Live and Let Knit

This weekend is big for sales at the yarn shops in the area.
Needleworks has a big sale on Saturday and Sunday so I'm definitely heading there. I'm still on a self imposed yarn diet, but this is a special case. Creative Fibers has a trunk show on Saturday and a 15% off sale on Sunday but I'm not sure if I'll make it up there.

I'm looking for something to make a shawl/wrap from. If you're counting, I have less than 50 days to complete it so this will definitley be a challenge. Even more daring is that I signed up for the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics so I really only have 16 days to knit this item. I will be doing my training (swatching) well in advance of the opening ceremonies on the 10th. I have no idea how much of an effort it will be to make something in lace weight, or even doubled lace weight like the Flower Basket Shawl so I might wind up with something like a feather and fan in a sport or thicker weight.

I picked up the yarn for my knitting Olympics item. This is Lana Grosa Kidaire - 15% mohair.

There was a small triangular shawl hanging on the wall at Needleworks that I liked so they gave me the pattern for it. I started some small swatches and I was feeling guilty for casting on before the actual opening ceremonies, but I'm glad I did now. I've ripped out and restarted 4 times to wind up with a narrow rectangular version at a smaller gauge than the original pattern. So technically, the cast on for the current version didn't occur until Saturday morning, which I think, makes it legal for the contest. The International Olympic Knitting Committee has yet to make a final ruling whether or not that constitutes stitch doping.

I also picked up a few other odds and ends at the Needleworks sale:

Here are a few pictures of the snow outside. The news estimates that we'll get 15 inches by the time it stops tonight.

The snow isn't really bothering me since I'm home working on the shawl and watching the Olympics :)

Last night at SnB I noticed a few irregularities and decided to rip back about 20 rows. I'm all caught up to where I was before I frogged (ript-it, rip-it, rip-it) and have two complete balls knitted up. Only two more balls to go and then the last ball for the edging.

Watching the Olympics has been very fun. I'm curious now to see what it would be like to watch the coverage from another country. The NBC coverage has too much drama for my taste.

3 balls completed on the shawl, 2 to go by Saturday night.

The knitting on the shawl had been flowing along quite nicely. I think after all the times I've had to rip back and re-knit portions I've probably knit this thing twice and still didn't feel too much pressure to get it completed. To me that says I underestimated what a 16 day challenge *could* be for me. I decided that I'd enjoy the challenge a lot more if I didn't knit at all on Saturday and left an entire ball to be knit on Sunday morning :)

Well, I did finsh the knitting on the kidaire shawl by 2pm on Sunday, but I'm not sure if I'm going to count it towards Yarn Harlots medal count.

The problem: I just don't like it. The dimensions are all wrong, the edging is too plain, and it's too bulky for it's intended purpose. To me that's getting a good score for the short program but falling a few times during the long program. Good enough for silver but not gold.

I did have a great time watching all the Olympic events on television and the closing ceremonies last night :)