Ravellenic Games Recap

I really did mean to keep up-to-date on posting during the Ravellenic Games, but we know what they say about good intentions.  I had two projects to work on during the games, and I managed to complete one.

I worked on the Autumn Vines Beret (RAV) first, and finished it in decent time.  I would have finished it earlier if I had really committed to the process, but there were some nights I just didn’t feel like knitting, which that will get me every time.  This was a fun pattern to knit, and one I actually think I’d be interested in doing again, perhaps with the yarn suggested in the pattern because I love the color (they had it at Stitches West 2012 and it was fabulous).

My second project was the Citron shawl.  I started it the morning after finishing the beret, but I only had a little more than a week to get it done.  I actually managed to get a good deal of it done on a trip down to San Diego to take the Academy of Certified Archivists exam.  My dad drove me, so I was able to sit in the passenger seat and knit, knit, knit.  Of course, the problem with a shawl is always the fact that it gets bigger and bigger the further you get, and I had decided from the outset to knit 7 sections rather than the called for 5 sections (I wanted to make sure I got every color of the progression into the shawl).  I got to the 7th section on Saturday, August 11.  I thought I was good to go, but then I discovered that I had read the instructions incorrectly, and that instead of having until midnight of the 12th, I only had until 4 pm my time.  I kind of gave up then.  I even put my knitting down and didn’t pick it back up for almost 2 weeks.

Maybe it’s a good thing that I put it down.  When I picked it up again, I decided to see if I could get an extra section out of my yarn.  With worry that I might run out, I knit an 8th section and started on the ruffle.  Amazingly enough I got to the end and still have a little bit of yarn left.  Now the shawl is cast off and just in need to a wash and block.  Now where did I put those T-pins….?

Finish Line to Starting Line

I finished my spinning for the Tour de Fleece with a little time to spare.  I didn’t want to go too crazy with the spinning since I’m participating in what one of my online knitting groups (Friends of Abby’s Yarns) is calling the Masochism Tango where whatever you spun during the Tour de Fleece gets knit into something during the Ravelympics Ravellenic Games.  Since one of the things I spun was a skein of laceweight singles with a total of 864 yards, I knew I’d have my work cut out for me in the knitting department.

So, the final totals at my Tour de Fleece finish line are
1. (Top) Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club – August 2011 – Falkland – Change, 3-ply, sport weight, 234 yards
2. (Bottom) Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club – December 2012 – Superwash Corriedale – David’s Gift, singles, laceweight, 864 yards

Plans are still the same for the knitting up as I posted at the beginning of the Tour de Fleece: the 3-ply Falkland will become the Autumn Vines Beret, and the laceweight SW Corriedale will become a Citron shawl.

I cast on the beret Friday evening.  If I had been thinking ahead I would have had the yarn balled up and ready to go to cast on while riding the bus home from work that afternoon.  But I was totally unprepared for the start of the Ravellenic Games.  The yarn was balled up, the pattern pulled out, and a quickie gauge swatch knit up after dinner while watching the woefully time-delayed opening ceremony (probably the only thing except for the closing ceremony that I’ll actually watch during the whole thing, I think).  I am ready and willing to except that my gauge swatch might have been lying to me as I only knit about an inch or so before measuring and deeming the chosen needles good to go.  But the fabric I’m getting looks good, and the hat itself does not look overly small or large.

I’m hoping to have the beret done and the shawl cast on by Monday of next week, the sooner the better obviously.  I’m expecting that the shawl will go quickly since it doesn’t have the same amount of patterning as the hat; the hope is that I will be able to mostly memorize the shawl pattern and go at it like a speed demon rather than having to check the pattern every few minutes like I do with all the cables on the hat.