Starting Ceremonies

I am SO ready for the starting ceremonies and the beginning of the UFOlympics!

My qualifying rounds went superb and I have a new personal best record. I finished my Shi Bui socks, and the two shawls. I finished my Dimple Shale Scarf last night, bringing my finished objects total up to four.

This pattern is so simple and it is a free Knit Picks download. The pattern calls for four balls of yarn, and that is exactly what it took. I have a golf sized ball of yarn left - perfect.


Everything will be on the podium and photographed as soon as the sun peaks out this weekend. Now I am going for the Gold. My Socks That Rock Project bag is on the field and as soon as the opening ceremonies begin tonight I will be working on the Felice Clay socks.

My new Ravelry friend Professor Poppy reminded me of how much I love the fair isle knitting of Alice Starmore. I have several of AS's books and I have made up a few patterns, one of them ended up being a scarf. I had only been knitting a few months when I knit the scarf and my stranding was pretty tight. Blocking failed to fix it. Then I got addicted to socks and never went back to fair isle. I came across Ann Feitelson's audiobook The Art of Fair Isle Knitting and listened to it last night. I had read AF's book, but listening to it while I finished my scarf was nice. Since Crazy Aunt Purl got me hooked on the Deadliest Catch, some of the stories about the Norwegian fisherman's sweaters and men being lost at sea leaving their families to survive on their knitting profits was much more real to me. Coincidentally I had just watched the DC epidsode in which the Big Valley and 5 members of her crew were lost.

I did a Google search on Alice Starmore to see what was out there and was glad to find she is still selling yarn and kits on Virtual Yarns. I finally got to see Henry VIII after listening to David Reidy on Sticks and String podcast describe how much he enjoyed the process of making it. That is one gorgeous sweater and I would give anything to have one, but that's not in my skill set yet. So I ordered the Alice Starmore kit for the Glenesk Cardigan.

I selected this kit for a couple of reasons [1] I prefer cardigans to pullovers, I like to be able to take a sweater off if I get hot. I am of an age when this is very important ;p [2] The pattern appears to be made up of just 4 colors, much lesst yarn to keep up with and control throughout. [3] Fewer colors means weaving in ends will be less complicated, there will always be a matching area of color to weave an end into. [4] Size, Alice builds a lot of ease into her designs because she wants them to be comfortable and worn a lot. [5] Needle size, this pattern is to be knit on US size 7 needles 4.5mm, my absolute favorite needle size for sweater knitting.


I received my shipped/confirmed e-mail this morning so it's on it's way. I have no idea when I will get started on it however, because I still have 4 of 5 shawls to finish and 12 pairs of socks to knit.