The Games Have Begun

The 2012 London Olympics have started! And how about those opening ceremonies?! I thought they were excellent. Great Britain was able to emphasize history, tradition, culture and beauty meanwhile keeping the audience completely entertained. I enjoyed it very much. I can’t believe they are only 4 days in (omg 1/4 done with already?!) and I’ve already watched so many high points. Diving, swimming, cycling and gymnastics are what have really held my attention so far. There have been some major problems with the way NBC has been controlling coverage, which I won’t get into here. I do however feel that it’s not fair to take that out on the athletes who have worked so hard to get to where they are. I will continue to watch and support them throughout.

With the Olympics comes the Ravelym….. Ravellenic Games. During the opening ceremonies I cast on for two things, which I planned to share with you today. Surprisingly, I’m only sharing one… Because I’ve already finished the other one! So stay tuned till Friday!

I have my Finally Daybreak, as I’m calling it, on the needles. I’m so unbelievably happy with the color combo so far. With that said, I’m a bit nervous for when I reach the pop of bright green. It’s either going to look fantastic, or awful. I’m using Zauberball in the Bromberry color for my main color and the color way #2079 for my stripes. I can’t seem to find the name of the color and I guess it’s pretty rare. I think I’ve decided if I don’t like the green I’m just going to cut out the green bits since I love what I have so much! Why mess with a good thing, right? Hope you liked my WIP Wednesday post! Check out more!

Prep

WIP Wednesday!  I’ve been working on getting prepared for the Ravellenic Games this past week.  Never heard of them?  They used to be called the Ravelympics which coincides with The Olympics.  This year the people who are in charge were actually contacted by the Olympic Committee for use of the word Olympics.  So even if you never had heard of the Ravelympics, you may have come across an article on it this year since it made national news.  Here’s a NYTimes article about the controversy.  My personal opinion?  Well I have every bit of respect for trademarking.  But to me, the word Ravelympics is different than the word olympics.  And the tone they took with knitters/crocheters/spinners and the like was actually quite offensive.   I however, do not want to put Ravelry at any type of risk, so for Ravelry’s sake I’ll go along with this new name.   And as much as I would like to boycott the olympics this year, I’ve been looking forward to them way to much.  And the U.S.O.C. doesn’t speak for the athletes, right?  And they are the ones that worked so hard to compete for their country.   A lot of people in the knitting community have different takes on how they feel about the issue.  I’ve seen many people who have embraced this change and many people who call it “the games that shall not be named” or  ”the games formerly known as the Ravelympics” and other takes.

So by prepping I mainly mean organizing.  I’ve decided what projects I’m going to cast on during the games, what events they fit into, what yarn to use, and what needles to use.  That way I’m ready!  One other thing I’m doing?  Trying to finish up another project before it’s time for the opening ceremonies.  I’m hoping to get Grad Gift done, which is the Boneyard Shawl pattern.   I’d like to get it done ahead of time since it’s a gift for someone else and I don’t really want it on hold for a while.  I haven’t decided if I’m going to start some new spinning, but I do have some finished yarn to share Friday.  Don’t forget I’ll be doing a giveaway for my 200th post (this is my 194th!) so keep checking in!

Summer Hiatus

With no intentions to do so, I’ve pretty much been gone for two whole months! I can’t believe it and I really am going through blogging withdrawal. And I’ve been up to so much!! Although that’s what has kept me so busy and away, it has also given me so much to blog about. So I’m back for WIP Wednesday!

First of all, I’m in a new house. And that is the biggest WIP of all, right now. Trying to get things unpacked. And I don’t just want them out of the box like the last house. I’m going to be here for at least a few years, so now I’m really trying to methodically unpack. With everything in the right place, adding organization to my life, and for once, a little decoration too. So far I am absolutely loving living on a military post. The convenience of it all is so worth it! I have great neighbors, spouses who all go through the same thing as I do everyday. With that said….I have neighbors! Last house we were at the dead end of a not so great street on the outskirts of town. No one to really talk to around there. And we might be in a duplex this time, instead of a house, but I have yet to really hear the neighbors through the wall and we still have much more room!

Next up: Tour de France….which in turn, means Tour de Fleece. I’ve been participating for the first time this year, and I will have to set a much higher goal in the future. I apparently underestimated what I was capable of because I reached my goal in the first five days. So a few things to share from Tour de Fleece for FO Friday: keep a look out! I still have spun every day of the tour, have been documenting my progress through Instagram and plan to continue on that way till the end. Right now I’m working on spinning up some Schoppel Wolle Pencil Roving. I don’t know where I got it, but would love to get my hands on more!

Now finally onto knitting. I’m working on a few things right now. Currently trying to get Lavendel Socks done for my Aunt. They are her birthday present, which passed this week.

Also working on The Boneyard Shawl as a gift for a dear friend.

*ETA- sorry the formatting is kind of wonky.  Trying to adjust again!

Great Choice Readers

I have alot more to share this week than last weeks WIP Wednesday. I’ve done a bit of casting on. One of those projects was my Reader’s Choice Project. The final yarn pick is Cakewalk yarns in the Jam colorway with 39% of the vote, and the pattern picked is The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief with a whopping 58% of the vote. I must say I was overwhelmed with the amount of votes, especially how soon I got them. I kept the vote open for 1 week, but after the first day I was pretty sure what I’d be making. So I ordered beads (from Fire Mountain Gems and Beads)! I figured if I didn’t end up making The Age of Brass and Steam with the cakewalk yarn, I would just use the yarn for a different beaded shawl. I was right though! The results of the vote didn’t really change much throughout the week. I’ve cast-on and I’m very happy with the progress so far! I really like the yarn too, and I’m using the Superfloss method to add the beads. So a big thank you to everyone who voted because I think I’ll have a great project to show!

I’ve also cast-on for the Boneyard Shawl. I’m using Lang Yarns Tosca Light in a pink colorway. It has a very subtly gradient, and it’s almost like a heathered pink. I really love it. And I think the recipient will too, since it is a graduation gift. I cast back on for the Little Owls Jumper for the babe, and made some progress. I’ve knit quite a few inches, but it’s pretty boring stockinette stitch right now. I’ve made absolutely zero progress on the Lavendel Socks. I think this is because I’m “saving” them for my trip, since I really won’t have room in the diaper bag for much more than a small project bag.

Yarn & Wood

It’s finished object Friday! And I have two things to share with you! I’m very excited about this one. Mainly because I’ve wanted to knit the Hitchhiker for so long, and it’s finally done! I also have something to share, that I wasn’t expecting to be done.

First, the Hitchhiker pattern. I knit this up with some German sock yarn I had dyed. I didn’t realize till I finished that I didn’t have enough yarn. I think because the yarn is part cotton though, it made it very stretchy, so I’m kind of glad that I only was able to knit 35 out of the 42 teeth. As far as I’m concerned, it’s big enough! And I absolutely love my Hitchhiker Pat!

I also have had the supplies to make a “name plate” or sorts for Miss A’s bedroom wall. I started painting the letters this week. I didn’t expect to be done so soon, but I finished this morning! Mostly because my daughter decided to sleep for 10 hours last night, so I was up before her. So the letters are done, then I will be posting again when they are actually up on the wall.

Last Chance!

It’s been a while since I’ve had a normal blog post. And I feel like it’s been forever since I did a WIP Wednesday post. But it’s only been two weeks. Not really that long! I want to thank the 3 people who signed up for my Pay It Forward Handmade! I’m very excited, and think I’ve figured out the right gifts for everyone. I also want to thank everyone for visiting during Knit Crochet Blog Week. I got 35 comments and over 200 hits during the week. I also want to thank Eskimimi for hosting because although I had fun writing my posts I also very much enjoyed reading others, and found a few new blogs to follow.

Go check out the Photo Challenge finalists over at Eskimimi Makes and vote. I have to say that the photographers are very talented and all the finalists were amazing. Of course everyone did a great job, even people who weren’t nominated.

Speaking of Knit Crochet Blog Week, I’m reminding everyone that there are still two days till my voting closes for my “Reader’s Choice Project“. Go vote for which yarn and pattern I should work on next!

That was a little summary of recent events. Now onto WIP Wednesday; there isn’t very much on the needles at this moment. Nothing to show for. I cast-on Little Owls, ripped it out because it was too big, and recast-on. I’ve also still got Lavendel on the needles, but no progress is made. It looks just like last time. And Hitchhiker Pat is off the needles, so you’ll see that on Friday! Of course this means there might be a bit of startitis before next week’s post!

3KCBWDAY3 – My Knitting Hero(s)

Day 3 – Your Knitting Or Crochet Hero
Blog about someone in the fibre crafts who truly inspires you. There are not too many guidelines for this, it’s really about introducing your readers to someone who they might not know who is an inspiration to you. It might be a family member or friend, a specific designer or writer, indie dyer or another blogger. If you are writing about a knitting designer and you have knitted some of their designs, don’t forget to show them off. Remember to get permission from the owner if you wish to use another person’s pictures.

So today’s topic really got me thinking. In fact I really wasn’t sure who I would write about and even contemplated using today as my Wild Card day. I’ve thought about all the people who have influenced my development of knitting skills. There are alot of people who have greatly influenced my knitting, but what I tried to think of was if I would be greatly lacking if one of them wasn’t there to guide me. Truthfully though, as grateful as I am to everyone of them, I love the craft enough I would have found the help and inspiration elsewhere.

So I thought about what from my knitting life could be taken away and would have really effected my projects, my stash, and mostly my skill. And of course my brain instantly thought Ravelry! Ravelry has always been around since I was reintroduced to the craft of knitting, so I seem to have taken it for granted. I am on Ravelry every single day, looking at patterns, adding to my queue, keeping track of my stash, keeping track of my projects, connection with other knitters on the forums, discovering new yarns, podcasts and friends. I am the biggest advocate of Ravelry in fact and tell every knitter I know to get on Ravelry. It’s the best resource for knitters!

So where would I be without Ravelry? Well, I’m sure I would still be knitting but I’m not quite sure I would have anywhere near the same skill I have now. I know, I know, alot of women learned to knit and built their knitting skill without use of Ravelry, the internet and even books. But I’m just not built that way. I grew up using computers and my skills have developed as they did, so having things online just feeds my creativity.

Ravelry is a savior to my craft, which means my heros are the creators of Ravelry. Two people who I had never even thought about till this post (and I’m willing to bet many of my readers haven’t either). Their names are Jessica and Casey and I owe alot to them. So I’m taking this as an opportunity to say “Thank you both Jessica & Casey for creating the best knitting resource out there! I wouldn’t be the knitter I am today if it wasn’t for you both!”

Lots of Progress

I’ve been making great progress on my knitting the past month or so. I really feel like I have different things to talk about every week and an FO pretty often! Part of this progress I think is the motivation from Subway Knits for the Midwinter QAL which started Feb 1st and your FO’s have to be posted by April 30th. I’ve talked about most of my “entries” so far, but I think I’ve talked about Dad in Argyle the most because it has been on the needles for a while. It’s a golf club cover knitted holding Knit Picks Palette doubled. Last week I talked about the idea of using duplicate stitch on it, so that way I was knitting with 2 colors and not 3. I’m pretty glad I decided to try this out because I was pretty successful knitting it!A few tiny puckers here and there, but nothing much. Now I’ve started using the duplicate stitch which seems to be working pretty well, the hard part is just lining up the stitches correctly. Hopefully I’ll post about this project again on FO Friday!

I started a new pair of socks this week too. On some oh so dreamy Wollmeise in the Lavendel colorway which is such a gorgeous shade of purple. These socks are not for me. The yarn was picked out specifically to knit the Lilac Socks for my Aunt. Purple is her favorite color, and since she is from Rochester, NY which holds the annual Lilac Festival I thought this was a perfect combination for her. I’m hoping to finish them by the time I visit her in June. I just love working with Wollmeise….I can’t say that enough.

Last thing to talk about is my Hitchhiker Pat. I named it this since I dyed the yarn for St. Patrick’s Day in all greens. I wasn’t quite sure about it at the beginning, but I kept working as a friend suggested and it’s really starting to grow on me. I’ve grown to really like it and I’m half-way through the 42 “teeth” of the pattern.

That’s all the WIPs I have for WIP Wednesday, but I also got a blog award this week I wanted to talk about. Michelle from Will Knit For Food nominated me for The Versatile Blog Award! You should definitely go check out her blog! The following are the conditions for the award. I will post my nominations tomorrow since my post is now getting a bit lengthy.
Here are the conditions of The Versatile Blogger Award:

- Thank the person who gave you this award.
- Include a link to their blog.
- Next, select 15 bloggers that you follow regularly or have recently discovered.
- Nominate those bloggers for the Versatile blogger-award.
- Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

Lets Talk Duplicate

As I’ve already mentioned I have an Argyle Golf Club cover on the needles. I haven’t really worked on it since I passed the cuff. I’ll admit it, it’s intimidating. 3 colors at once scares me. I picked up the latest copy of Knit Scene (it’s definitely my favorite knitting magazine by far) and they just happened to have a section all about duplicate stitch. And what do they happen to use for an example? Argyle. So I’m thinking this might be my way to conquer this pattern. I’ll still be knitting with 2 colors at one time, so I’ll still be practicing with that. But I (hopefully) won’t have to pull it out 8 times because of puckering. I’ll keep you updated on the progress.
Hopefully I can take this:

To This:

More progress has been made on my Hitchhiker Pat and and I’ve been working on a Mother’s Day present as well which should be done shortly. I also had another project on the needles for Miss A, but I’ll be posting about that on FO Friday! Check out more WIP Wednesday posts and share the love!

Yarn Along: I haven’t talked about what I’ve been reading for a quite a while now. Mainly because it takes me so long to get through a book. The last book was The Hunger Games, and as good as it was, I must say I hope the next two in the series are better. It took me almost a month to read the first half of the book, but I read the second half in a week. To me a book shouldn’t take quite so long to get into, especially if the second half is so compelling! So yes, I liked the book, I’m glad I read it and I can’t wait to see the movie now. I also plan to read the rest. I am a bit surprised though at the ending. Not the way the “Games” ended but the way the book ended. I’m not sure why, I just didn’t think it was quite as exciting. Maybe I was expecting more of a cliffhanger ending than it had. Let me know your thoughts.

Happy Easter

I hope everyone has a Happy Easter! I’ve been prepping for guests and a cookout this evening. Already have the pie done! Miss Annabelle is dressed for the occasion.

Spent some time at the beginning of the weekend dyeing more yarn. I typically just dye yarn once a month, using the monthly theme of the Kool Way To Dye group on Ravelry. This months theme was Easter Egg colors, as in the kits you buy for Easter Eggs. I dyed my eggs then used the leftover dye for the yarn. I used a kettle dyeing type method. Put the yarn in a pot on low. Added each left over color, one at a time moving the yarn and dye a bit to blend instead of getting vivid color separation. There’s a lot of different colors but the blue and purple were mostly dominant. I’m not complaining though because I love the end result!