I’ve been training for about 7 years now… the road has been long and hard. There have been setbacks, momentary defeats, but I’ve perservered and I’m ready.

Four years ago, I tasted gold… two years later I did it again (a little less ambitious this time to be sure, but with a 5 month-old baby and packing and moving across the country, still impressive; didn’t manage to make it on the blog, but here’s the ravelry link).

Here’s where things stood on Feb. 12th at 5 PM:

Twisted Cardigan
Ready for Cast-On!

After browsing through about 30 pages of cardigans on ravelry (Love Ravelry! Love it!!!), I finally found the Twisted Cardigan, which involved cables (yay!), knit sideways (fun!), in bulky yarn on large needles (Huzzah! I’m ambitious but not stupid… I do have a toddler) and I knew that I had found my Knitting Olympics/Ravelympics project. For those not familiar, I have challenged myself to complete a knitted garmet during the 2010 Winter Olympics. I cast on with the Opening Ceremony, and my goal is to compete it before the Closing Ceremony. Here’s my progress so far:

Twisted Cardigan IP - 2/15/10
A front and a half!

Of course, while working on the right front (the second piece), I realized that I missed a few increases on the left front (the first piece I did), so I’ll need to rip back a bit… to just before I bound off for the side seam. But I’m still making good progress!

Calling for a bulky-weight yarn, this project also helped me check off another criteria for a project, by knitting with yarn from my stash. A few years ago (three, to be exact), I purchased some Rowan Cork (back when it was being discontinued) from E-Bay. I haven’t done anything with it since. One of the reasons was the color. Although I do lie the brightness of “Bug” (OK, it’s closer to acid green), I wasn’t feeling it for this sweater. So I grabbed some Kool-Aid, and this is what I got:

Rowan Cork - Before and After
Before & After

Overdyeing Rowan Cork
In Progress

Overdyed Rowan Cork
Finished Product

Of course, my knitting progress might be set back a little bit because I need to finish dyeing… but Dan brought home the Kool-Aid I needed tonight, so I should be back on track. Wish me luck!