Gold medal, baby.

Behold, my prize for knitting obsessively in front of curling matches and speed skating for two weeks straight:



Finished:
Fair Isle Sampler Hat: My gold-medal project for the Knitting Olympics! It’s really awesome, and I’m so glad I took the challenge. This was just enough of a challenge to stretch my skills, but not such a huge undertaking that it drove me insane. If you look reeeeeeally closely at the finished object, you can see that I got a little puckery towards the pointy end, but I've chosen to forgive myself--the end was in sight, I had 40 or fewer stitches on doublepoints, and dammit, the gold medal was going to be MINE. As previously threatened--photographic evidence!




Charity Raglan Kid’s Sweater: Darn, it turned out cute. However, when I got to my very last two yellow stripes, I realized that I didn’t have enough yellow yarn. Since it’s a leftovers project, I was NOT buying another skein. So I found the leftover fringe I’d cut for the Harry Potter scarf I’d bought the yarn for in the first place, and Russian Joined it all together to make the last stripe. This just in: I am certifiable. But check it out anyway--I'd have loved this sweater when I was a kid:



Requiring Finishing:
Baby Kimono: Since nobody I know is having girl babies after all (there’s been a run on Y chromosomes in my circle of friends), I’m going to finish this up and donate it to Afghans for Afghans. So, I took it to Charity Knitting Sunday at Borealis and did some end-weaving, and picked up the next never-ending tie of doom.

Silk Garden Cardigan: All seamed! It’s going to fit after all, thanks to wet-blocking before assembly. Now, to figure out the crocheted edgings. Have I mentioned that crochet is my nemesis?

On the Needles:
Party-Time Apron: No change.

Dragon-Scale Socks: First repeat completed. I think these will be seeing more action now that the K.O.'s out of the way.

The Ferret Sock: No change.

Checkerboard Scarf: While catching up on the Battlestar Galactica episodes I'd skipped due to Olympic Fever (tm), I managed to put on several more repeats. I'd kind of like Squid to have it before the weather gets too warm. :)

In the hoop:
C.A. Wells Needle Cottage: No change.
Edward Scissorfish: No change.

Obligatory Cultural References
Reading: Still unable to get into reading at bedtime—I’ve been doing GAMES Magazine puzzles instead, and actually succeeding at those devilish little paint-by-numbers thingies.
Listening to: Goldfrapp, mostly, with a hefty peppering of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.