And they're off...
Knitting Olympics are underway! I'm loving this pattern. I mean, this is fantastic. It's a regular repeat, long bits of one color or the other, stripes of all one color from time to time - what's not to love? And--bonus!--almost no ends to weave in! because it's steeked and has a wide velvet ribbon sewn over the steeked edges, totally enclosing them. So all I have to worry about is the armholes. I've worked out that if I can get a band of leaf repeat done every day, I'll have four days left over to do the finishing (with fiddly sewing bits and everything). I am so pumped. It's a little bit silly. Ok, it's a lot silly. My lovely, wonderful WIP is looking like this so far:


It's a good day to sit and knit. I was going to go hang out with Ruth this afternoon, but, er, outside, it's looking like this:


So maybe I'll just stay here by the fire. And knit. A lot.

Now, the Yarn Harlot admonishes all Knitathletes to take part in normal life (whatever that is) while this supreme challenge is underway. I slacked off knitting last night to go see this production at ART -

The capsule review, for those of you who are interested, is thusly and so: B minus. Interesting set, and bonus goodwill for managing it without looking forced and ridiculous like most other non-proscenium settings usually look. Tommy Derrah was perfection itself as Friar Lawrence, as is usual for him. Alas, other members of the company had trouble understanding the meaning of their own lines from time to time, and it made things rather hard going, even for someone who knows the text well (I can only imagine how lost other audience members must have been). Remo Airaldi, surprising fun as a servant; a stuttering, limping Prince? hello? what on earth was the director thinking?? god's teeth! Mercutio - fine; Lord Capulet (Will LeBow) - his usual excellent work, once he was in a scene where he had more than two words to say; Lady Capulet - bizarre (straddling dead Tibault? do we really need to see this, people?)(and, um, shouldn't her husband react to this somehow?), and the poor woman had a wardrobe malfunction, to boot (yes, Virginia, there are nipples on other women besides Janet Jackson). Now, our Romeo was cute, and Juliet was pretty, but honestly, their moments of greatest intimacy are not, in my opinion, supposed to be a shouting match. "It was the LARK!" he bellows angrily, stomping. "It was the NIGHTINGALE!" shouts she, pouting. Et cetera. Blech. It's hard to tell whether the director was uncomfortable letting them have a moment of tenderness in bed (they were fully dressed and without any blankets). We were on more certain ground with kissing. Romeo had a sweet moment on his Juliet's third trip up and down a ladder (don't ask) where he looked in love and charmed and wishing she'd stay put so he could kiss her. And he had another lovely moment upon finding Juliet in her tomb, where FOR ONCE he modulated the level of his voice, and it was a small touch of beauty. This is one of those productions where they get a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong, and it's perfectly maddening because the wrong things could so easily have been so much better. Yes, Romeo's an adolescent, and this fellow got the physicality absolutely right for that; well done. And yes, Juliet's an adolescent, too, and a tantrum or two is perhaps in order. But both of these characters also have moments where their love takes them beyond themselves, and they're poetic and gentle and mature beyond their experience. Those are some of the best parts of the play, indeed in the English language. And we lost most of them in favor of teenage grumpiness.

Yeah, yeah, I'll shut up about that now.

A brief moment of triumph - the lacy socks are done! Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, color Tahoe, pattern by Evelyn Clark in Spring 2004 IK.

And yes, the second one is still a slightly different size from the first one. Also I knit too many lace repeats. Also I think the toe decreases start at different points. But I don't care! They're done and I'm wearing them. So there. And I will never, ever, ever, ever again make socks without doing them both at once on two circs.


DH's beautiful sweater that has been in progress since October is looking like this:


This is the same Hardangervidda that the Harlot is assaying for her Olympic Project. The long bit of stockinette is pretty boring going, and you find yourself eagerly anticipating the fun fair isle section, and then...well, then you're in it. And it never repeats exactly the way you expect it to. You'll be going along happily, thinking oh sure, 4 dark gray and 3 light gray then 1 and 1 and 1 then 3 and 4 again, lalala, don't I love fair isle, then...you look at the chart again and find you've screwed up. I have done enough tinking of this pattern to have finished the damn thing weeks ago, but NO, I will make this sweater CORRECTLY and therefore my tension is all blown to hell but dammitall, those colors are CORRECT.

On the whole, I'm really glad I'm working on the leaf cardigan. Lalala, I love fair isle.

Aren't you glad you stopped by?