Yo, Yo, Bloody YO

Day 3 is coming to a close: progress pic of Kiri, above. Currently it's lap blanket-sized, if you're a small stuffed panda. I've done Chart 2 twice of twelve times, and that's not bad, except that the rows are going to have to get a lot longer before I can sling this shawl fetchingly around my shoulders. Technical difficulties, one in particular, have slowed the pace. Today I watched part of a documentary on figure skaters trying to qualify for the Canadian Olympic team, and the narrator explained that to embed their jumps in muscle memory, "These skaters will practice their jumps a remarkable sixteen thousand times."

Whoopee, I thought (or may have said to the TV), I've done that many yarn-overs since lunchtime. I've never tinked so much or so often...for a while, it was once or twice a row, and often the one I'd missed was hell-and-gone back around stitch five. The pattern even prints the easy to miss ones in red: little red circles helpfully shouting "Stop! One more yarn over!"

In other knit-along news, I won sock yarn at the Canadian Opening Ceremonies party (which was a hoot), so now I'm ready to get going on my practice pair for Sockapaloooza. [Thank you, Team Canada sponsors!] I also have my eye on some yarn for my Sock Pal...there's a shade of Koigu that I think would be splendid. Today I bought the dearest little dpn toothpicks: US size ZERO. Zero? Can I subcontract these socks to a four-year-old? I've already got tendons that are knitting under protest. But thousands of knitters can't be all wrong, because if it weren't at least sort of fun, they'd be buying socks at three pairs for ten bucks and spending the yarn money on something that knits up on at least a 4.5mm. I'm willing to let them all convert me...once I get another couple of Kiri repeats under my belt - and on the panda - I'll cast on for a sock. Possibly under a magnifying glass.