FO: Claudia hat

This project was a last-minute addition to my Ravelympics repertoire and got me a medal in the "Hat Half-Pipe" event.

Pattern: Claudia by MJ Kim
Started: February 26, 2010
Finished: February 27, 2010

Yarn: less than 1 skein of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Solids & Heathers (80% Acrylic, 20% Wool; 197 yds per 85 g ball) in "Rose Heather"
Needles: #5 for most of the hat; #4 for the CO and fancy-ness

I saw this hat on Thursday night at my knitting group and *loved* it. On Friday I decided to use some stash yarn to knit one up for myself. I feel less guilty now about how easily I finished my Ravelympics socks...

This is the nicest hat I've knit, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. During the decreases, I could have k2tog a bit tighter but I think it turned out great. If I make this hat again, I'll learn how to cable without a cable needle. I was too busy watching tv to learn a new technique. ;)

FO: Sunday Swing Socks

My Ravelympics 2010 project is done! These socks were entered in the "WIPs-Dancing" event, as you can see from the snazzy medal I just received.

Pattern: Sunday Swing Socks by Kristel Nyberg
Source: Knitty, Summer 2009
Started: August 19, 2009 (in Nice, France)
Finished: February 20, 2010 (during two man bobsled)

Size: Women's medium
Yarn: 240 yds of Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label Fingering Weight yarn (80% Superwash Merino Wool, 20% Nylon; 400 yds per 115 g ball) in "Peacock"
Needles: #1 dpns

This pattern is from the Summer 2009 issue of Knitty. It was easy to follow and went by really quickly. (That's saying a lot because socks usually take me forever and a day to make.)

The toes fit especially well, and the color is really pretty in person. I only strayed once from the pattern; it said to pull the yarn through the 8 live stitches to close the toe, but I did Kitchener stitch.

I knitted them in front of the TV--Olympics, of course--and finished the first one during the pairs figure skating event and the second one during two man bobsled. In between, the socks and I saw men's figure skating, various skiing & skating events, and ice dancing.

Ravelry is awesome

Most knitters know that Ravelry is completely awesome. Until recently, I'd been obsessed with it for searching for patterns, seeing what others are working on, looking for pattern help/errata, etc.

Additional Reason #1: About a month ago, I found a small group of young knitters who wanted to get together right up the street from my house. We now meet once a week and I always have a great time. (Last week I also got a lot of Ravelympics knitting done and soon I'll learn how to crochet.)

Additional Reason #2: A couple of weeks ago, someone contacted me because she saw my stash contained a 1/2 ball of yarn in her dye lot. I was happy to help and mailed it off. To my surprise, she wanted to thank me by sending yarn back my way. Look at the fabulous yarn she gave me.

The two skeins of Schoeller Stahl Fortissima Socka yarn in "Wine" will become Oliver socks for Dennis. The hank of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Mediumweight yarn in "River Rocked" will become socks for me. Roseann is awesome, and very generous!!

I got the yarn the other day and spent a long time looking for patterns on Ravelry. If I'd voted in the Bobby Awards before today, I would have found the Database of Sock Patterns that was nominated for Most Educational Post/Thread. Educational indeed! I promptly voted for them and joined their group. (I also found some really cool patterns while voting.)

Thinking ahead

I'm stressing out about non-knitting things, which always makes me start queuing projects. Not sure why that happens...

• My husband requested some socks. Plan to cast on for "Oliver" as soon as possible.


• I have a few weddings coming up. Think I might knit a "Triangular Summer Shawl" for them. I have plenty of black Zephyr Wool-Silk. Must get myself to the library and check out the book!


• Also at the top of my queue: Jared Flood's "Turn a Square" hat.


• The "Olympic Reindeer Hat" is pretty cool (I love Ravelry) and I'm wondering if I can knit it up before the cold weather goes away. Seems unlikely...

Ravelympics

The Winter Olympics--and Ravelympics 2010--started on Friday night! At first I planned to participate in the "Lace Luge" but decided that was a bit insane based on my schedule. Instead I looked through my WIPs to find the one most worthy of being finished by February 28.

The winner? The Sunday Swing Socks I was supposed to have knitted when I was in Spain & France over the summer. They're entered in the "WIPs-Dancing" event.

<--Here is what they looked like as of 2/12/10. I barely did any knitting in Europe and had finished only the first cuff by the end December. (One of the requirements for projects entered in this event is that they've been untouched since mid-January.)

The yarn is gorgeous and I'm excited to be knitting it up. It usually takes me forever to knit socks so I thought the Ravelympics would be a good incentive for me to finish this pair quickly.

I only knitted one round during the opening ceremonies because we were at our friends' house, but the next evening and night I knitted for a ridiculous amount of time and managed to finish 2/3 of a sock. Today I knitted a bit more in front of the TV and...finished the first sock!!!! Woohoo!

(Sock #2 will take me much longer since I have to go back to work and complete the first deadline for my MA thesis.)

FO: Crofter's Cowl

Pattern: "Crofter's Cowl" by Gudrun Johnston
Source: Ravelry [link]
Started: January 28, 2010
Finished: February 2, 2010
Gifted: February 12, 2010
Dimensions: 8.5" wide x 9" tall
Yarn: 1/2 skein of Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted [100% Merino Wool; 216 yds per 3.5 oz skein] in #23 - "Pagoda" (color "30 1 2")
Needles: US #7

I knitted this cowl for my friend's 30th birthday present and gave it to her today.

The color is beautiful in person but hard to photograph. Hope she likes it! :)

Pre-Ravelympics Update

This is the last post I'll have on these projects until after the Ravelympics.

1. Girasole. I am still in love with this project and it's going to be hard for me to neglect it until February 28th.
   
   As you can see, the blanket and I had a bit of a disagreement over Chart C. I was knitting along and came across a missed YO. Since it was just one stitch, and my lifeline was so far back, I fudged it and continued on my merry way. This was a bad idea; a few rows later I realized that the disruption to the design was too much for perfectionist me to live with and tinked (for those non-knitters reading this, that means unknit stitch by stitch...very time-consuming) 3 or 4 rounds of who-knows-how-many stitches. In the process, I realized that I made three mistakes in that round and that's why it looked so bad. Must have gotten distracted by the tv during that part! I am now done with Chart C and a lifeline is in place.



2. Quilted Diamond Vest. At last night's knit night I finished the back of this vest so the project is officially 50% done. I've only been working on it while at Panera so it's slow going.

I heart Girasole

After knitting a third swatch, I decided to knit my blanket on #10 needles. I liked the way all three (9, 10, 10.5) came out and figured the 10 was a compromise.

I knitted the cast on, Chart A, and six knit rounds on #9 needles because I don't have #10 dpns. At that point I slipped my 80 stitches over to my #10 circ, put in a lifeline, took this --> picture, and went to bed.

Girasole is a large circle, and you knit it from the center out to the edges. I was nervous about this construction because I tried something like this before and failed miserably. This time went much better, thanks to this video.

I'm moving right along and have been having fun knitting Charts B and C. I like that the pattern changes dramatically from chart to chart; it keeps it interesting. About halfway through Chart C, after some challenging k4tog's, I put in a lifeline because it would be devastating to have knitted that much and then make an un-tinkable mistake. Ok, that's a bit dramatic but the rounds are taking longer and longer to complete...

My first ball of yarn lasted up until round 18 of Chart C, at which point I got to try out the spit join Jared mentioned at the lace class I attended. So far, so good. It was nice not to have an end dangling and to have such a smooth transition between balls of yarn.

This pattern is fun, relatively easy, and very beautiful. It's so hard for me to put it down! I don't know how I'll feel when each round has a zillion sts but for now I'm really enjoying myself.