I found US 5s in the pile of knitting crap and cast on. I tried to knit as loose as I possibly could and I saw the difference immediately. The mittens are still a snug – but not in a bad way. They will be form fitting mittens. I’m a tad concerned about what happens now that I’m getting close to the thumb stitches, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. So far so good. I also took this opportunity to make some pattern modifications.

Just so there isn’t any doubt – these babies are MINE!

And in a moment of athletic envy, I checked out Bethe‘s mittens – she’s making the same ones – only she’s WAY cooler than I am mixing up the Falk Neon colors in some rocking mittens. If I finish these up super quick (I realize now I could’ve gone more challenging – beginner’s folly) I will try to copy her genius.

Oh and here are some cute pictures of my 6’1″ baby playing in the snow!

I LOVE SNOW!

Conditions at the PANJMA Olympic Village are stormy at best! We’ve got the weather outside:

Snow drifts on our covered balcony.

Sad TEAM USA flag blustered by the blizzard.

Under normal circumstances, we’d have perfect conditions for the PANJMA team. The weather outside might be frightful, but inside we’ve got candy galore, hot chocolate, snuggly pajamas and an even snugglier cheering section and three full unseen hours of 24. But, alas, as Coach G-Love says: IF THE MITTEN DOESN’T FIT, YOU MUST NOT KNIT!

I did as I was told and went back to knitting on the 4s. I finished one skull and I tried to knit as loose as I could. I swear, I’m not pulling tight at all! I think I’m knitting pretty normal for me. I mean, it FEELS normal for me. And honestly, I could not be anymore relaxed. I was practically knitting in my sleep. My desperate voice in my last post shouldn’t be an indication of tension or worry – more of suprise! The idea that I’d have to go up two needle sizes is preposterous to me. But I really think I need to. I can barely get the mitten off once it’s on. So I’ll look for 5s in the my needle collection today, and if not – it’s off to LYS tomorrow. Here are my floats – I don’t think they look that tight at all!

What do you think? It’s also been suggested to me that my problem is most definitely an equpiment problem. Like I should be knitting with DPNs instead of two circulars. To that I say PEESHAW!!! Look at the Clapskate! I hearby declare Two Circular Knitting to be the Clapskate of the 2006 Knit Olympics!

Oh and there’s been some grumbling from the sidelines about pinch knitters. I can assure you, I’m the only one knitting these mittens. Although a certain baby did manage to get into the knitting bag and make knots in a bunch of places, but I don’t think that counts. Funny story though. Thursday night my nephew and I went for a walk to Loop in Philadelphia – it’s not far from my brother’s new apartment – and we walked in on a Beginner Knitting lesson. I looked around – it’s a beautiful store – and I was ready to leave, but Max wanted red yarn for socks. He proclaimed in his loud five yr-old voice: “I want to knit my own red socks.” The women at the table for the lesson all whipped their heads around. One brave woman asked him, “You can knit?” I felt so bad for all of them! Here they are, struggling with their knits and purls (c’mon! We’ve ALL been there!) and this five year old, in a stroller no less, is declaring that he will be knitting his own red socks. Crestfallen faces everywhere! I told them he was just learning and quickly found him some Red Dale and headed out of the store. It was pretty funny. Max can’t knit. He thinks he can, but he can’t. He’s not too bad, but I don’t think he’ll be knitting socks any time soon.

I think it will be socks all day at the village. Socks, some romping in the snow with my honey, and some spinning. Socks, snow and spinning. PERFECT!

ETA! I found two 5s! YIPPEE! I’ll be casting on yet again.

PS – Check out Theresa! My fellow Team Philadelphia member is knitting the Crossed In Translation sweater for the Olympics! GO THERESA! I’m SO cheering you on!

See, bragging gets you nowhere. It was pointed out to me a when I posted my training knitting for the KO2006 that you can’t measure gauge for circular knitting with a flat swatch. I, in all my bravado, replied back that I wasn’t really swatching for gauge, I was trying out my fair isle skills, of which I have none. That gauge really didn’t matter because they were mittens and if they were a bit big or a bit small it would be all good. Gauge is the FRENCH JUDGE OF KNITTING!! Gauge will BITE YOU IN THE ASS EVERY TIME!!! Every FREAKING time. (By the way, my sister informed me I’m not allowed to say freaking in front of my nephew anymore, because he’s taken to using it himself. Of course, the only reason I was saying freaking in the first place was because I’m not allowed to say FUCKING. Thank god for the baby. He’s still small enough you can say whatever you want in front of him and he just smiles and laughs!)

I cast on at 2PM yesterday, on the US size 3s the pattern calls for. I knit along happily for about an hour until the baby woke up, and then I left it. Right off the bat I had concerns. This sucker is TIGHT. Like cut off your circulation tight. I can get it over my hand, and it is ribbing (all be it not very stretchy ribbing) but still. It just didn’t seem right to me. Especially since the picture in the pattern has the whole mitten sort of straight on the sides until the decreases. Like it wasn’t going to all of a sudden stretch out to accomodate my hand when I started the stockinette knitting.

So today, right after G picked me up at the train, I headed to the closest LYS and picked up a pair of US size 4 Addis. G dropped me off and headed back to work (where he’s been all week) and I came home and immediately ate an entire box of Junior Caramels. (Thanks M!) Fortification for them here games. I then cast on and knit away. (See picture above for Day 2 knitting.) It’s going well and I relaxed myself a bit – I think I was double pulling on the stitches on the Day 1 knitting – you know – when you throw, you pull the stitch tight, then pull it again when you knit the next stitch? Really, you only need to knit the next stitch to pull it tight. Anyway, after knitting the ribbing and starting into the stockinette it’s still pretty damn tight. I can’t imagine how this mitten will fit over my hand – I’ll have to keep my fingers extremely close together. Or maybe not. When you add the thumb it makes things wider, right? I’ve only made one mitten and that had a lot of increases for the thumb gusset. This mitten doesn’t seem to have a gusset.

All you people cheering on from the sidelines – what do I do? Do I go to US 5s? (I’m not sure I have two pairs of 5s in my arsenal which means another trip to the LYS. And there’s a freaking blizzard this weekend so the earliest I do that is Monday.) Do I keep knitting and hope for the best? Do I start over on 4s and try to knit really loose? (This is weird for me – this tight knitting thing. I generally knit in the middle – not too tight, not too loose – just right.) I mean, I’ve gotten pretty far in a couple of hours, I’m not too worried that if I had to start over again from the beginning I would lose too much time. I’m guessing I could knit one of these suckers in a weekend if I worked really hard. What would you do if you were me?

If that weren’t bad enough, I ate a whole bag of gummy bears too. Note to Olympic Village food suppliers – are you trying to KILL me!?! Stop with the goodies! (I was just reminded of the humongous bag of mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in the fridge. Where’s the Team OD ON CANDY button?)

here’s the button you’ve longed for…let’s not be-e dispersed!*

ETA: Wendy’s got the Philly team blog all ready to go! Check it out here. Thanks Wendy! GO TEAM PHILLY! (Oh and I believe, in the tradition of the City of Brotherly Love, that anyone that wants to call themselves a member of Team Philly – or just wants to sport the fab button 😉 , be my guest! The more the merrier!)

I’ll be heading down to Philly shortly – I’ll be casting on there Friday night. I’m going to try to have daily updates for the Knit Olympics – I’ll be back in NJ on Saturday – so if I don’t get you an update Friday Night, look for one on Saturday.

I’ll be casting on in Philly, casting off in Boston, and knitting like a fiend in New Jersey. Wouldn’t want the Garden State to feel left out!

We’re all about inclusion at januaryone! 😉
Knit On Fellow Knathletes! Good luck with the Games!!

* My apologies to Rupert Holmes.