As Olympians challenge themselves
every 4 years; whether making the Olympic team, a new personal best, World
Record, Olympic Record or most medals won by a single Olympian, I found myself
on a crochet journey over 16 days of being glued to my TV screen. A journey that I am sad to say is not yet
complete.
I started crocheting THIS blanket
about a week prior to the opening ceremonies.
The night of the Opening Ceremonies, I sat crocheting with excitement
for the upcoming two weeks of sporting events that are rarely televised other
than once every 4 years. I really loved
how the stitch looked, and true to my overachieving, day-dreamer tendencies I
found myself thinking of ALLLLLLLLLLL the amazing things I was going to
crochet, finish and blog about during the Olympics. I mean, I was going to be sitting here there every night for 16 days – the possibilities
seemed endless. Just 12 hours later - the
morning of July 28th, after a good 3 hours of crocheting during the
Men’s Road Race in Cycling, reality set in.
In all honestly, reality banged on my front door and all but
bitch-slapped me because I was OUT OF MY MIND to think that this “simple baby
blanket” of single crochets and skips was going to be easy……
Here was my progress around July
25th or 26th. “Isn’t
this going to be the most amazing baby blanket ever”, I kept saying to Jonathan
while I lovingly ran my hand over the unique, blush texture”
Here we are after the first
weekend of the Olympics - somewhere around July 29th, and a solid, additional 5-6 hours of crocheting. That Monday morning I felt horribly
defeated. I’m a fast crocheter. With the number of hours I’d already put in
by now – I’ve had other blankets DONE, or at least close to done (not looking
like I just started).
The following week I started to lose
steam. We also spent the weekend of
August 4th celebrating our 1 year Wedding Anniversary, so I had slightly
less time to crochet that a usual weekend
I still plugged along though
whenever possible - here’s where I was on August 4th.
For those who are wondering, the
blanket is being crocheted with a Caron One Pound in Cream and my favorite K
hook. I did make my base chain 34” vs.
the finished product of 30” listed on the pattern – this meant I was aiming to
crocheting “up” 34-inches…..somewhere around a completed 20-25” things really
started to feel like I was crocheting backwards. I’d crochet and crochet and crochet, chain-1,
turn, and crochet and crochet and crochet for HOURS, daily and I STILL hadn’t made it to 34”. By the second full week of the Olympics it
became obvious that not only was this blanket going to be the only thing I
crocheted during the 30th Olympiad, but it finishing it by the
Closing Ceremonies was worthy of a Gold Medal!
Funny side note: One night after work while we were watching
the Olympics that I announced to Jonathan that I would NEVER make this baby
blanket again! Jonathan immediately
sounded offended and hurt that I wouldn’t want our child to
have the nicest, warmest, snuggliest
blanket that I could make him/her. I
promptly reminded him that there are other patterns out there – our future
children will not be without. Since then
I have given some thought to the possibility of being a more patient woman when
I’m pregnant (probably not likely), or having 9 months to work on it vs. 1
month, or as my Mom reassured me, my baby blanket that she crocheted me is
hopefully still safe in her craft room and I could use that ;-)
Here was my progress by 8/12 – I
took this photo the morning of the 13th to show “ALL” that I did
during the London Olympics. I also had
to purchase a 2nd pound of yarn the morning of the 12th –
I believe that all but about 2” of what you’re looking at above is a full pound
of yarn!
I’m still working on it. I finished the 34” – I’ve fully crocheted the
first two rounds of the border – I’m less than ¼ of the way through the final
scalloped round of the border – I’m exhausted.
I’d planned to finished crocheting on Saturday so that I could block it
on Sunday. Then I just wanted to finish
before it was dark on Sunday to block.
By Sunday evening I was going to be happy with blocking it by Tuesday
evening. I’m leaving tomorrow night around
10 p.m. to go to Syracuse for the weekend, (I’ll be leaving straight from
downtown after work to have dinner with Jonathan and then be dropped off at the
airport) I’m not touching this cream monster until I return next week.
Yes, it’s beautiful – I still
love how it looks but I’M.SO.OVER.IT
Oh, and it has to be ready to be
gifted on Wednesday the 29th. I know. I’m a bit of an idiot for refusing to touch
this blanket until I return next week – I will no doubt be up until after
midnight on the 28th finishing the border, weaving in ends and
blocking, and then up long before I should be to weave in my ribbon, photograph
and wrap….but you know what? I just don’t
care anymore. I’m sick of staring at Cream
I currently have a couple of
scarves that I’m working on – as something easy and mindless. I’m about half way through the first one,
thinking about making them both cowls – will post photos when they are finished
– they are my travel projects for the plane tomorrow night and the hotel over
the weekend!
On a happier, silly note – note
only did Jonathan and I celebrate our 1 year wedding Anniversary back on the 6th,
but today is our “8 year datin' bananaversary"!
Here is the “oldest” photo of us
that I can quickly find – New Year’s Eve 2004 – just 4 months after we started
dating
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Our Wedding Day – August 6, 2011
I believe this is the most recent
photo of us to date – May 20, 2012 – spending this much time with the same
person really is the fastest way to look back and say “wow! We were babies!!”
That’s okay though – here’s to
more years and Disney trips together than one could possibly count!
2009
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2010
2011
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And that concludes today's photo tour
