Decreaed knitting output

It's been raining for quite some time now. A couple of days, I think. Bleah. So, I stayed in last night and got some work done on the second Red Sox sock. I'm done the heel flap (in white). I also got a bit further on the purple alpaca lace scarf. The pattern says I need 2 balls for a 48" scarf, but I think I'm going to get 28-30" out of one ball. I think I'll use the 3rd one for a matching hat.

So, why the decreased knitting content, you might ask? Well, swimming season is in full swing. In addition to the actual practices (14 hours per week), there is also a lot of time spent on commuting to the pool (60 minutes from work in weeknight rush hour, 30 minutes from home later in the evening or on weekends) selecting and editing music, choreography, parent meetings, coaches' meetings, administrative meetings, and costume design.

Yes, we do design all of our own swimwear. We've got 64 swimmers on the team, and over half of them swim more than one routine. So, that's a lot of suits, probably around 100 custom made swimsuits per year! The girls all get measured and the suits are sewn to fit.

We start with this ...

It's a book full of fabric swatches with all of this seson's available fabrics. We then sketch out a design, send it to the suitmaker for pricing, then adjust the design to fit our budget!! She sews the suits, and we (coaches, swimmers, and parents) come up with embellishments, usually sequins, rhinestones, beads, and other trim.

Here's an example of the suits, once they are all done. Sorry for the blacked out faces -- I never post images of swimmers that can be identified, at least not without parental permission. You never know what kind of crazies are out there.

This is one of the simpler suits -- the only embellishments are the rhinestones on the neck and straps, and some sequins where the different fabrics meet up.

For some really great suits, check out the Netherlands Synchro website. The site is a little confusing to navigate, but has great photos. Like this one, or this one, both of which are Canadian duets. Imagine the time that goes into making those suits ... each color is a different piece of fabric or nude colored mesh, all stitched together and then sequinned and rhinestoned.

As you might expect, since I enjoy socks and other small gauge knit projects, I also like the little sequins, beads, and rhinestones! More photos to follow as we get our suits worked up for the year...