I have ripped back almost half of the fronts on my olympic top. At first I thought I may have cast on the wrong number of stitches, but thankfully that turned out to not be true. However, I’m back to the point where I’m decreasing for the armholes. Sigh.

I still got much further in the knitting of this somewhat boring-to-knit object, by having the Olympic push. I will surely wear this as soon as the weather warms up. It’s not done yet, but I’m sure it will be done.

Right now, though, I have two largish balls of yarn that once were knit fabric. It took a good while for me to rip both fronts to the same spot, but that’s accomplished and the ripped yarn is in tidy balls ready to knit again.

It could be worse. When you make a mistake sewing, if you cut the wrong way your fabric is ruined. In knitting if you work the wrong way you rip out and the fabric is gone but the yarn is still good for knitting the fabric again. Gotta love that!

I may have knit more today if I were not fighting the second day of a headache. I slept till noon and that was a really good thing, after the weekend of little sleep. I felt better in late afternoon after some good food and some doctoring. Not gone, but significantly better. I’m learning that a solid meal with much protein can really help the headaches sometimes. Whatever works, I guess.

I have a zillion photos on the camera and no inclination to sit at a computer and edit them for you. One day soon, my blog entry will be all photos, you are warned! For now it’s time to sleep again.

Monday I did my three classes and nothing else. Somehow I got taken over by a headache.

Fortunately I was able to get food Monday without having to cook. I doctored myself with a long, hot bath (I never feel sick when taking a bubble bath). Shortly thereafter, I fell asleep on the floor, happily wrapped up in my Ethiopian cotton blanket (Gahbi) on the heat vent. My fave comfort zone in the world, it is! I must have been a cat in a previous life…

…I slept over 12 hours. After our sleep-deprived weekend, I think that was the right thing to do.

Well, I gave it the old college try… my Olympic knitting project is now a back and two fronts, sewn together at the shoulder seams but not the side seams, no edgings, no clasps sewn on and no ends worked in.

The good news? It fits me and is actually more curvy looking on me than anticipated. I was really worried a few days ago when I looked through the Purl Stitch book and found a new photo I’d not seen (in the front section called “wardrobe”) of the top on the twiggy-shaped cover model. She is very cute, tall with good shoulders and long legs but few curves. On her, the sample garment in size M looked like an unshaped cylinder. The way my gauge evened out, the top (size S) has very little design ease but fits and is a good length as well.

The only person I found who had ever knit this item before said hers felt like it needed a little more height in the armholes. Mine at first glance looks fine in that area… at least, before knitting edgings.

I added the increases for the “lapel” in a place that looks much like the view in the Purl Stitch book on page 81 (rather than page 79 which is the version written up in the pattern). It looks good and I’m glad I did it that way.

The down side? I must not understand a few things in the pattern the way they were meant to be understood. I thought I was following the pattern exactly but my stitch counts on the fronts, just a few rows after starting the armholes, were off. They stayed off, even got worse as I worked. I did some adjusting in a few places, to the shaping of the lapel/neckline. It did not work well enough and took away the sort of chinese-influenced wrapped look. It sort of curls at the top edge in an uneven way because of the final shaping of the top edge.

I will drag my project around with me to a few places where knitters hang out, this week, as I do my other work. I will collect suggestions on what to do.

If I can get really clear about what went wrong, I’d be very happy to undo the shoulder seams, rip out the fronts down to the armhole (or wherever things started to go wrong) and reknit the top 1/3 of the fronts so that they will have nicely shaped lapels. The ones I have right now sort of roll down and look wrong. I can not imagine how adding the edging would correct that enough to make it nice enough to wear. But I could be wrong there, and would love to be convinced I am.

I did a great job of staying on task with a project that was not enjoyable to knit much of the time. I am glad I enjoyed the color and the amazing shiny texture of my yarn, because I never did make friends with purling a whole row.

Again, for me the attraction of the Knitting Olympics was to push myself to make something I would not typically knit. I accomplished that goal. The top is now so close to done, I’m absolutely sure I’ll get it finished and wearable. I hope I find an answer, whatever that may be, to how I can make that top 1/3 of the fronts just have a better line. Maybe I can work backward now, from top down, and figure out how many rows I need to complete the decrease series I want to make the top look right.

And actually, it’s possible I’ll only have to re-knit the right front. When the clasps are fastened, the two front pieces overlap and the bottom layer does not show at all. So as long as the neckline edge of the left side looks fine, I may just reknit the right side. I am not one to worry about how things look when nobody can see them but me.

It was FUN! I’ll have to collect information from my Team Michigan folks and put it up on our team page so it’s in one place. Hopefully I can collect photos.

I’m SO tired from staying up past 3am two nights in a row… I’m going to bed rather than staying up all night knitting edges to a top that is not quite right.

But I’m convinced this will be a lovely, dressy, summer top.

Well, Tuesday’s knit-in was fun with Rae and I (I have a cute photo of us but little time to edit it for you yet). Today/Saturday I sat at Gone Wired Cybercafe with Sophie of Olympic Team Michigan and also Julie of my morning First-Time Toe-Up socks class at Rae’s. That was just plain fun. I wish for more knit in’s, just because.

The Knitting Olympics? I’ve heard from a few folks on the team here and there on their progress.

• Kate doesn’t have photos or an update on her blog right now, and I haven’t heard from her in email.

• Kirsti has photos of her threadybear steeked sweater with one sleeve complete, on her blog dated Thursday.
  Kristi finished her socks. Go, Grrl!

• Laney finished her goal. Gold!
• Laurie wrote Tuesday that she had problems due to a gauge swatch “incident.” Pooh. Saw her very briefly and didn’t chat the other day and now I wish I’d stopped to smell the roses and talk Olympics. Sorry, L.
• I’m making good fabric-building progress but now that I’m at the number of stitches the pattern says I should have, I have a different number of increases than she thinks I would have done to get there. I need a good clear head and a calculator to figure this out. I think it’s about measuring sometimes with inches and sometimes with rows. First move will be to compare the actual back to the actual fronts and see if I’m in the ballpark as it stands right now.
• Pirate Mariam has been knitting on her fairly boring stockinette bulky sweater, plugging away but alternating with more interesting projects (such as drawing).
• Rae finished her Rogue even though she had to refigure everything (including sideways cables) because her yarn was a different gauge than specified. I mean, she finished it days ago. The grrl is amazing.
• Rob was cranking like crazy but his store is having a 20% off everything in stock sale this Fri/Sat/Sun and so I bet he hasn’t had a second to knit in a couple days. Even though he has finished both front and back of Yelena and much of a sleeve at last blog post (Thursday).
• Sarah Peasley wrote that she was making good progress on her Krystina and I know she spent Saturday with other knitters on retreat. I bet she makes it, she is another one of those knitters who really cranks.
• Shanon hasn’t written in a little bit and there is no update on her blog… hope all is well there.
• Sophie’s blog isn’t updated but I saw her project. It’s an amazing super-cabled, super-wooly-warm Mission Falls shrug. She was on the very edge knitting the ribbing when I last saw her. She’ll definitely have time to finish.
• Susie changed gears midway from Olympic knitting to her own personal deadline: a baby shower with little notice.
• Teresa L says she did finish one sweater but the second one had much more to work on than she remembered. We’re cheering her on.
• Theresa I hasn’t had an update since Monday but she had made progress on her sock at that point, which looks promising!

—
We had a great concert at Altu’s but that will require a whole post of its own… and now my musical guests are arriving for the second night of jam sessions till late hours… off to play tunes!

We have guests in town from the Ukulele community. Bob C. of Cincinnati and Fred Fallin of Chicago are in Lansing at the same time. Last night we had a jam session, with these two guys, Brian and myself, Brian’s boss Stan W. and our friend Bob M. from the Abbott Brothers band. Oh! My! What fun! They left at 3am, we were like college kids almost and the lack of sleep was worth it.

Or so it appears… I have to dance at 11am and will not have been awake a whole hour when I get there. Thank goodness it’s a rehearsal, not a show!

Knit in is 3-5pm today, Gone Wired Cybercafe. All who wish to join us are welcome, Olympics or not.

And then Brian and I will play at Altu’s from 6:30-8:30. Maybe we’ll do a little jam at the end with our uke friends who are staying for that show. You won’t want to miss this! We share the stage with Fred often at Uke festivals, he’s a one of a kind. Come on down!

Last night we had a great time singing at The Temple Club. Thanks to all our friends who turned out.

We had a handful of listeners we know through Habibi Dancers, and a bunch of musician friends were there. We even got to see Andy and Joe, our music friends from the band Steppin’ in It, who we had not seen since September. It was really great to have them come to hear us sing. What fun that was!

Today (Thursday) I taught two classes, had CityKidz Knit! program and did a tiny bit of Olympic knitting. I knit on three different projects in the course of the day, didn’t make progress on much.

The weather was just as flaky as my day. It was sunny, then snowy, then sunny, now cold at night.

I guess some days are just not focused. That’s normal, part of being human.

Knitting
The exciting news is that on the fronts of my Olympic Knitting top, I’m at the point where I will decrease for the armholes on the next row. That means I have to pay attention, right?

Busy, Nothing New
Tomorrow/Friday is normally a day off. This week I see Altu for lunch (she was busy during our regular lunch date time this week), plus we have company coming from out of town, plus I teach Bloom Shawl at night at Threadbear.

Saturday I had wanted to go at least half a day to the Mid-Michigan Knitting Guild Retreat, but now I have a dance rehearsal instead. Then 3-5pm an Olympic Knitters (and friends) knit-in at Gone Wired Cybercafe, followed by 6:30-8:30 singing performance at Altu’s. Fun, but busy. Could be much worse.

I had a bit of a headache before I looked at that schedule. Now I definitely need to go rest!!!

Photo: I took this at sundown on Valentine’s Day. We were just south of Tampa, Florida. Pretty, huh?

It’s never too late to belong on my team… Kate W./RhymesWithOrange has joined us on Team Michigan. Welcome, Kate!

The sun is shining for the second day in a row. In Michigan, in February. I’m loving it! However, it makes me want to take a day off. When I’ve already had a full week off and I have a large list of things on my plate in the next several days. The good news? The things on my plate are lovely indeed.

Tonight Brian and I open for Klezmeroke at The Temple Club, at 10pm. I’m not sure what room we are in. This is a big deal for us, as we’re not a dance band and we don’t normally get chances to play in venues of this type. Should be a blast!

Saturday, we play at Altus from 6:30-8:30. Family environment, no cover, early show means you can catch one or two other shows in town before calling it a night if you so wish. Often there’s a good show at Cappucino Cafe on Lake Lansing where we go after we’re done with our own gig.

In knitting news, I’m teaching First-Time Toe-Up socks at Rae’s, starting Thursday at 11am-1:30pm. It’s three weeks in a row. At night 6:45-8pm, I’m teaching a No-Purl, Toe-Up, Afterthought heel sock at Rae’s, also 3 weeks starting tomorrow.

Friday night at 5:30pm-7:30pm, I’m teaching Bloom Shawl at Threadbear. Sunday 11:30am-5pm I’m teaching ColorJoy Stole at Threadbear.

And of course, Saturday afternoon from 3-5pm, we have a Knitting Olympics-Inspired knit in at Gone Wired Cybercafe. Anyone who wants to come is invited, of course, olympics or not.

Photos: Brian and I as The Fabulous Heftones, the new sock design I’m teaching at Rae’s this Thursday night, Bloom shawl.

Brian asked why I was interested in Knitting Olympics. I am grateful to be pushed beyond my comfort zone, I’m glad to have a finite amount of time to focus on something that I would not ordinarily knit (I can do uncomfortable things if I know there is an end in sight), and I’m extremely glad to have this focus time to use the yarn that someone gifted me with several years ago. I want to honor that gift.

I’m really enjoying the friendships I’m making on Team Michigan, too… I really love the Internet for the relationship-building I experience because of it. I can share my passion for whatever it is on my mind. (I’ve been involved with self-employed groups, owners of VW New Beetles, Freecycle, mailart/eraser carving groups, polymer clay groups, and knitting groups.) Some of my Internet-met friends are among my most precious. Right now I’m contemplating a trip to Marquette in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, during the lovely weather of summer, to visit one of the Team Michigan folks. Cool, huh?

OK, so here are the too-long-awaited photos. At top is the completed back of my top/vest (Sally Melville’s Cross-Over Top from The Purl Stitch book). Stitches at top are holding for construction later. Yes, there are a few orange stitch markers there, marking significant rows in the construction process.

The second photo is two fronts being knit at the same time. I’m almost at the point where I need to start shaping. When the fronts are done, there is some seaming to do and then picking up and knitting edges that match the bottom edge (reverse stockinette rolled edge on smaller needles). I think I’m past halfway and we’re just past halfway in the Olympic games. I hold hope that I can make the deadline.

I’m glad I did the back first. I can tell that the knitting became much more even somewhere after I started the shaping for the armholes. I’m lucky the yarn is a bit uneven to start with, so it hides a little of my inconsistency. Just the same, I’m glad the “getting used to” part is on the back where my long hair will likely cover it up.

OK, I’m off to pop into Rae’s shop for a minute and then go meet my knitting comrades at Gone Wired Cybercafe. Fun!

On Tuesday night (tomorrow) at 7-9pm, the local knitting guild will meet. The meeting place is the lower level of University Lutheran Church, on Harrison near Trowbridge (between the United Methodist Church and the Islamic Center). If you’ve not come before, you are welcome to join us. You don’t have to become a member to check us out.

The group is large but friendly (maybe 50 people), the snacks are tasty, the programs varied and interesting. This week we’re to bring a few sets of needles and we’ll be trying a new technique together.

If you haven’t come before, just show up, sit at a table, and let your tablemates know you are new. You’ll be welcomed immediately. Please come.

Sally Potter of the Mid-Winter Singing Festival writes:

For fans of the Spoken Word workshops at the Singing Festival, I want to mention that workshop leaders Ruelaine Stokes and Bob Rentschler have published a poetry book with other “4 Against the Wall” artists Zachary Chartkoff and Sam Mills. The four of them will be giving a (free) book signing/reading at Schuler’s in the Eastown Mall (Lake Lansing Road and 127) next Sunday, February 26, at 2 pm. All four poets are wonderful writers and exceptional readers. It will be a rich, delightful event.

Don’t forget, knitters within driving distance of Lansing: a special Knit-In inspired by Team Michigan but open to all, will meet at Gone Wired Cybercafe’ in the East Side neighborhood on Michigan Avenue, on Monday/President’s Day, from 6:30 to 8:30pm. Please join us even if you are not “doing” the olympic knitting challenge.

Finished Socks
Well, what a great week it has been for my knitting life. I finished my 124th pair of socks last Tuesday. Then I finished my 125th pair on Sunday morning, shortie golf-type socks for mom in fingering weight, size 0 needles, top down 4-part swirl toe and afterthought heel with 3-needle bindoff. In greens and blues (celery, lime, forest, and navy), her favorite color combination (at least for her home).

Actually, I still need to work in the yarn ends on both pair but will do that on Monday. All knitting stitches are complete, though, so I call them done enough to be counted on my list.

My Olympic Status
And the top I’m knitting for Knitting Olympics? I’m actually delighted with my progress. The back is done and I just sprayed it with cold water which made it lie flat, not a full blocking but enough to tame it for seaming and hopefully a photo.

Also I’ve knit nearly 5 inches on both fronts. Soon comes the tricky part. It has increases for a sort of “lapel” that doesn’t fold, and then arm holes, and then shoulder shaping. It’s not lace knitting by any stretch of the imagination, and it’s not aran cables… but for me, I’d rather knit five pair of stranded (”fair-isle”) patterned socks than the fronts of this flat-knit, stockinette top.

I am very happy that I have the olympic challenge to push me on this project. I did, after all, buy the yarn nearly 2 years ago with a gift certificate, and I wish to honor the person who gifted this to me. I got the yarn specifically to do this particular pattern (which I am really clear I would enjoy wearing). I’m glad that I had so much time to knit during my travels this week, where knitting (and even purling) made the time go by much more happily for me than traveling without the project.

Foibles
Fortunately, I’m getting more in the groove of that “purl half the rows” part… The beginning of each purl row makes me cringe less. (Yes, I’m a wimp but I do knit for joy as a rule and thus far purls don’t bring joy.)

It cracked me up the other night when we were watching a particularly exciting olympic segment on TV… I would start out purling a row which was supposed to be entirely purled. Then partway through the row I’d realize my hands had just automatically started knitting. Several times!

I think that my hands remember that I typically don’t purl unless I’m doing ribbing… and my favorite ribbing is “Knit 3 stitches, Purl 1 stitch, repeat” ad infinitum. So my hands went from purl to knit as they might in the middle of a rib repeat… and then in the excitement of watching the race they stayed at the knit stitch for sometimes most of a row before I realized what I’d done.

I crack myself up sometimes. Autopilot is different things to different folks, I’d say. For my hands, autopilot is “knit, knit, knit, knit” usually in a circle with no interruption at all.

Teresa L. asked to be on the team days ago, and it was just when I was leaving to see my In-Laws. I somehow just realized I never added her to the team web page. I’ve just corrected my mistake.

I also just started a Yahoo Group for TeamMichigan, and if you are on the Team page you should have already received an invitation (assuming Yahoo is timely today). Chat among you and share photos, point to blogs or other photo locations, and I’ll join you when I can.

That said, I have 14 folks on the page and I think I have everyone. If you think you asked to join us and you are not on the Team Michigan page right now, please send me mail and I’ll get you there. I’m intermittent online again until late Sunday, probably, but I’ll get you there.

If you want to join and have not done it yet, it’s not too late. Send me an email and I’ll put you on the team page, plus invite you to the group. Once you’ve been approved as a member of the group you can post messages and photos as you wish.

Late breaking news: Kirsti R of Kirstiknits joins the team…
She is knitting Threadybear - the fair isle teddy bear sweater designed by Matt from Threadbear

Welcome, Kirsti.

Susie of Grayling, Michigan has joined our team today. She has a blog at To Knit, Perchance to Dream. Welcome, Susie!

Team Michigan now has a dozen members. We’re still open to more. Looks like those who can come to Lansing will be having two knit-in’s at the Gone Wired Cafe’ on Michigan Avenue just west of Frandor/127. One will be on Monday night (President’s Day), from 6:30 to 8:30.

I believe we’ll also have one on Saturday, February 22. That one will need to be in the afternoon (probably 3:00 to 5:00), as I have a performance in The Fabulous Heftones, at Altu’s restaurant, at 6:30 that night. It may be a small turnout for that one, as the Lansing knit guild is having their knitting retreat that day, out of town.

Of course, any knitter who wants to join the knit-in experience, Olympics or not, is welcome. (Please pop me an email if you need specific directions.)

Brian and I played three private concerts on Friday, two at a school (for kindergarteners), and a house concert at my Mom’s place for over a dozen of her friends. Fun, Fun, Fun!

When the House Concert guests went home, we watched a little of the Olympics. I finished the back of my top/vest before I went to sleep. That was a major deal, because I think the last inch of the top (the shoulder shaping) took longer than the seven inches before. I had to count and count and count… not used to that, and then doing it while watching snowboard cross means I lost count a lot. Nothing like ripping out to truly help you understand and enjoy your yarn!

We’re still at a point where we have to scrounge up wireless internet connections as we travel from point to point. Friday wasn’t a good day for that, but Saturday morning/noonish is a little relax time for us before getting in the car again. At least car travel time is good, solid knitting time.

I *just* realized that I’ve forgotten the small needles for casting on the first several rows of the edge. Ack. I do have some 7″ long double points and I can put stoppers on one end, maybe that will be enough to cast on one front at a time. I hope. Otherwise I knit socks until we get home, or if we find a chain craft store where I can buy needles. The nearest yarn shop is 20 minutes from where we are as I sit here typing, and where we go later today is even further from anything I know about as far as knitting goes.

I did bring yarn for my brother’s socks but I realized a few days back that I don’t have his foot length, just the circumference. I have knit toe up on both feet but will have to stop that fairly soon since it’s big yarn. Good thing I brought the size-zero-needle project for my mom, some golf socks with afterthought heels I’ve been working on intermittently since last April or so. I didn’t even remember I’d brought those, so I’m very grateful. If I had no knitting, I’d be a caged bird in that car today. Whew!

Of course I left my camera at Mom’s and I’m online at a restaurant in town (I’m even less organized on vacation than usual) so no pics of my work right now. They will come, in time.

Mom has a big poinsettia plant at her place… I didn’t get a photo of hers, but the photo here is an even bigger one we saw in Bahar Dar, Ethiopia (the northern historical district where we saw the Blue Nile) in December, 2004. I think it was about as tall as me!

Geek, Geek, Geek
Brian is a wonder. We went into town and found yet a fourth wireless modem card to try in my laptop. That was all well and good, but my laptop requires an add-on gizmo to read a CD, and that gizmo is not with me today. Brian figured out how to get the files a few at a time from the install CD to a USB flash drive (on his laptop) and then transfer them to my machine. After several tries, I was able to install the program and now, miraculously, I’m using my own computer. Yippee!

Photos from You
I am now downloading 350 email messages. Please forgive if you’re expecting one from me, I’ll get to you as soon as I can, between times I can get online. Brian’s Brother and family will be coming in an hour or so and we’ll be on the road a bit later today. Busy, busy!

I finally can show you some photos of ***You*** valuable and appreciated readers, knitting my stuff. In this case, it’s Sharon M. with a gray version and Deb L. with a pink version of my First-Time Toe-Up sock pattern…

and Rachel B. with a finished Turkish-Style Toe-Up Sock in my handpainted Cushy ColorSport yarn.

Thanks for sharing your photos, you guys! Nice job, indeed.

My Knitting
At least I finished that pair of Bingo Socks on Tuesday. I also started a pair for my brother but it turns out I don’t have all the measurements I need for him. I’m doing toe up and I don’t have any length information for him, only circumference. I have knit for him before but it was several years ago. I’m delayed on those… well, I have a few inches left on the second sock before I have to stop and get measurements. The socks are the “knit and talk” project so I’m cranking on those with all the visiting we’re doing right now.

However, I finally feel like maybe I can finish this Olympic Challenge during the proper timeframe. I gave up on purling with my yarn around my neck. I enjoy that process very much but the way I do it versus my other purling method (unlike anyone else’s that I’ve seen, but it works) is way slow. Now that I’m back to my familiar purling method, I’m going a little faster.

I actually am on the decreases for the armholes on the back of the garment right now. I have 3 more decrase rows (5.5 total rows) before I can knit 7 inches and then I’m at the shoulder slope. Cool. I can do this. I think I can, I think I can (imitating The Little Engine that Could, a children’s book).

I’ll do my best to get photos of my knitting here in the next few days. Meanwhile, Knit On!!!

Well, I am learning again how to do vacation. I find that I love my work and I work at home, and therefore I rarely take time off. Lately, though, my brother has noticed that I am not allowing myself to slow down even when it’s really clear I must for my health, be it physical or emotional.

So here we are visiting Brian’s parents and we slept in today. Brian’s Mother is a quilter so we slept under two pieces of art, a soft warm colorway and a rainbow/stained glass colorway. I woke up slowly and we chatted while I was still reclining. It was the ultimate way to wake up.

Today the sun shines. I can’t have a better thing to say than that.

For the record, my computer will *not* go online, we tried three different wireless cards and it’s very frustrating. I’m using Brian’s machine right now, so it will be short and sweet and without photos. This means a delay once more of a Team Michigan page/group but I will keep at it. We do have a few more folks who have joined the team in the last day and a half. Welcome to everyone!

Off to laze around some more. I have been knitting, both my Olympic piece and a sock for my beloved brother who I’ve only knit for once. Actually, I also knit half a cuff on a pair in Bingo for me, and bound off yesterday in transit. That’s pair 124 since I started, and the first pair this year. A lovely way to start a vacation, I’d say.

I’ll catch up with you as soon as I can. I’m hoping I will be able to buy a new wireless modem card before vacation is over. Meanwhile… remember to breathe!

My friends, it’s that odd holiday called Valentine’s Day again. I’m lucky, I have a sweet hubby this year (and the last nine) but I know that’s not common. It’s a crummy day for many, who might like one special beloved and don’t have one. I remember a year in my previous life standing at the greeting card display trying to find a card that was honest (”here’s to all the years together”) rather than gushing happy love stuff. Because we weren’t happy but I still needed a card. And there are those without a partner at all.

So I’m here to tell you that you folks out there reading this, make me feel loved. You make my day, my life. When I go to this or that coffeehouse or yarn shop or fiber festival, and you come up and ask me if I’m LynnH, and that you read my blog… well, that gives me all the wonderful warm fuzzies a person could need.

So remember, there is warmth and love around you even if you have no special happy individual who is your beloved. I feel you are beloved to me in a smaller but important way. And I acknowledge you all here today. Thank you for your loyal readership.

OK, everyone… go buy yourself a flower or a piece of Godiva chocolate or one small special something today, even if it’s just a special kind of coffee at the coffee stand at work. Treat yourself as your own valentine, regardless of your love interest(s) or none. You can love yourself with a sweet something today. Do it, sweetheart or not.

Brian’s dad had his 70th birthday yesterday. We’re off to visit and wish him many more years. We’ll see some other relatives at the same time.

Because we’ll be focusing on family for about a week, I may be less accessible. I have photos from a few people who are doing my First-Time Toe-Up sock and I will put them up here as soon as I get time to edit their photos.

I’ll also do my best to get that special interactive space going for Team Michigan in the next few days, but I can’t promise when because of the family stuff. Which is good stuff, for sure… just distracting.

I did get some knitting done on my Olympic project yesterday. I feel very behind but it is still in the do-able range, because I can knit when hanging at Mom’s. I knit my first sweater (a knit-to-fit tee from a Sarah Peasley class) in large part at my Mom’s several years ago. I’ve knit a little over five inches so far, on the back which is the largest piece.

I’ll post later, I promise…

Photo: Since I have no time to edit pictures, here’s a recycled photo taken in December 2004. It’s a street scene in Mombasa Kenya, a town on the Indian Ocean, about 10-12 days before the Tsunami. Can you see the little boy blowing up a blue balloon behind the woman? This is one of my favorite street scene photos of my entire Africa trip.

We are up to 10 members of Team Michigan, and welcoming more as they arrive. Thanks for everyone’s support.

Sophie suggested that we do a knit-together at the Gone Wired Cybercafe sometime. I’m going to be unavailable for about a week in the middle of all this, but Saturday the 25th in the afternoon appears to be a possibility at this time. Second choice would be Monday, the 20th, in the evening. That is President’s Day, which means I won’t be teaching my normal classes in Haslett.

I may not be replying to emails as quickly as usual in the next few days, but I promise to get back to you. Please keep the correspondence coming!

Well, I got a few bites on the Team Michigan idea so I’m going ahead with it. My web page listing the Founding Five is at http://ColorJoy.com/olympics/teammichigan.htm

I know the button is hokey and imperfect (especially the upper peninsula) but I don’t want to take myself too seriously and I think it’s funny that people in my state show each other where they live by pointing to their right palm (assuming the lower peninsula, anyway). I had never seen this portable map thing until I went to college and it sort of still cracks me up. For those far enough away to not know what my state’s map really looks like, Peek Here.

I’ve lived in the Lansing area (Lansing is the capitol city) since approximately 1962 (was born in Minnesota in 1958, then lived in Boston for the year before we came to Michigan). Well, for 2.5 years I lived in Mt. Pleasant, which is an hour north of Lansing, then I moved back here. I’ve been within 25 miles of the Capitol building pretty much all of my life, though I twice have been convinced I was moving… once to Chicago and once to Mexico (the country). There must be a magnet in this town, because I never seem to really leave.

I’m going to set up either a yahoo email group or something like a Myspace web page for the team to use for communicating if they wish. However, I’m working in a half hour so that needs to be delayed a bit.

If you want to join, read the web page and let me know you are in. For now you will need to send me an email with your details. Tell me what project you’re working on if you wish. Photos optional but welcome.

Finally, I am trying to catch up on my photos. Then of course I’m just having bad luck… I edited these hats once. However, PhotoShop crashed when I went to save them, therefore requiring an entirely new edit. I’m not feeling well (one more allergic reaction to something is slowing me down) so of course a hiccup like that doesn’t roll off my back as well as it might some other time.

Luckily, the second time was the charm. Here are the hats from Thursday night Guitar Trim Hat class at Rae’s Yarn Boutique, in all their glory! Clockwise starting at top left is a hat from Fran, then Deborah, then Mary Fran, then Lori. They had taken the first class just one week before… I’m just amazed at how far they got so quickly. In fact, Fran was working on her second hat when I got there at the beginning of class.

The students, for the record, ran the gamut from fairly new knitter to seasoned-but-always-learning knitter. I was delighted to see how well it went. I think they were all surprised how much they enjoyed the colorwork once they took the jump. I had several comments about how they would be looking for more projects of this type. I know there is at least one Dale of Norway baby sweater (with their adorable ladybugs) in the plans.

Isn’t it great to see how the same design can look so personal, with color choice? Just beautiful, ladies. Thank you SO much for taking my class!

I’ve done a lot in the last few days, and been away from the keyboard.

Thursday afternoon I had a wonderful CityKidz Knit! program. One of my knitters is going to make her first sweater for the Knitting Olympics. Go, Grrl!

Thursday night I had Guitar Herringbone Hat class at Rae’s, four women with a lot of knitting done. One complete hat, four more on needles, some almost finished. Totally different colorways, and I was so pleased for them. Great work. Took photos, will post Saturday.

Friday early afternoon I met Sharon P at the Gone Wired Cybercafe for a few hours of talking and knitting. I was swatching for my knitting olympics. My knitting is SO uneven, I just can’t tell you how much knitting I had to do (about 4 hours off and on) to get a reasonably close gauge… but it could change any second, I’ll have to re-measure when I have some real knitting on the real needles.

Friday late afternoon Altu and I went to dinner at Omi sushi restaurant in East Lansing and both tried new things we’d not tried before. Part of it was easier than others, but we did try much and we ate more than half of the far-too-much we ordered. It was a lovely special date for us, we talked and talked and talked. We loved it.

Friday evening I cast on for my knitting olympics and then went to Abbott Brothers rehearsal. We play at Altu’s restaurant tomorrow night/Saturday from 6:30-8:30pm for anyone who is interested.

Then back home I went to watch more of the Olympic stuff and I saw the torch being lit. Spectacular, really.

So far the olympic knitting is boring and tiny. I cast on 90 stitches, knit 4 rows in reverse stockinette, did an increase row (now I’m at 100 stitches), switched needles and knit another 4 rows, this time in stockinette rather than reverse. Same number of purls, either way!

I’m bored already. This yarn is gorgeous but it splits so I have to look at every single purl stitch. I am doing OK knitting without looking.

The cool part is that I’m knitting on ebony straight needles. My mom-in-law gave me a bunch of knitting stuff from a friend of hers who passed away… I think they gave both knitting and quilting stuff to MIL and she quilts but isn’t much of a knitter. So I got some great retro patterns and a really beautiful stash of old knitting needles. Including four pair of long ebony straights. Two of which ended up being the right size for my vest.

So I am enjoying the feel of the needles and the color of the yarn. I’m excited about the prospect of the vest/top itself.

In other interesting news, I decided to purl with the yarn around my neck rather than doing combination knitting. I really love purling this way, it’s as easy as knitting for me. I don’t think of doing it when I’m doing small things with just a few purls, but when I’m doing 100 purl stitches in a row I really enjoy the yarn around the neck. Nobody ever taught it to me, I just heard about it once and tried it. Sally Melville mentions it in her Purl Stitch book. I’m almost as fast purling this way as I am knitting, and I’m really fast at knitting because of how I hold my yarn (very low, over my left hand index finger, almost touching the left needle). Since when would I do things like other people, you know???
Time to sleep. pictures tomorrow, mostly of knitting other folks have done, either with my yarn, my pattern(s), and/or my classes.

Photo: Abbott Brothers Band at Altu’s restaurant in October 2005.

This Olympics thing is more fun than I imagined, and I haven’t even started swatching yet. Now that I’ve picked a project, I am eyeing the variety of teams that I could join. I’m of Norwegian ancestry and like to knit with two strands of yarn, but that’s not what I’m knitting this time… so Team Norway seems out. I live for Double Pointed Needles, they are my favorite way to knit, so team DPN would be fun, but I’m not knitting this olympic project on DPNs.

There is a team Hawai’i, right now with one member… I could surely join that because I play a little ukulele, right? OK, I don’t play Hawaiian songs but the instrument I play (for fun, not on stage) has roots in the islands. That team could use some support, anyway…

I keep going back to good old Team Wales, started by Brenda Dayne, podcaster/knitter/American living in Wales. She has started a pretty open, welcoming group, where more of the knitters are from the US than the European continent. It also is a team with at least six male knitters, according to the Frappr Map for those on the team who have placed themselves there. Yay, dudes!

Here are the rules for joining Team Wales, taken directly from Brenda’s Team Wales web page:

Well, I’ve made friends with Marie Irshad in Wales, and I’ve sent a handful of shipments of my handpainted yarns to customers in Wales. I know where Wales is. I have a great fondness for the fuzzy stuff on the backs of sheep (not so big on the animals but grateful they exist). I have recorded at least two songs with daffodils in the lyrics. I own two kinds of Colinette yarn, hand-dyed in Wales, even though they really are beyond the scope of my normal spending plan. The flag is definitely cool (though I’d probably like it better in purple and turquoise, LOL). I think maybe I can qualify, given the inclusive intent behind the rules.

What do you think? Shall I go for Team Wales? Or shall I start a Team Michigan??? I know there are a huge number of knitters in my state. My local knit guild usually has 50 people there at a meeting, my spinning guild often has 100. Surely more than a handful are doing the knitting olympics and don’t yet have a team.

Anyone out there reading this in Michigan who wants a team of our own? Sarah? Kristi? Or has someone already done this and I missed it somehow???

I went to Little Red Schoolhouse yesterday to deliver some patterns. Linda and I chatted a little about the Cross-Over Top by Sally Melville. She gave me some hints I thought I could probably make work on that top for Knitting Olympics.

I posted here and on one of my email lists, about my wish to knit this piece the way it shows in the photo (rather than how the pattern was eventually printed in the book). One person wrote that somewhere on the Internet there are directions… I looked and didn’t find them yet, will try again.

But then someone who knows Cindy, who knit the Cross-Over Top herself, asked her to send me a note about it. She has provided me with good insight into the pattern. She did it the way I want to do it, with increases at the fold line rather than the edge of the garment. I think I’m going to go ahead on this one.

(Late update: Lorraine E. writes that there are notes *in the book* on how to do the increases the way I want. I didn’t see it the first and second time I went to the book, can you tell I’m not used to knitting from other folks’ instructions? I’m off to go dig through the book again, but it sounds simple enough, requiring one stitch marker.)

Well, Thursday is a new day. I woke up to blue skies and sunshine. Yesterday it got a lot colder and snowed, and often cold brings sunshine around here. I’ll take it!

I have three cut crystal ornaments hanging in my office window (it faces south). Right now they are making rainbows on the walls of the office. I love my rainbows.

It’s going to be a good day. I’m ready.

No, the title isn’t about a dwarf in a Disney animated film. It’s the mood I’m fighting today.

I don’t like to bring my moods to this blog, so I’ll just humor you with a photo of the hat I knit for Brian. It’s really thick, and really soft, and really warm. Better than the first hat I knit for him this year, by a long shot. And it only took a few days to knit, at the same time I finished the Guitar Herringbone Hat for Heritage.

I think the yarn is called Blizzard, but I can’t find the ball band right now. I used all but about 9 inches of the ball. It is a very fat single-ply 70% alpaca/30% acrylic yarn. Charcoal gray/pewter. Really pretty, really soft.

The yarn did split a bit. I think that was because it was barely spun, almost like pencil roving and I was knitting it on much smaller needles than the ball band specified (size 15 was specified, I think, and I knit the top/crown on size 7 US needles and the sides on size 10 US). I loved the feel of this yarn through my fingers, though I would have enjoyed the knitting more if I had owned DPNs (Double-Pointed Needles) in size 10. Instead I used my Denise circular needle set, which I like a lot but not as much as I like double points.

Brian liked the hat. It was pretty cold today with a lot of wind, and he said it did a decent job for him while he walked to/from lunch. Yay! Of course, it could be even warmer if it were lined, but he said it worked fine.

Oh, other good news (always try to focus on the good stuff when in a bad mood, you know)… my coworker Emily gave birth to her first child this week. When the world gets overwhelming, I remember that people believe in the future enough to have children. And I look at some of the kids I work with and see how optimistic they are about life. One girl loves to hug me (in front of her mom, everyone’s OK about this) because she is SO happy to be in my knitting class. How good is that? Raw energy, enthusiasm, is still here in the world even if I don’t feel it inside me every moment.

Optimistic Poem
The other day, there was a “silent poetry reading” among bloggers. I was very busy with hands-on work that kept me from my computer and didn’t realize it had happened until it was too late to join the official one. I’ve posted poetry here before, though… so I’ll just now go look for a hopeful/optimistic poem and put it right here.

… OK, I’m back.

I used to go to poetry readings at Hobie’s restaurant in East Lansing when I was newly divorced in the early-mid-1990’s. One of the poets there shared this poem of his with me, and gave me permission to put it on the web, originally on my now-old (for a web page) LDTH Poetry Collection.

The poem reminds me of my own transformation, and I think it did the same for the poet… therefore he felt inspired to share it with me.

—
A Woman Alive Again

© by Don Hargraves
–for Sharon

You’ve seen the woman around –
Forty-five years old chronologically
but the face has the glow of a seventeen year old
looking forward to taking on the world

You watch her smile and you wonder
whether the grey hairs on her head are real
or painted that way to frighten off those
who only chase after alabaster skinned nubiles…

No longer does she wear the dayglo sweaters
which you couldn’t miss a few months ago;
now she wears tops loose-fitting enough
to show a hint of the swells of her breasts…

She takes her place on the dance floor
ready to dance with whomever she chooses
and there are men on the side, waiting
for their three minutes to bask in her warmth…

A year ago, I had seen her living her life
in a binary whirl of text, hiding from a world
she was unable to take joy from; not even
from those activities she had loved…

But now, having worked her way
out of the shadows and into the living night,
her body is now animated and enthusiastic
taking again what she once let go…

and I’m amazed…

I did it. I sent in my registration to Knitting Olympics with just a few hours left before they closed the list. Whew!

I still don’t know what I’ll knit. I considered the Sally Melville Not Your Mother’s Coat, but it’s not portable and I’m traveling during part of the Olympics. I considered the shadow knit shawl but though the yarn is light, it’s tiny yarn in little stitches and in garter stitch. Way more stitches than I think I can complete, even if the pattern is easy.

I would love to have chosen to just finish my Lucy Neatby Equilateral Vest. However, the olympic rules stress a new project. I do have yarn purchased for a good number of projects, patterns and yarn ready to go, so why not try to find the right one and follow the rules?

Right now it looks like I’ll do the Cross-over top (short top/vest) from Sally Melville Purl Stitch, page 81. There are two versions of this one, the first is in wool and fulled/shrunk, worn as a vest. The other is a summer top in Cotton Twist. Of course, mine is hot pinkish cherry, same yarn but brighter. The one in the book is sort of a 1920s blue-gray with a bit of green in it… bluer than sage, sort of the color of a blue spruce tree. Pretty, but it would not flatter me.

The yarn is some I got at Yarn for Ewe with a gift certificate maybe 2 years ago, specifically to knit this top. I took the yarn to Africa with me, and I did swatch when I was there, but then I lost my measuring tape and realized that knitting socks allowed me to knit without referring to a heavy book. So much for that project!

Right now I’m trying to figure out something, though. In the Purl Stitch book on page 81, they show the summer version. I fell in LOVE with this, and one of the things I liked about it was the line of increases where the fold line of a lapel might be if the front flap opened up. This created two different “grains” so to speak, and the light reflects off the fabric so well that way.

I sat down tonight and read the pattern to see if this might be a good project for me. The increases are right at the edge, not in the lapel area. So one of my favorite features of what I thought I’d be knitting, is not in the pattern.

They should have knit a second sample before the photo shoot, in my opinion, because it really changes the look of the garment. I know they have deadlines but they also have a nice budget for samples and the photo looks really different than the instructions.

It looks much flatter without the grain/increase interest (compare to page 79, which is in wool but you can see the grain in the photo). I figure someone out there reading this will know how I can move my increases to the right place and have it look great. Right??? If not I move to the Annie Modesitt corset, or I just go back to the Equilateral Vest finishing idea.

Why is a smallish vest my challenge? This project is a challenge in two areas. I do not like purling more than about 4 stitches in a row. I learned to purl a full 20 years after I learned to knit, and although I’m more comfy with it lately (I just finished a K1P1 hat for Brian, and this summer I made a K2P2 tank top happily) I would rather rib than make stockinette fabric flat.

I’m thinking I may practice my “combination knitting” for this project. This is how Annie Modesitt knits… wrap purls clockwise and knit counter-clockwise but in “the back loop.” She says that this often creates a closer tension between purl rows and knit rows. My purls are usually looser than my knits, so it may be worth doing here. Combination knitting doesn’t work very well with knitting in the round, and since I do socks and hats and wristwarmers so much, there’s little opportunity for me to use this method, but I like the idea.

The other reason it’s a challenge? I almost never use someone else’s patterns. I make things up as I go. Then I use the garment I knit as a chart/sample and I figure out what I did (counting stitches and rows most of the time), write it down, work out other sizes, have it tested and voila! New Pattern! Sounds easy but it takes a long time.

I don’t do well writing things down as I knit, it takes all the joy out of the knitting. The only pattern I remember doing that for is the Fast Florida Footies, because I knew they would be a gift the next day and I wouldn’t have the footies to use as a chart later. I do often place markers at key places so I will be able to count rows/stitches more easily when the item is finished. That’s as “plan ahead” as my creating gets.

I don’t find following patterns difficult. What I find hard is being tied to a book. I do so much of my knitting out of the house… waiting in line, for dinner at a restaurant, at the allergist, post office, pharmacy… carrying a book around and having to open it, look up the next row, etc., well, that does not work for how I knit. I try to not fall in love with other folks’ patterns. Clearly this does not work, given the list of choices I had for the Olympics. The only one I didn’t have all the yarn for, purchased already, was the not-mom suit coat.

If anyone knows how to translate the increases on this top to match the photo on page 81, I’d love some input. I’m not sure I’d like the top, the way the pattern is written. Too bland. Maybe the fabric would save it, but I’d hate to do all that purling and find out I don’t like how it looks!!!

For the record, I just bound off Brian’s bulky alpaca-blend hat. It looks really good on him, and it promises to be warm enough for him to wear on his long walks at lunch during this cold weather. I’ll get pictures once it’s dry from blocking.

No knit photos today so you get Ethiopia. Early in December 2004, we drove to a crater lake in the Rift Valley, driving distance from Addis Ababa. We had lunch at a restaurant up at the top of the mountain where we could look down into the crater at the lake. Beautiful. On the way there and back I took photos while Altu and her friend were speaking in a language I did not understand.

Note how colorful everything is. There seems to be no fear of color in Africa, at least nowhere in the places we visited!

I am not great about remembering birthdays. I somehow had Rae’s birthday on my calendar (we have not known each other a whole year) but then didn’t look at my calendar today because I knew I had no appointments. (Imagine that!)

I did go out to run a few errands, though… allergy shot, post office… and while waiting 30 minutes in line to mail one envelope, I almost ran out of yarn for the hat I’m making for Brian. I was about 4 blocks from Rae’s shop, where I got the yarn in the first place.

So as I was coming in, someone else was going out and she had a birthday card in her hands. Oh, yeah! I saw that on my calendar a few days back, was going to remember, all that stuff… (remember, she gave me some very warm and yummy yarn for my own birthday back in late November)…

All you folks out there who know Rae, perhaps you’d like to send her a birthday greeting. Go on over to her blog, Extravayarnza, and leave her a birthday message, if you will.

Photos: Rae in skirt she knit from Sally Melville color book, Rae in my new “Button, Button, Who’s Got the Hat?” pattern sample. You embarrassed yet, Rae???