Defeat

Well, I knew probably a week ago that this was going to happen, but as of Sunday night, it was confirmed- I didn't finish the Dale.
The one (and really only) excuse that I feel is legitimate in this instance is the fact that the last week to really crank out the sweater came on none other than midterms week, which besides tests included a paper and a presentation in my Graduate Seminar class. I was probably doomed from the start.
I'm not saying that I didn't give it a good shot, though.I'm a little under halfway through the colorwork on the chest, and what's left is going to require patient, paying-attention knitting reserved for watching movies I've seen a million times or a knitting afternoon with Cheryl. (Please excuse the ruffled, I-just-want-to-sleep look and hair style- it was, after all, at the defeat point). I made okay progress on at least one of the sleeves, and it's getting bigger all the time. The sleeve is nice because I've been throwing it in my school bag to knit during class, since right now I just have miles of plain dark blue stockinette to finish for them. I think the biggest part of the battle is to "Just keep swimmin'" on this (to quote Dory, of course), even though the Olympics are over.
I had so much fun watching them this year. I got to see the big highlights almost every single night, and seeing the semifinal game between the US and Canada was great! I was a little bummed to not be able to stream the gold medal game at work on Sunday (believe me , I tried- any of you that know me probably understand how much swearing at technology occured in this attempt, but I ended up just watching a live-updated scoreboard- not nearly as cool) but I did work on the sleeve, because I knew it would be important to my Dad to know that I knit parts of the sweater during both US vs. Canada games. I'm really glad Canada got the Gold medal for hockey on their home soil- and I'm glad that the US put in a good fight, so it was at least a really good hockey game. Overall the Olympics were fantastic, and I can't wait until 2014 for the next ones in Russia! (Hopefully I'll have this damn sweater done by then.)
I am defeated for the gold medal, but believe me when I say I'm not giving up. In fact, I'm just getting started. :)