It's That Time Again

Yes, the 2010 Knitting Olympics have arrived.

I debated on not participating this year. The Yarn Harlot's introduction to the Knitting Olympics talks about the fact that the point is to challenge yourself, the way the athletes challenge themselves in their chosen sports - honoring the spirit of the Olympics by doing what we do, knitting. So of course you can do any project you want, and there are no "Knitting Olympic Police" who say "Nope, you're project's not challenging enough, you're out" or anything like that - but still, it's a kind of ideal I liked, to do something actually challenging instead of just some run-of-the-mill project.

For the 2006 Knitting Olympics, I knitted and felted a bag. That was a challenge for me because I was actually doing several new things - knitting a bag, using a new technique (slip stitch for color bands), and felting it.

But this year I didn't have any challenging projects in the works, wasn't prepared to order yarn to start a new project, and most importantly, had something more pressing I needed to do. I am knitting two log cabin baby blankets for Greg's siblings' new babies (one already born, one due soon). The first blanket is about 90% done, but it took me two months. I wanted to get the other one done as soon as possible, and didn't want to commit to a different project for 17 days without the blankets being done.

I didn't think a log cabin baby blanket was really challenging enough for the Knitting Olympics (yeah, again, no one judges this, but I was trying to honor the ideal), but in the end, I really wanted to participate, so I decided to go for it after all, and signed up this morning.

Actually, since it took me two months to complete the first blanket, completing a second one in 17 days will be a real challenge, just of the time-challenge sort, not of the technical sort. I figured I would practice improving my knitting speed (so it doesn't take me forever plus a weekend to get anything done), and I could hone my "finding sneaky ways to slip in knitting time" skills too.

Opening ceremonies are tonight, and I have to cast on when or after the flame is lit. The project should be completed before the flame goes out at the end of the Olympics. The other blanket isn't quite done - just needs two more patches, the border, and the ends sewn in - but I'm going to cast on for the new blanket tonight anyway, and then decide whether I want to try to finish the first one and get it sent off before going on with the second one; or save finishing the first one till the second one is done, and send them off together.

Oh, if only that was the most difficult decision I'd have to make today.