A False Start

As I’ve been watching the REAL Olympics, I see that there have been a lot of false starts in the Short Track Skating Events. The Event I am competing in the Ravelympics is called Short Track Shawls. I knit over 12 rows which amounts to about 5500 sts, when I realized that the gauge on my shawl was smaller than I thought it would be.

I misunderstood the construction of the Faroese shawl, which is two triangles connected by a center panel. You start by making the bottom wings of the shawl and work up decreasing. I was thinking I was making the top edge, working down. This is why I thought my gauge was too big and changed my needles to two sizes smaller than what was called for. There was just no way I could salvage what I knitted. If I had plugged on, after knitting 30,000 sts, I didn’t want to discover the shawl was too small. So I decided to scrap it. A lesson was learned.

So why didn’t I just restart it? I could feel my wrist straining to make the 1700 sts goal and I happened to reinjure my right hand again, twisting a jar open. Will I ever learn? My tendons and ligaments in my right hand were severely stretched again and I just didn’t think I could make my goal. I hate getting older.

What was I to do? As long as I could hold my knitting needles, I felt I should make something, but perhaps take my time and not push it. I was doing a “Lindsey Vonn”, the skier who injured her shins and is determined to try for her medals anyways. After two days of knitting, I started thinking how I could pick another project that would be less stress on my wrist. What would help me fall in love with it? This is what I was thinking as I raced to Michaels to pick out some bulky yarn for the new easier shawl I had selected called the Splendid Triangle Shawl by Lion Brand.

What would make me fall in love with it? Answer: COLOR! Since tomorrow is Valentines Day, I thought of shades of Red. With 10 minutes left till closing I spied a bulky yarn, County Loom, in shades of red and blue called Caravan.

So as the starting gun goes off again in the Olympics, my Ravelympics starting gun has gone off and I am skating/knitting my way to the finishline. So far, I am loving it. I am feeling like the speed skater, Apollo Ohno, feeling fairly confident this project will go quickly.