Knitting Olympics

I have been waiting a long time to make these socks. A couple years ago I bought Weekend Knitting and I fell in love with the Petticoat Socks by Veronik Avery. I never had a desire to make socks until I saw these. I never made them because I am one of those knitters who gets stuck on making hats and fingerless gloves for other people. I want to try stuff that is more challenging and that *I* get to keep. (HARUMPH!)

I wasn't sure I was going to participate in the Knitting Olympics. I didn't have a project and I already have a list of things to make - for other people. The idea of the Knitting Olympics has completely won me over. You are supposed to pick a project that is challenging and inspires you to do your knitting best. I hemmed and hawed, right up to the last minute. I kept going back to these socks. What better opportunity to make something special for myself? And as far as being challenging, they are for many reasons:

1. Besides Christmas stockings, I have never made a sock, muchless a pair with a lacy, interesting pattern.

2. I have never done a provisional cast-on.

3. I am a DPN person, and I am making these with 2 circs.

4. I really want them.

I started late. I didn't swatch ahead of time (I wasn't even committed 'til Friday morning), when I did swatch I wasn't making gauge, I had to go get more yarn (poor me) and 3 attempts at doing a provisional cast on ala knittinghelp.com made me ready to poke my eyes out with my teensy weensy needles. I finally got it figured out and made my way along with the pattern. Even took the time to rewrite the chart as a list so that I didn't screw up. This pattern has right and left twists. UGH. These are tiny needles and tiny yarn. And 2 circs, I keep dropping stitches because I didn't push the non-working needle out of the way and the work started sliding off. Many hours and a couple movies later, I think I finally have the hang of it. This is a challenge to say the least, but I am pretty damn proud of what I have done so far. It's about time I got to work on something besides fingerless gloves!

I am totally feeling the spirit of the Knitting Olympics, and so are my hands. Yeowser. Hopefully some daily stretching will help my hands stay in fine working order and I will be able to finish my project as a part of Team Sit n' Knit.WOO HOO!