2014 Winter Games Challenge

This month I've joined my local yarn shop in their celebrations of the Sochi Winter Olympics. They are hosting a knit/crochet challenge that has three levels of competitions: Gold, Silver and Bronze, along with several other wonderful prizes for participants.

To join in, you needed to identify your project before midnight on Thursday and couldn't start knitting until the Opening Ceremony began at 8:14am Pacific Time. The project I identified was a pair of knee-high lace-rib socks. The pattern is toe-up, something I've never done before, and while the pattern is only for mid-calf and my friend wants knee high. Because of this, my project has been put into the Gold (Moscow Biathlon Participants) category.

I had the yarn picked out and had swatched prior to the official starting time. This photo shows how far I've come in two days. Because I am making modifications to the pattern I am knitting these in tandem. Toe for sock #1, then over to the toe for sock #2. What you see here is one toe complete, and on the other sock, the foot, nearly up to the place to start the heel. When I get to that point, I'll stop, and start on the second sock. Then I turn the heels at the same time and will be able to do the shaping for the calves at the same time.

(The next time I photograph these socks, I'll put them on my feet so you can see the lace.)

The foot for these socks need to be 9.5 inches long, and the leg 16.25 inches high, add 2 inches for the heel and each sock represents about . That's 28 inches (27.75) for each sock a total of 56 inches. If there are 17 days of knitting to be had during the Olympics, then that means that I need to do a minimum of 3.3 inches on these socks every day to stay on track for a completion before the closing ceremonies. I think that's manageable.

This afternoon I am going to plunk myself in front of the TV and watch about 7 episodes of Lidia's Italy and Lidia in America, drink wine and knit these socks. That's my idea of a Sunday afternoon.

Monday morning update,both pairs of socks ready for the short row heel: