Princess Buttercup

I had fun thinking of a pattern for the cowl, so I decided to try one for a hat. A baby hat would be fun. Most people probably come up with a pattern and then decide on a name. In my case, I had the name and had to come up with a pattern. Why does this not surprise me? Anyway, I wanted to name it after a character from my favorite movie, The Princess Bride. I had to knit the hat in yellow, otherwise the name would not make as much sense. This necessitated a run to buy yarn. Don't you hate when that happens? It happens a lot around here. I was working on something for Robyn a while back. It was knit in the round. When you knit in the round, you cast on your stitches and then connect them to make the knitting continuous. You have to be careful not to twist the stitches, otherwise you will always have a twist in the final project kinda like a mobius. In this case, I wanted the twist. So after knitting 5 rows, I made several twists in the rows creating what I hoped looked a little like the edges of a petal. It think it turned out ok. I wrote down my stitches as I knit the hat, making a few changes as I went. The first hat turned out too big for a baby. It was more teen sized, but too short for a teen. I got the length right but not the circumference. I reworked the numbers and started another one. This one turned out just right and the Princess Buttercup hat was complete. This project earned me four medals- Charity Curling, Designer Original Dance, Hat Halfpipe, and Junior Olympics. That was fun.

Smoochy

One of the events you can enter is called the Designer Original Dance. It is where you create an original pattern and knit it up. It doesn't have to be published anywhere, just something that you came up with. I wanted something soft to make out of this yummy Malbrigo yarn. It is so soft and squishy. A cowl would work well. The pattern is not hard to remember. It is pretty the same pattern for every row until it is the length you want it. I just knit until I ran out of yarn. Luckily, it was the perfect length for what I wanted. So I earned three medals for this project- Designer Original Dance, Scarf Super-G, and Single Skein Speed Skate.

Spiral Scarf

All hail...here comes the my second entry in the Ravelympics for the event called Scarf Super-G. The pattern is called the Spiral Scarf. It was fun to knit. You cast on 90 stitches and the whole pattern consists of 7 rows. That is it. Three of those rows involve the knitting in the front and back of each stitch so the number of total stitches increases dramatically. The scarf is kinda boring until you begin the cast off. Then the fun starts. As you cast off, the scarf starts to spiral around the cast on row. In the end, it is one long spiral that you can stack on itself. How cool is that?

I also earned a medal for Charity Curling since this scarf was made to donate.

Who Dat Hat

Behold. This is my first entry in the Ravelympics event, Hat Halfpipe. Phillip liked the black and gold hat I made him earlier, but it seemed to fit a bit wonky at the top. I was thinking that might happen when I finished it. So I found another pattern and gave it a try. I love how this hat works up. I like how it looks from the top. It is very stretchy and very easy to knit. I will definitely make more of these down the road.

P.S. This is his Valentine's gift.

2010 Ravelympics

I am so lame. I can get excited about the least little thing. What is exciting to me now is the opportunity to participate in the 2010 Ravelympics. Ravelympics, you say? Well, little Susie and Jimmy, the Ravelympics is where knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers, and other assorted fiber people choose projects to complete during the time of the Olympics. This year it will during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC. I have always been a huge fan of the Olympics. I park myself in front of the TV and soak up all of the fun to be had watching these amazing athletes complete. Phillip and I took what I call my "dream trip" to Salt Lake City in 2002 to see the Winter Olympics there. I had the best time and wonderful memories...oh yeah back to the Ravelympics...Anyway, the wonderful people on Ravelry are putting together listings, and assorted forums and stuff for us to participate in our "sport" so to speak. There is a listing of events that are similar to those in the Winter Olympics. Competition is not against each other but in the form of meeting the goal of completing the project entered in an event. Medals (in the form of a photo badge you can use on your project page) will be awarded. There are teams you can join and some teams offer prizes as well.

I look forward to participating in my first Ravelympics. Olympics + knitting = happiness.