Ravelympics: Days 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16!

Oh my! Has it really been that long? And to think I was on a roll with two posts in one week! Well, let me catch you up with my Olympic knitting: meet the lovely and completed right on time, Natalie Coat...


The pattern by Libby Baker is from Big Girl Knits. I knit the smallest size (not sure without looking at the book whether it is large or extra large), using 17 balls of Filatura Di Crosa Andina in camel and US 9 bamboo needles.


The pattern was smooth sailing until I got to the second front on day 7. I did well at first knitting up to the waist shaping. But when I laid it down next to the other front piece, the daisy stitch bands didn't quite look symmetrical and so I ripped back about a foot and a bit! Ouch!


Demotivated a bit by the ripping, I found it hard to pick it up again and since I was doing really good on time, I allowed myself to procrastinate for a few days while partaking with fun-filled vacation activities with my boys, watching lots and lots of CBC and SRC Olympic coverage and mostly hanging with my honey and enjoying spending so much time together.


But it was back to the needles with a fury on day 13 and I finished that second front that evening. I seamed it all up on day 15 and completed the collar on day 16 just in time to claim my spot on the podium and accept my award.



Yay !!!

Oh, and of course the cheering robots Stephen and I made with the boys and hung in plain view of my knitting spot helped me bring it all home


Oh, and Simon Whitfield provided some awesome inspiration too...watching him make his way back in contention in the final minutes of the triathlon and bringing home the Silver was my highlight of the games and watching team mate Colin Jenkins' enthusiastic last place finish is an olympic moment I will not too soon forget!

Forget Jacques Rogge, these were the best games ever!

Ravelympics: Days 5 and 6

So my loving husband surprised me by arranging for two full weeks of vacation during the games to care for kids while I knit. And it is his support that has made all the difference. Having him on board has meant guiltless hours of knitting while he feeds and entertains our little guys. He's even been getting up early with them so that I can catch up on some zzz's after long knitting sprints watching olympic morning on the CBC until 3 am for the past few nights.


So given my progress, I thought we all deserved a little break on day 5 for a day out with my sister and brother-in-law. So I left the needles and yarn by the couch and off we went to a historical site in my hometown of Terrebonne, Quebec: L'ile des moulins.


We had such a great afternoon (despite the occasional rain cloud) taking in the coolness of this park from my kids perspective: there are little walking bridges, mini-falls, ponds with ducks and fountains, lots of green spaces under a lush canopy of maples with big rocks poking out of the ground.


Oh, and there was ice cream too while we waited for the rain to pass. It was really great. And I totally forgot about the knitting...


...until I got home and realised a whole day had gone by with wary a stitch! So I cast on for the left front late on day 5 after the kidlets were in bed. Unfortunately, mentally keeping track of all the pattern rows and multiple shapings while cheering for the Canadian divers competing in the men's 3m synchro event meant a lot of head scratching moments and frogging. Turns out those two are not compatible tasks and the diving was more interesting than the knitting so day 5, while a great vacation day spent with the family, was a total knitting bust. Then the story on day 6 was all about sleeping! All those late nights finally caught up with me and I slept in until 11 and napped away the afternoon with the boys.

I did manage to kick it back into high gear late in the evening again though just in time to finish the left front of my Natalie Coat while watching the men's all around gymnastics competition. Another 3 balls of yarn and a 3 am bedtime for this knitter ;0)

...but with just one front and collar left to knit (oh, and all that seaming of course!), it looks like we'll be able to pay daddy back for all his efforts with more vacation fun next week. Cause I sure am going to owe him big when my games are done!

Ravelympics: Days 3 and 4

While daddy and the boys were hanging around and learning important life lessons (here's a pic of them reading "How to behave and why", a classic by Munro Leaf - I think ;0)



I continued to make strides on my Olympic knitting project, knitting a sleeve on day 3 (while attending a barbecue at Stephen's sister, no less), and another on day 4, stopping only to bake pumpkin muffins with the boys in the morning and again for an evening ice cream outing with all our neighbourhood buddies. So that's 1 back and 2 sleeves completed! Yay, mommy!!!



Now on to the fronts...

Ravelympics: Day two

No way!


That's the finished back of my jacket in all it's 37" long, 22" wide, and blocking glory. I am in utter shock! This is my fastest knitting performance ever. Watching swimming helps apparently.

The riveting competition keeps my mind off the boring-ness of stockinette and the length of this jacket. Case in point, I only stopped to measure my progress twice today (when knitting this much stockinette, I usually feel compelled to measure oh, I don't know, every inch and a half ;0)

Specs for day two: 21 inches and 3 balls of yarn!!!

Coaching support: hubby made breakfast, took us out for lunch and picked up dinner. Plus he brought the boys outside to play after their naps so I could knit quietly. Oh, he also read library books and put them to bed. And yes, ladies, he is already married to this lucky mom and knitter! How I heart that man ;0)