Olympic Gold

When I joined the Knitting Olympics I didn't have much of a plan. I had some black yarn that I had purchased at our Spinning Guild's most recent Stash Swap/Sale. It was beautiful. Knitpicks Andean Silk in Pitch. I had 1300 yards and I wanted a cardigan. Understand that I am of the school that believes that black goes with EVERYTHING. I have one black cardigan. A crappy thing that is very thin and doesn't fit well from a retail store. I have worn that thing all over the place. I love a black cardigan. I thought, 1300 yards should be plenty to knit a cardigan right? Right. Even for a "lady" of my size.

Then I got the beautiful yarn home and started looking at patterns. Nothing too fancy because it is in black, it would be hard to see, nothing too plain either because it would be boring to work on.

I considered the February Lady Sweater for which I would have ample yardage but I already have one on the needles. (As a matter of fact I wanted to finish it before the Olympics but time got away from me.)

I dug and dug and dug. I wanted something long-sleeved. I wanted pretty. Not too plain. I had a needle size picked out (I even swatched!) there just wasn't anything. (I also kinda didn't want to buy a pattern since money has been a bit pinched lately as we awaited our new vehicle.)

Finally I settled on Hey Teach! The sleeves were all wrong and as it turned out, my gauge was off. That meant (ugh!!!) math.

I forged ahead. Then I went to my parents to help with their fish fry and ended up staying an extra 2 days. I didn't bring it with me. I had to wait to cast on. I didn't cast on until....Tuesday, February 16! My time was even shorter.

I ended up bored of dark-colored yarn and I struggled to stay focused. I battled with myself.
Self, if you knit 5 more rows you can knit one round of your cute knitting bag, self, if you knit 10 more rows, you can spin for five minutes. And I set a timer for the 5 minutes. It was torture. Every other project called out to me, especially once I reached the sleeves. They were modified to be plain stockinette sleeves, long sleeves. A majorly boring pain to knit but you know what?

It was all worth it.

I love my new cardigan. I love it so much that I took about 10 pictures of it in the snow and then forced my (ever so cooperative) hubby to take many, many pictures of me in it.


I have spared you all from the awful ones. Ansel Adams he is not.

Here it is, my beautiful Olympic sweater, pictured here on Saturday February 27. That's right, I finished a day early. Now, I shall proudly put up my Gold Medal in the sidebar for all to see.

The Stats:
The Pattern: Hey Teach from Knitty
The Yarn: Knit Picks Andean Silk in Pitch about 1100 yards or so.
The Needles: Size 7
The Size: Due to my strange gauge issues, since I am a 48" bust, I ended up knitting a 43" bust size
The Notes: GOLD!
I picture this as my go-to sweater for the coming forever.

Love it, envy it. (haha)

These photos were taken at my parents house where I was doing this:

Knitting by the fire. Ah yes, bliss.