Where are the Knitting Olympics Updates?

Time for a Knitting Olympics update.

Friday night I was all set. I had the pattern, the cable needle, the yarn, the needle, the spiffy Poor Miss Finch stitch marker, and the magnifying glass to read the chart.


I sat down to watch the Opening Ceremonies and cast on Shedir. Things were going fine until I got past the 1x1 ribbing to the first row of the pattern. Only then did I discover the Fatal Flaw!

Despite multiple counts I cast on 130 instead of 128 stitches.

The horror.

The agony.

It was ugly.

I thought I could fix it. But no. This is the Knitting Olympics, there is no room for such a blatant error!

So the first go round ended up in the frog pond.

I also experienced an equipment issue. My size 3, 16 inch circs had a few little burrs on them where the cord meets the needle. It was snagging the yarn a bit. After the frogging I carefully filed down the burrs on the needles with a metal file. It's much improved.

Saturday I regrouped. Armed with E's container of tiny hair elastics I carefully counted out eight, sixteen stitch sections as I cast on.

Jackpot!

128 beautiful stitches. The tiny hair elastics make excellent stitch markers. I use the fancy PMF marker to mark the row.

I made quick progress yesterday while watching Men's Nordic Combined, Men's Luge, and a bit of Men's Speed Skating. I'm pretty much back to where I was before the trip to the frog pond.

I also changed cable needles from a u shaped to a flying bird. The flying bird shape is working better then the u shaped.

We rearranged the family room today. I'm looking forward to trying out the new set up while I watch the Olympics and knit Shedir.

Most importantly I got to talk with Tracy last night. I told her about the progress and the trip to the frog pond. She is really excited about the hat.