Into Finger Lake

In Willow before the restart.

Newton left yesterday afternoon to a cheering crowd.

He did good time into Yentna and on to Skwentna

The front runners as of a few minutes ago:

with Ally in 7th and Dee Dee in 15th.  Dee Dee does not push her dogs unless they want to go. I think she is more sensitive to their moods than some. She also does not win this race but usually places in the top 20.

Our man got into Finger Lake this morning along with several other mushers who all seem to be staying put.  I don't know if the weather has them tied down or, since most of them are rookies, they are feeling the difficulties of this race already.

edited at 8:01pm EST -  Newton has left Finger Lake.  He rested for 5h 32m and is still running 16 dogs.

My running is doing very well.  I am on schedule with my knitting but missed a trail marker and so sledded onto an unmarked snowmobile trail this afternoon for about 2.5 miles,

 then realized I wasn't on a proper trail so turned around.  This is a rookie mistake.  Sigh   

TRANSLATION:  I missed an instruction on the baby hat pattern and had to frog back 2.5 rows before I was able to carry on knitting.

As of this morning:

socks

baby hat

Happy Dogs

BTW those booties last no more than 100 miles so the musher needs to carry or have dropped with food packages 600 - 1000 of them.

Rootin' for Newton

 For the last few years I have not had much incentive to carefully watch the Iditarod as I am no longer teaching. The Iditarod was a perennial March project in my classes for most of those years.  Since March is also Women's History Month the student teams chose a woman musher to follow through the race.  They found out as much history about the musher, her dog's names, budgeted for supplies and then mapped her progress along the way.  Each day they used the computer to find the daily standings which tell where the musher is, how many dogs are still racing and times of running and resting. They also sometimes emailed to other students in Alaska and afterwards sent a letter to their musher.   It was a ball.  Some years we even had a guest musher visit with his or her sled and dogs.

Jim follows both the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod on the computer and keeps me up to date on his fav mushers.  This year a wonderful woman who has huskies and does some skijorring started a new forum on Ravelry called Iknitarod.   It has developed quickly into a great source of Alaskan info with many of the members living currently or in the past in AK.   We are getting first hand pics, not from the formal press but from our members.  These are from the Ceremonial Start on the streets of Anchorage. And these from Mile 4 along the way yesterday.  I always check on Dee Dee Jonrowe (Queen of the Iditarod)

 and Ally Zirkle (first woman to win the Yukon Quest).

Some of us are following specific mushers while others are just following.

Mitch Seavey was one of the first mushers I followed oh those many years ago when I first became a fan.
  I chose to watch Newton Marshall, a rookie from Jamaica because  I loved the Jamaican Bobsled team a few years ago. This musher appealed to me in the same way.  Also his sponsor is Jimmy Buffet ( I LOVE his music).  Newton started his sledding careet in Jamaica with carts and rescued SPCA dogs, then moved on to more northern climes.  Any purchases from the site go to both Newton and the SPCA so I like that part too. This is his page on the Iditarod site.

Newton's Team in Anchorage on Sat, 3/6

Once the intense Knitting Olympics finished and I got back into the swing of things this new challenge was really appealing.  However, after several over-do-it crashes in the past I am learning to do some pacing. Amazing, huh? This doggy challenge will be accomplished in minutes rather than finished objects, giving me the chance to complete some UFO's.  There are 1120 miles in the race this year so I have committed to knit 1120 minutes.  That comes out to 2 hours 4 minutes a day if I was going to finish with the front runners.  With Newton being a newbie, I doubt he will arrive in Nome in only 9 days so will most likely have several more days to play.  YES!  More knitting.

I made myself (and any other Newton follower) a ravatar (Ravelry avatar).

Then made a general one for any group member to use.

This Ravatar features Loki, one of our moderator's huskies.  

I am also so thrilled that so many members have chosen to use this Ravatar.  Really really thrilled.  And to be honest. I like this one better than my Newton Ravatar.  

Knitting objects for the race include: completing a pair of Sherbert & Ernie socks I started a week or so ago for me;  a baby hat to go with a completed sweater for Baby Mae;  and work on the January Fondle This! shawl which is now half done.  When I get all this completed a spring sweater for moi will be started as a reward.

The official re-start is at 2pm Anchorage time today, 3/7, (6pm EST) in Wasilla, Alaska.  

My progress will be posted each time Newton gets into a checkpoint.

Go Newton!!!!!

Olympic Knitting Certificate 2010

Personal Best

One of the things I believe the Olympics is about is doing your own personal best, no matter the circumstances or weather.

I started this challenge thinking designing a hat, doing the test pieces and writing the pattern would be sufficient but I talked myself into a second event --my sister's socks.

MyVeryOwnSister's Sox
Spinning the yarn from 2oz of SW merino/tencel and 2oz of SW bfl both in Anshan's Biscotti took 3 days.
I consider that part of the trials -- fast but not record breaking.  However it did get me into the event and I enjoyed seeing the Biscotti play itself out on the bobbins.

Knitting the socks (two of them), albeit not fancy ones, took 6 days on size US 0/2mm circs.  A PERSONAL BEST.  I am very psyched about this time and the nice product produced.   They even look good with the cuffs folded down.  Sending them on to my sister this week as they are warm socks and I want her to get some wear out of them before the weather goes warmer as it will on the coast of RI way before it does here.

Bunny Tail Cap
The idea for this cap was processing in my head for months before I finally spit it out onto paper.  Sheesh.  I think I was scared of the construction yet knew I could really do it.  I just needed to persevere.
Afterwards I realized that writing the Bare Bones pattern right before these games was exactly the practice and exercise I needed AND I used that pattern for mvos' sox.

I did a trial cap which worked but gave me a better idea of  how to construct the one in my head.  This is a size small and will be donated to charity.

Then I put my scribbles into the computer with watermarks used as draft dates. This trial helped me figure out how the bunny could be better charted and got me into the next phase of the challenge.

The actual cap. 

 Of course the pattern was scribbled on constantly as I figured out better ways to say something or explain construction.  There are short row techniques used in both the brim and the ribbed backing.  I am rather proud of them and the fact that there is NO grafting need for this cap.  It is all done in one piece, albeit with several needle sizes.

Now for the finals.

Jim had spun some yak/merino for the latest pair of socks I knit for him, leaving a little over 1 oz in a small ball.  Each color in this cap uses a little over 1 oz so.......  He then came up with some fingering to sport weight black blue face leicester singles which worked perfectly in concert with the sport weight yak/merino.

Knitting with these yarns allowed me to try out my theory of using a heavier weight yarn for the cap.

I worked his cap following my pattern explicitly and thereby being able to fine tune the directions to a place I am very happy with.  Sportweight makes a heavier cap but also a wider top. It does not seem to make any difference in the hat sizing though.  Nice. 

Jim has a large head, as do I, which allows me to easily figure out the most yarn that will be needed.  This was such a pleasure to knit and a fast hat to make too.

The Bunny Tail Cap is currently the second kit in Finger Knittin' Good.  However the simpler version, Cadet Cap, with no charting and using simple Armenian style two color knitting is available on my website and on Ravelry.

What have I learned?

1-  While I see myself as having severe knitting ADD I found working on two projects to their completions with not allowing myself to start or work on any other projects to be very satisfying, if sometimes frustrating.  Postponing gratification in knitting and spinning is not my strong suit.  This was an excellent exercise in restraint and near obsession.

2- I still don't like watching TV.  The commercials, while at the onset of the Olympics seemed so creative became rather wearing after their 15th or 50th watching.  The only exception was the AT&T one featuring the skateboarder soaring into the Universe. That one is such a great feat of technology mixed video and the music was wonderful.

Why would you ever ingest one of those pills that have a zillion side effects and killed several testers?  Yet the pharmaceutical companies are spending millions showing them to you.  Does not compute.

Oh and I saw the previews/trailers to quite a few movies I will not mind missing.  However the new Shrek one looks promising as does the one about training your dragon.

3-  My construction skills will grow with these kinds of challenges as I learned designing the Bunny Cap pattern.

4- I love an excuse to be obsessed so had great fun watching the Olympics, listening to books on my i-pod and knitting knitting knitting.

5-  All good things must come to an end so all the good or not so good things I left undone for 17 days must now be caught up.

TWO GOLD MEDALS

My medal news coming up after the Closing Ceremonies (probably tomorrow).

Now to go watch the Canadian/USA Hockey game.

edited at 6:31pm EST

That was probably THE BEST hockey game I have ever had the privilege to watch.

Granted it was fielded with the best NHL players so more like an All Star Game but still.

There was Team USA undefeated going into this game while Team Canada had already been defeated once by Team USA.

Several of the players went to Cornell and one, Dustin Brown, went to the Boynton Middle School while I was teaching there. Yes, Ithaca is hockey crazy.  Jim thinks he was one of my students but it is hard to remember so many years ago with 120 students to teach each day.  I had several every year that were sleepy after their 4 or 5 am hockey practices during the season.

I knit not one stitch the entire 3 play periods, although I did knit during the breaks. The action was so steady and exciting I sat close to the screen cheering.   Happily my goal was to have both my challenges done before the game and I rose to that ambition.  My hockey knitting was a Leafy Hat designed by Ruth Stewart, wife of one of the Canadian bobsled people so I thought it appropriate. 

Pulling the USA goalie over a minute before the end of the game was a brilliant but dangerous strategy that worked, tying the game at 2:2.  So exciting!  Instead of a 10 minute overtime sudden death period with the full team it was a 20 minute sudden death period with only 4 on 4 plus the goalies.  A much harder game to play and way more dependent on the goalie keeping out the puck with next to no back up.  At that point I didn't care who won as both teams were so fantastic. Yes, I hoped for Team USA but it went to Canada in less than 10 minutes.

The USA team looked so sad at the medal ceremony.  There they were getting beautiful silver medals and not enjoying that distinction at all.  Hopefully later on they will see a better view of themselves.

What a great close to the events.  Soon the Closing Ceremonies and a great end to a great event.

Knever Knot Knitting

Here we go into the final week of Olympic Trials, Challenges, Disappointments and Success.

My sister sent me a soft glorious scarf for Valentine's Day made of real pure velvet in deep amethyst purple.  I put it on and have not taken it off, well except to sleep.  It has become my Olympic talisman scarf.

I may need to figure out more reasons to wear this after the Olympics ends as I LOVE IT and it is not even knit.  !!!!


So how are we doing?
 
Socks -- I am already setting records for speed in this event.

Spinning for my sister's socks - Saturday - Wednesday √
Cast-on and toes - Wednesday and Thursday √Feet - Thursday - Saturday  √

Gussets - Saturday  √
Heels - Sunday  √

Cuffs - Monday - Thursday

Lookin' very good.  No penalty laps thus far, although sleep deprivation is starting to set in.


 Bunny Cottontail Cap

Initial design and paper drafts - Friday - Sunday √
Prototype Trials  - Silver Medal - Saturday - Wednesday √
Brim solutions - included several contender variations before the final round was chosen -  Thursday √
First computer trial of pattern - Thursday √
Gold Medal Brim - Thursday √  Notice how it is in one piece, self attached to the ribbing and top sections.  Extra points here.
Second computer pattern Trials - Friday √
Ribbing Trials - Friday   √  got into the finals
Body Challenge - Saturday  √ got into the finals

Top Event - Sunday - Monday  --- now Sunday - Wednesday
Final Pattern Event  - Tuesday --- now Thursday


The last two events are a bit delayed so have accrued some penalty points but it should be completed within the Olympic times.  The extra points garnered with the brim should cancel these minuses.

"Citius, Alitius Fortius"

Two Nights, Two Toes

This Olympic Knitting is definitely a challenge and many sacrifices in life are being made, just like (well simulating) the real athletes.  I gave up on housework long ago but now my laundry, dyeing and shipping are getting behind and accounting has gone by the wayside. Oh and at least an hour of sleep each night which may turn into more as the 17 day limit comes closer. Plus I gave up Knit Knite this week to get a whole lot of concentrated time on the socks and hat.  All for the thrill of going for the GOLD.

Secondary Event - Sock Timeline
Spinning for my sister's socks - Saturday - Wednesday √
Cast-on and toes - Wednesday and Thursday √

Feet - Thursday - Saturday
Gussets - Saturday
Heels - Sunday
Cuffs - Monday - Thursday
Now I wonder if this isn't a bit too optimistic.  hmmmmnnn  but at least there are a few days of leeway so all should be well.

Prime Time Event - Bunny Cottontail Cap
Initial design and paper drafts - Friday - Sunday √
Prototype Trials  - Silver Medal - Saturday - Wednesday √

Brim solutions - included several contender variations before the final round was chosen -  Thursday √
First computer trial of pattern - Thursday √
Gold Medal Brim - Thursday √

Second computer pattern Trials - Friday √
Ribbing Trials - Friday

Body Challenge - Saturday
Top Event - Sunday - Monday
Final Pattern Event  - Tuesday

Well that all looks hunky dory.  Lots of leeway in the schedule for uncooperative weather or loose shoelaces or the knitting equivalent.
Think I am in Egypt instead of Vancouver (well really just south of Ithaca, NY)?  As long as I keep staying up until midnight and working on these instead of doing much of anything else it should happen as planned.  "Really." (as Helen would say).