Monday, February 22, 2010

Citius, Alitius Fortius --The Sweater Chronicles Pt. 1--

Consider this scenario:

You are an Olympic athlete and your event is starting any minute. You weren't able to compete four years ago for undisclosed reasons. Even though you are shaking in happiness and excitement because you are ready to start any minute, you learn that your equipment hasn't arrived yet. Your equipment? It is happily sitting in West Virginia.

ah! What to do!

Not quite as dramatic as above, but that's pretty much my story. Just replace athlete with out-of-shape knitter and equipment with yarn. Probably due to the weather and the strange shipping system, my yarn not only arrive in time for the Opening Ceremonies, but it's one whole week late.

That shouldn't stop me from the Olympic ideal, "Citius, Altius Fortius". No sitting around enjoying curling on TV for me! Some intense knitting is on its way!

Here are the specs:

Yarn: KnitPicks Telemark. 13 Skyline, 4 cream, 2 cardinal.
Needles: US3 and US4 Circulars and DPN
Pattern: My own that I haven't really figured out yet
Size: 38" bust

Friday afternoon (Day 0):
Think about doing some cartwheels since I received my yarn shipment. Good timing too, since I just finished my Norwegian Mittens. Go celebrate birthday with Ethiopian food and live New York Jazz.

Saturday morning (Day 1):
Scramble some graph paper and figure out how many stitches to cast on for the body. Good thing I made a swatch beforehand. TI-83 I used in high school calculus doesn't have batteries that work, so instead do some long divisions and multiplications with decimals. Feels smart for scribbling math all over. Gets frustrated for not knowing which calculation scribbles are the ones I actually need to cast on. Realize that my cell phone also has a calculator, but decide to not use it for some reason.

Finally cast on 210 sts for the rib. Think about k1p1 or k2p2 for a while. Decide on k1p1. Work 20 rows. US women's curling team is doing ok. Asher figures out the rules, so it's more fun to watch.

Body: Increase to 220 sts. Realize that the pattern I'm looking at has a mutiple of 12-st repeat. Fudge that to make it to a 10-st repeat. Concerned that my yarn choice wasn't optimal. Briefly think about overdying the red to mute it some. Decide to let the dark blue bleed onto it overtime.




Finished the border pattern and start the ocean of plain stockinette. Smooth sailing. Watch Hard Day's Night. Knit 100 yds during movie.

Day 1 yield: 330 yards. Almost ready to start the colorwork section.

Sunday (Day 2):
Look at my calculations again, and decide to add 2 short-row sections to the back. Look at my sleeve calculation and realize that it was off. oops. Recalculate, and casted on for first sleeve. Screw up on the previously mentioned 12-st repeat. Rip back 8 rows. Watch Sam Cooke's biography. What a sad story. Knitted about 12 inches of sleeve.

Day 2 yield: 120 yds

No comments: