So! Olympics! Aka Ravellenic Games! Aka that time when I go crazy trying to knit something in a ridiculous amount of time while watching the Olympics!
For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about the
Ravellenic Games are described as this:
Challenge yourself by starting and finishing one or more projects during the 2014 Winter Olympics.
It's a Giant Knit Along. It's happening. It's now. And once again I have no idea what to do. Help?
Some backstory...
here's my entry from 2010. I rocked it. I knit an entire traditional stranded sweater in the time between the opening and closing ceremonies. I knit for gold:
Here's 2012. I knit a shawl. It was less epic than a sweater but still quite Olympic worthy. Especially since the picot bindoff and the beads made the whole thing take ALOT longer than I had anticipated:
And if you really want to go back further
here's 2008 (I failed b/c I was newly pregnant with my daughter and very, VERY sick), and here's 2006 (
I failed because I was cocky and partied too much. But then I later
redeemed myself.)
So... 2014? I'm... well... I started thinking that I would knit Matt a sweater. I pinned and I googled and I narrowed it down to these:
And then I realized that there was a slight problem with this plan:
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| Slightly more kids than I was responsible for in 2006. And a younger kid than I have ever had during an Olympics. |
See... and I hate to admit this... There is no way I can knit a sweater in 16 days anymore. Even for the Olympics. It's just not possible with my life right now. I did the math and on a good day - a REALLY good day - I maybe have 30 min to an hour to knit? And that's assuming that no one is sick or teething or working really late. And that I got a decent amount of sleep the night before and have the energy to stay up and knit instead of collapsing in a heap shortly after all of the kids are down. I know the Olympics are about dreaming big but I have to find a balance between reaching for success and setting myself up for failure.
SIGH.
So... I don't know what to do. I've stashdived and I've pondered and I'm just lost. I think I've narrowed things down to 2 possibilities that will be insane but just barely possible.
Option 1: The Tomtems. Ok the
tomtem is a kid's sweater/jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman. The tomtem is a type of Swedish Elf and kids are supposed to resemble them when wearing this jacket. I knit one for the little guy over the fall:
But I never finished it. I need to seam it all and add in a zipper. Not a small feat. I also have the yarn to knit one for the dude. So the plan would be to knit the dude a sweater (size 3T on size 9 needles. not impossible in 2 weeks) as well as finish up the one for the little guy. At the end I'd have two little boys in matching tomtem jackets. NOTHING COULD BE CUTER.
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| seriously these two. |
I love that it's an Elizabeth Zimmerman project - something about that screams knitting purity and the spirit of knitting and the Olympics and all of that. Plus I knit an EZ sweater in 2010 for myself so this feels a bit like the same event only on a "I have three kids now" scale. And what could be more classic than gray wool?
Option 2: Matt Socks. I knit Matt a pair of socks out of this:
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| Destination Yarn in The Road Ahead. |
A pair of socks in 2 weeks would be alot. And I haven't knit socks in awhile. But... I have promised him
Destination Yarn socks for
years now. Literally. And after I gave up on
Rick (never. never will that pair be finished.) and wandered off on the
Earl Gray Socks it still hasn't happened. I love that these colors are so very current - Yellow and Gray is crazy popular right now. With the winter we've been having he's lived in the 2 pairs of socks I actually have finished for him. He deserves a new pair and this might be just the time to do it. I just don't know what pattern I'd go for...
Maybe just plain old socks? I dunno....
Ok. So yeah. What do you guys think? I have less than 48 hours to decide. GULP.
