Day 2. Olympic Training

Achieving perfect gauge on my sport weight yarn with the first swatch was too good to be finished. Just like the athletes, I was back in training last night.

The B&L sport weight (BTW, Marie commented on how appropriate my Olympic Knitting is being done on 'Sport ' weight yarn. Clever isn't she?) needed a bigger than 4mm needle to give EZ's required gauge of 20 stitches. Rather than take it step by step and go to a 4.5, I went right to the top of EZ's list and tried the 5mm. The gauge was perfect for the sweater. 20 stitches exactly. Dead on. Yippee. Done with gauge swatches.

Before bed last night, I pinned it to the blocking board. Top notch athletes knitters - so fussy - always block before accepting gauge count.

This morning I measured.

IF I give it just the tiniest squish, it is 20 stitches. Unsquished, it definitely reads 19.

The computer makes the stitches easy to see, and the mouse easy to count them, so please, count them for me. Is there any way I could, truthfully in any way, say it counts 20?

I think my swatch on 5 mm needles is good enough. After all, who needs a blocked sweater. Unblocked looks great. My coach says "Try again. One more time. You can do it, Brenda."

Slave driver!

Today, my goal is another swatch. 5.5mm needles this time.

Olympic Training

Yesterday, I undertook my first training session for the 2010 Olympics. I think it went as many first training sessions might. Poorly.

My goal for Sunday was to read through the pattern. Although often recommended, my opinion on reading through entire patterns before starting to knit is that without the yarn and needles to guide me, everything is 'Greek'. But in the interest of 'going for the gold', I read through the pattern. It surprised me. It wasn't Greek at all, but seemingly straight forward. Perhaps, the surprise will come in the execution, but in the reading, everything seems do-able.

Ravelrers and bloggers who have made, or attempted to make, EZ's Green Sweater have posted about the difficulties. Some have even abandoned the project. Some hate the wool. Reading about these problems has caused me great anxiety about my choice for the Knitting Olympics. The pattern reading however, has calmed me somewhat.

My second goal for yesterday's training session was to swatch for gauge. The yarn is fine, one ply, sport weight. I consider sport weight to knit to about 24 stitches over four inches. The pattern calls for a gauge of 20 stitches and recommends using a 4 - 5 mm needle. Since my handy 5mm was in the sleeve of WCF, I choose to first try the 4mm. Perfect gauge. For sport weight that is. 24 stitches.

Obviously, I've got some intense training to accomplish in the next few days. I certainly hope that gauge issues don't delay me from peaking in time for Friday's start.

Stitches Or Pins

Zieknits (rav link) and Sel&Poivre both commented on my previous post, asking if I basted Waterloo when I blocked it. They though they saw basting stitches in the photo I posted on the blog.

What they saw. I think, was pins. When I block my knits, I use a blocking board purchased years ago at London Yarns. It is a three inch thick piece of foam, about three feet by three feet, that has been glued to a piece of Masonite and covered in cheerful red gingham.

The gingham is a one inch check and for lazy knitters like me, it becomes my second measure tape. I know, I know, it is fabric, it can stretch and it is probably not accurate. But so handy as a double check.

The knitting is laid out to size and pinned to the foam with these pins.

' T ' pins. With no plastic, they don't melt with the iron and being quite long, they hold tight in the foam. Most yarn stores - and perhaps even quilting stores - carry them.

Not to leave you hanging over the weekend, WCF's sleeves are moving along. Perhaps not quite as quickly or without incident as I had hoped. Here is sleeve number one.

The tricky part, I have discovered, is knitting the chart so as to have the main motif running up the centre of the sleeve. What's that you say? Some knitters wouldn't be so fussy?

Well, yes, I know that. But to me, the main motif simply has to go up the centre. To have the motif in the middle, means, in the case of my sleeve, that there is one complete and two partial motifs on either side. Finishing the round is no problem, just knit the chart until out of stitches. But beginning the round --

Each round I count backwards in the chart to determine where in that chart row, I should begin. I start there and hopefully 'come out right' when I reach the marker designating the beginning of the full repeat. Of course being a sleeve, increases happen every three rounds, so my 'start spot' changes too.

One would think that because I must do this backwards count on every round, that I might remember to count BEFORE I start knitting. But those darn television shows really distract me. I start off right about half the time. Process. Process. Soon though, as I travel towards the top of the sleeve, I'll have complete charts on either side of centre. Easier knitting then.

Have a great weekend everyone, with lots of knitting time.