Simone Smith

Woo hoo! Another Olympic medal for the Aussies... in Skelegurumi. I watched the Skeleton, and I must say, I'm happy to do the "knitting version". hehe.
.
These are for a wedding present for Brad and Simone. My 'girl' one is on the right. She has a longer line of decreases under her chin because of my inability to read the instructions properly... She also has a loose bit of stitch under her nose, which I will fix. I wonder if she needs a little lace veil?
.

I sat in Stockland again, finishing her off while eating turkey sandwiches, iced coffee and FT chocolate. (It's expensive chocolate, but worth it, and very guilt free! I'm going to buy it instead of regular as much as possible, because I joined this. ) Took stuffing this time, but the center closed at 9. I went over to Mum and Dad's (to feed the dog while they're away) and watched their TV while I finished her. Except the eyes and nose. I wanted to compare the two and make their eyes the same, so she was finished this morning.

One more event to go... Mitten Moguls. I've got until Monday afternoon; that's about 50 hours. Probably only about 8 knitting hours, though, if I'm lucky. My gorgeous little kids tend to start fighting when I pick up my knitting, and when they're asleep it's apparently Zachary's turn for my full attention! I was tempted to start some easier mittens (if rewriting a pattern for a long cabled mitten is easier) but it kind of defeats the purpose of choosing projects at the start and then trying to finish them.

.

Now, on with the knitting...

Day 11!?

It's Feb 23 ... just past midnight... which means it's day 11 of the Ravelympics!!
.
[deep breath]
.
ok.
.
I've done the ribbing and 37 rows of the Winter Twilight Mitts chart. It's tight, because I pull the yarn around the back too tight. I'm hoping a good blocking will stretch it out, and if not... I'm sure they'll make a nice present. But there are only 6 or 7 more days of the Ravelympics left, and I'm not sure I can finish these and the Smiths. So I decided to shelf this one until Mrs. Smith is done. At least that way I'll have two events completed instead of one and two halves!
.


When I bought that Juliet from WFF, Jasmine was just starting to crawl! lol. At least I did get around to it eventually :D
.

Brad Smith

This is where I go on my evening off each week; my dear hubby comes home from work and I run off to the shopping centre. I try not to do a lot of actual shopping ($$) but lucky for me, Stockland thought it would be nice to put some random lounge rooms all around the place. And look; what's that little thing in the pot plant....?
.


It's Mr. Smith Ü
.

This is the table at the food court where I actually sat tonight, working on the last bit of Mr. Smith while having turkey and cheese sandwiches and iced coffee.
.
Here he is, headless and inside out. The rows of spikes are just knitted together with a row of body here and there...
.

Inverted...

Peeking out of my little knitting bag. What a cute face! I forgot to take some stuffing, but I found a little bag of it in Kmart. Then I worked on my Twilight Twilight mitt for a while...
.


It's looking tight for the Ravelympic challenge; tight, as in "I think I need to stop playing on the computer because I don't have time!!!" lol.
.
Of course, there's always time for a little distraction. This distraction is Karin's fault for posting this sock picture ;) . It's 120g of sock wool, basically just chucked into a pot of green food dye and vinegarred water and poked down a bit and cooked. I'm going to try knitting DK socks with two strands together... some time in the future...
.

Green Green Green ÜÜÜ

Downhill Dyeing is an Event, as it happens, so I entered my distraction in it and got my blog-'medal':

hehe

Day 4

It's Day 4 of the Winter Olympics, and the easiest of my three events has been successfully completed. I'm pretty sure it will fit, but I'm wondering if another inch would have made it a better length. I also thought the whole thing might have been too tight, but after giving the cast on a bit of a steam, it relaxed itself into oblivion, almost. Now I'm wondering if it's a bit loose... we'll soon see. My niece's birthday is in another week.
.
I've made a good start on Mr. Smith. I looked up You Tube (as a fellow Ravthlete advised) to see how a disappearing circular cast on was done. That was very helpful! I disappearing-circular-cast-on-ed my little echidna's butt, and started increasing. Ysolda has you stopping periodically to make these little spikes...
.

...and then knit them on to the body...

So far I've done 5, which is half. The yarn is a bit too splitty for my knitpicks needles, but it's so nice that I can't even complain about it in my head. It's polworth and silk, soft and shiny.

.

I also made a start on the Twilight mitts, mainly because I was losing my place in the spikes so often (as happens regularly when you own three kids under three Ü). I just needed something a bit more mindless, and black ribbing seemed like just the thing. Haven't taken a photo. It's a pathetically small amount.

.

Meanwhile, to compensate for the lack of knitting pictures (in spite of all the knitting) here's an old jumper I made before Byron was born, which is now fitting Jasmine.

.

If you think wool jumpers and bare feet are an odd mix, it's to match the odd Summer weather, which has my heater on in the morning and the air conditioner in the afternoon ;)

.

Summer Winter Knitting Olympics

The Ravelympics must seem pretty bizarre to your average non-knitter. I know my hubby looked a bit amused by the whole idea. But tomorrow I'm looking forward to representing my country in three Olympic knitting events, even though the opening ceremony is on the other side of the world, and it's the Winter Olympics, although it's Summer here.
.

Tomorrow actually means "after two sleeps" (it's 1am on Friday morning, but the torch gets lit 1pm Saturday avo in our time). I just gave Zachary yet another bottle... he's going to catchup to his brother in a few months at this rate ;) ...that's why I'm not asleep.
.
Here are my Ravelympics 2010 events, ready to go!


On the left is some Sean Sheep (a nice acrylic/tencel mix like Zhivago) and some semi-solid pink alpaca from Wired For Fibre. It's going to become a hat for my niece, Sarah, who's birthday is coming up soon, and I'm planning to do another "Robin's Egg Blue Hat". They're cute. This is for the Hat Halfpipe, and I think I can manage it in a few days.
.
At the bottom is some Polworth Silk I picked up at the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Festival last year. It's going to become "Mr and Mrs Smith", a pair of Ysolda's "Smith" Hedgehogs (only mine will be echidnas) for an upcoming wedding. They like echidnas. I changed my mind a lot about the colors, but in the end I decided I just want to use this soft silky stuff for something! Toys are knitted in the "Skelegurami" event.
.
At the top is a skein of Wired For Fibre sock yarn (with wool, nylon and bamboo) in a color called Twilight. It (and the contrast black) are for a pair of Winter Twilight mitts. I have no idea if I'll have any time left after the Skelegurami, but these will take the longest, I bet, and I'm hoping to have a good week to dedicate to the "Mittens Moguls" event... I'll need it. I have a lot of nice fingering weight yarn (certainly not as much as some, though) and had a hard time choosing. Eventually the name (Twilight mitts in twilight) decided it. The pinks and greens and blues are pretty subtle, and it looks grey from a distance, but that will probably just make the mittens more wearable.
.
I almost chose this yellow, which wouldn't have matched anything I own. lol. I bought a batch of BWM yarn this week: 600g of Luxury 8ply in brownish shades (thinking of the Smiths) and a 200g ball of cream Luxury 4ply for the sole pleasure of doing this with it:
.


Good old vinegar and food dye. One day I'll get some proper dye, when I get sick of my attempts at brown turning into a color that reminds me of half-ripe tomatoes :P ... and my attempts at black/grey/white yarn turning blue as it exhausts, but for now I'm happy. Actually quite like the tomato one, and the black/blue/white will make interesting little striped socks, I think. Also made some semisolid pink and yellow. Didn't mean to make canary yellow, but apparently that's what the yarn wanted to be Ü
.
While waiting for the Ravelympics to start, I have actually been knitting on my old Vivian, which I started at the end of 2008! One sleeve is finished and the other is started. There are about 15 more rows of body to do, too, and then they'll all join and carry on up. Since starting this I have had another baby, and will need to get back into a much better shape before wearing it. lol. My tentative plan is to wear it to Bendigo this year.
.

.
And here is Zach, testing out his jumper. It's too big (note rolled sleeves) but should be great by the time it's actually cold here. Love the color (another Wired For Fibre). Must save some cash to get more for my birthday Ü... I'm using it all up!
.

Blogger tells me this is my 100th post on Knitterings! Triple Digits! How have I managed to write so much about knitting so little? :-D