Monday, February 08, 2010

Olympian? or Paralympian?

So Stephanie has decided to go ahead with the Knitting Olympics. I'm not sure how she does it, with her schedule, especially seeing the project she has chosen, Whistler. (Man, what a freakingly beautiful sweater!)
As much as I will compete in the Olympics this year (I mean, really, they are the OLYMPICS, and they are in Canada - something I am immensely proud of), I will not be making a Dale of Norway sweater in 14 days.

The Rules of the Knitting Olympics are basically to pick a project that will challenge you - that will make you feel like you have really WON a gold medal.
Now, under normal circumstances, finishing the cashmere shawl for my MIL, would not seem like a challenging task for me. I could do this without too much effort.
I have a ball and a half of yarn left to knit, and I plan on extending this shawl to use as much of the yarn as I can.
Here's where the challenge comes in:

My doctor has splinted me again, when my tendinitis flared last week, making it look like my left wrist swallowed a baseball. And I'm left handed. (The wrist swelling has gone down a bit, but you can still it it in my fingers. Note to self - remove rings at first sign of swelling - those babies aren't going anywhere for a while.)

So, I may actually be competing in the Paralympic Games this year. Or I'm going to be the Knitting Olympics version of Brian McKeever - not that I would ever, ever put myself in his class. A legally blind cross country skier competing in not only the Paralympic, but the Olympic Games. And he's Canadian. I consider him to be a role model for anyone, blind or fully sighted. But he's competing with a disadvantage, as am I.

So, here's my Olympic project: Finish the shawl (because I'm on a deadline for it as well - I really want to get it to MIL while she has a need for it, not just a want). And to do it without totally messing up my wrist. (I figure if I can type this with the splint, I can do some knitting). I'll make it interesting as well - I will put the shawl aside this week until Friday night, when the Opening ceremonies begin. We'll be in the car for the beginning, heading to the cottage for a long weekend (Monday is a holiday here in Ontario). We should be there in time to see the torch being lit, which is always a tearjerker moment for me (favourite lighting? Hands down, the archer in Barcelona - too cool). The few says off should also give my wrist enough of a rest to enable me to make those pesky "slip two as if to knit, K1, psso" stitches, which seem to turn my wrist unnaturally.

And no, the tendinitis was probably not fully caused by knitting - there has been some aggressive basketball playing recently, and parts of me are realizing that at 47, I can't do what a 20 year old version of myself once did. Crap. Aging sucks.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry about your tendonitis.
As you say, "Aging Sucks" but it
beats the hell out of the alternative.
Marlyce in Windsor

Needles said...

I'm with Marlyce. So long as I see sky above me...

Knit little bits at a time. Rather than knitting for 2 hours, knit for 20 minutes, take a break, knit a little more, take a break. Play turtle.

Philosophical Karen said...

> Aging sucks.

Amen.

Anonymous said...

Ok, it's not that I'm not concerned about your wrist (I like Needles' advice to knit in small chunks) but OMG - watch that velcro around the cashmere!!!!
;)
Nancy

Anonymous said...

Nancy's right. Yikes!
The pattern you're using, please? And I think that you would have to avoid things like laundry and dishes and shovelling snow and such - so there are a few perks, no?

Brendaknits said...

Absolutely watch the velcro. And at least you have an excuse for the Special Olympics. For me, it will probably just be 'not finishing.'

Acorn to Oak said...

Sorry to hear about your wrist. Tendonitis sucks! I've been having problems with it in my elbows for months and it's made it hard to do anything. I miss those days when a little injury or pain would go away in a day or two. I agree...some of the stuff that come with aging sucks. But, seeing as I want to live a verrrry long time, I guess I'll have to get use to it....although, I may kick and scream and complain sometimes. ;-)

I've really got to get busy and figure out what my Olympic project is going to be. I'm going to have to come up with something small because I'm still not able to knit a lot yet. Ugh! But, this will be exciting. I had so much fun doing this during previous Olympic games. Can't wait to see your shawl. It looks like it's going to be gorgeous!

Rachel said...

Keep working! You can do it. I think I'm planning on a paralympic knitting endeavor of my own. I hope I don't actually get injured though. I just miss the rush of competition!