O for Olympics!

It's time to start thinking about the Knitting Olympics.

I've actually been thinking about it for awhile now, and I've been thinking that I want to knit a sweater. Four years ago, when the Yarn Harlot started this whole thing, knitting a sweater in two weeks seemed more than a little crazy.

But now I hope it's not the sort of thing that gets one committed, because I have committed. I'm going to be making the February Lady sweater, and I'm going to do it between February 12 and February 28. (Yes, the dates helped me make the final decision. Knitting the February Lady sweater in February makes a certain amount of sense.)

I broke out the Christmas money and visited Mary Lynn's Yarn Garden, and came up with this great yarn - Cascade Lana d'Oro. It's a wool/alpaca blend, and the colors are just beautiful. It's also just $6.00 a skein, which makes it a very attractive choice - knitting a sweater suddenly became a much cheaper undertaking. I bought four skeins, and Mary Lynn graciously offered to hold a fifth for me, so I don't have to buy more yarn than I need or risk her running out. Four skeins will cover what the pattern calls for, but I suspect I'll be making a somewhat longer sweater with longer sleeves. Mary Lynn wound all the yarn for me (except for the skein on hold), so now I just have to wait until the Opening Ceremonies. That may be the hardest part.

Knitting hasn't been the only craft on my mind lately. Emilio Santini came to Illinois Wesleyan, so we got to go see him lecture last night, demonstrate lampworking today, and hang out with him at a party. My fingers are absolutely itching to get back at a torch. I don't know how I'm going to wait until summer.

Just look at the cool stuff he made. This is a bug, more or less bug-sized. The antennae are lopsided because he was demonstrating two different ways to make bug antennae.

In the picture of Emilio, he's making a glass goblet. He also made a tiny goblet from some leftovers - that's the yellow one here, pictured alongside the blue one owned by a glass collector, and a quarter for perspective. (The glass collector proved to be a retired zookeeper. That may be one of the coolest professions ever for bringing up at parties.)

We also had a great time at the post-demo gathering. One of Aaron's colleagues lives in a renovated retail building; he and his wife have studios on the first floor, and the second floor is a nifty apartment. I'm not sure it's good for us (or me, really) to go see other people's fixed-up houses, as it creates far too many ideas. I know there's no good way to fit a big, free-standing bathtub into our little bathroom, but I just can't stop wishing we could.

And I can't wait for summer, when I can lampwork. Or the 12th, when I can start my sweater. I need to knit to calm down.