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.

Relaxing at the Beach

My husband and I love to go on weekend trips away, but haven’t had a chance to get away in over two years. So this week, we finally decided to pack up at the last moment and get away to some local Southern California beach town. The weather has turned warmer, yet not too hot. All I could think about was a nice weekend just to relax and knit.

I planned to take several things knit. I was thinking I could take something easy, something quick and something more complicated to work on depending on the type of activity I was doing at the time.

For car and movie knitting, I took my charity hat project and baby kimono knitted in stockinette stitch from the Mason Dixon Knitting Book. For complicated knitting, the Swallowtail shawl and for boredom knitting, in case I was bored with all my other projects, I brought some sock yarn to start some socks. Of course, I also took along my new “Knitted socks” book to pick a pattern for socks.

I worked on the baby kimono with my lime and pink hand dyed Sugar and Cream cotton yarn and finished knitting it. It is a one piece jacket that is folded in half with only two seams to sew up. I made a slight mistake by adding a few extra rows when making the arms midway. I had to compensate by added a few rows of garter stitch along the back neck so that it would fit right at the neck. This is the unfinished jacket.

On a sunny bright day, we had a chance to see a movie and visit some of the local marina shops. Lo and behold, we found the Alamitos Bay Yarn Co. It had been a long time since I’ve been there. There were some novelty yarns and luxury yarns like Brown Sheep, Berroco and Noro. Several women were sitting around a table knitting on projects, but some took the time to help their customers find what they were looking for.

There were many sample baby sweaters to see. One of them, I fell in love with was the “Babies and Bears Sweater by Cottage Creation. It reminded me a lot like the Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise Sweater but seemed a little more complicated or rather interesting. My new grandchild will be born in August. I do not know what sex the baby will be so I decided to get two skeins of a neutral gold color of Berroco’s Comfort yarn. The yarn is a very soft washable acrylic. I found some cute little yellowish fish buttons to go with it.
All too soon, my weekend away will be soon over and I will look forward to planning the next one. On the way home I got out my sock yarn out and decided to cast on a pair of flip flop socks. Now that my easy mindless projects are finished, I need to start some more.

I was bringing home a new book called "Knitalong" and the Pinwheel Blanket began to call to me again. Once I got home, I pulled out the Lion Brand Pound of Love in pastel green and started it. I am hoping that my new grandchild will be a boy.

Postscript: Just got a call from my son, the expectant father. They just got back from a 4-D ultrasound. Lo and behold, it's a boy! Praise the Lord!