Proof of Progress

Who says curling is boring? Lots of strategy, suspense and adjectives to describe this sport make it interesting. It's slow enough that I can follow, not miss too much and more importantly, keep my place in a complicated graphed pattern. What's not to like about this event?

The mitten is making progress. In a few more rows, I'll have completed the thumb gore of the first mitten and this marks the half way point of mitten number one. Given enough peace and quiet, this is a quick knit for a fingering weight yarn. The color changes happen often enough that by the time I start a row, it seems that in a blink, I've finished it. It's highly entertaining, and I swear, there is no hamster running on a wheel in my head.

I fully recognize that I won't finish everything I wanted to do in my competitions, but it's OK to take a Did Not Finish score at the end of these events. Several of the real Olympians have already done this, so why not me? The point of the competition for each knitter is to challenge herself (or himself) and I think I'm doing that. Well, I am with the exception of my shawl. That's just annoying me so it's still in a time out. Completing the mittens and the socks will give me 3 more medals, and really, that's enough for me. After all, I don't want to be too greedy, or end up with carpal tunnel syndrome.

There is exciting news for Detroit. Stephanie Pearl McPhee, aka The Yarn Harlot, is coming to town on March 13th and I've got plans to go to the Detroit Public Library main branch in the downtown area to listen to her speak about all things yarn and life in general. I can't wait. This woman is knitting's rock star and I'm thrilled the city is going to host her. Although she's been close enough to go hear her speak in the past, it's never been on a convenient date for me. This time though, it's a Saturday. I'm hoping to get there early enough to get a great seat and I'll be taking the book she wrote and I read when I was just learning to knit: Knitting Rules. It's my favorite. Even if you don't knit, it's worth the read. In fact, all of her books are worth reading. They're informative, humorous, touching and chock full of wisdom.

If you think The Harlot couldn't possibly be as popular as I think she is, just take a look at her blog and the comment section. She gets hundreds and sometimes thousands of comments a day. It's amazing. As further testament to her likability, look at her MSF/DWB donation page. This woman and her following have raised over 1 million dollars for Doctor Without Borders.

The forest emerges in the pattern as the mitten watches curling. Take no notice of the massive mess of power cords in the right hand corner of the photo. The knitter in this home is too busy to straighten up all that crap.

It was The Harlot who started the Knitting Olympics to coincide with the Winter Olympics. With the birth of Ravelry, knitting competitions on Ravelry occur with every Olympic event now, but Stephanie is still hosting the winter version on her blog.

Yesterday, this mitt was really just a cuff of a thing.

Today, it's clearly something special. I love mitts with a knitted in thumb gore (that's the spot that's growing between the beaded markers.) The gore provides the shaping for the meaty part of the thumb. Very feminine.

Even though I'm not participating on her site (because I really overextended myself on the Ravelry site), in the spirit of both events, I offer a few photos that she'd probably snap and publish if she were sitting here knitting and competing.

Now, let the games continue. As I write this, the US women curling team is giving Russia a bit of a smackdown.