Faster, Higher, Stronger

As I'm sure all of the knitters in the known world are aware, the Yarn Harlot recently decided to host a Knitting Olympics. While speed knitting is not generally my forte, this quest sounded wildly appealing (not only will I start and maybe finish a project, but it will be community-oriented and provide blog fodder! awesome!). I signed up with the following comment:

I have a red beaded scarf (yarn, beads and pattern) that has been sitting and waiting for me to finish my first pair of socks... So, a dual challenge: first the time trial to get on the team (I'm just through the heel turn on sock #2, there's hope), then the olympic knitting effort itself. I'm even color-appropriate: blue socks and red scarf (go USA!), and the red can do dual service as a tribute to our host country, Canada. :-)

So that it's clear what I'm working with, here's the sock status as of about 11 pm last night:




I am actually making excellent progress, and am finally on the straight-away after the heel turn so I can knit while I read without stopping to count.

The project that has been calling to me is a variation on the Cascading Diamonds Scarf from Knitting with Beads. (This picture from the very neat google books is the only one I could find -- the purple project in the upper left corner shows the bead detail.) I'm going to use my red Cotton Classic that I bought with the gift certificate my brother and sister gave me for Christmas last year, plus three colors of beads. I can't wait to start.



This picture was taken at night, and as usual with red, isn't completely true to the colors -- it real life the yarn is a little bit darker and a bit less fluorescent. I love the way they look together.

Does stringing the beads count as starting?