.

Sob

Apparently the swatch hat is a dirty liar:

Pictured: LIES. and Adorable.

It knit at a gauge of 5 stitches per inch. My sweater knit up at a gauge of 4.25 stitches per inch. Which over the width of the whole sweater added up to 10 inches in difference.

Really the only appropriate reaction is to curse as much as possible, whine to everyone on the Internet, and then cry into a big glass of wine.

After that I frogged the whole thing and restarted:

I’m further than that now but I feel like one of the Figure Skaters who screwed up the very first move of their short program. In all likelihood I won’t make the podium. I know it, everyone else knows it, but I have to go through the rest of the moves anyways.

The Knitting Olympics

So Today starts the Olympics. Also the Knitting Olympics. Where knitters all over the globe will challenge themselves to knit something within the 17 days of the games. I am knitting this:

Only not this. I’m using the charts from this sweater but I’m putting them onto an Elizabeth Zimmerman Seamless Yolk Sweater.

Which means it’s worsted weight, a pullover instead of a cardigan, and I’m doing a pile of math.

This will be my first colorwork sweater, my first EZ sweater, &my first seamless yolk.

Let the games begin!!!