Knitting Olympics

I thought that I would post up this article from The Oregonian on The Knitting Olympics:

Knitting for the Gold

I have been pondering the connection between The KO and my experiences at the University of Oregon. I mean there is the intense short deadlines that keep giving me flashbacks to my first few studio classes, in fact probably all my studio classes. I had a slightly insane professor who really loved samples. Samples of everything, all sorts in a variety of designs. She really wanted us to experience everything. For example: My first studio class with her was a lace weaving class. I think we wove probably 8 samples in round robin and then she decided that we needed to try bobbin lace. This doesn't sound so bad now, but when you consider that the term is only 10 weeks long and we were expected to also complete a whole project after all of our samples. In general she liked to leave us with 2 weeks or less. I learned from these experiences to plan projects that looked complex without really being long and laborous. Also, to start planning my projects within the first couple of weeks so as to give myself more time. The Knitting Olympics has given me this same sense of foreboding and a bit of anxiety. I love it, and I know that it is my own doing, but there is that feeling that what if I have gone over my head. Am I going to pull another one of those late nights in order to finish my project? Who knows. I have been having the tingling sensation that the haunting spectre of my fibers professor is looming nearby with those eery words of "deadlines" and "finals." Hopefully she will disappear when I cast on in about 1 1/2 hours...