Going for the Gold

By Lucia Herndon

Like many I have been camped in front of my television the last few days watching the Olympics. I always like the contrast of watching young, energetic people running, swimming, rowing, jumping, lunging with my own activity -- sitting. It makes me feel old when Dana Torres, the 41-year-old swimmer, is considered geriatric.

But like a marathon runner in the final mile, I have picked up my knitting pace during these games. I have been knitting with uncharacteristic speed, completing projects, starting a new one.

I finished a little sweater for a friend who will become a first-time grandmother in the fall. I have started my husband's annual birthday sweater (degree of difficulty -- 6.5; it's argyle); and I bought wool for my own sweater.

It's best to knit during marathons -- long patches of nothing much happening enabled me to work on the color patches of my husband's sweater and untangle the bobbins. That was something I couldn't do while watching the 100-meter events; had to keep my eye on the television screen instead of my knitting. And don't get me started about the distraction caused by those youthful swimmers in their no-secrets-hid onesies!

The Olympics has kept me up past my usual bedtime -- which means more hours of knitting.

Which explains the splurge of buying yarn for a sweater for myself. Of course it didn't help that I happened to be at the Tangled Web when the Manos arrived.  Those are some shrewd marketers.  They send it packed in 10-skein hanks.  It's an armful of wool and the bulk of it makes it feel very luxurious. It was calling to me. I couldn't resist. I bought it and went home to find a pattern I last saw about 10 years ago.

I store my yarn and patterns in a third floor closet. I call it my room of requirement -- like in the Harry Potter books.  It seems whenever I need some knitting notion -- pattern, magazine, old, unused yarn -- I need only open the closet door and look inside.  More times than not, the needed item sort of falls into my hand.  

So it was with with this Manos pattern. It was one of the first purchases I made at the Web some 10 years ago or so. It was a set of patterns, actually, and 10 years ago I made a sweater using one of the patterns.  I put the patterns away after I finished that first sweater. But it was sitting at the front of the closet when I went looking for it. Magical!

With the end of the Olympics, summer comes to an end and with it the renewed activities of fall. We've got a lot of classes coming up. I'll be teaching a couple of crochet classes -- I'll be spending the next week fine-tuning my samples in preparation for September.  And I am signing up the for the Beaded Scarf. That looks like too much fun.

September also marks our grand re-opening.  I hope you will stay tuned for details for the dat. It should be a gold medal event.