Team Boston Knits

Taking the World by Storm

The Knitting Olypmics has hit the airwaves.  Featured on NPR.

(via Laura)

The Importance of Training

Last night I sat down to test out the textured knit portion of my pattern, to make sure I liked it, before knitting and having to rip out the entire seater back that I'm supposed to start with for the pattern.

About 30 minutes into it, I realized that there were errors in the pattern!  The stitch counts are all wrong and the cable instructions have a typo (and it's a judgement call as to which number is the actual typo).  I've e-mailed the designer for clarification and we'll see if I get an answer back in time.

If not, I'll be jiggering pattern numbers until late in the night tonight to make sure that I'm ready to go tomorrow - in truth, I'd likely be doing that anyway, since I'm upsizing the pattern to fit my 2XL body anyway.  Thank god it's a fairly simple sweater pattern.

How are the rest of you doing for training?

Olympic-Sized Problem

The Timeline

Six Days Ago:  I ordered the yarn for my Olympic sweater . 

Today:  Since this vendor uses Priority Mail, which reliably takes about 3 days, I dropped a note to see what was up.

Later today:  I received this response.

Thank you for your recent purchase from [redacted]*.  I apologize for the delay in shipping your order.  We had only 9 skeins left of this color and we had to reorder.  We expect to receive it next week.  We will send your order out as soon as it comes in.   You will get an email confirmation when it ships. Thank you!

Apparently, it didn't occur to them that I might want to have this information.

Less than two days from now:  The opening ceremonies begin.

Looks like it's time for Plan B.  What's Plan B?  That's an excellent question.  I'll let you know when I figure it out.

*I've left the name out because this vendor has always been very good in the past, so I don't want to go around bad-mouthing them just yet.  If I were Stephen Colbert, this vendor would be On Notice but not yet Dead to Me.

Knitting for the gold

Link: Knitting for the gold.

Check it out...We're 3,300 strong, and The 2006 Knitting Olympics has made it to the 'real' press.  As for us, Team Boston has now topped 90 and we're still going......GO TEAM!

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Knitting for the gold

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

STEVE WOODWARD

The Olympics are upon us, and athlete Kim Manchester is ready for action.

For her event, the Portlander will knit a pair of 1920s-style overalls for her 2-year-old son. She vows to perform the feat with baby cashmerino and wool/cotton yarn in a "three-color stripe pattern worked in a combination of stockinette stitch with garter stitch straps and cuffs at the bottom of the legs."

And you thought skating 10,000 meters was tough.

We're talking about the Knitting Olympics, an event where purling trumps curling.

Manchester, a 32-year-old photographer and arts and crafts instructor at the DIY Lounge on Northeast Alberta Street, is one of thousands of knitters who have answered a call to go for the gold using only needles, yarn and determination.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, a wildly popular knitting blogger from Toronto, last month suggested that knitters worldwide launch a project that stretches their skills to the max -- just like the Olympics. The knitting will begin with the lighting of the torch Friday and must be completed before the flame is extinguished 16 days later, on Feb. 26.

Some knitters are joining forces at work. At Knit Picks, a Vancouver-based mail-order house for yarn and knitting accessories, five employees plan to knit during and after work.

It's OK with the boss. She's one of the knitters.

Kelley Petkun, who owns Knit Picks with husband Bob, has invited the group to her Camas home to cast on during the Olympics' opening ceremonies. Petkun says she will attempt a pair of intricately colored Latvian mittens.

.........go here for the rest of the story.

Pump up the Volume

Hi Everyone.  Welcome to Team Boston!  The B.K.O.C has ordered some pins for the team and they will be distributed among those that come on Friday.  Any left overs will be available for you grab at a later date. We're also in the process of setting up a cafepress store for you to purchase items on your own.  Unfortunately the resolution of some of our graphics does not lend it self well to print reproduction. Because of this there will be a limited number of images and available items in the shop.

This year's games are held in Torino, Italy where the temperature is measured in Celsius (it was -1 today!), the wine flows freely (seriously, did you know that you can order wine and chocolate off of the official Torino Olympic website?), and where (apparently) Passion Lives.  In fact, WikiLavazza.  We so need to hop on a Fiat (manufacturing home in Torino) and go there! If it wasn't for the scary mascots - I just might. claims that Tornio is the birthplace of hard chocolate and the home of And for the fact that Torino is across the ocean. For the mapless among us, it is located at the base of the Italian Alps east of the French Border. Have you all been to the Alps? Priceless. Breathtaking. Amazing. They make the Rockies look like baby giant poop.  There are no words to describe this place. It is where Passion Lives. I would guess, based on it's location, that there is a good chance it is where sheep live too. My final discovery was that, in 2006, Torino was named the World Book Capital by UNESCO. Clearly there are other forces at work here.  I cannot deny the responsibility.  I must push aside all other responsibilities and move toward victory in these here Knitting Olympics.  I will represent my Team and cheer others on.  I will learn how to appropriately swear in Italian and will make pasta to honor my ancestors.  I will help you with these endeavors as well. First - the swearing.  Now, you may be some kind of Beaver Cleaver who can successfully meet a knitting challenge without the utterance of fowl language.  You, my friend, are a better person than I.  For the ingrates among us and the children, such as myself, who heard these phrases as a child: La Perolacce

... Those over 18 (did you all know that we have a mother daughter knitting/blogging team?!  How cool is that?!) and those not easily offended - -

For a more detailed  account of useful vulgar phrases to use while upset with you knitting please wander over to my site The Bookish Girl

Training

In preparation for the Knitting Olympics, since the Harlot said it was okay, I decided to train by kntting a swatch:

I mean, it's only smart, right?  What if the yarn doesn't work with the pattern, or the variegated CC turns out eye-wrenching?  There are going to be hundreds of knitters around the world competing, I would hate to drop out just because I didn't prepare enough.

But then I thought, why only swatch?  There are other ways to prepare myself, mentally AND physically.  So, I decided to fly out to Torino and train with the big dogs.

I hit the slopes first, since I've been skiing since I was little, I thought it would be a good place to start.

And then a go around the ice was a great way to get the blood flowing.

But I could do these things at home.  What I really needed was something to challenge me, something to help me prepare for how to deal with time flying and extreme panic.  So I decided to learn how to luge:

And then for good measure, I took a fencing lesson.  Never too late to learn how to brandish a sharp pointy needle.

All this I did, in the hopes of acheiving my dreams of glory.

But in the end, I'm still only knitting 5 rows an hour.  168 stitches per row... that's only 14 stitches per minute.  I've really got to get that up to something respectable, or there's no way I'm going to get the hat finished in just 16 days.

I guess I should just stick to the good old-fashioned workout.