I'm a loser, baby ...

This is the Van Dyke stitch. The only one I managed during the Olympics. I know, sad.

If you don't want to hear my excuses, skip the next few blocks of text ...

Michael Phelps
Dara Torres
Usain Bolt
Shawn Johnson
Nastia Lukin
Misti May Treanor/Kerri Walsh
Yang Wei
The 33-year-old German gymnast and her family story
The US Men's Volleyball and the tragedy of their coach's father-in-law's murder
The Chinese people during the Opening Ceremony
The Chinese people during the Closing Cermony
My job
A secret work project I've been working on
A secret personal project A.K. and I are working on

oh, and trying to finish the Telegraph Cove sweater. Yeah, I know, I haven't finished it, but, as with the swatches, it's kind of hard to pay attention when Michael Phelps has a race every 15 minutes and he wins by a fingernail.

Okay, enough excuses, I'll post photos of the sweater tomorrow, hopefully it will look like it's suppose to.

oh, and the Van Dyke stitch would make a very nice border. I think it would be a bit much for an entire sweater, but since I only knitted a swatch, I could be totally wrong. Also, I'm not sure why it's called the Van Dyke stitch, I assume it has something to do with Flemish art, although maybe it has to do with Dick Van Dyke and him always tripping. I just dated myself, didn't I. Well, I can say I saw Dick Van Dyke on Nick at Nite, not during its first run.

Okay, I'll shut up now.

Things up my sleeve

It wasn't easy taking a photo of my progress, mainly because this sweater is knitted with the bodice in (more or less) one piece and then the rest is added on afterwords. So it ends up looking like a messed-up scarf or tubular blob. Which I guess is what it is right now. So just image the progress is going well.

In other news ...

Remember when this blog was about me trying to knit every swatch from "A Treasury of Knitting Patterns?" Yeah, I know. Which is why I decided when the Olympics start up in Beijing, I'm going to start some swatches. I know all about the Knitting Olympics, and this really is about the fact that I'll be parked in front of the television for 16 days and 16 swatches seems like a goal that I can accomplish. Who knows, maybe it will lead to me actually finishing my goal of swatching the whole book.

Also, I haven't done any spinning in ages. So during my vacation next week, I'm packing Victoria and some fluff along. There isn't a phone or television where we are staying, and I'm pretty sure that means there is no internet access as well. Because of this fact, I feel like I'm going to be bored out of my mind and so I'm also packing the laptop loaded with DVD rentals and have plans to work on my website. (of course, I can't actually upload anything because we will be in the middle of nowhere.)

I realize that I will be on 'vacation' but I really am lost without access to the Scrabbulous, or getting the answers to the New York Times crossword puzzle when I get stuck. I don't even remember life without Facebook. TV and phone I can take or leave, but I need the Internets (yep, both of them.)

And of course, I'll be taking my dog. Here's a photo of Lilly, in the interest of equal time for cute pet photos.