Finish Line

Earlier this week I doubted that I would get this blanket done on time. But with a little motivation from Zuzu...



and Brisco...



I kept plugging away. By Wednesday I was able to finish piecing them together (show below at the the half way point, when I had finished putting them in rows).



Today, thanks to Skylar's patience and contentment with hanging out in her swing, I was able to finish up the border and cross the Ravelympics WIPs Finish line!



The final product as modeled by the lovely Skylar:

Ravelympics after 1 week

We’re one week into the Winter games and Ravelympics, and I have some marginal progress on the blanket. I’ve knit two of the three additional squares, and have started on the third.

Bob Costas Commentary:

In a surprising development, Shannon experienced two false starts on that third square. She took the risk of not swatching with this one, and really is paying the price in this competition. This move, forgoing the swatch, isn’t normal for this knitter and one could say the pressure to get it done under the deadline guided this ultimately fruitless move. She’s put herself behind the game and should know better than to try to take such erratic shortcuts.

In between the knitting I’ve also gotten some good headway with the crochet borders on the other squares. So far I have finished the double crochet border on 13 of the 24 squares. Once I get the borders on, I’ll join them to each other with a slip stitch.

With nine days remaining, She’s really going to need to pick up the pace if she wants to make a showing at Ravelympics this year. We saw Shannon compete successfully in several events the 2008 summer Ravelympics games, however this is by far one of the biggest undertakings that she has ever done. Stay tuned as we see if she’ll be able to hold up under the pressure of this event.

Oh Canada!

I got a great start on the first of the remaining three blanket squares during the Olympic opening ceremony last night (as well as a great start on a good gin & tonic buzz - note the pink cheeks... apparently after nearly a year without booze I no longer have the tolerance of the Irish. Give it time).



And today during Skylar's nap I was able to get the mitered square finished. One down, two to go, then the joining will begin!



Who knows, I may actually be able to pull off finishing this blanket by the end of the Olympics.

Makin' Memories

This isn’t a knitting project, but I’m proud of it nonetheless. While waiting to start my Ravelympics project I’ve painted a memory box for Skylar (all that remains to do is the gloss coating, but that first requires an outing to the craft store – perhaps tomorrow?).

Having lost my Birth Mom at a young age, I’ve always felt the importance of holding onto keepsakes and cherishing memories. Over the years I’ve had several memory boxes to hold the various trinkets and letters which for one reason or another are important to a child. I know that in my own way I have tried to hold onto those bits of my life that I worry I might otherwise forget. Those treasures are still boxed up somewhere in my Aunt-Mom’s attic where they have resided since I packed up my childhood room and went off to college. Perhaps someday soon it might be time to dig up these treasures again.

Nonetheless, with Skylar’s birth I realized that I already have some neat things that she might want to have for some future time – her hospital band, sweet letters and cards from family and friends, and a bracelet and locket which belonged to my Birth Mom and were given to me for Skylar at her birth by my Aunt-Mom.

Normally something like this wouldn’t take me too long to finish, but with the stop and go nature of being home with a two month old it took about a week to paint all of the butterflies. Here I am in all of my multi-tasking glory:

Whoops! How did that las pic get in here? Ah, well, that’s one of my secrets to good crafting, a nice glass of Yellow Tail.

Ravelympics 2010

We’re closing in on the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics, which for knitters also means the start of Ravelympics, where we challenge ourselves to start and complete various projects during the span of the Olympic games (for more information, check out the Ravelry Group). During the 2008 summer games I competed in quite a few events, all of which were smallish projects such as hats and dog sweaters

This Olympics, I’m taking on a bigger challenge – the completion of the Knit Knack group blanket (Previously referred to as the Great Square Extravaganza). To recap, this was a great idea that was proposed in the spring of 2008 by the wonderful KellyD. The idea was simple: Those that wanted to participate would complete a 10 x 10 square for each of the other participants and mail it to them. When all squares were received and then assembled each participating member would have a blanket made by the entire group.

We had lofty dreams of getting it finished by the end of the summer – oh were we mistaken.

Nearly two years later there are still group members who did not finish and send out their promised squares and have no intention of doing so. Fortunately, I have enough of the squares to make a decent go at completing the blanket, so I’m taking a giant leap and entering the blanket into the WIPS-dancing event this Ravelympics. Here's what I have so far:

This is going to be an especially big undertaking for me for two reasons:

1) I’ve determined that the best way to affix the squares to each other would be to crochet them. I am a lousy and slow crocheter.

2) Upon laying out the squares that I have, I discovered that I still am 3 squares and assembly shy of a full blanket. This means that prior to beginning the joining, I have to knit those 10 x 10 squares myself.

I considered the possibility of cheating and knitting those last three squares secretly prior to the opening ceremony but that would be akin to ‘roiding. I can’t abide the unsportsmanlike conduct and therefore I am resisting that temptation.

I’m actually relishing the idea of this challenge, because at the very least it will give me a jumpstart on finishing this awesome blanket. Really, even if I don’t get it finished by the end of the winter games at the very least I’ll be that much closer to a full blanket!

Tunic or Not Tunic, that is the Question

With the Knit Knackers on Ravelry I’m doing a loosely structured KAL. We all couldn’t decide on one single pattern to work on, so we picked from a list of patterns to work on simultaneously. I choose the Coffee Tunic.

This has turned into a perfect project for late night pumping because it has simple to follow directions which don’t have to be referenced often and it’s easy enough to work on in low light (ie, a night light). I’m not too fond of the decreases right now, but I’m going to go ahead and work them as the pattern is written. I fell in love with the increases and decreases on the Twist & Shout sweater and think that something like that would be much more streamline. Here's how the decreases look as written:

Many other Ravelers noted that they originally cast on 224 stitches instead of 220 then increasing 4 stitches after the initial ribbing. I did not, a fact that I discovered later would have made my life easier. I really struggled with figuring out to increase the stitches without messing up the established ribbing. As many suggested (and I ignored) there really is no reason NOT to start with 224 stitches. So future knitters of this pattern, take heed and cast on the larger number!

Despite these two parts, I'm really enjoying this project and it is inspiring in me the want to design and make more tunics like it. I know, hold my horses, I’m not even half way finished with it, but the basic framework for a tunic worked in the round is awesomely simple in construction and has the potential for a lot of variety. I can play around with colors and cables, as well as the decreases and neckline, and I don’t even need to worry about sleeves. It doesn’t get much better than that, my friends!

Little Did I Know...

It’s been a while since I’ve updated Knitosphere because of a major change in my life, the addition of my daughter Skylar Sheree. Whoa nelly has the world changed since she entered our lives on December third! Yup, that concept of “everything is going to change” is a cliché for a reason.

The biggest change that I did not expect was how little knitting time I would actually have. In all sincerity I actually thought that I would have more time for knitting while on maternity leave. Oh my blissfully naivety! Images of me happily knitting while my cherub suckled at my breast were replaced with the frustrating reality that it takes two hands and a lot of false starts to get a hungry screaming baby latched on, then continual monitoring because she is a “bad eater.” (La Leche Leaguers relax, no need to give me advice, I have been working with a lactation specialist). This wasn’t the only knitting bubble that was burst – I also imagined that I would be able to knit while Skylar napped. Ha! Turns out that nap time isn’t just for baby!

Now, nearly 8 weeks later I am finally finding my knitter groove, one little row at a time. Sure, it’s not as much knitting as I had anticipated, but I am pleasantly surprised with the progress that I am able to make in small bursts while I pump breast milk or hold a sleeping baby in my arms - that one took a little bit of figuring out on my part, Proof that it works: