Hello March

February has been both a good and bad month for me. The bad was mostly my body deciding to let me down with the fall and the thumb injury and then on Wednesday, I was struck with a particularly nasty bug which I'm only just getting back to normal from. Throw in lots of cold weather plus yet more snow and this all means I'm so ready for spring now.

However there were lots of good things. The Winter Olympics was just fabulous and I loved watching so many of the events. Britain didn't win a lot - just one Gold in the Skeleton Bob but Winter sports aren't so big here. I know there has been a lot of press in Canada about British criticism of the games hosting but that was mostly just the usual nonsense that the nasty British Press spouts. Everyone I have spoken to about the Olympics over here though Vancouver put on a fantastic games and I really think it showed Canada in general in a great light. My Cousin and her family have just moved from Scotland to Lake Country in BC so a trip over there will probably be on the cards at some point, via Ontario as other family stay there.

As I mentioned before, I was taking part in the Knitting Olympics and I managed to finish my socks.



The pattern is called Socktopod socks by Cookie A. Its called after the shop that ran the Sock club, Socktopus run by the lovely Alice. I was lucky enough to visit the shop in September shortly before Alice decided to stop running the shop. A lot of my sock yarn stash and sock inspiration came from the shop so it was sad to hear that the shop was closing. Alice is, however, running a big Knitting event in London during the summer, Knit Nation, which I'm planning to attend.

The stash reduction plan continues. This month, I did have quite a bit of yarn in - 4102metres. I had a splurge at 100pure wool with some lace yarn and yarn for another hat or two for me plus I had the remains of my leaving present from my old job in vouchers for John Lewis so I bought yarn for a Summer cardigan.

However all was not lost as my knitting group had a Swap night, where I managed to trade/sell quite a few skeins of socks yarn. Added to that, I gave some leftovers to a friend for a blanket project and I finished two pairs of socks. That all added up to 4117 metres, meaning I ended the month with 15 metres less yarn than I started with. Now that is a good result.

Olympics and knitting

The Olympics have always really held a fascination for me, whether its the Summer or Winter version. So many memories of times past - Allan Wells winning gold in Moscow in 1980, Los Angeles in 1984 with Zola Budd/Mary Decker, Daley Thompson, watching Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent winning so many golds in rowing over the year and lots of late nights watching including the British Women's Curling team winning Gold in 2002. I was born during the Munich Olympics in 1972 in the hours just after the violence affecting those games. My mum tells me it was all everyone was talking about as she was in labour.

For most knitters these days, the Olympics means a knitting challenge of some sort. I was a fairly new knitter in 2006 when the Yarn Harlot had the idea of the Knitting Olympics but it caught my imagination and I finished my project, a Clapotis in Lorna's laces Lion and Lamb.



In 2008, I took part in the first Ravelympics during the Beijing Olympics and challenged myself to knit a pair of Wrist warmers and 2 hats. I didn't manage to finish one of the hats but I did manage to start and finish the other projects.





This time around, the challenge is to knit a pair of socks using the pattern Socktopod by CookieA. Its going well so far.



As you can probably tell from the knitting progress, my hand is recovering well and the possibility of a fracture is thankfully not there. The splint is off and whilst I still have some pain in my thumb and wrist, its so much better. I'm not sure I would have coped very well if it had to stay on longer as I was really struggling with just doing the basics.