Cozy shrug for the Olympics

I had decided a long time ago, exactly 4 years ago, that I would try again in the 2010 Knitting Olympics.  I did not get a medal in 2006, so this year I have extra motivation to accomplish my goal.   My first idea was to make fingerless gloves.  The kind that also have a mitten part that folds back to reveal bare fingertips.  I couldn't decide if that project would be too easy or too ambitious.  I guess I just wasn't feelin' it. 

There is a project in the very first knitting magazine I ever bought that I have always gone back to and oogled and oohed and aahed.  It has cables and requires quite a bit of yarn.  So I always had some excuse why I couldn't make it.  Either I didn't have the money to buy enough yarn that I would actually want to touch my skin (yummy wool perhaps with silk) or I didn't think I could successfully read and follow the cable charts. 

A couple weeks ago it was really cold in my house and I couldn't get warm.  I couldn't keep a blanket on my shoulders and the one on my lap wasn't enough.  In that moment I decided I had to finally make the Cabled Shrug from Interweave Knits Fall 2005.  And with the Knitting Olympics coming up, maybe I had a better chance of actually starting it AND finishing it.  And maybe even get to use it before it starts warming up this spring... haha, ok that last part is just funny.  I live in Michigan, I'll still be using this thing in June.

Thursday afternoon I headed out to Knit A Round in Ann Arbor and used the gift card I got from my coworkers for Christmas.  I found a gorgeous 100% wool that is softer than any pure wool I've ever felt.  I couldn't believe it didn't have a bit of acrylic or silk or something in it to make it so soft.   I picked out a nice rich chocolate brown but there wasn't enough.  After another 20 minutes of petting each color (there had to be 25 or more colors to choose from) I decided on a green.  Not quite sage, not quite celery, somewhere in between. 

 

As an added bonus, the yarn I chose was made in Michigan!  
 

And... I can't leave a yarn shop without some sock yarn...  two skeins of Koigu.  This colorway is so NOT me.  I think that's why I like it.  It's all rusts and orange and gold with just a few bits of light blue and a scant bit of purple.  I've never used koigu before and have seen so  much of it on other blogs for years and years.

 

I can't leave this post without an update on our living room remodel.  It's not done yet.  Soon though. 

 

Kitchen wall:  now you see it...

 

Now you don't!!!

Ryan is building a butcher block style counter top to go there and we'll have a little breakfast nook.  I am SO excited.  I have the most amazing and talented husband! 

Hopefully this project will be accomplished peacefully along with the Knitting Olympics...  fierce competition around here.