Olympic Knitting

As I mentioned in the last post, I decided to take part in the Knitting Olympics this year.  Actually, I’ve been waiting for 4 years to take part in this Knitting Olympics!  I talked about it, but ended up deciding that grad school was more important.  Silly knitter, if you only knew what you knew now.  Grad school, not going to work out.  C’est la vie…

I’m also with the Yarn Harlot, that knitting olympics only happens in the winter, so I sat out for the ravelympics in the Summer of 2008.

So as soon as I saw progress being made over at ravelry, I got the Soggy Stitches team together (Go Soggies!), signed up over at the Yarn Harlot, and swatched for Vivian.

My swatch was right on!  I cast on at 6:00pm on 2/13 (a few times because I can never seem to get the correct length on the long tail) and did a few inches.  I stretched out the progress and measured and it was 45″ long!  It was supposed to be a body of 40″.  I ripped out cast on again (a few more times for that darn tail!) and started in earnest.

I made progress.  Measured, now it’s smaller than what I originally wanted, but, I’m thinking that zero ease on this baby is better than many inches of positive ease.  I didn’t rip back mostly because, if it doesn’t fit me, I know I can find a worthy recipient.

Last night, I finished the body.

I’m really happy with how it’s turning out.  There have been a few bumps along the road (decreases that didn’t quite happen in the right places), many learning experiences (don’t try to do your first row while watching Being John Malkovich), but that’s what the Knitting Olympics are about, right?

Here are the project stats for all the knitting geeks out there.

Pattern: Vivian (rav link)
Yarn: Cascade Eco Wool in Coffee
Needles: Knitpicks Options US size 8