Do you hear that singing?

I think it's the fat lady. Sadly, that means that

there is no way in hell I'm going to be successful at this Knitting Olympics challenge (again*). I'm halfway through the second of three pattern repeats (~40 rows each), and it's just not going to happen by tomorrow at 7:30 pm. I'm going to finish at some point in the near future next week, but given that I ended Thursday behind where I'd started that morning**, I was pretty much doomed. Couple that with a stomach bug and collapsing unconscious at 10:00 for the last two nights, and that's all she wrote.

But what she's been writing is awful pretty.

Neck steek shaping up

Close up of front

I can't wait to finish this and actually wear it, although I'm hoping that a good blocking will take care of the massive amounts of stitch wonkiness. It's started to warm up quite a bit over hear in southeast England, so I'm hoping it doesn't become summer before I get to finish it up. Congratulations to all the Knitting Olympians who were successful!

* Winter 2006: Adamas, my first lace project, and I had only about 10 rows to go by the end. Closest finish yet.
Summer 2008: Veil of Isis, which, as we all know, finally got finished as a Christmas present in 2009.
Winter 2010: as you see it. Oh well!
** Those pesky armhole decreases got left out, so I got to rip back about six rows on the train on my way home on Thursday. Not.A.Happy.Camper.

So about those shorter rows...

Shorter rows are apparently not enough to make me knit any faster. That's the bad news. The good news is that I've started the armhole steeks, so things are moving along. I've got one color that is starting to run a little thin, but I think it will be ok. That's the good news. It's still quite likely that this is not going to be done by Sunday evening, but so be it. It will be done before the end of the Winter Paralympics on March 21st (thanks to aquaphilic for the heads up!). Maybe even before the end of the first week of March - there are secret projects lurking in the wings that must be done ASAP, and they will pounce at 12:01 am on Monday.

So how's everyone else's Olympic knitting going*? Any winners yet? Or are we all in the same boat?

* I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Magdalena Neuner's Olympic knitting has taken a back seat to kicking ass in biathlon. But that's just a guess!

Hold the phone!

Now, when I was blathering on yesterday about rows/day and such like, why did none of you point out to (math-challenged) me that (ehem) the Closing Ceremonies don't actually occur until Sunday? Here I was thinking that I only had five days to go and was going to have to forgo basic hygiene to get this vest done. But as of right now (bedtime on Tuesday), I am on row 68, have started the neck steek, and have only 104 rows to go on the body. However, it seems that I am unable to do more then around 15 rows a day: today I was home with Boo (who managed to barf all over me and herself within seconds of my getting dressed this morning) watching Dumbo and Angelina Ballerina all day, and I still only got 17 rows done. WTF?

104 rows/3 days = 32 rows per day. Fuck. However...the rows are going to get shorter with the neck shaping, right? Hmmmm...further updates tomorrow evening.

58 rows down, 121 to go, 5 days. Hunh.

I think it's time to declare sleep obsolete, meals that include anything other then cold cereal and nuked baked beans a luxury, and stock up on the coffee and chocolate. But definitely not the wine - after knitting row 19 for the fifth (!) time, I've come to the conclusion that I can not knit fair isle and pay even the slightest amount of attention to anything else. But,

I still like the colors, and it's moving along. I've finished the waist shaping, and am onto row 36 of the chart. Which has 70 rows, 48 of which need to be worked a total of three times. 121 rows/5 days means 22 rows per day. That doesn't include the neck and armhole edgings. Hunh.

Ok, 121 rows/3 days means 40 rows per day. Seeing as how I got from row 19 to row 35 last night in a couple of hours, it's not impossible. But, let's be honest, it's also probably not going to happen. Hmmm...I think I may be lugging six balls of yarn and a big bag on the train with me for the next few days. Stay tuned...

Ribbing done, umpteen gazillion rows of colorwork to go

It took two nights to do 25 rows of the ribbing. I'm hoping that the straight fair isle sections go a bit faster!

On the upside, I'm liking the color combo a lot. And I'm getting perfect stitch gauge (!). My row gauge is off (on the loose side) by about 0.1 rows, so I'm not going to worry too much about that. No, now my worries will center on running out of yarn - given the pattern sizing, I'm knitting the bottom half at a size 41.75 and the top at 37.75 (let's hear it for big butts and small boobs!). I've got 230 yds of each color. It may be a white knuckle trip to the end!