Ravelympics: Day One

So I've been scheming, fondling yarn, reading and re-reading instructions to identify possibly tricky bits, swatching, and mostly coming down with Olympic fever for the past few weeks. And yesterday, I finally got to cast on for my Olympic knitting project, the Natalie Coat from Big Girl Knits.


If you haven't heard of the knitting olympics (really?), you can read up all about the original event here and this year's Ravelympics event here. Basically, the idea is to knit something personally challenging during the olympics, starting when the flame is lit and ending 17 days later before the flame is extinguished. My personal challenge: a grown-up knee-length sweater coat for my sis.


I generally don't have the knitting stamina and commitment required to knit the gazillion stitches in an adult garment (which is why they are a rarity on this here blog). Put another way: the last sweater I knit for my man took me over a year to complete! So a coat in 17 days: totally challenging ;0)

Though day one has been very sucessful! I knit for 12 hours and managed to knit 16 inches of the back section and work through 3 (of the required 18) balls of the glorious Filatura Di Crosa Andina in a camel colourway.

You might have noticed my snazzy Olympic timer in the sidebar. A gift from my geeky hubby. If you would like one for your blog, just go into your template and add the following code where you would like the timer to appear:

<div id="knitolympics">Olympic Countdown Timer</div>
<script language="javascript" src="http://jujubeandlolo.com/olympics/timer.js"></script>

That's it! The timer is set to GMT so should be accurate regardless of your time zone.

Happy knitting!

Jury's still out...but I think I like it!!!

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions about the fruity scarf I showed you last time. I finished it last night and after a good blocking and a fifty-ways-to-wear-a-really-long-skinny-scarf session in front of the laundry room mirror, this psychadelic Easter scarf is really starting to grow on me...


So I'm going to hold off on dying it for a little while to see if I fall in love with it's fruitiness come spring. The pattern is chevron scarf from Joelle Hoverson's Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It calls for 4 skeins of sock weight yarn total, but I only used 2 and ended up with a 74" scarf (just 3 inches shy of the 77" the pattern calls for). I used one skein of Knit Picks Sock Memories in paper dolls and the other in the hawaii colourway and knit the whole thing in 4 days using my very favouritest Crystal Palace bamboo straights in US 5 (they're the short-ish 8 inch ones with the balls on top pictured in my last post).


I love those needles so much which is strange really, because I usually don't feel comfortable using straight needles at all. But there's something about these that just feels so right that I can not put them down. This is a quality that makes these perfect for scarf knitting, a project that can get tedious really fast. But not with these babies!


Though to come back to the scarf, I must say that this very simple pattern (4 rows, 3 of which are just plain old stockinette) was completely addictive to knit in and of itself (if you've ever considered it and then decided not to make one because of the sock weight yarn, go for it, it's actually knit on US 5 needles so even though it's sock yarn, it comes together pretty quickly). I love the little scallop effect it creates at the ends of the scarves too. As I laid it out for it's photo session, I noticed that the little scallop at the top would be just right for a mitten top. So naturally, I had to cast on for a pair....

And now for something completely different! Jujube and Lolo playing tennis in the street with their toddler buddies from across the street (their dad is a Canadian tennis champ in the 35 and over category)! This was the first time they took over the street and Stephen and I got such a kick out of it. There's nothing cuter than tots with rackets ;0)

One last thing...did you sign up for the Ravelympics yet? You have to sign up before AUGUST 7 to participate officially. I'll be competing in the Sweater Sprint event. I'll tell you more about my project when I cast on dunring Friday's opening ceremonies ... it's so exciting!!!

One fruity scarf

So the Olympics are coming in a few days and since I had nothing on the needles and since I can't start my Natalie Coat (I'm knitting it as a present for my sister as my official Ravelympics project) I thought why not use up some stash yarn and cast on a simple and mindless project...


Meet my chevron scarf. The pattern is from "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" and while I would not normally knit a 77 inch scarf out of sock yarn (!), somehow I felt compelled to rescue a bunch of skeins of Knit Picks Sock Memories sock yarn from the "what was I thinking" section of my stash arrangement.

The colours look nice on their own (they are paper dolls and hawaii), but combined together in the two-row stipes called for in the pattern... I REALLY REALLY HATE THE COLOURS!

I started it late at night by the incandescent bulb of my night stand lamp and it didn't look too too bad in the orangy light...but come morning, ouch! The colour is not my cup of tea at all. It's sooo Fruit Loopy, but not in a good way. I considered frogging the 10 inches I had already done. But then I figured I wouldn't want socks knit out of this stuff either so I kept going. And going. And going. The whole time hating the colour more and more.

Then it hit me: Kool-Aid! I've never tried dying yarn. And I certainly haven't tried overdying a scarf knit from sock yarn before cause let's face it - that just sounds crazy! But I think that's what I'm actually going to do.

I googled overdying and have already decided to go for Kool-Aid or Wilton cake dye since I want to use cooking utensils and will be cooking the scarf indoors where we will all be smelling the dye aromas for a while.

But other than that I've got nothing! Anyone have any tips, resources, and advice to share? I'd especially appreciate colour suggestions ;0)

Please help me save this scarf...

Slacker blogger in the hizzle!

Well it's definately summer now and that means there has been a lot less knitting than usual, and a lot less blogging too. But there has been lots of fun in the sun with my growing boys:

But let's not get crazy. There has also been a lot of knitting too...just lots and lots of samples for a new pattern I'm still not quite ready to release yet. I can't wait to show you what I've been up too.


All I need now are a sunny day for pretty pics, a working camera, and a willing husband to do the web magic. And it all has to come together before the Olympics because I sure have picked out a challenging project. Actually I still can't decide whether it's "challenging" or "loopy" but either way I'm committed to making it. More about it next time ;0

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer (but secretly looking forward to winter) like me!