KnitFreak

I picked up the official gold medal:

And yeah, I officially suck at designing gold medal buttons!
I had something like the one up there in mind (I might have to delete this sentence later, it's too embarrassing), but I don't have enough experience with the software yet.

On the knitting front: I'm getting it on slowly; knitting a bit on the red sock I showed you the other day, and I just finished a swatch for Josephine, for the sleeves that is. I decided to make the sleeves like they are with my favorite cardigan (I showed you that one too). And I might make the Starsky cardi... a certain somebody said she would happily forward my yarn order for me, if I wanted to order with KnitPicks (thanks Christine! You're such a sweetie!) Folks, go and check out her blog. For everybody outside the US who's thinking of making Starsky as well and who would have to find a yarn substitute, I emailed Jordana Paige, the designer of Starsky, and she recommended Debbie Bliss Merino Chunky. Well, not recommended, she pointed it out as one of the possible substitutes.

Okay, that was it for tonight, I'm off to my bed. Good night!

I told you I'd do this (well, it could also be interpreted as a warning), I made a gold medal for everybody who finished their Olympic Project... and for everybody who competed.

Feel free to save it to your disks and to upload it to your computers!

I didn't promise, but here's a pic of my finished socks:

I'm soooo keeping my fingers crossed that they will fit!

And here's a "side project" I started while I was waiting for my Olympic yarn to arrive and when I didn't feel like working on Josephine.

It's for the Red Hot Sizzling Socks! The red is actually way stronger than in the picture, I didn't have good daylight because it's been snowing all day long today. The color is quite luminous, quite fierce. The pattern is again from Nancy Bush's "Knitting Vintage Socks", it's the Lozenge pattern. Quite an easy, but nonetheless intriguing knit.
It is actually not the yarn that I had planned for the Sizzling Socks because that was in the delivery with my Olympic yarn, but who says I can't make two pairs of Red Hot?!

The first of my Olympic Sockapaloooza sock is done! And the second one is on the needles.

No time for pictures though. I'll have to catch up on that soon!

On Wednesday, I decided I had waited long enough for my Olympic yarn to arrive. So, in the evening, after therapy, I went to my favorite LYS (okay, I'll be honest, I went to another LYS first. This place is a bit more fancy, but the people who work there... they are quite arrogant) to see if they had any yarn I'd like to use for my Olympic project. Remember that my project isn't for me, but for my Sockapaloooza Sockpal; the problem was, I had already decided on a yarn and was eager to start, so any other yarn seemed like second choice (which it is), but with a negative aftertaste.
I ended up finding two nice yarns, both colorful and cheery, and I cast on for a swatch with one of them. As I wanted to make the Child's French Sock pattern from Nancy Bush's "Knitting Vintage Socks", I realized that the yarn I had on my needles was too colorful, too wild (sorry, no pics of this one!). Then, I cast on with this:

It's Regia, from the "Canadian Color"-range. This color has only a number instead of a color name, so I like to call it something like "Sea Grass". I think the name is quite appropriate.
The good thing about my pal is: she wants short socks. Yay! That gives me a chance to finish in time before the Olympic flame goes out. By last night, the heel was three quarters done:

I know you can't see the heel in this picture, and no, this isn't my foot either. But you can see the pattern in this picture quite well; this part will go down the foot to the toes.
The pattern instruction is really easy-peasy! I can only recommend it.

Yesterday in the afternoon, the door bell rang. The mailwoman usually comes around noontime, and it couldn't be her, so I thought it would be the parcel guy delivering something for K (he was expecting something he bought on ebay). When the parcel guy finally came up to our apartment (we live on the 3rd floor (that's the 4th floor for you guys in the U.S.), and no, there is no elevator), I saw that he carried two parcels - one of them was for me!

Isn't that a pretty sight? The green yarn top left and the blue bottom left are both for K. He has only one pair of socks made by yours truly, so I promised I'd make some more for him. The pink yarn middle left is still a secret; I might give it away to somebody, but I can't tell you any details yet. The red-red-red yarn in the center is for the Red Hot Sizzling Socks (I'll post a close-up of this some time soon); the purple yarn middle right has the name "Doro" - which is my nickname. I couldn't not order it! The orange-ish balls top and bottom right are for... I don't know yet. Maybe for giving them away (if you'd like to make a yarn swap, let me know!)
The two balls top and bottom center are the ones that I had originally chosen for the Olmypics:

I just lovelovelove it! I'm so glad I bought two balls of this, so I can keep one of them for myself! It's called "Singapore", and I believe that one (or more) threads that were used for making the yarn are from Singapore as well. This is truly a widely traveled yarn - from Singapore to Germany, and from Germany to ***.

However, I kept on knitting with the Sea Grass yarn because I was quite far into the sock already. So, if my sockpal gets really really lucky, she'll get two pairs of socks - one Olympic, one... well, not-Olympic. She is definitely going to get the socks pictured above. But what do you think? Should I make two pairs of socks? I have bought both yarns already, I have started knitting with one of them and I'm very curious how the other one turns out once it's knitted. So, leave your vote to help me decide!

Unfortunately, I can't put a nice poll-thing in here because the only thing I found is in JavaScript which I can't handle, so you'll have to leave me your opinions in the comments or you can email me, of course.

Guess what was in the mail today.

Just take a guess.

Come on, take a guess!

Okay, I'll help you a little bit. I'll give you a hint:

What do you see when you close your eyes?

Do you see any yarn? Anything woolen that looks somehow Olympic?

Well, if you do, you're lucky, 'cos when I close my eyes, I don't see a thing.

And that's exactly what was in the mail today.

Still.

No.

Yarn.

In.

The.

Mail.

For.

Me.

DAMMIT!!!

Still no yarn for my Olympic project yet.

I'm putting my hopes on tomorrow.

Until then: More working on Josephine, and a little sock project I started in the meantime (I'm also waiting for yarn for the Red Hot Sizzling Socks, but this is a kind of a backup-thing). All very exciting projects...

I wanna start my Olympic Sockapaloooza Socks!!!

The mystery around my Olympic Yarn is resolved. Mr. Postman is not to be blamed for the delay, neither is the snow. There simply happened to be a misunderstanding in the communication between the shop and me, but the yarn should be shipped tomorrow, and I should (hopefully) receive it on Monday. Tuesday the latest, I guess. And then I have to do some turbo-knitting!

I went button-crazy... I found a program where it is soooooo easy to make them! Check them out:

If you have any requests for buttons, leave a comment or email me.