30.07.2012:

My dear Aunty Carol has horrible arthritis and lives in a very cold city - Australian Capital Territory - renowned for it’s cold Winters. I’m making these as a test run to see if they give her some relief. If they do, I’ll make a lighter spring/autumn pair and keep making her a pair of hand/wrist warmers every year or two forever.

I’m loving the yarn. The colours are just beautiful and the yarn feel soft yet durable so here’s hoping the gloves last for quite a while.

The pattern is amazingly well written and easy to follow. I got through about half of the 1st mitt during my late night/early morning Olympic watching marathon. The games start at about 5.00pm and finish at 6.00am East Australia Time. I decided on this pattern about midnight and knit on and off for 6 hours (yeah, I’m a slow knitter). Sticking to pattern 100%.

31.07.2012:

I finished the left mitt, except for the thumb - waiting for my 3.75mm DPNs to arrive - and I am extremely pleased with the result. I was concerned the busy yarn and the busy pattern might not work but the pattern shows off the surprising flashes of different, gorgeous colours.

I am NOT happy with my cast off, as usual. The left mitt is too flared at the fingers. I always cast off either too tight or too loose; this time too loose. I will try going up a needle size to 4mm and casting off a bit tighter with the cast off on the right mitt.

I knit really fast during the Opals Vs French basketball game last night.

02.08.2012:

Knitting has slowed down somewhat due to the flu my partner has given me. He lay on the bed last week coughing into my pillow. Nice. I’ve spent the last 24 hours trying not to vomit or faint and most importantly, not vomit and faint at the same time.

I made quite a few mistakes on the second mitt (I blame the show-jumping) so lots of tinking and frustration. I just finished the thumb on one mitt so I only have one thumb to go - seven very small rows but it all seems too much at 4.12am with a virus, as does typing this, in fact. Well, it’s here for posterity if nothing else.

Things to remember about London 2012:

I HATE commercial television - luckily I only watch it once every 4 years. Can anyone say “Lowest Common Denominator”? Hmm, didn’t think so…

So far I’m enjoying watching the women’s sports much more than the men’s in general.

My fucking word, are most of the commentators deeply sexist. My partner and I were watching the rowing. Females were NOT ONCE referred to as women but always “girls”. Girls. Girls. Girls. The Aussie girls. The girls from the GB team just won gold. The New Zealand girls.
Males rowers were referred to overwhelmingly just by the country they were representing; the Brits, the Aussies, the Americans but occasionally (twice) called “guys” and (twice) called “men”. Yes, I was keeping count by that point and NOT ONCE were they called “boys” or even “lads”. Patriarchal, condescending, patronising, sexist, indoctrinated bullshit.

Sports that I’ve really enjoyed watching during the making of these mitts: Equestrian (of course), swimming, women’s basketball, gymnastics, synchronised diving, women’s beach volleyball, canoe slalom and rowing.