Olympics Complete

So I noticed that I called my last post Super Tuesday. Yeah, that was a big mistake, as it was Monday when I posted it. Duh. I've no defence for that one, other than it was Monday and I don't function on a Monday.

Anyway, my Ravelympics are over. I've just finished my last item, my Baby Bog Jacket.
This is the front:

The back:

And a close up of the cutsie buttons:

Pattern: Baby Bog Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann, from Knitting Around.
Yarn: Patons Baby Fab from stash
Needles: 4mm
I misplaced the stripe and it ended up on the back, but I think it still looks ok.
Also the Icord along the front drove me NUTS. It must have taken me about 6 goes to get it looking right. I'll admit the sweater was thrown to the corner of the room amidst much swearing this afternoon at one stage. But, tantrums aside, I managed to finish it.
I'm not claiming this was anywhere near my best project, it's far from perfect, but I learnt a lot while making it. Although I was so thankful for the DVD of Knitting Around. I must have watched the Baby Bog episode at least 7 or 8 times at various points in the project. Thanks, Meg for being such a good teacher!

It has bagged me another 3 medals; Sweaterboard Cross, Junior Olympics and Compulsory Stash Dance. That brings my haul for these games to 6. Not too bad, I think!

I wonder could I whip up anything else between now and 8am Monday morning Irish time, when the Olympics finish???
Nah I don't think so. I have a hot date with my Bex socks and my Myrtle Leaf Lace Shawl.

See you again in 2 more years, Ravelympics.

Super Tuesday

Today is definitely a Super Tuesday. I arrived home from work to a bountious mailbox!

My first parcel was the Winter Vogue (Designer) Knitting issue. I haven't read it yet, it awaits a cup of tea.
BTW, what is it with the different name here? Surely Vogue Knitting would be a better brand name than Designer Knitting?

Then I opened the second parcel. My stitch markers from ScaryMerry!
Packaged in a lovely sparkly box:

And then the goodies inside!
The excitement! I squeed, I'll tell you.
Cutie patootie sheepies:

Don't you just love the little rebel black one? I'm calling him Baaart!

And my daughters favourite (no suprise here) Hello...Bad Kitty:

Aren't they just the best stitch markers EVER? I'm totally in love with them.

And surrounded by sparkly bits, one of which was a shamrock. So appropriate.

They are going on my Baby Bog jacket immediately.

Speaking of Baby Bog, I gave in and abandoned the Myrtle Leaf Shawl for the Ravelympics and cast on the Baby Bog.

I'm halfway through:

I know, it looks like nothing at all. That's the beauty of EZ. One or two folds and it will morph into a baby jacket. I'm going to icord a red border onto it, and maybe stick in a red stripe just below the shoulder. It's for a boy, so that should be nice, right?

So Ravelympics continues, we have until Sunday to finish. How are your projects coming along?

Oh, I almost forgot, I wore my Norwegian Snail Mittens this morning, it was FREEZING, and my hands were as snug as a bug in, well, a pair of scrummy Alpaca mittens. :)

Medal Powah

I haz the colourwork and Olympic knitting skillz!

I've finished the mittens! I'm soo happy to have completed my first Ravelympics project.

They're also my first stranded colourwork project and I'm really pleased with them. No puckering and the floats are nice and even at the back, my fingers don't catch in them at all!

The front:

The back:

The mittens once washed and blocking:

I didn't know what to block them with, so I ended up using the legs of my sock blockers. Ingenuity.

You can really see how the yarn bloomed once washed, they look really hairy. I hope they don't get too hairy, that would really annoy me. I'd end up picking off the hairs all the time :)

Anyway, pattern details:

Pattern: Norwegian Snail Mittens by Adrian Bizilia, from The Knitters Book of Yarn. In fact, this pattern was the reason I bought the book.

Yarn: Garnstudio Drops Alpaca, about 3/4 of a skein each of the cream & pink, and only a smidge of the green.

Needles: 2.75mm dpns

It took me 3 tries to get these mittens to fit me, the pattern calls for 2mm needles, but the 2.75 is fine, nice and snug.

I can't wait to wear these on Monday for the cold drive to work! I love wearing mittens when driving, my hands are lovely and snug and protected from the cold steering wheel!

Overall I think these are a goody.

Plus, I've won two medals! I entered these into the Mittens Moguls and Nordic Colourwork Combined events.

I've also started on my lace entry, the Myrtle Leaf Shawl with Willow Border from Victorian Lace Today.

I must be mad, this sucker is HUGE.

My progress so far:

I tried to stretch it out a bit so you can almost make out the pattern:

It's ok, I think. I've done 19 out of 40 repeats on the body, but I've also to do a knitted on border too.

It's difficult enough, there's lace action on both sides of this one.

Hmm I don't think I'm going to cross the finish line with this one. There's only 8 days left to go. I'm sleep deprived as it is!

I wonder should I abandon it in favour of a baby pattern that I know I'd finish?

Maybe I will. I'd love to make a Baby Bog Jacket...

Once again though, I think I am smokin'!

Semi-finalist

I'm through to the semi-finals of the Mitten Mogul & Nordic Colourwork events.
I've finished my first Norwegian Snail Mitten:

Isn't it yummy? I'm very happy with my first ever colourwork project. No puckering in sight!

And they're really soft too.

I haven't done the duplicate stitch on the snail eyes & on a few other stitches yet, I've tried at least 5 times and I can't get it. Nothing I try looks like a proper duplicate stitch. I'll try a couple more times & if no joy then I think I'll just leave them out. We'll see.

I've also started the Myrtle Leaf Shawl and it's going really well. It's an easy enough pattern, even if there is lace on both side rows. Pics next post.

Nothing much else to report, Dads colonoscopy didn't work so he has to go back again on March 11. Poor guy.

I've just been knitting furiously, occasionally putting the needles down in order to sleep and go to work.

I'm watching the womens downhill right now, so I better go back to the mittens, or will I do some more lace??

My poor Bex socks are languishing, and they will stay in timeout until the Olympics are over.

Oh, for any Blanchardstown knitters reading this, we're moving our knit night from the library to the Starbucks a couple of doors up from it from next week.

Good knitting!

Travelicious!

Yeah baby, I'm a regular Phileas Fogg.
I'm off to London! I booked my courses for Knit Nation!

I'm flying over on Thursday morning, wandering the streets like a hobo for a while, visiting IKnit (although I must steel myself against any yarn purchases) and then I'm off to Avenue Q in the West End on Thurs night!
I'm doing an all day class with Cookie A on design your own top down socks on Friday, and hitting the marketplace for yarny goodness (Wollmeise!!) afterwards, with no activity planned yet for Fri night. Perhaps a few drinkies?
I'm doing All About Stranding with Anna Zilboorg on Saturday morning, so hopefully I'll be better at stranded knitting afterwards! Then I'm zooming back to the West End to catch the matinee showing of Wicked and zooming back to the airport to fly home!
My only disappointment is that I'll miss the Ravelry party on Saturday night, but it's not worth staying an extra night for.
Phew!
I still don't have anywhere to stay but that's ok. I'll find somewhere!
I'm really excited, and quite a bit scared too. I've never done anything like this on my own before. I'm also nervous I'll look a bit of a pillock going to musicals on my own. But what the heck!
BionicLaura is going over too, and we're taking the same stranded knitting class, so it'll be good to see a friendly face.

No knitting worth seeing, the Bex sock progresses very slowly. I've nothing else going on in preparation for the Ravelympics on Friday.
Although I think we Irish knitters should do something Irish for the Ravelympics in sympathy with the Irish Womens Bobsleigh team.
It's still unsure that they will get to compete at all, see here.
First the Australians moan that it's not fair that they don't get to compete and we should be omitted, now the Brazilians are saying we should be kicked out. I feel sorry for those girls, sitting in the Olympic Village not knowing if they will get to compete or not.
Maybe we could knit something specific? Hmm. Anyway, I hope if they get to compete that you will support them!

Now on to sadder news.
R.I.P. Capt Phil Harris from Deadliest Catch.

Gone too soon. I love this show, have watched it since day 1.
Which says a lot for someone with a crab phobia!
I watched Phils health decline for the last season. It's very sad, he was only 53. Such a vital and funny man, and a great Dad to his sons that were on his boat with him.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dilis.

I'm in the hospital for the rest of the week with Mam & Dad.
Dad has a colonoscopy tomorrow (ouch) and Mam is back with the Dermatologist on Friday.
I really hope Dad is ok and they don't find anything nasty wrong with him. Say a prayer for him.
He's been so sick with his bowels for the last while, I'm very nervous about it. I've to stay overnight with him too as he'll be getting a general anesthetic, so fun times ahead.
No such worries about Mam, this appointment should be ok, her feet are a million times better. Of course, she won't see it that way, it'll be the end of the world having to go to the hospital. Sigh.


Good knitting!

Making Plans & finishing the dreaded socks

Hurrah! I finished the Lace and Cable socks! On Jan 31st to be precise, thank goodness. What a slog they were to finish. It must be my least liked pattern for a long while.

Pattern: Lace and Cable Socks from Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson
Needles: 2.5mm dpn
Yarn: Koigu Premium Merino, 2 skeins

Yeah. The less said about them the better. Although the yarn is nice and soft. We'll see how they get on.

So, my prize from The Constant Knitter arrived yesterday. Yummy Garnstudio Drops Alpaca:
2 skeins of pink

2 skeins of cream

and one skein of a really dark foresty/mossy green.

Yum! Thanks Rosemary!

I'm going to make these mittens (I hope)

Norwegian Snail Mittens from the Knitters Book of Yarn, by Clara Parkes, to replace my poor dead Druid Mittens.

Aren't they yum? I've loved them ever since I saw the ones Aileen made, which prompted me to rush out and buy the book in the first place. I hope I've picked nice colours!

I knew I wouldn't last until the Ravelympics to cast on something, so I succumbed to the beauty that is Bex socks from Sock Innovation by Cookie A.

I don't know why I torment myself with such difficult patterns, but *sigh* aren't they just gorgeous? I'm using Brown Sheep Nature Spun Fingering for them in a fabulous jewel shaded tone of green. Just lush.

Speaking of Cookie A, I think I may be heading to Knit Nation in July! I was originally going to go to the UK Knit Camp in Scotland, but to be honest, funds would be too tight and I prefer the classes at Knit Nation. It's in London, so flights will be cheaper, and the classes I want to do are on Friday & Saturday.

One of the clinchers is that Wollmeise will have a stall at the marketplace! whee!

So, if I'm sneaky, I could fly over on Thursday evening after work, and maybe catch a west end show and a visit to iKnit! I'm thinking of going to Avenue Q. I've wanted to see this show for AGES. Muppet type puppets, filthy humour & music. What more could you want?

The classes I'm thinking of taking are Estonian Lace with Nancy Bush (Nancy Bush!!) and Design your own cuff down socks with Cookie A (cooookie! I'm singing the cookie monster song right now)

My dream was to go to Rhinebeck on my way to Florida, but I'm not sure I could pull that off this year. Maybe next year, if I cross everything.

Good knitting!