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!