Found them while looking for the cotton dishcloth yarn for redoing the Sunflower Hotpad. Did it in 2004 from a booklet but neglected to notice that it called for doubling the yarn.

Couldn’t figure out where I put the booklet but was able to reverse engineer again from the previous FO.

Finished it (yea finished item #2!) but am annoyed because it also doesn’t lay flat. When you fold it in half, it’s not a half circle so I think all along there should have been fewer increasing done. Thinking about trying to aggressively block it to force it to lay “flatter” and call it a day.

Did a lace repeat on Merletto Mitts and started on 3rd skein of yarn for Grrlfriend Bag #2.

Kept wishing that I had a nice long stockinette project to do as I just wanted to knit without much concentration. But didn’t feel like pulling out the Jayne stuff even just to finish the ear flaps on my personal which is one of the WIPs listed for Ravelympics too.

Evangeline would count but I’m bummed about realizing that I’m short of yarn and not able to get more from the place I bought it from. Plus I’m still in the light lace area so some concentration required.

I guess for Day #13 when I get home, if I still want mindless stockinette, I might cast on and do the last of the helmet liners. I also really should get to finishing my Waterlily top and/or cast on for finishing the 2nd of the Perkele mitts.

One bit of good news, a very mangled package finally arrived containing the issue of Interweave Crochet with the Citrine Skirt & Sapphire Skirt patterns that I’ve been wanting to do. I was a little dismayed that the pictures of the latter were SO BLURRY which is appalling for a PRINT MAGAZINE but what upset me more was realizing that the skirt can’t be worn by itself. It’s far too “see through” for it and the model was wearing leggings to match the main blue of the skirt. The same pictures were also online but I thought the blurry grainyness that made it hard to see anything of the skirt aside from the big flower motifs was due to poor image manipulations for the web. The print version was at least bigger and showed enough more detail that I could see the leggings now.

I really like the look of it but clearly will have to reinvent it to a more solid pattern if I get around to making it.

Citrine doesn’t disappoint though and I look forward to trying it out. I think I’ll try the Sailor yarn first and then perhaps the HP 31 Print by Lana Grossa.

Though I was exhausted when we got back between 7 & 8pm Monday night, I got the trailer parked, unhitched and dragged the bulk of the stuff into my house before collapsing on the couch.

Feeling frustrated at being 11 days into 17 days of Ravelympics, I dug out the Candy Cane #2 scarf and added the last 12 pieces of fringe in white Microspun which I’d found and wound neatly into a cake the previous week.

Finally an FO to cross the finish line with!

And here’s my “medal” for finishing!

Worked some on the Merletto Mitts and got out of the ribbing and into the lace pattern.

Also finished knitting out the Grrlfriend bag out to the end of the 2nd skein of yarn. Debating about whether to finish off here or keep going for a third one to make it bigger. Bag feels heavy already though.

Thinking that Adara is too heavy for this bag pattern, perhaps a crocheted one instead that uses chains for mesh?

Didn’t really work on anything else because I was also trying to get preparations done for the camping trip to Pinnacles.

Bound off on the body late Thursday night and set it aside.

I also worked on the new Grrlfriend bag and got it into the 2nd skein of yarn.

I casted on and got through the fiddly part. Perhaps it’s just me but Laura talks about it in the pattern itself too. It’s VERY hard to keep the DPNS (double pointed needles) from falling out after you’ve divided the stitches from the cast on. With two stitches on each needle and the yarn held loosely because you’re trying to be sure you’re attempting to knit from the correct needle and not accidently cabling… there’s nothing to really hold the needles in place so they keep falling out.

I finally solved it by dividing among two needles instead of 4. With that few stitches, you can get the first couple rows knitted before it becomes an issue with laddering and by then, you’re enough on the way that you can hold the yarn snugger and the needles will stay in.

One thing that was advantageous about making the pattern once already was now I know the pitfalls of how easy it is to mess up on the K2tog/YO row. If you get off at all, the lines of the stitches start reversing and going the other direction up the bag or branching instead of being a proper grid like a chain link fence. I didn’t mind it in the first bag so I left the mistakes in and instead just practiced on making sure I was on track.

The trick is, when you knit the 2 stitches together, the 2nd stitch should be the knitted YO from the previous row. If it isn’t, you’re off. So just pay an iota of attention to whether or not the 2nd stitch is correct and you’ll be fine.

Also be sure to remember the final YO at the end of the row, it’s very easy to forget when you hit the stitch marker that marks the end of the row!

I got the bottom done and about 5″ of the sides when I needed a break.

So I dug out the icy aqua balls and casted on for the Moon Beads since it’s crochet and not knit which makes it a very different project.

It said to chain loosely and to use H hook. I of course was bad and didn’t do any swatching so I was trying to figure out as I went along. When I got to 200 of 234 to chain, I held it around my shoulders and it already seemed too big. Decided to stop there and move on to the pattern.

After 3 rows of V Stitches, I finally decided that I didn’t like how loose it was coming out. I think the charm of the cowl requires tighter/smaller Vs. So I frogged it all (using the ball winder to wind up the yarn that had been used – that was tricky cause there’s still the original balls!) and started over using an F hook and being sure not to chain so loosely either. At 200 chains, I still thought that it was loose around the top of the shoulders so I went again with that number.

Didn’t make it to the V rows because it was time to go to bed and I was drooping. I couldn’t even finish the episode of Battlestar Galactica that I was watching.

I can see why people love the new BSG so much. I did the knitting & crocheting for today to the initial miniseries that kicked off the remake and then started the formal season episodes.

Ravelympics is an community wide event where people are making projects within the timeframe of the Olympics. For example, one event that was suggested by me and accepted: “Balance Beads”. That involves any project that includes beading the yarn. There’s also WIPs Wrestling, Hat Dash, Sock Put, and much more.

My eyes are bigger than my ability to knit (and turns out, free time) but I signed up to do a bunch of things and now let’s see if I do any.

But the first day didn’t start off so well.

I was so anxious to get started on the shopping mesh bag pattern that I’d picked after being motivated by Jen to start making some, that I decided to do one before the Ravelympics started (starts and ends with the opening & closing ceremonies, in Beijing time). But late Thursday night, I was nearly done and couldn’t bear to set it aside to be finsihed afterwards.

Perhaps you can see why now (Click picture for slideshow of more photos)

That was the Grrlfriend Bag by Laura Spradlin done in Roman Sunset colorway of Filati FF Sailor Yarn.

I only got the Roman Sunset color because I thought I needed a reddish color for a different project that needed 4 basic colors (red/yellow/blue/green) but the yarn turned out unsuited for it. I’m now SOO glad that I bought it because it’s really beautiful in knitted form. See the bottom of the bag below? Need to find a nice tank top sideways knitted pattern for it (sideways = color changes appear vertically and not horizontally)

I finished that Friday morning during breaks from work and then after work all my time went into buying the Tent Trailer with Dad.

So no actual Ravelympics knitting done on Friday the 8th.