Slow TV and a day of knitting

At the end of March, I came across a pullover pattern that really appealed to me.  It was loose and casual. It looked comfortable and fun.

Digging through my stash, I realized I even had the perfect yarn for it (although, it slipped past my attention that the colors were the same).

The design is called Element, and it is by Kirsten Johnstone, a lady who is an architect by profession, who also knits and designs knitwear. I have been a fan for a while.

The design is A-line and knit from the bottom up.

As I am broader through the chest/shoulders and much narrower through the hips and legs, A-line does not typically work for me; however, when I read through the pattern, I saw where I could cast on two sizes smaller for the bottom hem, and adjust the numbers ever so slightly to fit the bust and shoulders by moving up to my actual size for that part, which means the bust, arms, and neck will fit well. Thus, I am changing the A-line to be more of a boxy shape.

After a couple of swatches, I cast on. I knit, knit some more, and, but for a brief bit of lace at the bottom, I was lost in a sea of stockinette, knit in the round.

I did not feel as though I was making any progress at all.

Yesterday morning, I surfed a bit and ran across an article on Norway's Slow TV. It initially referred to hours and hours of footage from cameras mounted to a train with no narration, but when I saw Netflix had it with a group of Norwegian ladies trying to break a world record called Sheep to Sweater, in which one person shears a sheep, four others immediately spin the yarn, and the last two knit a sweater all in one sitting, I was hooked. Apparently, a group of Australian ladies did this in just less than five hours a few years ago. 

While subtitled, the ladies were lovely, and it was relaxing and fun to watch them go through the process, as well as knit right along with them.

However, I did not make it all the way through the nine hour process.  Yeah, they did not break the Australian record, but they did set a Norwegian record, in addition to a world record for the longest live knitting program.  I admit, I fast-forwarded to the last fifteen minutes, as they raced to beat the US record, and it was rather exciting!  

Prior to watching the show, I have never had any desire to spin at all.  A couple of hours in, and I mentioned to the husband I might like to try my hand at spinning.  His response:  "Turn the TV off!"

In any event, I did get quite a bit of knitting done.  Even after I was done with the Norwegians, I found a River Monsters mini-marathon with Jeremy Wade on Animal Planet and knit for a few more hours. It's not that I even like fishing, but his voice and accent are so interesting, I can apparently listen to him for hours.  

Apparently, I was incredibly lazy yesterday!

Here is the progress on my sweater:

The front is knit to the divide under the arms. I am working on the back now.  The length of the front is 17 inches.

The hem is rolled at the moment, as I cast on with a provisional cast on and need to go back and do an I-cord bind-off, but trust me, that is actually a LOT of knitting.

For someone who rarely watches TV, I am planning my next Slow TV - knitting afternoon.