It's Iknitarod time again.

Once again the prize for getting through February is the Iditarod and Iknitarod in March. The Ceremonial  Start was yesterday. They trucked in as much snow as remained in the Anchorage barns but after such a warm winter there wasn't much, plus it rained yesterday leaving mostly slush for the teams in the back of the pack.

Slushy rainy warm downtown Anchorage

Mike Santos navigating a snowless trail outside of Anchorage.

I am challenging myself to complete Bryan's sweater. It got started late as it was supposed to be a Xmas present but the measurements were unknown until late late Nov.  Then, once I saw it couldn't possibly get done in time I let it go to work on other things.  Then I Had Surgery which limited my ability to work on any knitting that needed a bunch of thinking. Sweaters, in general, aren't hard but I always add something to keep my interest.  This time I started from the bottom and worked in stripes.  Before the race started yesterday I had completed the body up to the armpits.

Magoo is recouping after his pre race run. 

Yesterday I got the first sleeve done to where the stripes end.  Actually I started both sleeves together on one needle but managing 4 balls of alpaca blend wool proved too crazy making so I put one sleeve on dpns to wait.

 Why the camera made the sweater grey is beyond me. And writing this blog on my iPad without the external keypad is totally nuts as it keeps hiding the writing screen and not allowing me to scroll.  sheesh....  Turned it portrait which helps some.  

After all, the real purpose of doing two sleeves at once is to keep them even.   I had an aha moment after untangling umpteen twisted strands.  I figured out that since I was counting stripes, there was no way the sleeves would get uneven until they were just one color.  Whew!  So much eaiser to handle.
Late last night I got sleeve #2 up to the last stripe as well. Now to join them again and work on them, work with only 2 balls of yarn, adding stitches as needed up to the armpits.  Again the color is wrong.

Today the mushers travel up to Fairbanks where there is plenty of snow.  

Official ReStart is tomorrow.