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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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:
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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
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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.
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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!
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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