As the number of days
before start of the 2012 Summer Olympics becomes less than the number of
projects I have on my knitting needles and Knitting Register spreadsheet, I
have been thinking about my decision to make this a personal marathon Year of Completion, and have decided to mark this effort with my own knitted Olympic
memento because, most of all, I needed another project to add to the list! Startitis kicked in when I noticed that the
Olympic rings bore a distinct resemblance to one of my sets of stretchy,
multi-coloured stitchmarkers,
hence the name of my team/nation.
Looking at the logo for
the London Olympics, which is made up of differently sized pieces, also made me
think of all of my projects in different sizes or, more accurately, stages of
completion (http://www.london2012.com/)
For my flag, however, I used the clear version of the logo, white and black,
with the Olympic rings/stitchmarkers in the official colours of green, red, gold,
black and bright blue
In a moment of total
madness, I had thought of knitting this flag on multiple 0s needles with sock
reinforcement yarn, and using those little markers for the rings. This idea was
abandoned when a) I realised that this would take me twice/three/ten or more
times longer to knit, sacrificing valuable Year of Completion knitting time to
this project and b) I didn’t want, even more so, to sacrifice any of those
stitch markers to the project as I can no longer get that kind and I
particularly need the green ones in my circular knitting as they begin every
round (Green for Go!)
Thus, with some level of
sanity restored, I raided the KnitPicks’s section of my stash and found Black,
Whirlpool, Pimento, Edamame and Custard for the rings. These were knit in
I-cords on 3mm needles, as is the flag’s body and edges, and then stitched onto
the flag, though not very evenly. The background is in KnitPicks’s Palette in
White, and the letters and the edge of the flag is knit in Black. I did not,
however, follow the example of the official logo and use the lower-case
alphabet but did stick with a streamlined lettering, though without the slant.
The alphabet is from Cross Stitch Calligraphy by Iva Polansky* I tried for the
angular, 3-D edges, picked up and knit outwards from the body of the completed
flag but they did not work out that well so I have, instead, evened them off.
The flag measures 19 ½”
wide and 10 ½” long, the letters and rings both 1 ¼” high, and it flies from one of my beloved Aero needles.
My only justification for
this project is that knitting is one of the things I do best, far better than
my swimming, kayaking, badminton or Pilates which isn’t an official event {yet}
at the Olympics. So I have turned knitting into one of my sports this year. It
is absorbing an unconscionable amount of time and I have to make even more of
an effort to put the needles down and get out and walk, swim or do those daily
Pilates to stretch out the muscles that are needed to do good knitting and keep
up the standard of performance. Sad to say, excessive knitting can play havoc
with the entire body but that is a subject for another time.
*Cross Stitch Calligraphy,
Iva Polansky, London: Kyle Cathie Limited, 1994
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