I posted a few days ago that I had finished the Never Ending Lapghan, thereby winning Gold in my UFOlympic event. To prove my claim of victory, here are 2 really bad pictures (In my defense though, it’s kinda grey out, the rest of the house is asleep, and I had no idea where else to photograph a 4′ x 4′ item.)

Tada!

folded edges,
so you can sort of see the full effect

I know there are a few errors in the mix, but it’s ok with me. That lapghan was the very 1st project that wasn’t a scarf. I sat down with a stitch pattern book and picked something I thought I could do, and figured out size and gauge and stitch count and planned the pattern myself. We’ve grown together, that lapghan and I. It’s mistakes are my character scars.It’s the right size and weight for a chilly night reading a book, or watching TV, or sitting around and knitting. With it’s imperfections, it is perfect. And I’m really glad it’s done!

I had also hoped (thanks to a much needed kick in the butt from Val) to start and finish the sleeve for the sweater that had been sitting as a UFO for so long.

And I did.

Yes, it’s still in pieces, so it is not technically a FO. But I dont want to discuss it, thankyouverymuch. I will say though that I completely understand why people would spend countless hours working so hard on parts, and then bring them to a finisher to put together. I’m not going to, but the sweater is once again on a time out until I am ready to try and seam it again. I might start with a different section and see if that helps any… But the sleeve itself IS done, which is why I think I maybe qualify for Gold & a 1/2? Or a Gold and a Silver? Whatever the final medal count, I placed, and I’m rather satisfied with that.

I had intended to have at least 1 more picture here, showing off the wonderful box of goodies that Erica sent me for winning her blogiversary contest. My camera had other ideas though – I guess all the olympic photos tired it out, because the batteries died on me right after I had everything all lined up the way I wanted and placed just so. And of course, we are out of AA batteries… I’m going out to lunch with some friends this afternoon so I will pick some up then and post the pics either tonight or in tomorrow’s post – I just wanted to be sure to say thanks to Erica for being so generous! *ETA – actually, it isnt just batteries. The compact flash memory card crapped out. It’s a 512 meg beast and I have a ton of stuff on it, so I am pretty annoyed at it’s early demise. I have a 32 meg card that came with the camera, so I can still take pics, but the stuff on the card is toast and that sucks.

Gotta go shower and get ready to go. As of right now, there are about 9 hours of competition time left, so good luck to the last minute sprinters!!

PS – I got a bunch of emails and a comment or two about the sandwich I posted the other day – I will post the recipe tomorrow. It’s REALLY easy!!

{insert US national anthem here}

THE LAPGHAN IS DONE!!!

Pics tomorrow, as it’s in need of a bath and blocking – but all ends are woven in neatly already!

I am sooooo close to being all done with my lapghan. I have just about 3/4 of the last skein to knit, a bath, and a drying session to go!

It currently measures 48 inches wide by about 43 inches long – with it’s final yardage knitted on, it should end up being a nice size to snuggle under watching tv, or knitting or whatever.

And since I want to cross the finish line, this post is gonna be super brief. (Besides, Val will kill me if I don’t get any more work done on my sleeve before the end of the Olympics and I can only do that once I finish the lapghan )

ETA – sorry about the flikr linked photo. I usually use the WP plugin but since I had already posted it to the Fiber Olympics Flikr Group I thought it would be easier to not double upload – I know better for next time, I don’t like this way at all.

Ahhhh Valentine’s Day… there’s a whole tirade I thought about going on here, but decided it made me sound cynical – and I’m really not! I love love. I love the idea of love. I love being in love. I just don’t like the idea of obligitory love.

Lots of people I know look to today as the day they know they will get flowers and or candy from the partner in their lives, some even expect shiny jewlery or other material trinkets that “prove” their significant other loves them. Me? I don’t want anything today. Save the gifts and expressions of love for when you feel like it, or when you think I could use a pick me up. Show me or tell me you love me because it’s how you feel at that moment, not because the calendar says you have to.

This philosophy took many of my boyfriends by surprise as I was growing up, not to mention made a few aquaintances keep me from their beaus, lest they think all women felt this way. Once I explain why though, the guys realized I wasn’t saying don’t buy me stuff ever, just do it because you WANT to, not because you HAVE to – HUGE difference.

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to rid the world of Valentine’s Day, I’m just saying FOR ME it should be celebrated minus all the expense. But that’s just me…

So much for not going on a tirade, huh?

And speaking of love (nice segway, huh?), my sleeve is definately feeling it! I have only 24 more decrease rows (once every 6 rows) and a few more inches of length after that and it is done! (Yes Val, I said the sleeve will be done )

The Lapghan isn’t feeling any lack of love or attention either. I worked on it for about an hour last night before bed. I have 2 full balls and maybe 1/4 of a 3rd ball left. It’s slow and steady, but I am still feeling very confident. No picture though – I will post an official UFOlympic update photo over the weekend though for sure.

And in another show of feeling the love, the amazing Amanda (who is running the Yarn Aboard swap) sent me a completely unexpected, totally unecessary, and EXTREMELY appreciated thank you gift. (And may I also point out that Amanda personifies my point? I got a wonderful heartfelt gift from her today because she wanted to!!)

Ummmm soap from The Body Shop that smells soooooooo good. It’s on my desk and it’s making the room smell yummy!

And what’s in the box?

Chocolate! (Yummy truffles actually. And how do I know they are yummy? I ate one already, and am trying to hold off eating another until after dinner )

Which reminds me….Dinner! Gotta start getting ours together.

Happy Valentine’s Day/Tuesday/February 14th :wink:

Actually not much digging was needed – my honey did most of it last night once the snow stopped. He’s so good

The weather folks get a bit of redemtion and I will eat my words this time – they called for a blizzard, and a blizzard is what we got! Whipping winds and about 20″ of snow got dumped on us.

My mailbox, as a point of reference

I just read that in NYC the record was broken for greatest snowfall from a single storm. They got 26.9″, which broke the previous record of 26.4″ set in 1947!

26.9 inches! I, on the other hand, have added only 6 inches to my UFOproject. I know it doesn’t sound like all that much for a weekend worth of knitting, but when you consider the lap throw is 4ft across, it maybe sounds a bit more like actual progress? I was on again/off again in my knitting yesterday as my wrist was aching… it started at the Project Linus Make a Blanket Day and I assumed it was weather related, and with the storm, it’s possible I suppose.

Anyway, towards the end of last night, I put the lap throw away and knit a few rows of the sleeve before calling it quits for the night totally. I don’t want to end up out of the games completely because I pushed too hard early on. (and I certainly am not giving up either! Anyone catch Frode Estil of Norway in the 30k cross country ski event? He fell at the very start of the race, which caused a broken ski. He skied on for it for 200 meters before he switched it out and even though he lost almost a full minute and started at the end of the pack, he finished in second place! That’s serious commitment!

I watched a good bit of Olympic games yesterday. 2 women’s hockey games and some luge action mainly, although I saw snippets of some other stuff (like the end of Estil’s race mentioned above). I set Tivo to catch some 3am men’s curling, which I will have to watch at some point. I was pretty bummed to hear about Michelle Kwan. And while I am happy that a local girl will get the chance to compete for the gold, the one interview I saw with her today irked me – not sure why, and maybe I took her the wrong way. I just feel sad for Michelle.

Hopefully today remains a quiet day and my wrist holds out so I can keep plugging away on the throw. I added a countdown clock to the left sidebar under the calendar, so I can stress myself out track how many more days of Olympic fun are left I killed the countdown clock while trying to figure out my IE catagory sidebar issue.

I have a question for anyone who reads this blog in IE at least semi regularly - how long have the catagories been in a wacky alignment over on the left sidebar? I usually view only in Firefox once things are set up ok, and only when I was playing with the countdown box did I notice it was funky in IE (yet perfect in FF). I think I need to not look at the code for a bit and come back to it with fresh eyes, but I was wondering if anyone knew how long it had been like that?
Back to work for me – the sooner I get it done, the sooner I can reduce the yardage left to knit

Edited 3pm
A few days ago I was complaining about the severe lack of Black Cherry Fresca available to me. 1st Mary hooked me up when she found two 12 packs and now Karen has come to my rescue with SEVEN 12 packs!! I have amazing enablers friends, don’t I?

Well for once, they predicted “SNOW” and we got snow. Usually, they tell us about blizzards and we get flurries – we’ve kind of learned to panic when they tell us it will be nothing but some flurries…

I went to bed with a light coating outside and woke up to

They’ve been plowing off and on thru the night – our bedroom is at the front of the house so I heard them each time

I know that looks like a very weird picture, it’s just to show the snow is up to the screen door, where there is usually a step up to get in the door.

And the back door (where we let the dog out, it’s a small unfinished room that rocks in the summer and has less than zero use in the winter)

The snow is invading! I hadn’t opened that door yet, it’s just obviously not very well sealed at the bottom and snow found it’s way inside.

This is after the princess had some room cleared for her. No, I’m not kidding – once she gets out in it, she’s fine, but she refuses to initially walk thru it. That’s my spoiled pup

In UFOlympic news, I’ve completed the partial ball and am onto the 1st of 3 additional balls I need to get thru. No point in a progress picture, it looks the same as it did before with a few more inches of length on it :winky: And since it looks like today will be the bundled up day of leisurely knitting and TV watching after all, hopefully I will make some good progress!

I started the morning bright and early by getting a honeyed walnut bread going (I SO my bread machine!) and all that’s left is yet another batch of Ginger Cookies and my knitting Off to shower, make some hot chocolate and kick the into high gear

Edited 12:45:
While waiting for the USA vs Germany Women’s hockey game to start, I snapped a few more shots while my honey attempted to semi shovel and the dog romped (for all of 10 minutes, afterwhich she came inside and promptly passed out )

After being dried off and just
before nap #5 of the day

GO!

Well, not yet. Not till tonight. I know, according to the Harlot’s Knitting Olympics rules, 2pm in your own local time zone is the official start. But according to the UFOlympics rules, there’s no knitting till the opening flame is lit. Which is ok, really. I finished up all my work early, the 2nd (and last) load of laundry is in, and dinner is planned. I have completely cleared my night so I can start strong.

I trained a little this morning with the sleeve – it might be considered cheating by some because I might make the sleeve a secondary project in the UFOlympics, but since I didn’t officially declare it as such, I’m cutting myself slack

Behold – breakfast of a (future) UFOlympics Gold Medal Champion

Yes, that is Black Cherry Fresca with the sleeve (which has grown several inches since you last saw it!). The BC Fresca is apparently is rare supply round these parts. I am in major hoarding mode, in an attempt to stave off withdrawal. Mary (bless her!!) picked up 2 12 packs for me the other day because I cannot find it anywhere. I called the distributor who put me in touch with the local bottler who told me it was discontinued. I called Coke to complain and they assured me it is NOT discontinued, but my local bottler has every right to not bottle it anymore. I explained I’m not a big soda drinker and that the BC Fresca was pretty much the only soda I buy for home consumption and I got nowhere. Annoying! I can buy it online but shippng will KILL me! I should be used to this though – whenever I like something alot, it gets discontinued (2 quick examples? Bath and Body Works honeyed Almond scent and Yankee Candle Sugared Plum. Trust me, there is PLENTY more)

Tomorrow is the Project Linus Make A Blanket day. They are calling for some nasty weather this weekend, so I am hoping it doesn’t hinder the event or the brunch Im going to on Sunday (which has been officially declared Olympic/UFOlympic friendly by the hostess – whew!) It figures we have had NO real winter to speak of this year, and the one weekend that I am busy straight thru, they toss out a Blizzard Watch for the weekend. (although, when they predict storms we get nothing! It’s when they call for flurries we have issues!)

Whether you are participating in any version of the Knitting Olympics, or just plan to knit as usual, here’s to a warm, dry, fun weekend!

Obviously, not everyone in this house
takes UFOlympic training seriously