Ravelympics 2010

And we're on to another event for this year: the Ravelympics 2010.
Just when I thought I couldn't possibly add any more to my list of 'things to do' I couldn't help but join in the fun of working on something with a two-week deadline! Gotta love your knitting.

Every knitter has a secret stash somewhere. Just give them a reason to go through it and we get all giggly & mooshy inside;) And that's how I came across my 'stash stuff' and found I have a gorgeous angora yarn, bought in Edinburgh back in Jan 2009 along with some Habu A-62 paper-moire, textured yarn, so here we go…a little bit of natural fawn-colored angora & some dark chocolate-henna yum-yum textures…

Knowing me, I’ll embellish the design I'm using to give it a twist and make the Habu spice up the angora.

So ‘knit away’ I shall with Winter Ravelympic furry!

Wooden Buttons

Buttons for my Durran Durra Cardigan
website: www.brightsideknitter.com/
Here’s a foto of my cardigan’s buttons finally sewn on. I made this one last year and have waited—and delayed—the button addition until now. You can get a freepattern of this cardigan from my website within my patterns section. I designed this cardi a few years ago and even made a sweater version for my husband in a flax tweed. But that one still has to be typed up (which takes time that I don’t have at the moment), but if you’d like to make something for that special fella, visit my website before Xmas and I’ll have that pattern up for free too.


This is the men's version I knit for David.

For the Love of Bob

Ravelympics 2008

I have just checking in on my fellow For the Love of Bob team mates at Ravelry and oh my! What amazing energy and projects they came up with. They've carried the flag, the weight and the stamina of true Ravelympians. Go Team Bob knitters!

As for little 'ol me, well, must be fair and admit that I walked off the course. Yes, no injuries, no sore knuckles or overused tendons, just couldn't devote the three weeks to pure knitting. Am so sobbing about this as it would've been a true dream to ignore everything and everyone around me and just knit. I know you guys were able to not ignore and still include knitting into your daily routines which makes me wanna be you when I grow up.

But fortunately, am still married, my pets still love me and the antibiotics kicked in before this influenza type x managed to keep me from frogging.

And in the spirit of true yarning, I insist you visit the Ravelry pages to see what amazing things were knit in just three weeks!

Olypmics 2008 Ravelympics

How fast the past three weeks have flown by. In between daily life stuff, working at a job and at marriage, staying warm and warding off a the flu (its cold really cold this winter here in NSW), I managed to work on a Ravelympics project. There were a few moments in the evenings when I had a chance to watch an Olympic event. My preferences are for all the sports; and I was thrilled to see my fellow Americans do so well, and even so for the Australians. But in all, I'm thrilled to see anyone accomplish such incredible physical feats as all the athletes that were there. Really, how awesome and how incredible to be one of those amazing human beings who can be so diligent and fortunate to aspire to great physical strength. I kept thinking back to the Cirque du Soleil show we saw last month and how any of the athletes at the Olympics could surpass the already incredible performers of that show.
In all that awe, I kept thinking that I should be doing more outdoors instead of sitting on my lazy ass knitting away...
I can be so harsh with myself sometimes. I can just hear all knitters reading this scorning me for thinking that knitting is not a difficult task. Believe me, I know it is and I've the pain in my fingers and back to own up to it. But somehow, all that sports on tele was just so much more. It seemed like true accomplishment.
Perhaps I should just call myself the "unsatisfied knitter."

And then I hit a wall.
The cast on stitches, and then some, that made it through the opening ceremony were frogged.

So after a few days of having 'walked off the course' I restarted my Ravelympic sweater with a new idea. Am pleased I did so. Its not finished and no, I don't get a medal but that doesn't matter. I'm almost finished with my husbands poncho. I designed him a rather rustic one for when he's out on the porch for his evening smokes. After hunting around for the perfect wool to knit him a piece he'll 'wear to death,' or so I hope, I found the perfect alpaca wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills here in Australia. Its very rustic but soft, lighweight and warm and does not have pink in it. Gosh, I'd love to knit David a sweater that's both masculine and has pink...but he won't wear pink. Someday...

Shall include snap shots of the finished poncho when it's done next week. Have been so thrilled with how it's turned out that even though am only 3/4 of the way through it, I've already began the pin-stripe embroidering with a 2-ply alpaca yarn in a dark Mallard Green. My inspiration came from a Peruvian poncho my mother got for me when I was ten--I wasn't allowed to actually use it as it was used as a wall hanging and eventually a bed covering when I took it with me to Paris back in the 80's.
Here's sneak view of the beginning of David's poncho.

Olympics 2008 Ravelympics

My, how the past three weeks flew by. And now the much anticipated Olympics are over. I didn't get to watch all of the events, my favorites being the swimming, gymnastics, track & field, rowing, tennis, cycling, gosh, I suppose most events. So in between daily life stuff, I did see a lot of my American and Australian athlete faves grab gold. And it was very cool to see all other athletes win as well.
My eyes always get teary when the medal ceremony is happening and I'm always thrilled for whomever wins. Those Olympians are all so incredibly talented--who cares if they didn't win a medal, after all, there's only three to be given but so many more deserving the recognition. Hope they all had a great time whilst in lovely Beijing.

And then there was the Ravelympics that I signed up for. The casting on happened like clockwork once the opening ceremony started but after four days of squeezing in knitting time while trying to fight off the flu (its cold over here in the NSW winter at the moment), working both at a job and my marriage, I simply hit a wall. So the frogging started for both the original idea and the front of a new Ravelympic sweater. I just walked off the course.

But I'm pleased with what I've done with the new idea so far. I didn't give up.
I came up with another idea and just worked at my own pace. It should be finished in the next few weeks after I complete a poncho I designed for my husband to keep him warm during our rather cold winter this year. I've used a very rustic, heathered alpaca wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills down in Victoria. It's turning out to be just what David prefers--the natural, rustic manly look is all he'll put on. And somehow, I still want to knit him a very masculine jumper with pink in it. But he won't wear it.
Here's a snap shot of one of the sections I've knitted up so far. Have it 3/4 finished so far and began the pin-striping out of excitement. Shall post images of the poncho next week once it's done. I'm embroidering into it some very fine 2-ply alpaca yarn in the most gorgeous dark mallard green I could find. It'll have a pin-stripe effect and should keep David warm while outdoors on the porch for a smoke.

le Cirque du Soleil a Sydney!

We went to the circus on Sunday. I bought the tickets six months ago and have wanted to see the Cirque du Soleil for almost ten years. My last chance was back in the days when I worked in Taiwan and my best friend was going to Hong Kong for the weekend to see them. I can't remember exactly why I didn't go then but seeing these amazing acrobats in person has always stuck with me.

So last Sunday I took my husband to the circus. And as I'm trying to come up with two new designs for my knitwear, I got a whole lot of inspiration from the weekend's events. The circus had so many fun color combos happening. The circus had lots of firey reds, oranges, golds and bronzes--blues of course--but I liked the warm ones. Perhaps its because its so cold here on the coast of the Illawarra where I live in Oz. Then there's the usual naturals I tend to go for; our walks on the beach with the dogs keep these natural shades of browns, blues and moss working their way into my work. And there's often some bit of very bright color that makes its way into one or two pieces when I remember to pull it out from my stash, kept from cats safely under the stairs.

So am going to use my inspiration from the Cirque du Soleil's Dralion acts for my Ravelympics project and use up a lot of the orange, bronzes, mossy greens and olives that I've started to stock up from Posh Yarns, Thicket, and "can't remember where I got it" places. What to do with it all will be the challenge for Ravelry's fun event next month. Shall post that project when the three week event is over;)

Can't get enuf yarn to satisfy...

This past weekend has been a big one for me in cyberspace. I joined Ravelry. Wow! what a ride that is going to give me. And I set up this blog. That's big stuff for me these days.

Am working madly on a few knitted projects and my designs are proving to be more fun, more work, more challenging and more interesting than expected. I've invested in some lush yarns and its been well worth it. So the truth to any good project is in:

a) the design, and

b) the stuff its made of. Yummy yarn of your choice.

And there are some very, very nice yarns out there people.

Just wanted to add an image or two of what I'm working on in hopes that it will inspire any and all visitors to my 'new world' here in blog-space to pick up a couple of sticks or more and start meditating in the knitted fashion.

Here are some fotos of a delicious Jo Sharp DK Tweed cardi I made for a friend a few months ago.