Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Knitting Olympics 2010

A few years ago my mom bought me “At Knit's End, Meditations for Women who Knit too much” by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee




and I laughed myself to tears. I have loaned this book out a few times and it may be that I am easily amused. The danger of sharing one's sense of humour is that it may turn out that one is a bit of a silly git.

That same year, Stephanie came to Halifax and with a few friends, we went to see her give a “lecture”. It really was a stand up comedy act and we laughed the night away. Since then, I have been visiting her site, Yarn Harlot at www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/ and still enjoy it. I have figured out that she often posts after 4:30 my time and rarely on weekends, an average of 2.5 times a week. Yet I still check daily, more than once, just in case.

At the last Olympics, Stephanie created the Knitting Olympics, so knitters could participate in spirit and energy, if not in kind. If you visit her site you will see that again, and in celebration of the Olympics being in Canada, the Knitting Olympics 2nd cycle continues. You can get the back story and still sign up. The day I signed up there were then 1000 participants. Tonight there are 3926.

The rules are 1) cast on during the opening ceremony, 2) chose something that would be a challenge, not a sissy pants thing to do and 3) cast off during and no later than the moment when the torch is extinguished. When we signed up, we had to say what our project would be. I won't tell you now because I want it to be a tiny bit of a mystery.

Here is my opening ceremony cast on.



It was bloody 1:00 a.m. in the morning Halifax time and in the spirit of top athletes the world over, I waited for the moment when the keeners would join in. That moment came when the 4 Canadian athletes lit the indoor torch.

Saturday was our “Trip to Cuba” day and this was all that I managed to get knit for Day One.


Sunday, also known as Day Two, was a little more productive. I wrote the lyrics for two songs for Gingerbread, sung them on the phone to Cheryl without musical support and she didn't scream. We went for a hike through Point Pleasant park



and eventually found ourselves in front of the fire and the TV.



Here is Day Two's effort and it is a bit more clear just what is on the needles. Any guesses, and Linda, you don't get to tell it outloud. Whisper.

No comments:

Post a Comment