The Olympics: Day One

The opening ceremony is over and the hockey matches are already in full swing as we head into day one of olympic competition. I cast on my Kiri shawl at about 6:30PM EST and knitted on through the opening ceremonies. The OC were nice, but somehow they didn't seem to capture me the same way that the OC at SLC or even Nagano did. Maybe I'm just getting old and it's harder to grab me. Maybe it was the knitting that kept me sufficiently distracted. After all, lace knitting does require more attention than socks or sweaters. Maybe it was all the stupid comments my mother kept blurting out during the broadcast. If I had been using long straight needles I swear I would have jabbed her accidentally (on purpose) a couple of times-- esp. during the cow costume section. OK, so they did look kinda dorky dancing in big black spotted gowns.

I really liked the aerialists and the olympic rings. Now that was pretty cool. And then there was the little girl singing the Italian national anthem--she looked so nervous!!! The parade of nations is always interesting. Since I am a huge fan of figure skating and I watch all the broadcasted competitions throughout the year, I knew many of the athletes from other nations. What I didn't get was why they played old 80s American pop music throughout the parade. For heavens sakes, they're in Italy! Where's all that great Italian music???? I got all the opera music thay played, since I'm also way into opera, but there's so much more to Italian music than Verdi and Puccini. But alas, they didn't disappoint for the finale. Of course it would be Pavarotti singing Nessum Dorma. Why, of course!!!

I cast on Kiri using sz 7 needles. I swatched with sz 6 & 8 needles, but didn't get the chance to verify that 7s were what I really wanted. I figured I could always frog if they didn't work out to my satisfaction, but that proved to not be necessary. I had to do a little tinking when I got off the pattern, usually when I was distracted by mom's annoying remarks, but fortunately that wasn't very often. By the time I was ready for light's out I had knit for about 5 hours and had finished chart 1 and 2 repeats of chart 2. Only 10 more repeats to go! LOL