Ravelympics/Olympics Come to an End

The Olympic torch has gone out. The Olympics have ended. Let us shed a tear of sadness as it disappears into the sunset.

I enjoyed watching the Olympics this year. My favorites were everyone else’s favorites…the Snowboarding, the figure skating, the skiing, and the short track events. Every American seemed to behave with respect and decorum, even when they were disappointed not to get the Gold or be disqualified. Our athletes behaved very well and I hope gave the world a demonstration of the goodness Americans are all about. I am very proud to be an American.

I participated in my own Ravelympics and won a Ravelympic medal for finishing my Red Splendid Shawl. It came out beautifully. I finished one day before the closing ceremonies.

I’ve been itching to start the Waves of Leaves shawl with my newly redyed wool yarn. This is going to be a challenge for me as lace knitting takes so much concentration. I have already ripped out rows about 5 times to figure out and correct a mistake. Yet, I am determined not to give up. Once the pattern is established, I will find my mistakes sooner and be able to correct them without too much trouble. Perhaps I should think about using “lifelines” on this one. I heard on a podcast about someone who used Knit picks needles to make a lace project. She threaded dental floss into the small holes of the Knit picks needles that were interchangable, knitting as she went and…..Voila! Instant lifeline! What a great idea. I will have to try it.

Hit between the Eyes

Just when things are looking great, there is always something that hits you between the eyes and upsets the delicate balance of life.

My husband was making wonderful progress since coming home from a month long hospital stay in January to address some heart problems. Every day he seemed to be making progress. He was eating well, his diabetes practically disappeared, not needing any medication for it. His heart had been doing well with perfect blood pressure and good rhythm. He was gaining some weight back and his atrophied muscles were getting stronger, allowing him to graduate from a walker to a cane to aid him in his balance. Even his skin was looking wonderful, in response to a new chemotherapy treatment he had been receiving. We were talking about my returning to work part-time and perhaps venturing out to take some day trips around Southern California, which is now so green and beautiful, in response to the recent rains.

Then all of a sudden he woke up with a fast irregular heart beat called Atrial Fibrillation, which seemed to upset everything. Over the weekend the doctors and I attempted to adjust his medications to get everything back in balance. After a very long weekend and a big sigh of relief, I think we did it! However, it reminded me what a very fragile condition W. is in and how I should not take anything for granted.

You may have heard of the term “fragile diabetic”, which is a person with newly diagnosed diabetes, whose blood glucose goes up and down needing constant adjustment in medication. Our visiting nurse called W. a “fragile patient”, meaning that with so many conditions that needs to be monitored, any one of them can throw his body out of balance. I am thinking that God made me a nurse for this purpose, for it would be difficult for the average lay person to manage all of this without some medical knowledge.

Life is full of challenges, isn’t it? I try not to see challenges as God’s punishment for something done wrong, but challenges for what God wants me to learn. He always seems to be preparing me for something…..an encounter with someone who might benefit from the knowledge and experience his puts in my path.

A False Start

As I’ve been watching the REAL Olympics, I see that there have been a lot of false starts in the Short Track Skating Events. The Event I am competing in the Ravelympics is called Short Track Shawls. I knit over 12 rows which amounts to about 5500 sts, when I realized that the gauge on my shawl was smaller than I thought it would be.

I misunderstood the construction of the Faroese shawl, which is two triangles connected by a center panel. You start by making the bottom wings of the shawl and work up decreasing. I was thinking I was making the top edge, working down. This is why I thought my gauge was too big and changed my needles to two sizes smaller than what was called for. There was just no way I could salvage what I knitted. If I had plugged on, after knitting 30,000 sts, I didn’t want to discover the shawl was too small. So I decided to scrap it. A lesson was learned.

So why didn’t I just restart it? I could feel my wrist straining to make the 1700 sts goal and I happened to reinjure my right hand again, twisting a jar open. Will I ever learn? My tendons and ligaments in my right hand were severely stretched again and I just didn’t think I could make my goal. I hate getting older.

What was I to do? As long as I could hold my knitting needles, I felt I should make something, but perhaps take my time and not push it. I was doing a “Lindsey Vonn”, the skier who injured her shins and is determined to try for her medals anyways. After two days of knitting, I started thinking how I could pick another project that would be less stress on my wrist. What would help me fall in love with it? This is what I was thinking as I raced to Michaels to pick out some bulky yarn for the new easier shawl I had selected called the Splendid Triangle Shawl by Lion Brand.

What would make me fall in love with it? Answer: COLOR! Since tomorrow is Valentines Day, I thought of shades of Red. With 10 minutes left till closing I spied a bulky yarn, County Loom, in shades of red and blue called Caravan.

So as the starting gun goes off again in the Olympics, my Ravelympics starting gun has gone off and I am skating/knitting my way to the finishline. So far, I am loving it. I am feeling like the speed skater, Apollo Ohno, feeling fairly confident this project will go quickly.

Training and “On Your Mark, Set, Go…!

I spent the days prior to the start of Olympics practicing my chosen Project, the Faroese Shawl. Unfortunately, I made a mistake and realized I am not ready for this particular lace project. So I was back to the drawing board and trying to pick out a much simpler project.




I chose the Stora Dimun Shawl from the “Folk Shawls” book by Cheryl Oberle. It seemed much easier. However, it is also a garter stitch shawl which may drive me nuts and give me carpel tunnel. I am thinking about revising it somewhat by inserting some stockinette pattern in the middle to make it more interesting. I learned from the previous attempted shawl that may need to reduce my needle size so the shawl does not become too humongous and heavy with the light worsted weight yarn I will be using.



I love the Olympics! I love the Opening Ceremonies, the competition and the rooting for the home team!. Since I am fortunate to be spending more time at home taking care of my husband, I will be able to catch some of the coverage. On the times I am away from home, which are usually long waiting in doctor or chemo visits, I have a chance to sit more and knit. The shawl looks to be knitting that doesn’t need too much concentration, especially since most of it will be likely a lot of garter stitching with long periods of knit stitching.



So as the Opening Ceremonies have begun, I am off and knitting like a mad woman. I have figured that my project has a total of approximately 30,000 stitches and I have to knit about 1800 stitches a day to finish it by the closing ceremonies.

Ravelympics Closing Ceremonies

Ravelympics close

Out of the 4 projects I planned to complete from my Event WIP (Work in Progress) Wrestling for the Ravelympics 08, I finished 3. So I have earned “3” Gold Medals and posted my Bobicus Avatar on my blog. Bob is the Ravelry dog and Mascot. Isn’t he cute?

The main one was the Cotton Sampler Vest. It came out beautifully. It is somewhat big but for me this is what I like. I think I was meant to finish it at this time. When I began it several years ago, I weighed less and it would have been like a balloon and I would have tossed it then. Having gain 10 or so pounds over the years, this Vest now fits me better. The different stitch patterns were very interesting to do. It was a mix of easy, such as the Box lace pattern to a Medium difficulty of Feather and Fan, and to the more difficult Arrowhead lace pattern. Unfortunately, it does not progress in the order of difficulty. The expertise level of the pattern was “Intermediate” and I think this was correct. I would not recommend this pattern to a beginner.

My second project was the Pinwheel Baby Blanket I was making for my new grandson, who was born Aug 19. It was a lot of stockinette with yarn over increases to increase the circular blanket. I was trying to estimate how big to make it. It ended up being over 500 stitch and about 4 ft diameter. I added an easy crochet lattice border which came out quite nice and helped the edges from curling. I wet blocked it, but it probably need a little steam blocking to relax the curl more. I love the light green color.

The third project was finished the Baby Kimono from Mason Dixon Knitting. I made it with Sugar and Cream Cotton that I had handpainted with green and pink Procion MX dyes. This knitted up fast, but I’m not a big finisher and put off sewing it up until now. I think next time I would make it in a sport weight cotton rather than worsted weight. It seems thick to me for a baby.

Introducing the newest member of our family B.A. H. Weighed 8 lb 10 oz. 22 inches long, just

like his dad, my eldest son.

He has a lot of hair, but this tends to run in my family. Mom and baby are doing very well and his sister is happy too.

Thoughts of Enlightenment

I had a thought of enlightenment today!

How does one know when they are a fiberholic? When one gazes at the clouds in the sky during sunset and sees fluffs of teased mohair locks ready to be spun. Can you tell which one is the fiber and which are the clouds? If I wasn’t there myself, it would be very hard to tell.

Answer: On the left are the clouds, the right are the mohair locks.

My babies….the Gerber daisies are needing a lot of care. I had to buy a flower spray to kill the white flies that were attacking them. Many of them cannot cope with more that 3 hours of sun. They suffer sun exhaustion and drop so sadly. I am hoping that if I keep them somewhat watered they will be able to get through the hot sun.

So what do I know about a drip irrigation systems? ….Absolutely nothing. To Home Depot I go, and low and behold I find the perfect system, “Drip Irrigation for Dummies”!. Perfect! It has everything I need. I plan it out and cut the hose to the proper lengths and connect everything and hope for the best. Everything worked except one connection, but with my husband’s help we fixed the leak and where in business.

I had a lovely lunch out with two of my friends from high school. We shared what was going on in our lives and compared each other’s grey hair that our grown kids seem to be giving us. The fact that the years are passing ever so quickly now, simply seemed to escape our thoughts. ;) I wish I had remembered to take a picture. We need to meet up more often.

Ravelympics: I am on the home stretch for my Sampler Vest. I finished the Button band and one armhole. I will start and hopefully finish the other armhole tonight, weave in the ends and sew these cute daisy buttons on. I must be in a happy mood, or be obsessed with daisies this summer. I am really liking being home on vacation. It is going to be hard to go back to work on Monday.