The Crazed Olympic Knitter

One of the events of February I was most looking forward to was the Winter Olympics, this time held in PyeongChang, Korea. I always love the Olympics. If I could I'd watch every minute and keep track of every event. Not possible, I'm here to tell you. But I always give it a good try. And this year I was doubly excited due to my connection to the country as I had served my mission there.

I got the idea from my sister-in-law Kathleen to celebrate the opening ceremonies by cooking Korean food and eating it with friends while the ceremony was televised. I was happy our friends the Moores were up for this, and even hosted at their house since they have a couch spacious enough for all of us. I supplied the food, they supplied the couch and large television. I had a lot of fun cooking up Korean food. I did have to photograph myself with this lovely large radish because it reminds me of a the fond nickname one of my Korean companions had for me. That would be "moo-daddi," or,...radish legs. I guess my large white legs were just too much like this veggie for her to resist the name.

Oh how I love Korean food. We had a really fun evening together, and thus I began my binge-session with the winter games.

I have to confess that I got a little over excited about a project I picked out to work on while watching the Olympic coverage each evening. I thought that I would feel less guilty sitting in front of the television for hours if I was being productive and keeping my hands busy. I went to a knitting store and found this divine yarn and a pattern for a large wrap that looked lovely. I was so excited about it that I cast it on to my needles before the winter games even started. Ten days before they started, that is. And by the time the opening ceremonies started and the Korean food was gobbled up and the dishes were clinking gently in the dishwasher, I was sitting down to watch and I already had half of the thing done. I was a crazed knitter/t.v. watcher. And what's worse is that when I cast on the stitches, the number called for in the pattern just didn't look like they were going to make a wrap of the dimensions I wanted. I wanted something big and snuggly and really....WRAPPY. Not some old scarf! So I cast on many extra stitches and I knit...and watched..and knit...and watched...until the next thing I knew, I had a wrap the size of which even Hagrid would have been in awe. I mean, it's massive. Slightly ridiculously massive. I almost can't wear it it's so big. Poor Troy tries not to snicker when I wrap up in it, but it's hard for him. I love it.

Just one quick note - Valentines Day came and went during the Olympics and I'm ashamed to admit that I totally failed to do a single thing for anyone in my family. Well, I did do one thing. I expressed my love for my family through bacon. I made them bacon pancakes. It was the best I could do. No cookies, candy, love notes, cards, balloons...nada. That's just how things are this year. (As a side note, since I'm writing this at the end of March, I'll mention that I did even less for St. Patrick's Day. Last year I managed a green article of clothing for each child. This year, Emma came down the stairs on St. Patty's Day morning and told me she wasn't going to look at the table until the whole family was gathered to see what the leprechauns had done. Fail. They had done exactly zero things. I didn't do anything. Instagram shamed me for that one with pretty much everyone doing something fun and adorable for their kids. Some years I do stuff, and some years I don't. The end.)

Here's my bacon pancake video I added to my One Second a Day video app. You should try it. It's a fun one.

Here's my finished "wrap." It's over seven feet long. Silly me.