Back in 2006, the Yarn Harlot challenged knitters across the world to undertake their own Olympic challenge, to tack a challenging project from start to finish within the 2 week time frame that the Olympics run. The rules were simple: Pick a project that will challenge you, but isn’t impossible to complete. Cast on during the opening ceremonies, cast off by the closing ceremonies. Push yourself and earn your own gold medal.

In 2006, I was still a relatively unadventurous knitter. I decided that I would tackle my first felted purse. Imagine my surprise when I knit the whole thing in 2 days, and had it felted within another 2. So much for challenge, eh?

This year, I plan to tackle a sweater for me. I plan to knit the Climbing Vines Pullover as featured in Interweave Knits Winter 2008.

I will be knitting my sweater out of Queensland Kathmandu, a wonderful Aran weight mix of Merino, Silk and Cashmere, in my favorite color, Teal.

The torch is almost lit… and away we go!

Summer is in full swing here and (shhh don’t tell anyone I said it) the last few days have been GORGEOUS. Warm but not hot, breezy, not too humid… almost like an LA summer! We’ve been enjoying time both indoors and out.

This weekend has been a quiet one. Wes was gone all day with friends, which gave me the time to wash and block quite a bit of what I’ve been up to lately. It also gave me time to tend to our garden, clean the house in anticipation of a houseguest next weekend, and of course, catch up on more t.v. and knitting.

So here are the projects:

The Pattern: Transition Hat, my adaptation of the Transition Gloves

The Yarn: Dale Baby Ulli in Black, Collinette Jitterbug in Salty Dog

The Needles: US 3′s

The Verdict: Love it! This was a work in progress forever, and this month I finally just sat down and did it. It goes with the Twilight Mittens I posted here.

The Pattern: Clapotis

The Yarn: Collinette Jitterbug in Salty Dog

The Needles: US 6′s

The Verdict: Another from the Work in Progress pile that sat forever, but was done in just a little over a week. Now I have a matched set with the two projects mentioned above.

The Pattern: Pooling Scarf, mine with a little help from Barbara Walker

The Yarn: Socks that Rock, Mediumweight, Colorway: Chapman Springs

The Needles: US 4′s

The Verdict: This one took a little finesse. The scarf is knit width-wise so the first trick was figuring how many stitches to cast on (and in what pattern, on what needle size) so that I could get the colors to stack. I had some great help/guidance from the Ravelry community and I’m happy with this for my first try. Next up… a pooling stole!

I also had a 4th project, but leave it to me to ruin it in the washing. (It wasn’t pretty… I don’t want to talk about it).

What’s next? Oh yes: the garden!

We have a variety of green peppers:

Several Jalapenos:

And we harvested our carrots! (They’re kind of small but tasted great!)

Otherwise we’ve seen Transformers (Punk ass decepticons!) and I’ve caught up and finished Harry Potter Book 7. I’ve got a new shawl and a new sweater on the needles, as well as a second sock and a wrap in the works. And I’ve re-vamped what I’m doing for our wedding afghan (which apparently won’t make our first anniversary either!). Otherwise we’re loving summer and the extra daylight.

More soon!

I am, however, knitting quite a bit. And I have a new project to show for it. It only took me two weeks which AMAZES me. I present to you, Kiri:

The Pattern: Kiri

The Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Sock, 2 skeins

The Needles: US 6′s

The Verdict: In this pattern the yarn did all the work. Noro is delightfully dyed and the colors are fantastic. I was a bit apprehensive about the bright orange in this skein, but as it turns out I love the finished product. I love that this photo shows that I didn’t make any errors in the pattern, and how clear the lace looks. I’m definitely on a lace kick – you’ll be seeing more shawls this summer!

Let’s see… what else have I been up to? Yesterday Wes spent the day with friends so I spent my afternoon beating the heat and catching up on Season 1 of True Blood. I only just recently read Book 1 of the Sookie Stackhouse series. The book and the TV show are a bit different, but I have to say that I quite like both. Who thought I would be into vampire series?

We’re also still growing the garden. At this point we harvested our big cucumber (it tasted great!), but had to forfeit the rest of the plant. Unfortunately it had succumbed to some kind of root rot or fungus and wasn’t growing well. We’ve cleaned out the container and started with fresh dirt and are putting together another crop! Our peppers are growing great – we’ve got half a dozen in various sizes and our jalapeno plant is boasting one perfect looking spicy pepper. Remind me not to eat that! Our carrots are harvesting sweet and crunchy. Our tomato plants look full and green and leafy and smell great, but so far we have no tomatoes. We’re going to look into fertilizing soon. All told, not a terrible crop for our first foray into gardening!

Hope you’re enjoying your summer!

The first few days I caught up on recent episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Then I caught the infamous Tina Fey/Amy Pohler Palin/Clinton SNL skit. I also managed to grab the Heroes season opener – which frankly I thought was a little boring.

Then I fell headlong into Dirty Sexy Money, an irresistibly horrible angst-filled drama with Donald Sutherland and Peter Krause. I managed to watch all 10 episodes from the first season, so that I’m now ready for this season to begin!

When that was done I trolled the rest of the archives and settled on Lipstick Jungle. Though I don’t think I’ll be catching this in Prime Time, I loved it too!

So now I have a new source of fun. You should check it out – if you miss an episode, couldn’t start a series, whatever!

P.S. I have an interview tomorrow…. wish me luck and maybe I won’t need Hulu QUITE so much in the near future.

Sunday I went knitting for a bit with the girls and then hubby and I watched some good TV/DVDs. We just started The Tudors, Season 1, which I’ve rented through Netflix. So far, we like it quite a bit. We also watched the re-airing of Fringe on Sunday night. The first showing we came in about halfway through the episode, and I have to say it made a lot more sense this time around. I’m LOVING this new show – it’s a few parts X-Files and a little bit CSI-ish. I really like Joshua Jackson and Anna Torv.

Finally, I finished up a knit that has been on the needles for a while.

The Pattern: Roped Shell from Interweave Knits, Summer 2008

The Needles: US 4′s

The Yarn: Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette, 3 balls blue, 2 balls brown

The Verdict: This is a great looking top. I found the finishing work to be a little tedious (the i-cord edging at the sleeves, and the cabling at the neck) but I’m very pleased with the result. The yarn is wonderful to knit with: a blend of alpaca, merino and silk that is so very soft. I think I would probably make one of these for myself! This one is going to A Mano for display.

This week in particular, I’ve spent most of my time sleeping late, and knitting. I’ve also been taking advantage of Fancast. Fancast is a beta project that my friend Knitmeister S’s dad had been working on, and I have to say it’s fabulous. It’s a great LEGAL way to watch episodes of television for free. It’s not great if you’re looking for the newest stuff, but if you’re looking for something a few seasons back… or even a LONG time ago you can score here. This week I have been watching an eclectic mix: Twin Peaks (that David Lynch is a VERY bizarre man but the show has it’s hysterical moments!), a few episodes of season 3 of Bones (waiting for them all on Netflix is KILLING me!) and I’ve also watched several episodes of Hill Street Blues (Steven Bochco’s early police comedy featuring a YOUNG David Caruso – pre-scenery chewing CSI!). All have been enjoyable and have helped combat midday tv and rerun boredom.

In the past few weeks I’ve also been able to polish off a few books. The first is Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. This is a great read about architecture, the church and political intrigue in the time of (and immediate preceding) King Henry’s ascension to the throne in England. The story focuses on a church prior and a master stone mason and how their lives intertwine. While the architectural detail in the book can get a little tedious to read at times, the plot itself is full of intrigue and kept me turning the pages rapidly in this 800+ page novel. I’d definitely recommend it!

The second book I’ve read in the past few weeks is Harry Potter: The Sorcerer’s Stone. Yes I know I’m behind the times. I originally bought books one through four after seeing the movies and wanting to know more. But the first time I tried to read the first book, I just got stuck. I already knew most of the plot and it just didn’t capture my interest. This time around, I read the book in a day and a half, mostly while I was stuck in the airport. It did hold my interest, and I even managed to glean a few of the literary details that movies so often leave out. I still haven’t managed to pick up the next book since I’ve been back, but it’s now on my list.

Finally I’ve been knitting up a storm. When I went home to LA a week or two ago, I brought a lacy shawl with me that has been relegated to the corner of the couch for some months now. For whatever reason, I just couldn’t seem to get the hang of it and that made it more like a chore than fun knitting. I don’t know what was wrong before because coming back to it has been so much fun! I ripped through a few repeats while I was in LA and now I’m halfway through the 3rd repeat (1 more full one after this and then edging). At this point it’s going slowly because I have almost 300 stitches on the needles, but I’m loving it. I can’t wait to finish and post pics!

I’ve also managed to pick up a few more samples, one for a local store and a few for A Mano. Add that to the baby blankets I’m trying to finish for the fall, several pairs of socks for gifts and all that yarn sitting in wait for things for me and I’ve been super busy. However, with Wes out of town and this week dedicated to knitting, I’ve gotten a fair amount done. By the weekend’s end I hope to have at least one finished knit to show you. We’ll see how I do!

I guess that’s all for now. I’m off to pick up my sweetie at the airport and then tomorrow it’s off to the Sunflower Knitters Guild Yarn Crawl.

Tonight I watched my dvr’d Episode 7 to see Summit Day for Team 1. I have to say, I have traversed a wide spectrum of emotions while watching Everest this season: amazement, horror, awe and many others. I have watched, literally sick to my stomach or breathless in anticipation of the next step. Tonight, however, was ruined for me in watching Tim Medvetz climb the mountain. Tim has become something of a hero in the series, rallying from a motorcycle accident and a failed attempt last season, to summit this season. Early on Summit Day, Tim falls and breaks his hand in two places. However, he chooses not to tell the guides and to soldier on. Some praise him for a his true grit, others for his bravery in the face of danger and his strength at summiting with a virtually unusable hand. For me, the excitement of the climb is ruined by his actions. What I watched tonight was a selfish foolhardy man who let his desire to summit Everest get in the way of what was safest for the whole group. On the return down the mountain, Tim is so injured that the Woody, the guide has to help him every step of the way. In continuing up the mountain Tim puts his own life at risk, but worse, he puts his team members at risk as well. Because of the happy outcome (Tim makes it down the mountain with no other major injuries to himself or anyone else) he receives a hero’s welcome, but the potential for this situation to have been so much worse is huge.

It is this cavalier attitude that causes so many accidents on Everest. After reading Into Thin Air and many other accounts of disasters on Everest, I simply cannot applaud a man who knowingly does something so selfish.

So that’s my two cents this episode.

Other highlights of the weekend included a wonderful Saturday night with my sweetie, discovering the series Bones (thanks Netflix!), working at the yarn store, and seeing Across the Universe tonight. It was excellent and I would recommend it to anyone who has even a passing interest in the 70′s and the Beatles. I have never really connected with 70′s movies or the Beatles music before but this was a great musical revue with outstanding performances and a really sweet story.

TomorrowEEEK TODAY is back to work, although I start 50% for a new department so I’ve got lots to read and learn.