ravelympics report - day 11

Three down, lots to go.

So after I finished the Divine Hat I got back to knitting Traveling Woman. I finally finished at 1:30 am last Friday! Lots of rave reviews about the color, but it desperately needs to be blocked:



Close up of the lace:


I earned 3 medals for this FO!


(well I got this one twice, once for the Divine Hat too)

Tonight I finished another hat project called the Slouchy Hat. Usually I look terribly in slouchy beret-type hats, but this hat is made of alpaca. I'll make it work :)



PS - Taking a photo of a hat that's on my head, from the side to get a good view of the slouchy? Not easy.

ravelympics report - day 5

Some of you may recall from Thursday's post...

Proposed project schedule:
2/12-2/14 Traveling Woman & Citron
2/15 - both Divine hats
2/16 - 2/18 - the Elegant Ribbed Stockings
2/19 - 2/21 - FLS
2/22 - 2/25 - Bella's Mitts
2/25 - 2/28 - Maple and Wrenna

So far I am way off the pace. Sigh.
Saturday night I worked on the Slouchy Hat and Traveling Woman.

The Slouchy hat came with me to Chavi's to watch The Wiz with some friends. OMG. That movie is nothing like the play and very trippy to watch. Anyways, the hat is coming along just fine - except it's not slouchy. I started on the recommended size 6 needle, but I went up to a 7 instead of the 8 the pattern calls for because I usually knit loosely. Well anyways, end result = no slouch. By Sunday afternoon I was up to the decreases for the top, but I decided Monday that I need to rip back about 30 rows and use the size 8s the pattern calls for. Oh well, lesson learned!

The Traveling Woman was coming along fine... until I hit row 9 of the second repeat of the lace chart A, and realized that in the first repeat I'd used row 9 of the lace chart B the first time through. Majorly demoralizing! Sunday my friend Emm1e talked me through it. It's not a glaring mistake, and I'm just repeating it in each repeat of Chart A so it looks uniform (because I'm OCD).



Anyways, right now I'm up to the 4th repeat of chart A. I'm doing 4 or 5 repeats of A before the single repeat of B (and binding off). I hope to be done tomorrow, realistically by the weekend is do-able.

Yesterday I crocheted about 1.5 divine hats. I started one on the Subway to Manhattan, where I met O to do a mini yarn-crawl. That would be the .5 - because I dropped the hook on the way home, and although I wrapped it in napkins and will wash it thoroughly before using it again, there was simply no way I was going to use it unwashed.

The yarn crawl was awesome! It was great to see O!! We went to School Products first, where I got some lace yarn for a reworked Citron (the original yarn choice is not a good fit). O got some cashmere that I won't talk about b/c it's for people. Then we both got 1lb cones of Jute (yellow for me, Navy for O) to make these cute crocheted bags - there was a sample in the store and the lyso told me how to recreate it.

Next we walked downtown to the Lion Brand Yarn Studio. Despite the lowbrow rep that Lion Brand Yarns might have, it's really really really worth a trip. O got some LB Baby Alpaca, and we both got some of the LB Wool with Stainless Steel to try different projects - knitted scarf for O, crocheted necklace for me. I also picked up a couple things for my Reducio package - house unity stitchmarkers and a mini sock blocker keychain.

Monday night was the big Ravelympics meetup slash hat race at Panera. It was fun!! R finished a Ravelympics project already - a very pretty Ear Sweater in blues and black. B and M brought WIPs to show us. Ph finished a Divine Hat-inspired cowl she is designing called - what else? - Intervention! Lol. Ch wasn't doing the Ravelympics thing, but she brought a Sock Monkey to work on.

M, Ph, B and I all worked on Divine Hats, and although M and I came close (under 2 rows left) nobody finished theirs before leaving Panera. I finished mine quickly after arriving home, so I present my Ravelympics 2010 Team Uniform:



This morning I logged onto Ravelry to find that I had been awarded a medal for finishing the Hat Half-Pipe!!!


Ravthletes are also awarded a special Ravatar:

ravelympics training

Ravelympics to do list:
Write up project schedule
Print out all patterns (in duplicate)
Pull Ravelympics yarn from stash (so it's easy to find)
Arrange for period well-being checks from a local knitter (because a non-knitter might miss-interpret the yarnbarf and have me committed)
Grocery store: stock up on hot chocolate, tangerines, bread, honey and peanut butter.

Ravelympics project list (so far):
February Lady Sweater in Nashua Focus Superwash - Emerald Green (b-day gift from Gryffinitter!)
Wrenna in Rowan Biggy Print - hot pink
Citron in BMFA STR Rare Gem - purple/red
Maple (possibly more than 1) in Chaco - colors tbd
Bella's Mitts in Louet Riverstone - Aqua
Elegant Ribbed Stockings in Louet Gems Worsted - Neptune
Traveling Woman in Dream In Color Stardust - Firefrost
Divine Hat (2+) in Chaco - colors tbd

On the fence:
Arden in WOTA Bulky - Red and Black
I bought the kit and want to knit it, but I worry that the colorwork will slow me down too much.

I am SO excited for the Ravelympics, it's not even funny. Of course I tell non-knitters I am excited for the Olympics but I really mean Ravelympics. Although I do like watching the Olympics on TV. I'm especially looking forward to the Cross Country Skiing, because I just started doing it last year and I love it. So I want to see how the pros do it, because I'm sure I'm doing it wrong, lol. And of course the Figure Skating, Snow Boarding, and Skiing are great to watch. Especially the Figure Skating!

As for strategy, I think I should get a few projects out of the way before I hit the February Lady Sweater. The Divine Hats, Stockings, Maple, and Bella's Mitts are the most portable so I'll save those for when I am out of the house. I also want to have FLS be my first sweater, so I think I will start with Traveling Woman and Citron the first weekend, then do the FLS, and anchor my big projects with Wrenna - which is Super Bulky and should be good for the final stretch.

Proposed project schedule:
2/12-2/14 Traveling Woman & Citron
2/15 - both Divine hats
2/16 - 2/18 - the Elegant Ribbed Stockings
2/19 - 2/21 - FLS
2/22 - 2/25 - Bella's Mitts
2/25 - 2/28 - Maple and Wrenna

Ok, I just re-read that. I might be insane...

ETA: Crap! I forgot the Slouchy Hat with Picot Edge. Um... maybe I'll do that this weekend also. Because, you know, 2 shawls aren't enough.

reducio

Despite the snow, an hour ago an adorable little owl tapped its beak on my window. I didn't even catch his name before he flew off - he absolutely loved the snow - but he had an unbelievable package for me from Selina/ZTAgirlknits!


The little socks are so cute. I'm 90% sure I have a skein of the purple yarn (from Hobby Lobby, right?) so obviously the color is a hit too :) And I love love love the mini knitting bag!

Selina sent tons of little goodies:

Check out the house unity teabags! And the hot chocolate with chili sounds yummy :) And new Potter magnets for my collection! And the Slytheriny stitchmarkers - you probably can't see how awesome they are, but one even has a dragon.

Thanks Selina! I hope the package you receive is as excellent as the one you sent me.

snow photos

I'm working from home today so no day off, but the snow is beautiful outside my windows.
My kitchen window:


The building across the street. Can you see the huge snowflakes falling? It's great.


My air conditioner...


Aren't snow-covered trees beautiful?