Nihao Beijing

This afternoon I've been watching the opening ceremony for the Olympics in Beijing. I've always been interested in the Olympics and usually watch a lot of the events. I was even born during the 1972 Munich Olympics, though as I was being born, the Olympics were facing their darkest days after the murder of athletes during a terrorist attack.

I would have loved to be in Beijing today for the opening ceremony. In 2000, I was lucky enough to spend 2 1/2 weeks visiting China and having spent time there, I knew that the opening ceremony would be amazing and it was. It was a little bizarre that they had a Scottish pipe band playing during the ceremony but most Chinese people I met were very interested in Scotland.

As part of the Olympics, I'm taking part in the 2008 Ravelympics. I've challenged myself to knit a pair of cabled wrist warmers and 2 cabled hats during the Olympics and I'm hopeful of success. I cast on the wrist warmers this afternoon.



The colour in the picture is off. The yarn is actually a light lilac/purple but my camera isn't the best at picking up purple for some reason. The pattern is Rose's wrist warmers and its a free pattern based on the wrist warmers that Billie Piper wore as Rose in Doctor Who.

Seeing Beijing on the television for the past few weeks has made me think about the trip I took there and I dug out the pictures that I took whilst I was there last night. I thought I would share some of them on my blog during the Olympics.

Both these pictures were taken at the Temple of heaven in Beijing. Like most older buildings in China, they were constructed without nails, just held together with the wood joints.