I made it!

Literally!

Ravelympic Haruha Scarf

So admittedly this is a picture of my scarf still in it’s blocking stages, but I just wanted to show off my completed Ravelympics project to the world, along with my medals.

Not only did I manage to finish, but I did it with time to spare after crossing the finish line on 21August. This is a great achievement I reckon and I feel like I did myself proud (I wonder if Olympians feel the same way?).

I loved taking part in this ‘competition’ (for want of a better word. It was the taking part that we did it for. Well that and an awesome jpeg!), but I wouldn’t want to knit all of my projects this way as I feel like I missed out on the actual knitting part of it.

Now that the games are over I’ve gone back to my other WIPs and managed to complete my Jaywalker socks (woohoo!), and have even made a few more triangles for my baby blanket (not that it’s anywhere near finished yet).

I’m going to be going to I Knit day at the end of the week, one of the rewards (along with Ally Pally!) I would get for burning up my stash, but part of me just wants to carry on burning up what I already have, instead of adding more yarn to my collection. However that part is greatly outweighed by the part of me that wants to go, so I’m getting all excited instead. I hope I’ll be sensible about what I get this time though, as I’ve still got a few bits from my last venture that are still unsure of their destiny.

I’ve also managed to use up a small amount of yarn that’s been sitting in my stash since forever too recently, as part of a gift for a birthday. I’m pretty sure that yarn might have been from one of the first projects I ever made (not including the projects made from the yarn that came with my Klutz book). It makes me all nostalgic and annoyed at the same time, as the yarn was used for a scarf which came out too short, and has now visible (to me) mistakes on it. I don’t want to chuck it out though (I’m far too sentimental it seems!), so it will sit in my stash until it is all used up into something else.

Anyway, on with the knitting and thanks for reading!

Ravelympic entry

So to mark the 2008 Olympics, some lovely people on Ravelry teamed up to conjure up the Ravelympics.

The rules: To start and finish a knitted item during the summer games. The only condition is that the project needs to be something that will challenge you (it’s not really that big a deal if it’s just something you can do in an afternoon in front of the TV).

I’m currently competing with Team S&B London in the Laceweight Long Jump and the Scarf Stroke with my project the Haruha Scarf. Only 2 days into the games, and I’m quite proud of how much I’ve completed so far! It currently measures 15 inches unstretched (and I think it will need a severe blocking when I’m done knitting).

Which brings me to blocking wires. Why are they so expensive and obscure to find?! I’ve currently been using the ’stretch string’ method, but I find that it tends to come ‘in’ at the middle of the pieces needing blocking which can only be remedied by placing a pin to get it back in place, therefore creating a scallop which is what I wanted to avoid in the first place. I’ve searched around for some welding rods, which are considerably cheaper, but not managed to find any at the hardware stores. If you’re in the market to donate any blocking wires get in touch! (although I don’t recall seeing any blue moons lately….)

I’ll be off at my festival (FINALLY) in a few days, so I don’t expect I’ll be able to post for a while, but I hope the next time might show me at the knitted ‘finish line’ with my scarf held high! Until then thanks for reading!