Olympics and the Usual Chaos

Last Thursday marked the beginning of the Olympic coverage (even though the opening ceremonies didn't occur until Friday), so I started casting on the Norwegian Blue sweater.  The red strings are to help me count the stitches when casting on.  I needed 288 stitches on the needles, and darn it if I didn't lose count six times before I finally started putting these strings in between every 20 stitches.  I ended up having to take it out and start again...a couple times...so I really didn't get it started until Friday anyway.  The judges said they'd allow it.  No deductions for a false start.  We'll just call it a "practice run".


Knitting wasn't the only thing I was doing, though.  I also took a little time on Thursday night to make some beads with Bekah.  These are the six I made that night.  Three of them were made with Olympic colors--I tried to do rings on the two on the far left, but one of the colors (green) was not cooperating.  Then I decided to do mixed up rings, on the right.  The three in the middle were just fun spotty beads.  Again, the green turned transparent and didn't have the desired effect, but it's still pretty cool.


I finished up the perle cotton weave and although I don't have a particular project in mind to add it to, I really like the way it turned out, the fineness of the weave, the flexibility of the fibers, and I know it's going to make a great impact on whatever garment I add it to.  Now I'll have to make some really stunning garment to go with it.  It reminds me of a doll house plan I had once.  I started with the door.  Little did I realize that you really can't start from the end, and that the doll house would never come to fruition.

Once the loom was available, I started weaving the band for the warp weighted loom, adding in the yards of wool for the warp.  It took nearly two entire skeins of Fisherman's wool to finish the warp, and I figure it'll take another two to weave it up.  The band will be laced onto the top cross bar and the weaving will start from that point.  I have set it aside for the last week while I worked on other projects.

Saturday was consumed with teaching a costuming class for Ithra.  I only had two students, but we had a great time and they were able to finish their mock-up and have a pattern to fit them and make a wearable outfit from there.  Since it was the first time I ever taught the class, I was glad not to have the pressure of a full classroom.

After my morning class, I "crashed" the beginning beadmaking class in the afternoon and ended up being a sort of co-teacher, helping the other students learning how to handle the mandrils, heating the glass, and making wearable beads.  I was able to make a couple beads myself, demonstrating layering colors.  This is the bead I made.  You'll notice the black ring around the blue glass--this is a chemical reaction between the ivory and the turquoise; a very cool effect!

When I got home, I was wanted to make more beads, so I brought out my torch and made these.  I probably would have made more but I ran out of fuel, and the jug of bead release is running low.  I'll have to pick some up tomorrow, I guess.

This is a photo of the sweater progress this evening, after three days of work.  I only got six rows done today, even though I was working on it for hours.  288 stitches takes forever, especially when it's two-color work.  It's slow going...they say it's a marathon, not a sprint, but it sure feels like the tortoise and the hare.  I'm the tortoise.  I think I'll call this one "Norwegian Blue (aka the Dead Parrot Sketch)".  Actually, I think the pattern is called Lillies or something like that.  It's from the DROPS web site, pattern #58-8.  I tried to copy the colors somewhat closely, although the colors available were not exact.  I can see now that mine is going to be quite a few shades lighter than hers, but it was what was available at the time.  The colors seem much more intense in this photo than it does in real life.

Tomorrow is the guild meeting, and I hope the weather doesn't delay the trip--it's supposed to be in the low 40s and rainy, so it should be fine.