The yarn is eco because the company is socially responsible and one of the fibers is sustainable.

My start to the games is postponed due to massive equipment failure. The yarn I thought was balled in my stash was actually in a knot waiting to be untangled.

My set up.

Trying to get a picture of my coach, but I taught him too well and he knows not to mess with my swift. No human, no matter what commands you give I will not go and sniff the swift! Aren’t I a good boy for staying away.

So instead he is coaching from afar - that’s right, human, just keep going round and round and undoing those knots. This is what you get for forgetting to tie scrap yarn around the skein before washing.

Day 1: I feel like an Olympian in a new sport - marathon winding. The sun came up, stayed out, went down, and came back up all in a long marathon of winding. I started winding at 8:30 AM. Took a few breaks for Puddles and eating. Finally finished winding at 7:30AM! Coach thought I needed some moral support during the Opening Games, so he came for a cuddle. Go Team CANADA (my home and native land) - I’m still winding. Worked from 9pm to 7:30 am with only 1 short break. That was one hot mess of a skein! 1 skein down, 1 to go. Ended up breaking the skein so I could start knitting today.

Day 2: finally knitting!!! I slept for a few hours, but then was excited to get swatching. I made a few modifications to the design as it sat in the little grey cells after my two swatches and am ready to go with the pattern now.

I started to add the blue stripe at the appropriate Fibonacci sequence spot and decided I preferred to make the Fibonacci sequence into a border. So I’m doing 3 or 4 sequence sections in grey before adding in the colorwork. I’m loving the games. The skating and snowboarding have been my favorites to watch so far. Olympians are truly amazing athletes.

02/12 the “few” more rows has turned out to be another “few” inches.

02/13 fingers crossed I’ll be color changing tonight!
too funny. we haven’t had TV all day so dad goes out to “inspect” the dish, comes trudging through the house with the Webster (spider brush), goes out on the deck and “cleans” the bowl of the satellite because it had filled with snow - TV came right back. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do! now to watch some Olympics and knit!

(Picture) Coach Puddles decided I needed special motivation to make it to the color change so he took me cross country skiing

02/14 Got several more rows completed during the Canadian v Austria men’s hockey. Finally a sport I love to watch that doesn’t make me drop stitches like figure skating and all the jumping ski/ snowboard events! Still haven’t reached my color change, but I feel today is the day!

I finally decided to drop all those extra stitch markers that I’ll need on the last row for the drops as they were seriously slowing down my knitting speed.

Coaches is giving me a high five while I watch figure skating for an excellent color change. He fully supports the decision to drop those pesky stitch markers until the last row.

2/20 YAYA finished… well sort of. I decided since I’ve never designed with drop stitches before and am not sure how it will look on an entire shawl (even though the swatch looked great), to go ahead and bind off, weave in, and take some snaps. I’m in the process of weaving in while I watch the women’s free skate. But after snaps are done, drop stitches will come!

2/21 Winter weather - 39 degrees and trying to make it look like summer. But I’m happy with the way the pre-drops pictures came out. Now to rip back and drop away!

2/22 I was super nervous to do my very first intentional drop stitch ever. I took pictures of the pre-finish item, knit an entire other project (charity hat for Ravellenic2014) and finally got up some courage to drop away. It was a fantastic afternoon of dropping! I LOVE drop stitches!! Until… the 2nd to last drop on the entire shawl and 5 rows away from the cast on side edge, I realize I made a knitting mistake. It was probably due to being mesmerized by the figure skating, ski jumping, or Canadian men’s hockey, but I accidentally knit a stitch, failed to slip it off the needle and knit that stitch with the next stitch. Wouldn’t have matter, except, it was one of only 18 drop stitches on the entire shawl. Dejected and self-pitying, I will not give up. The wonderful Olympians fought through much worse to get where they are today. I will take inspiration from them and soldier on, all night if it takes that.
Happy birthday dad!
The FIX: With a crochet hook, ladder the drop stitch back up. Drop the stitch beside it down to the mistake. Ladder that stitch back up. Drop the original dropped stitch - ALL THE WAY DOWN THIS TIME! Bind of the remaining stitches, weave in the ends from the BO, photograph and cross the finish line (all before closing ceremonies tomorrow). Hey, I might just get to watch Canada Men’s Hockey go for gold live :-). (Yes, there is always a silver lining.)

2/22 (again) the FIX (above) worked! (with a minor adjustment). Got the shawl fixed, rebound off before bed.
2/23 woke up early just to watch the hockey and get a #GOCANADAGO snap after Canada’s 1st goal in men’s finals hockey. I love the way the drops look!