I had great plans for making a lot of progress on Capri last night. I got started right away & noticed that my stitch counter seemed to show more middle stitches than I thought I had completed on Tuesday. Did I stop & do a physical count of stitches? Oh no, that would be too easy. So I continued knitting & moved ahead 4 rows. It was time to add the 3rd triangle repeat into the mix & as I was nearing the end of the “add” row I was coming out with the wrong number of stitches.

Count…hmm…count again…hmm…time to start taking out rows…1 row…2 rows…3 rows…count…hmm…count again…hmm…another row back…another row back…count…count again…count again – ok time to restart this row…count midway through…on schedule…count at the end…it works! 1 row down…knit another…knit another…knit another…knit another…knit another…time to call it an evening.

Total rows knit in the evening = 10; Total progress in the evening = 6.

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to making more progress this evening!

P.S. Have you seen the “fun” little Countdown to Closing Ceremonies counter that Anny & her husband have put together? (See sidebar) The colors will move from green to yellow to red as Feb. 26th draws near. Just a little motivation to Knit On!

Thankfully the Knitting Olympics are not a “one chance & you’re out” type of event!

I continued to make progress on Saturday with the Capri Shawl. Around noon on Sunday when I started to add the 2nd triangle pattern into the shawl I discovered that I had messed up the 1st triangle. Since I want to enjoy this shawl long after the games are over I decided that the best option was to frog the whole thing & start over. Definitely a good choice! I have recovered & advanced passed where I was at noon.

(The triangle designs are a bit hard to see when all the stitches are squished on 1 needle.)

What have I learned so far during my event? The directions for Capri are very light & have a bit of “do what you want” to them; however, the few “number of stitch” instructions that they have haven’t been quite right in my book. After a bit of “Amy Arithmetic” I feel good about this pattern & the progress I’m making. I’m probably about 30 minutes away from finishing up skein 1 of 3. I feel this is knitting tight even using the size 9 needles that were recommended – next time I’ll go with the 10. It has been a long time since I’ve knit on straight needles so that is taking some time to get used to again but is better now that so many stitches are on the needle.

Now that the torch is lit in Torino and the Athletes Pledge has been delivered it is time to introduce my knitting event for the next 16 days…
(…cue the Olympic Fanfare and Theme by John Williams…)

Steady knitting right after the torch has been lit.

The Capri Shawl from Morehouse Farms in Aqua

Good progress was made during the Opening Ceremony. By the end of the evening I was at about 50 rows. (That included 2 “issues” – 1 of which was the most delicate knit surgery that I’ve done…had to back out about 10 rows).

My friend Kristy came over to watch the ceremonies (& snap the picture!) – she didn’t have any knit projects going so she had her own Paper Olympics making Valentines as I knit. We both thought that these opening ceremonies were fabulous.

The knitting continues now while watching the US Women’s Hockey team. The rows on the shawl are still pretty short so they progress quickly – I know that will soon change but I’m pleased with the progress so far. The real challenge will be the blocking at the end – the full wet blocking is something new for me.

Why the Capri shawl? I was contemplating what to select when Lolly posted about her Morehouse Farms shawl project. As is often the case with reading blogs I followed the links from her post & loved the shawl kits. The Capri was an easy choice for my first lace shawl project – especially for these Olympics: …The Winter Olympics are in Italy…Capri is in Italy…One of my favorite stops on my Italy/Greece trip in June 2005 was Capri…the Aqua color of the yarn reminds me of the beautiful water around Capri…while the pattern may not be terribly difficult (& reminiscent of my baby blanket projects) it is a lace pattern which is a new skill…the full wet block at the end to shape the shawl is something I haven’t done in the past & I think may be a challenge (or at least a test of my patience)…