Curling

So far the Olympics are pretty much a bust for Norway. Everyone good is choking, except for two respectable silver medals (yay Aksel Lund Svindal, yay Emil Hegli Svensen!). The only really spectacular thing so far has been the men's curling team's pants:

Wow. Talk about ugly! But they're probably going to do wonders for the sport of curling. Here's an article from Aftenposten (er, that would be the article I lifted the photograph from...).

Another "fargeklatt" that made watching the men's 12.5K biathlon sprint enjoyable last night was the guy who won it, Swede Björn Ferry. He did the most hilarious and geeky happy dance at the flower ceremony. I think maybe it was clogging? At any rate, I love it, and I'm glad he won since he appeared so incredibly frustrated at the officials for letting other racers start early. What a fiasco all that has been. Did the officials somehow forget the rules? Did the Canadians just bring random people in out of the woods to officiate? How bleeping hard is it to count 14 seconds or look at the start number on a competitor's chest? They did it with the women's event earlier in the day, then again with the men, so clearly the learning curve is pretty flat there at Whistler. Wait, it looks like it's the IBU's fault, not the Canadian organizers according to this article. That actually makes it even harder to understand. Did I mention how much I totally, totally love biathlon? It has become my favorite sport.

So the Canada-Norway curling match and the 12.5K sprint allowed me to finish a toque (and yes, I grew up 20 minutes from the Canadian border, so that's what I call them. Not beanie, not stocking cap, or any other lame name. It's a toque, dammit). I used this drops pattern and the left over olive green Drops Alpaca yarn. Going to wear it to today for the first time.

Speaking of toques, and awkward, geeky stuff, what about the crocheted Swedish Olympic toques? They're incredibly ugly, but kind of cool. I found a blog with instructions on how to crochet them (apparently scanned from a newspaper?).

ETA a picture, borrowed from Dagens Nyheter:


Still more hurdles and frustrations with the publication grant I'm writing. Grr. Will blog about that after the deadline has past and I know where I stand.