Pucks and Purls

n the eve of the playoffs, as the Canadiens struggle to stay in, I bring you... a hockey player who knits:

Jacques Plante, the first goalie to wear a face mask. According to history.com, he "always knitted his own underwear and stocking caps, saying that knitting was the only thing that truly soothed him. 'Someday,' he said wistfully, 'I’m going to learn to knit with my feet.'" Wikipedia adds "His mother taught him how to knit his own tuques to protect him from the cold. Plante continued knitting and embroidering throughout his life and wore his hand-knitted tuques while playing and practicing until entering the National Hockey League." There's even a play based on his knitting!

Meanwhile, if you'd like to knit a hockey player, here's one! With a Canadiens jersey not an Edmonton one, of course...

Organization

esterday I bought two gorgeous yellow storage boxes and took all my wool and UFOs out of their various tote bags and did an overhaul of the entire stash. Photos to come.

Meanwhile, I have lots and lots of tiny balls of wool in one bag, five great big balls of two different colours and kinds of wool wound together, and a box of small balls of cotton wool - what do I do with all that?

Then, in the gorgeous yellow boxes I have, among others: a few skeins of fluffy yarn, ten skeins of Norwegian wool, a few skeins of cheap acrylic wool, 150g of gorgeous Icelaine wool, some just-purchased lovely sock yarn to use for socks for friends, and some other wool I received as presents.

I've actually, surprisingly, only got four projects on the go (another baby blanket with hood, a scallop edge blanket I started ages ago, the easy peasy tee, and the kilt hose) and once those are done, I'll have to find patterns to match all the wool I've now got on display in the gorgeous (that's thrice!) boxes.

Anyone have any favourite patterns they'd like to share?

In Progress

uite the Easy Peasy Tee (see the one that Helen made, two posts below):

Picot edging:

ocks! Or, more accurately, kilt hose!:

Ribbing:

Another Comic I Don't Normally Read

his Bizarro was in the paper on Sunday:

Look for the pie, the alien, the...

Helen's Easy Peasy Tee!

sn't this Easy Peasy Tee lovely? I've started one of my own, in blue!

Finished Early!

ere's the shrug!

I'm finished five days early, which is great, because my elann.com wool arrived yesterday, and I can finally begin the kilt hose.
Dum da dum dum dum...

Also, here's Helen's completed vest with all its gorgeous cables:

And author Lois Lowry has been making socks!

ay 7! The shrug is finished and I've begun the edging.

The Kindle cover is from StrangeDog!

The Knitting Olympics Athletes Pledge

nitting Olympics Pledge (from the knitting Olympics site):

I, a knitter of able hands and quick wits, do hereby swear that over the course of these Olympics I will uphold the highest standard of knitterly excellence.

I will be deft of hand and sure of pattern, I will overcome troubles of yarn overs and misplaced decreases. I will use the gifts of intelligence and persistence (as well as caffeine and chocolate) and I will execute my art to the highest form, carrying with me the hope for excellence known to every knitter.

I strive to win. To do my best, and to approach the needles with my own best effort in mind, without comparing myself to my fellow knitters, for they have challenges unique to them.

While I engage in this pursuit of excellence and my own personal, individual best, I also swear that I will continue to engage with my family in conversation, care for my pets, speak kindly with those who would ask me to do something other than knit, and above all, above every stitch thrown or picked, above every cable, every heel stitch, every change of colour, I swear this:

That I will remember that this is not the real Olympics, that I'm supposed to be having fun and that my happiness and self-worth ride not on my success... but on my trying.

Let the games begin!

Knitting Olympics Update

t's going well!




Okay, I didn't knit at all yesterday, but here's how far I'd gotten by Saturday night - and I doubled that on Sunday! If I finish the main body of the shrug tonight, I'll post a new photo tomorrow.

Helen's Cables! Part II

emember this?

That was the front of Helen's cable patterned vest. Here's the back!

Ahem. We ask that you please note the Tiffany bracelet on her arm...