Knitting Olympics update

22 July 2008

I’ve chosen my project for the Ravelympics 2008 (on Ravelry), which I posted about last Thursday. According to the rules, you can actually work on completing a project you started in the past, one that’s been hibernating awhile. That Event is called WIP Wrestling. I’ll be playing on Team St. Louis.

I’ve decided that during the Olympics this year, I will work on completing the lace portion of Barbara Walker’s Learn-to-Knit Afghan that I’ve been working on literally for years. I started it in February 2006.

This afghan, which I’ve blogged about before, is a bit of genius designed to expose the knitter to a wide variety of knitting techniques. It’s comprised of 63 individual 8-inch x 8-inch squares, each one a different stitch pattern. The squares are divided into eight sections in the book, in ascending order of difficulty: Knit-Purl Combinations, Mosaic Patterns, Slip-Stitch Patterns, Twist-Stitch Patterns, Cables, Increase-and-Decrease Patterns, Lace, and Special Techniques.

I’ve finished, in order, Squares 1 to 50. That includes the first two squares in the lace section, but I found the lace really frustrating and my progress came to a screeching halt. I haven’t worked on the afghan at all in 2008 and it appears that I took a ten-month hiatus between Squares 46 (completed November 28, 2006) and 47 (completed September 23, 2007).

I do want to finish the darn thing and I’d like to lose my annoyance and incompetence when it comes to lace. So my Ravelympics goal is to complete Squares 51 through 56. When that’s finished, it should be a breezy ride through Section 8: Special Techniques, which actually look like fun. Then I have to figure out (a) how to sew the darn thing together and (b) what to do with it!

I intend to post pictures of some of the lace squares as I complete them and I’ll also post pix of some of my favorite squares completed in previous years. But for the moment, here you can see the individual squares of Timothy Hunt’s afghan.

Tagged with: knitting, knitting olympics, lace, learn to knit afghan, ravelry

Comments

A very fine site you have here.
As for my life..I fight to keep some organization because I often have too many things going at the same time!
My rememdy is to SIMPLIFY when I can’t stand it any longer. LOL
You appear to be a very wise woman..and I admire your determination to finish the Lace section of the LTKA.
teresa

teresa_anawim July 22, 2008 11:18 AM

What a challenge! And a great idea to work on this section of the book. I was tempted by the challenge until I realized I would be traveling during the latter part of the challenge and knitting won’t be a priority – instead it will be gelato, great food, sipping cocktails in an Italian piazza, seeing the lights of Paris from the Eiffel Tower… Knitting can wait!! Although I will try to visit yarn stores…

Lisa July 22, 2008 02:09 PM

Lisa, so in one little comment you took me from feeling superior (because I’m doing the Knitting Olympics and you’re not) to totally envious! I hope you take a little knitting with you for the flight, if nothing else.

Janine Adams July 22, 2008 02:13 PM

Good luck with completing the afghan – it really is a joy to get it complete. I plan to make another at some point. Thanks for linking to my pics!

Timothy Hunt July 23, 2008 06:49 AM

Timothy, seeing your completed afghan is such an inspiration! I appreciate the effort that went into your posting all the pix, too.

Janine Adams July 23, 2008 10:32 AM

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