Time flies when you're knitting!

WOW! I Can't believe I haven't had time to post about my Ravelympics adventures yet! Well, I've been very busy knitting like a maniac trying to get as many projects completed as possible! Believe it or not, I'm a LOT slower in real life than I am in my mind! I'm WAY WAY behind on my spreadsheet! According to that I should've been done with everything by Saturday! LOL!!!! Oh well, it's all for fun anyway huh? And I'm having a great time! Here's a run down of how it's gone.
Day 1: Got up "early" (about 7:00am) to cast on, completed a Dayflower washcloth:

Then I took this Alpaca Fleece:
And carded it up into these lovely batts:
And spun up this yarn:
And knit these gloves. But don't let me fool you, gloves take a LOT of time to knit! All those sillly little fingers are so fiddly! So it actually took me all of day 2, and part of day 3 to complete these gloves. But it'll all have been worth it this winter when it's freezing outside and my new gloves can keep my hands toasty warm! :)
So Day 3, which was a Sunday, and therefore knitting was not high on the priority list I completed less than my needed 2.65 (or whatever) projects per day needed to actually complete everything by the end of the games. There's a reason I joined the Hopelessly Overcommited team though you know! Anyway, on day 3 I finished the gloves in the morning, and then Cast on some lovely socks that I knit out of a great bamboo/merino/nylon yarn that I hand dyed. This will be a new base for my shop when I can get some more in. But like gloves socks also take longer than one would think, and I didn't even knit toes! (though secretly I'd like to one day!) So day 3, 4 and 5 I worked on these:
And this cute hat:
And this Swiffer Wet Jet cover:
And I was on a roll, and really far behind! So, I knit these washcloths on my USM Knitting machine, and crocheted a border around them. The verigated yarn is Sugar 'n' Cream cotton yarn, the green is cotton yarn I hand dyed.


Then on day 6, I knit these mittens from the top down, I really like this pattern! There's no grafting at the top, and NO seaming!
And that evening I cast on this lovely preemie hat that will be donated to the NICU where my twins stayed for the first 11 days of their lives. Every day I was there they always had a different adorable tiny hat to wear, and every single one was hand knit by someone who would never meet my boys, and I thought that one day I'd like to donate some adorable hats too because every baby needs an adorable hat! So here's one of what I hope will be many.
I finished the hat on day 7, and then cast on this purse:
I don't really know what I'll do with it, but I'm sure it'll be a gift for someone who wants/needs a fuzzy purse. I just thought it'd be fun to knit, and it was! It does remind me a bit of a sesame street monster though LOL! I knit this one with wool yarn held together with eyelash yarn, and felted it in the washer to shrink it and make it more sturdy, though it didn't felt quite as much as I wanted due to the eyelash yarn. But it sure is soft and fuzzy! hehe.

I also knit these UGLY mittens on my knitting machine on day 7. I was trying to make up the pattern as I went, and they didn't really turn out, but I'm keeping them anyway because my 3yo won't care that they're ugly, she'll just love them because they're pink! And she'll loose them so quickly anyway that I won't care when they're lost because they're ugly. And this was a learning experience. It really is worth it to go to more trouble when machine knitting because if you don't your mittens will look like this!

Well, that purse took more than a day too, so day 8 was spent finishing up the purse.


Day 9 was rather productive! I started by figuring out how to knit a preemie hat FASTER! I mean they're SO tiny! Why should it take so long? So I fiddled around with needles and yarn and gauge swatches a bit, and came up with this hat:

I plan to post this hat pattern as a free patter on my blog when the games end I have a chance to type it up. I doubt that posting my scribbles about gague and whatnot would be very easy to follow! LOL!

So after the hat was done I knit up another washcloth:

This was a quick easy pattern made all the more wonderful with some striping cotton sugar 'n' cream yarn. And it went so quickly that I immediatley casted on these wrist wamers. They're so soft! I knit them out of Bamboo which I LOVE because it's kinda shiny, and very soft and smooth. These I think will be a gift for someone... Can't tell who! hehe
Well those wrist warmers pretty much finished up up day 9 for me.

So on day 10, also a Sunday I picked up these socks that had been a WIP (work in progress) for a long time! Socks knit on size 1 needles work up slowly, so I did not finish them on day 10 even though they were 1/2 done when I picked them up. BUT on day 11 (that would be today) I finished them up! And I'm wearing them on my very happy feet!

And then I spun up this lovely sparkly yarn from fiber I'd blended up on my home made hackle. It is an un-known wool/coopsworth/firestar blend. .6oz, 35yds. And it was a great fun, quick spin! I think this one will end up in my shop with my next update.
And that is all that I have completed thus far in my ravelympics journey. Oh, but I've gotten medals (aka: really cool pic/files) to show off for completing these. I'll have to show those off another day because I don't have them neat and orderly. I think I'll show you all of them when the games end.

And now I'm REALLY far behind!!! So I must be off to cast on something new! Happy knitting!

*Phew!* what a tour!

Well, the tour de fleece has finished up, and I apologize for not posting pictures of what I did as they came off the wheel. I just go so caught up in spinning that I couldn't stop! I finished several yarns, but I haven't taken a picture of all of them just yet. I'll add that one later I guess. So while I didn't get as much done as I would have liked (I would like to spin a pound a day, but I'm nowhere near that happening!) I got through about a pound and a half of fiber, and spun many many yards! I also spun many different fibers! Not as many as I would have liked, but still there were several. And I learned how to spin lace singles! I spun alpaca, cotton, wool, silk caps, tussah silk, merino, coopsworth, firestar (I now love this stuff!), tencel, and soysilk. Um I think that may be all.

Yay! Here is the picture of what I completed durring the Tour De Fleece. I completed 9 yarns, 2 mini skeins, some spindle singles that will be dyed later, and a bunch of silk caps singles that will be plied with something at some point. There is a total of over 1800 yards of finishd yarn which is over a mile! With a total of over 2600 yards of singles spun durring the tour, which is over a mile and a half!




And in other news, Ravelry (a knitting and crochet online community) is hosting the first ever ravelympics! This is an event that coincides with the olympics; where knitters, crocheters, and spinners who are members of Ravelry can participate in knitting/crocheting, and spinning events for the fun of it. Everyone who completes an event will get a "medal"(aka a picture file of a medal or something) I think, and it's not really a competition, but I think it'll be LOTS of fun!! So I joined a team called "Hopelessly Overcommitted" and in order to live up to my team name have signed up for 43 items in many various events such as:
Designers Discus-for this event I plan to design a hat with hand spun, hand dyed yarn, and felt it, this will be a gift, so I may not post pictures.

Fantasy DecKnitathalon-this one is for those of us that can dream up FAR more projects than we can complete. I think maybe most of my projects belong here?

Felted Freestyle-for felted items, I'm putting the hat, and maybe a purse here (I need to add that one to my projects I think)

Fleece to Finished Fencing- for taking a project from fleece to spun to a finished knit item this will be some gloves knit from alpaca fleece

Glove Decathlon- gloves from above

Gift Knits Pentathlon- I put the gift hat here, though many of these items may end up as gifts

Hand-Dyed Hurdles-this is for dyeing yarn or knitting with hand dyed yarn, I have a few hand dyed yarns I plan to use to knit socks.

Handspun Heptathlon-for spinning yarn, I have 5 planned. The description also said for items knit with hand spun yarn, but this is now being debated. Either way I'll have some projects for this event.

Hat Dash-for hats, besides the gift one I have at least 5 more of these planned as well.

Home-Stuff Hammer throw-things for the home, I'm doing washcloths, and a swiffer cover.

Mitten Medley-for mittens, I think I have about 7 pair planned!

Shawl Relay-for shawls, I hope to get to this one, but it's also in the fantasy event just in case!

Sock Put-for socks of coarse. I have 2 pair planned

WIPs Wrestling-this is for completing items that have already been started (WIP=work in progress). I have a pair of socks, and a hat in this event.

The rules are so nice and friendly that they let you put one item into many events, which is why I have so many items in more than one event.

I know this sounds like a lot to knit in 17 days, and it IS! I've never completed this much in 17 days! LOL!! But I have to keep up to my team name, and I have a fear of running out of projects! This way I'll be sure to always have something to work on. And I made a spreadsheet! Everything fits on the spreadsheet in just 7 days! So if the spreadsheet says it can be done surely it can't lie right? So we'll see. I think I may be too busy to post too terribly much during the event, but I'll try to give at least an update or 2 during it. I can't wait to start casting on!


Happy Knitting!