Already behind...

How did I ever think I would finish this sweater in time!?! It's day 3 of the Knitting Olympics and I've made some progress. (That's my Hubby holding it down for me and cheering me on.) While I was steadily knitting away today I did some math. This pattern requires about 11 balls of yarn, and I have 16 days to knit it. That means I have to go through about 3/4 of a ball of yarn per day in order to finish on time. (And that doesn't include blocking time) I wasn't able to cast on at 2pm, but had to wait till shortly after 5 when I got home from work. Add that to a shopping trip with friends and my MIL's birthday dinner today and you have some serious lagging to recover from. I'm almost done with my first ball of yarn, and by my calculations I should be 1/4 of the way into ball #3 by bedtime tonight to be caught up!
In other news, we celebrated my MIL's birthday today. I didn't finish the cabled shrug in time, but I had another FO in the wings just in case. The picture on the right is a close-up of the pattern. It's basically a bunch of yarn overs. I got the pattern on the Lion Brand website. You cast on a certain number of stitches and every other row you k1, yo, k1, etc. (Scarf is knitted vertically rather than the traditional horizontally). The picture on the left is truer to the actual colors. The grey yarn is Elsebeth Lavold silky wool, and the pink yarn is Rowan Summer Tweed. I got both skeins off a clearance shelf at a LYS in DC when I went up there for Knit-Out DC in October. I had originally wanted to do the curly scarf from Scarf Style, but couldn't figure out the short rows on my own. The pattern from Lion Brand avoided the short row but had the same curly effect. In post-Olympics news, I have decided on my project for Lolly's Project Spectrum (see sidebar) for the month of March. March's colors are red or pink. I've been wanting to try socks for a long time and I think March is the time to do it. Dani from Knitting Sunshine has a sock yarn in a colorway called Neopolitan that I love. It's pink, brown, and cream, and just gorgeous. The other thing I've been thinking about is going to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. It's in May, and I've heard about it on other people's blogs, but never been myself. It'd be a bit of a hike for me (DC is about 2 1/2 hrs north of me) but I've been led to believe it'd be worth it. Has anyone out there been or have anything to say about it? I'd have to save up to afford all the scrumptious yarn that'd end up in my trunk. Wow, look at me ramble, and I'm already behind....need to get back to my Olympic knitting. SO much to do!!!