Ravellenic Games Wrap Up.

So.  The Olympics are over.  As are the Ravellenic Games.  And I did not achieve glory:

I couldn't even see the podium:

It was clear pretty early into the competition that I am not the competitor that I used to be.  That while a former Olympic champion this time I would fall pitifully short:

Like a couple inches of sleeve 1, all of sleeve 2, the button band, and all of the finishing short.

 But.  Here's the thing about the Olympics.  Just to participate is an honor.  And this year I was not a favorite.  I was not at the top of my game.  I did not have the focus, drive, determination, or (AHEM) time I needed to achieve gold.  But I"m still proud of my accomplishment.

I knit more over these games than I have in the last 6 months.  And that is thrilling.  It shows me that I CAN make time for myself.  Even if it's just brief moments.  I CAN DO IT.  And when I do the results are pretty impressive:

Two weeks ago this was a couple skeins of yarn buried in my stash.

I was the country with one competitor who was just happy to be there.

The Land of 3 kids under 5 is not one who brings home many golds.

So I'll keep going with this sweater.  I have some new yarn coming to me on Thursday thanks to my knitting group's influence and my hope is to have this finished by then.

Dream Big, right?

Ravellenic Games 2014 - Opening Ceremonies.

So!  The Olympics are underway!!!

Cake I made for our opening ceremonies gathering.  It's super handy that M&M's come in the colors of the Olympic Rings...

And I don't know about you guys but basically all I want to do is watch the games.  Especially with the new commentators:

Johnny Wier!  Love.  Tara Lipinski!  Hate.  But mainly because she stole the gold from Michelle Kwan and I"m still a bit bitter.  16 years later. WHATEVER.  And I"m still waiting for Sal Masakala to make his big appearance.  He's my fav ever and when I found out that he was no longer doing Xgames it was sadness, indeed.  Until he got the Olympic gig. 

So how are your Ravellenic Games projects going?  Thanks so much for all of the input on mine!  I finally decided on this:

A Tomten for the Dude.  I listened to all of your advice but when Pam said that if I can knit guys socks I can knit a sweater it kindof clicked.  Because man socks are about as many stitches as a guy sweater.  And that's way more than I can commit to for these games.  Plus we have a big, BIG roadtrip coming up so socks in The Road Ahead colorway will be all too perfect.

A sweater for this little dude, though:

Progress headed into day 2 of the competition.

Tough but not impossible.

I am also planning on taking the advice of Angela who told me to finish up the little guy's sweater so that I have a clean start.  YES.  Good idea.  So my Olympic events are as follows:

Knit the Dude a Tomten in the Sweaterboard Cross.

Finish the Little Guy's Tomten in the WIP's Dancing.

Although I might pull a Sean White and punk out on my secondary event.

Also I thought it would be fun to do a Link Up like I did for the last Ravellenic Games.  I love following everyone's projects on all of the social media!  Especially Instagram it seems.  I keep clicking on the #RavellenicGames hashtag and ooohing and aaahing over all of the amazing proejcts people are working on.  So much talent out there!

Ravellenic Games Social Media Link Up:  

1.)  You can link to any social media site except for Ravelry.  So your blog, twitter feed, a podcast, facebook page, vlog, instagram, whatever.

2.)  You can link up THREE of your social media sites! 

3.)  Please follow/like/subscribe to at least a few other participants in the list.


Also I plan on posting this link up at least one more - possibly two more times before the games are over.  I'd love to have a co-host.  Let me know if you have a blog and are interested!

Let the Games begin!!!!

Ravellenic Games 2014.

So! Olympics!  Aka Ravellenic Games!  Aka that time when I go crazy trying to knit something in a ridiculous amount of time while watching the Olympics!

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about the Ravellenic Games are described as this:

Challenge yourself by starting and finishing one or more projects during the 2014 Winter Olympics.

It's a Giant Knit Along.  It's happening.  It's now.  And once again I have no idea what to do.  Help?

Some backstory... here's my entry from 2010.  I rocked it.  I knit an entire traditional stranded sweater in the time between the opening and closing ceremonies.  I knit for gold:

Here's 2012.  I knit a shawl.  It was less epic than a sweater but still quite Olympic worthy.  Especially since the picot bindoff and the beads made the whole thing take ALOT longer than I had anticipated:

And if you really want to go back further here's 2008 (I failed b/c I was newly pregnant with my daughter and very, VERY sick), and here's 2006 (I failed because I was cocky and partied too much.  But then I later redeemed myself.)

So... 2014?  I'm... well... I started thinking that I would knit Matt a sweater.  I pinned and I googled and I narrowed it down to these:

Cobblestone, Guston, Devon

And then I realized that there was a slight problem with this plan:

Slightly more kids than I was responsible for in 2006.  And a younger kid than I have ever had during an Olympics.

See... and I hate to admit this... There is no way I can knit a sweater in 16 days anymore. Even for the Olympics.  It's just not possible with my life right now.  I did the math and on a good day - a REALLY good day - I maybe have 30 min to an hour to knit?  And that's assuming that no one is sick or teething or working really late.  And that I got a decent amount of sleep the night before and have the energy to stay up and knit instead of collapsing in a heap shortly after all of the kids are down.  I know the Olympics are about dreaming big but I have to find a balance between reaching for success and setting myself up for failure.

SIGH.

So... I don't know what to do.  I've stashdived and I've pondered and I'm just lost.  I think I've narrowed things down to 2 possibilities that will be insane but just barely possible.

Option 1:  The Tomtems.  Ok the tomtem is a kid's sweater/jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman.  The tomtem is a type of Swedish Elf and kids are supposed to resemble them when wearing this jacket.  I knit one for the little guy over the fall:

But I never finished it.  I need to seam it all and add in a zipper.  Not a small feat.  I also have the yarn to knit one for the dude.  So the plan would be to knit the dude a sweater (size 3T on size 9 needles.  not impossible in 2 weeks) as well as finish up the one for the little guy.  At the end I'd have two little boys in matching tomtem jackets.  NOTHING COULD BE CUTER.

seriously these two.

I love that it's an Elizabeth Zimmerman project - something about that screams knitting purity and the spirit of knitting and the Olympics and all of that.  Plus I knit an EZ sweater in 2010 for myself so this feels a bit like the same event only on a "I have three kids now" scale.  And what could be more classic than gray wool?

Option 2:  Matt Socks.  I knit Matt a pair of socks out of this:

Destination Yarn in The Road Ahead.

A pair of socks in 2 weeks would be alot.  And I haven't knit socks in awhile.  But... I have promised him Destination Yarn socks for years now.  Literally.  And after I gave up on Rick (never.  never will that pair be finished.)  and wandered off on the Earl Gray Socks it still hasn't happened.  I love that these colors are so very current - Yellow and Gray is crazy popular right now.  With the winter we've been having he's lived in the 2 pairs of socks I actually have finished for him.  He deserves a new pair and this might be just the time to do it.  I just don't know what pattern I'd go for...

Maybe just plain old socks?  I dunno....

Ok.  So yeah.  What do you guys think?  I have less than 48 hours to decide.  GULP.

Ravellenic Gold.

So you guys.  It was a crazy mad dash to the finish line but I did it.  I earned a Ravellenic Gold:


I literally was casting off minutes before the finish of the games.  I didn't block it until the next day:



So a few of you new to this knitting game have asked me about the blocking thing.  I have a post set to go up this weekend on that whole topic... but first?  LOOK AT THE PRETTY:



LOOK AT IT:



SO. SO. SO. PRETTY.



Pattern: Fragile Hearts by Boo Knits

Timeline: Knit entirely during the Ravellenic Games - so August 3-12.

Modifications: I knit this with fingering weight yarn (aka sock yarn) instead of the lace weight called for.  Everything else is the same.

Yarn: 1 skein of Destination Yarn Silk Road - a 50% merino, 50% silk blend.  Colorway Daiquiri

The verdict: I love it.  I'm not a super-fan of the picot edge, though.  Just not really my thing - and I wish the picots lined up with the points a little better.  But I think with this shawl and this yarn it works:



I also feel the need to mention that I used 3 and a half tubes of beads on this.  Which according to a weight to beads converter chart I found is over 600 beads.  Yeah.



The combo of the beads and the picot edge made this project much, much more ambitious than I had intended.  But that makes the victory that much sweeter:

Yay for Ravellenic Gold!

Ravellenic Gold....Nails?

So Sunday marked the end of the Ravellenic games.  I.... well.... it was a photo finish.  On Sat I had the Destination Yarn Trunk Show at KNOTS:

Where I got to meet a whole buch of awesome knitters including Mary:

Then on Sunday when I should have been focusing solely on my Ravellenic competition instead I went to the zoo to visit my homies:

Merino sheep. Their wool made all of the yarn pictured above.

and feed some Lorikeets:

Yeah.  It was worth it:



So Sunday night I knit like a madwoman to reach the finish line exactly 2 minutes before the close of the games:

The finish line is surprisingly dog covered.

It was intense.  But it's blocking now and will be photographed/blogged soon.  Until then how about some Olympic nails?  Wait, what?  Yeah apparently it's a trend.  There's even a CNN article about the athlete's nail art.  Very cool.  So I tried out some for myself:

Yup.  I still suck at nail art.  And not only was my USA themed manicure ruined by my craft-with-a-p (which spells crap) execution but also by the fact that I unwittingly painted a french flag on my fingers:

DUH.  I mean....  go France!

Then I just went with a bright, bright purple to match the stadiums:

And now I'm rocking some Gold.  Because I earned it.

Anyways tonight I will be at the Northcoast Knitting Guild's LYS night with lots of pretty yarn.  Hope to see you there!

Ravellenic Games Social Media Link Up Take 2!

So you guys we are halfway through the Ravellenic Games!  I am.... not really at the halfway point yet:

And considering that my rows are as long as my to do list I'm not really sure that I'm going to be able to get it done in time.  Especially since this week I'm deep in the dye pots getting ready for the Destination Yarn Trunk Show at KNOTS this Saturday:

I'm dying again tonight and tomorrow so if there are any specific colorways you'd like to see me bring please shout out in the comments!

Pittsburgh drying in the sun.

So yeah... I wish I had someone to yell at me and motivate me to reach beyond what's possible for Ravellenic Glory...

YOU CAN DO IT!

But since Bela Karolyi seems to be otherwise occupied I"m relying on the motivation of other Ravellenic Competetors.  You guys I have been so impressed by what you have been doing!  It's so much fun to follow along with your progress!  To keep the support going I'm reposting the Ravellenic Social Media Link Up!

Only this time Mindi from Simply Stavish is posting it, too!  She's a Knitter fresh off a trip to Blog Her and Sparklecorn (SO JEALOUS).  Her blog is fantastic so I'm thrilled that she wants to play along.  So if you add your link here it will also be posted to her blog!

Mindi's Ravellenic Project: The Providence Hoodie from the Book New England Knits in Tess Designer Yarns

Yay for Ravellenic support!

Ravellenic Games Social Media Link Up:

1.)  You can link to any social media site except for Ravelry.  So your blog, twitter feed, a podcast, facebook page, vlog, instagram, whatever you want.  However there are a whole bunch of amazing and awesome ways to search for participants within Ravelry so this is not for that.

2.)  You can link up THREE of your social media sites!  Yes THREE! I"m linking to my blog, twitter, and Instagram because I think that's where I will be most active in showing off my Ravellenic project.

3.)  Please follow/like/subscribe to at least a few other participants in the list.  The whole point of this is to follow along and support each other throughout the games!  Plus I'd love it if you followed me, and Mindi too...

4.)  If you want to grab a button and let others know you are participating:

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.lifeincleveland.com/2012/07/ravellenic-games-soial-media-link-up.html" title="Ravellenic Games Social Media Link Up"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhoybCh2MEU8Yv9Ss_ZvXEKuvaMjes-sS1w5pgPxCpHgoCekfxwNsTXIG3qv7RMWQmvgEqOTEwQ6RkxUaIQpplXrXKNX9t_MVCcOIgzGVyHGsk9dAL7Tj5jvsEdlr48vUHz_-/s1600/Ravellenic+Games+150x150.jpg" alt="Ravellenic Games Social Media Link Up" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Let the Games begin!!!!