Seduced by their extremely cool button, I am joining Team Wales for the Knitting Olympics. I am not in Wales, but being of Welsh ancestry, I am eligible. Actually, being partial to daffodils and crying over Cym Rhonda will do it, too. Mostly, I really like the Welsh flag. This is also among the criteria. And I found the argument for joining the Knitting Olympics at the site convincing.

Frankly, I had thought that the Olympics were beginning this past weekend. Apparently they are not until February.

So I need a challenging project to cast on during the opening ceremonies on February 10th and complete by the ending on the 26th. I have been thinking about what might be challenging for me, and I think it will not be about the level of difficulty of the knitting, but about finishing it in that time, because I am not one of your fast knitters. I also have a lot of other things going on in my life. However, it seems to me that it would violate the spirit of the thing for me to make a pair of mittens or something. Therefore, I intend to make a modular headband. I have never before done any multi-directional knitting, and I also intend to do it with elastic thread held together with the yarn, a technique I have only used once before. This ought, then, to be sufficiently challenging, given that the Yarn Harlot has declared that the challenge is only as crazy as you want it to be. The rules allow swatching beforehand, so I do intend to determine whether the multi-directionality cancels out the usefulness of the elastic. If this turns out not to be sufficiently challenging, I will change my plan.

I am still rooting for Elizabeth H., who is making an Erin cardigan. I will be setting my Erin aside for those sixteen days in order to complete the Olympic project, but I still say more power to her, wherever she may be.

LostArts told me about this clever means of reading while knitting. This thing is a chip clip. #1 son absent-mindedly clipped it to his shirt at a friend’s house and wore it home without realizing it. If this strikes you as implausible, then you do not know any 16 year olds. In any case, I find that it works on thin books. Most of my mass paperbacks are too fat for this method. However, when you are reading a thin book, you will find it an excellent method. I am most grateful for the suggestion. Since this particular one must be returned to its rightful owner, I have to find one of these for my house. I looked in the chips section of the grocery, but did not find it there. Where do stores keep these?

It occurs to me that I have an intarsia chart of that Welsh dragon. If the modular headband is too easy, I could do some socks or mittens with the dragon worked in. It would be challenging for me to do that in sixteen days, particularly given the current stress level of my life. On the other hand, plunging into something pointless and difficult can be a good antidote to daily stress. You know Parsifal never moaned about the little troubles of daily life while on that quest for the Holy Grail. Hmm. Holy Grail, modular headband… Not quite the same. But then, Parsifal and I are not quite the same either.