The Line Up

My plan for the Ravellenic Games is to use stash yarns for everything.  I have a habit of getting really excited about a project, buying the yarn for it, and then letting it sit in the closet.  All of the projects that I'm planning to finish are yarns from the stash and patterns that I've wanted to make for quite a while.

First up is the Guernsey Wrap (Rav link) by Jared Flood.  I am making it out of the recommended Shelter yarn in the Long Johns colorway.

The second is a baby cardigan, the Puerperium Cardigan (Rav link) by Kelly Brooker.  I'm using Sweater by Spud and Chloe.  I've had this yarn since last fall, and I actually started the cardigan using it (so I know it will work) but frogged it because, well, because of a long story that is really not that interesting.  But it made sense to me at the time, and even though the cardigan was turning out well, I ripped.

Frosty watching over the yarn.  Or looking for other dogs out the window.

Next up is a one-skein cowl.  I bookmarked Cherry Garcia (Rav link) when cowls first "came back" in style.  I think the pattern I have in my library was copied out in 2008.  I think I ordered this yarn for it in the fall of 2010.  This should be a really quick knit.  One evening, maybe two.  It is cables, after all.

For the WIPs wrestling category, I chose a little baby sweater that I've had on the needles since last spring.  It is about halfway finished, and I just ran out of steam.  Should be a cute little thing when it is finished, though.

If for some reason, I start knitting like the wind and get all four of these finished, I have a couple more projects in mind.  I'm over halfway through the first project, thanks to a storm this past weekend keeping us in on Saturday night and Mike writing a paper for class that kept us in on Sunday.  Lots of Olympic viewing and knitting.

My First Event

My first entry into the Ravellenic Games is the Guernsey Wrap (Rav link) by Jared Flood.  I am making it in Shelter, in the Long Johns colorway.

Six lovely skeins

I joined Team Fibre Space because that is where I bought this yarn, over a year and half ago.  And to be quite honest, all this was last minute.  I had tried to "do" the Rav Games before, last winter Olympics (when everyone still called it the Knitting Olympics or the Ravolympics).  I didn't finish.  In fact, the piece still isn't finished, although it is further than I remembered.  I only have to weave the ends in, which is something I discovered when I went looking for it for the Rav Games' "wips wrestling" category.  (Not entering it in that, as I feel that only have to weave in the ends means that it really is kind of "done" and not really a "work in progress" anymore.  And I'm entering something else.)

But anyway, I've wanted to do this as a means to challenge myself.  I want to do some things, knit-wise, and I think this is a good way to get me out of my stockinette sock knitting rut.  There are so many nice things that I want to knit, and I keep waiting until I am a better (read: perfect) knitter.  I mean, why spend so much money on the yarn if my knitting is not good enough for the finished product?  I'll just do socks, I reason, thinking that no one looks at feet anyway.  Here's the thing:  I *am* a good knitter.  Am I the best?  No.  I'm better than some, not as good as others.  But it is a skill, I have it, and I need to take pride in that.  Or, as I've been known to say to others, not hide that light under a barrel.

Progress report:  I am on the second skein of yarn and through the first chart once.  I have six skeins of yarn because I had read that many people were needing the sixth, even though the pattern only called for five.  (Actually, I think that newer versions of the pattern call for six.)  From where I am right now, and based on how much yarn I've used so far, I think I will need that last skein.

Pictures tomorrow, due to internet issues.

Let the games begin!

I've copied my patterns and gathered my supplies.  I've got wine in the fridge and the DVR set to action.  I am ready!

Yes, I'm "competing" in the Ravellenic Games.  I've got four projects/events I'm entering.  I think that is a bit ambitious, but one is a WIP.  More details on this tomorrow, because another of my goals during the games is to update this site every day.  Not always knitting, but trying to branch out a bit.

Right now I have 37 minutes to finish getting dinner ready and park myself in front of the television, knitting needles in hand and pause button ready (for the tricky parts of the pattern that I just can't put down) because the opening ceremonies wait for no man (or yarn)!

The knitting bag is ready! Are you?

This is my knitting on drugs

A couple days before the Fourth of July, I cracked a tooth.  It had been a long time coming, as that particular tooth has been having problems for over a year and the problems had been getting worse for the last six weeks or so.  And finally, on a Saturday, it split. 

I have never felt such excruciating pain as that.  Ever.  It seriously brought me to my knees, crying.  I think on Saturday I took about thirty ibuprofen, maybe more.  Same on Sunday.  On Monday I got into the dentist and although the dentist didn't fix it right then, I am now on the road to getting it fixed.  And, thankfully, the pain has been managed.

But, while I was in pain, I was working on a pair of socks.  These socks.

Notice anything?  Do you think I was a bit tense when I was working on the second sock?  My aunt Mary Beth, when she saw this picture, thought that I was using a different skein.  Nope, same skein.  Just a completely different tension.

However, by the time I got to the foot, I had some nicer medicine and was no longer in terrible pain so the tension reverted back to just about matching the first sock.

These socks are just for me, so I don't see any point in fixing them.  And anyway, there isn't anything to fix.  This is what happens when things aren't mass produced.  They have a bit of character, and a story.