Ladies Attacking the Olympics

After doing a little girl-type shopping and getting important supplements, myself and the lovely Cheryl competed in our Olympic events.Cheryl's working on a beautiful sweater, and I'm pretty sure she'll easily accomplish the gold without too much sweat.I figured out where I left off on the Dale chart, had a little reconciliation and chat with the sweater to let it know what it was in for in the next couple of weeks, and got back on track in the chart.
We were able to enjoy some live music at B&N as we chatted and knit, and I'll probably need a few more group knits like this to help complete the sweater to keep my sanity and overall happiness. Afterward, I went to the closest place with high definition (and good-sized) TV to watch the Women's Moguls, Men's Luge, and Short Track Men's Speedskating to see USA get the gold in the Women's Moguls. I'm really enjoying watching the Olympics thus far, and have a feeling I'll be catching it as often as possible over the next couple of weeks!
Tomorrow- fresh snow on the ground, so skiing is of course on the schedule, but more knitting and watching Olympics as always (homework too, probably. Should be...). My only conundrum is whether to cheer for just USA or cheer for USA, Canada, and every Scandinavian country in my heritage.
Probably the latter. Just fyi. :)

And it's Off!

Last night during work I finished one last hat for a barter...and got done too late to start my Olympic knitting, but today as soon as work was over:it's started!! :)
I talked to my Dad today about it, so it's fixed and done that I have to finish this beast. In reality, it seems simple- just finishing the colorwork on the top of the body, knitting the arms, steeking and attaching everything. Not tough, right?
Of course, I have both jobs and school and homework to work in, so we'll see how this Olympics go. I have nothing but high hopes!
Today- going between homework and knitting, then going out for a bit tonight.
Tomorrow I'm heading down to the cities for a Minnesota Wild Hockey game, so lots of car knitting time before an AWESOME hockey game! :)
Updates frequently, don't worry...
Good luck, knitters!!

Night Before

It starts tomorrow.
I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about trying to conquer this mountain of a project. The Dale is sitting patiently... quietly... in the canvas bag in my living room, just waiting.
The thing that makes me nervous is that I'm not sure how this is going to end up. The Dale could be sweet and go perfectly since I've run into enough problems thus far, or it could utterly defeat me, leaving me in the middle of a mass of tiny stitches and needles whimpering and wondering what in the hell happened. It could play nice, or strike like a tiger when I least expect it.
I suppose that's the nature of the knitting Olympics, eh? :)
The nice surprise I found out today was that I'm not allowed to start knitting until 8 pm tomorrow night- I thought it was 8 am- boo! That means no knitting during my morning off. I packed my ice climbing pack, because I think I'll need to be out to not touch the Dale. I'll be working hard after work tomorrow night, and on Saturday, you better believe it.I got the main body done of a hat I'm making for a barter today while in class when people were presenting, and hopefully a few hours tomorrow should finish it. It's my last bit of knitting to finish before the sweater, and then I have a fresh palate to choose from after the Olympics. Maybe a sweater for myself, for once? :)
Off to bed. Need my pre-Olympic knitting rest. And a little before ice climbing wouldn't hurt. :)
Good luck tomorrow, knitters.
Reach for the gold tomorrow! :)

Tying Loose Ends

With the Ravelympics opening on Friday, I want to get my loose odds 'n ends knitting finished up so I have just the sweater to concentrate on- no side distractions allowed!
First to finish was the Amanda Hat for Molly.I originally used the skein leftover from a Thorpe hat I made for my friend Aurora, and then ran out of yarn to close the top of the hat. After trying and failing, I finally just ordered yarn from a shop online, knowing that whatever I didn't use for this hat I will inevitably use elsewhere.
I ended up really enjoying making this hat. It's super squishy and comfy, and I really hope that the recipient enjoys it (it's pink, so I'm sure she will). I did it on size 9 needles with Malabrigo Chunky yarn, colorway of Lovely Lady. Best part of making the hat- enjoying the end result. Worst part- watching the ball run out of yarn and knowing that I would have to hunt for more...
After making a bajillion Amanda hats for everyone else, I finally finished my own yesterday, and tried out today while going to and from class. After trying on Molly's with the Chunky malabrigo, mine feels a little... thin. I LOVE the colorway and the hat and the fit, but I think I'm going to have to line it at some point to give it a little added protection from the chilly winds off the lake.
Ah well, it happens.It was nice to get these finished and off the needles in time for the Olympics. I have one more bartering hat to get through fast, as well as fixing the thumb on my pair of mittens, but the end is well within reach. I am also going to take a hiatus from making the Amanda hat- after 5 of them, I need a break. :)
Tonight I'm working overnight at B&N for our inventory night, so I'm off to make a giant thermos of coffee before heading up to the mall till 5 am.
Yaaaay overnights...

Feels Like Home

My Mom sent me home with a couple of her antiques she's no longer using in her house decorations, and with a drill and some shelves from Target I was able to make my room finally feel like home, and not so much a temporary "space".I'm particularily happy with the new shelves, even though I haven't quite made up my mind if I like my old pointe shoes and the glass on the top one.I'm not sure if pointe shoes can be considered a "decoration", but they work for now and I like them up there.I'm particularly excited about the old camera and picture I got from my Mom- it's in beautiful shape, which almost makes me tempted to see if it would still work, because I feel like the pictures out of an old camera like that would be fuzzy and beautiful. Maybe someday when I have a bunch of time I'll look into that. :) My next antique purchases on my "want" list are an old but working typewriter and dress form in my size for draping.My reading list has expanded this semester to include not only books on adaptation, but children's literature and french books to practice translation. I have to do a translation for my master's degree, and hopefully with practice I can get my french a point that I'm comfortable with a basic translation. Speaking it is a whole different animal, but luckily I don't have to worry about that yet.
I was out ice climbing at Casket Quarry all day yesterday, and even though I accidentally conked out at 8:30 during the movie last night I'm still tired and recovering today. I think I need to do a little more cross training so that when I go out for these all-day climbing marathons, I don't get so incredibly pooped. Swimming perhaps?
Time to go take my double-fudge brownies out of the oven... Mmmmm smells good... :)

Olympic Training

It's not a sweater, but training is training.
I have a big job ahead of me.
8 days...

I Gotta Feeling...

I was down in the cities (Twin Cities) this weekend hanging out with my Mom for her birthday, and because I didn't have class or work on yesterday, she talked me into staying down for the day and hanging out with her at school!
She teaches Phy Ed for a small private Catholic school, grades K-6, and naturally I had to help her out with class. She's been vying for me to do this for awhile, and when she told me her idea for her lesson plan of the day, I was excited.
She had seen awhile ago on the Oprah show a particular dance sequence- done in Chicago on Michigan Avenue with over 9,000 people. The Black Eyed Peas were giving a concert with their song "I Gotta Feeling", and while singing (and without Oprah knowing this was going to happen) one girl in the front started dancing... and then some more joined her... and people kept adding until these 9,000 people were dancing one big choreographed dance. It's really cool to see- you can find the link here to the YouTube video of it, and it's worth it to take a look.
Anyway, my Mom saw this dance and asked me if I could teach a slightly easier, cut version of it to the kids- which of course I said yes to!It was a lot of fun! The kids got really into it, especially the younger ones. When they're 3rd grade and under dancing is still fun and everyone can do it- it's not just for pretty pink girls. The older kids I think were just happy that when they learned they were doing dance but there wasn't holding hands involved. :) I was surprised how fast the kids learned it- I taught the exact same dance to every grade level, and they all were able to do (with me leading in the front) the entire minute and thirty seconds or so that I pulled from the dance. Everyone was moving and having a good time, and I had lots of thanks and big, excited smiles from the kids at the end of class. It was such a success that my Mom wants to have the whole school dance it for an audience at some point (since the entire school now semi-knows the dance!), and I'll be happy to come back again next year to teach another dance class (hopefully one just as fun and 'cool' as this one was- hopefully!).
After all, who knew that dance could be so much fun? ;)
(PS- for those of you that are wondering, no, I didn't fix my mittens yet. I'm working on it, don't worry... they'll get done... before the Olympics...)