Monday, March 1, 2010

Ravelympics Results - Two out of Three Finished!

Well I was kind of waiting to get my official 'finished' icons, but I'm getting impatient. ;-)

This weekend consisted of lots of late night knitting - 11:30 and midnight for example. May not have been the best idea with lace knitting as there was also tinking involved. LOL There wasn't a lot of eating going on and a burned knitting finger due to trying to think ahead and make a pot of chili and cornbread for the weekend. I burned my finger from pulling out a 20 second warmed plastic bottle of honey from the microwave. I missed the dripped honey on the backside of the bottle and my left middle finger found it and after pulling it out of the micro, dropped it on the kitchen floor. There was also some hot honey splashing on the calves, but minor compared to the finger. It did get me out of washing dishes that night. Made it difficult to knit the rest of the evening with the band-aid on that finger.

Saturday I was up bright and early (for me) and knitting away again. By 5pm I was feeling over-optimistic that it would be after 9pm that night I would be ready to be casting off. Then came the hook check. I needed a size F and found my D and G (and several other sizes) but no F. I thought for sure I had one of these! Oh well, shower and clothes and with Brandon along went over to JoAnn's for a size F. Took along my current flier for 40% off and after checking out the aisle, the only size F - really there was only 1! Turned out to be a white plastic one. Not my first choice, but beggars and choosers are left with what they get. It was only .77 so not a lot of complaining.

Sunday again up bright and early and knitting. My late night reality adjustment said that I should be able to get done in time. By 5pm again I was getting down to the last row or two and realizing that I was close to binding off! Yippee! I was gong to get done way before midnight. I was starting the crocheted bind off around 6pm and was done by 8:30pm. Off to the bedroom to put it on the bed to do a pre-blocking photo:


From there it was off to the kitchen sink to do a nice soak in hot water and some grapefruit scented SOAK. Huge sigh of relief!  One down, one more to go.
While blocking:


 Doing the butterfly wings imitation:


ETA: I was just about to click on 'publish post' did a last check of the Podium and found this waiting for me!
I had one sock left to do. Wait! You didn't know about the sock incident because I've been tied up with sticks and strings and not at the computer. I had gotten past the short row heel, tested that the socks did indeed fit and was working the leg. I was almost done with the legs when I realized that somehow on one of the socks I had gotten one of the lattice charts off:

Just a little too obvious that things aren't going well here. So I popped the sock off of the two circulars and on to a holder (that was a trick in itself!) and finished up the one sock. So now with the shawl complete it was time to deal with my problem sock.

Turns out that one of the advantages of cotton sock yarn is that its a little stiff and the stitches don't want to just fall down on themselves. So it was a pretty simple feat to get the circulars back on the live stitches, redo that bad row and go on. I was only going to do three pattern repeats and then the ribbing - easypeasy. I was done with the second sock and all ends woven in by 10:30pm. More celebrations!
 
I've been advised to check the color fastness of the yarn, so I'll wash them and see how they come out. I'm sure Jennifer will be happy with them as a Christmas gift. You may have also noticed I have leftovers. I have enough that I can knit her another pair of socks for her birthday. She did express delight at getting them at Christmas so definitely on the list of sock-worthy people. ;-)

(Waiting for the one for the shawl still, Bobicus is on overload I'm sure, so still trying for that patience thing - have any to share?)
I also added both of these into the Yarn Harlot's Olympics competition. Last I saw alphabetically I was there.

Still here? The third entry? Well that was the spinning. I only got an hour of spinning the first Wednesday, a good part of the day last Saturday and four hours this last Wednesday. What does that all mean? I was able to get two ounces of the yak-merino spun up on one bobbin:
Since I was done with the sock at 10:30, I had a bit of time to do some more spinning. Pulled up the wheel and while watching the Closing Ceremonies (thankfully recorded, so fast forward could happen) I was able to add to a started bobbin to finish up with this:
 
I have 1.4 ounces left to spin up. I have sore shoulders and wrists, I might have been a bit tense trying to get things finished. ;-) So I'm spending the next few days relaxing and spinning the rest of the yak-merino.
How did you do?

4 comments:

  1. I did well because I didn't join in the Ravelympics fun this time so no stress there, lol. But, I have been pretty productive, so maybe I could have.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a speed demon you are. Your knitting and spinning are amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! You accomplished so much! That shawl is just gorgeous! Sorry about your finger - that's totally something I would do. And my husband can tell you about my crochet hook rants against WalMart - the only way you can get the size hook you need is to buy the multi-pack! I was so ticked, I put it back and refused to buy anything! Now our WM doesn't even carry fabric/fiber supplies.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Elizabeth and Linda!

    Robyn, you always have the next one. :-)

    ReplyDelete