A winner before the games begin!

On a whim, I entered a contest over on Knit Whit - and won! She was looking for someone to guess how many blogs she subscribed to on bloglines - I guessed 110 - since that's how many I have. Guess how many she had? 111! How funny is that? Anyway - I got the most wonderful prize. First - on the front of the package there was a big motorcycle sticker, and inside, well look for yourself!
Great sock yarn (always welcome!), a blue chibi (I actually have the famed pink chibi - and am always digging around the find it - it's great to have 2! One for my yarn room, one next to my knitting chair!), and look at those fun mints... Biker Chick mints, lol. And finally chocolate. Can't go wrong with a little chocolate!

What a fun, personalized prize. It was nice to get a reminder of the fun of motorcycle riding in the middle of winter. Thanks so much, Carrie!

In Olympic news, I wound a few balls of my camel yarn so I can cast on today with the rest of the knitting world. I also did a little swatching, and read the pattern. Now, I know that the point of this is to challenge yourself, and admittedly, knitting a sweater at a gauge of 4 sts to the inch in 16 days is not a HUGE challange. I just (almost - still have the button band to go) finished a rather fiddley cabled cardigan (and the gauge was 5 sts to the inch) in 20 days. For me, the challenge is not about the finishing, but more in the process. Sit and enjoy the knitting. Don't 'power' through and time myself as to how long each piece will take. That is why switching to this wonderful yarn and somewhat simple pattern happened. For me, the challenge will being more mindful of the knitting. Not necessarily slowing down, because, in the end, I still want to wear a finished sweater to the closing games, but letting the knitting be a balm to my somewhat stressful life. Which, it already is, but I think I take it for granted sometimes.

Let the games begin!