Long about now, knitters all across the world are getting ready to participate in a tradition that occurs once every four years, the winter knitting Olympics, known these days as the Ravellenic Games. Sadly, I will not be part of the mass cast on during the opening ceremonies because I will be at work. But, due to the wonders of Typepad, which lets me schedule a post to publish at the exact time I select, I can share with you the projects I will be casting on tonight when I get home.
I've got four projects lined up. I don't expect to "medal" (finish) all of them, but I like the idea of having lots of support and fun with other knitters, albeit mostly on line, and trying new things I might not otherwise be ambitious enough to take on.
My first project is Adrian Bizilla's Flocked Mittens. I chose this project because I want to learn color work. This may not have been my best choice because it's small and relatively complicated. I'm knitting on size 1 DPNs, but my first gauge swatch, which I did in a navy blue version of the same yarn, Quince & Co. was oversized on size 3 needles. So I worked my way down to the 1's and I'm still a bit off on gauge. I have a very loose gauge but I'm going to try to tighten up because I really want to knit these beautiful mittens. Just in swatching I had to learn to do a picot edge, an internal hem and braided trim, so I consider these mittens to be a win already. I'm trying to teach myself continental so I can do the color work knitting with both hands, but I'm having trouble with tension and it's a slow go.
Here's a picture of my swatch as well. You can see where I did the braided trim using some leftover varigated yarn.
My Second project is Jared Flood's Bray Cap. I'm knitting it in the pattern yarn, Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter, in the Ember colorway.
I fell in love with this hat, which I'm knitting for myself. Its challenges include learning on a new cast on, the tubular cast on, which made it seem like an appropriate challenge for Olympic knitting.
I'm also going to knit Little Shells in Fleece Artist's Woolie Silk 3-Ply. I had an orphan skein sitting in my stash, which I dyed in Elliebelly's Pale Pale Pink colorway for this project. I'm not a big lace knitter, so this will be something of a challenge for me, but I have it in mind for a friend.
My last project is in the Aerial Unwind event, where you frog a project and reclaim the yarn. I'm frogging a long ignored cardigan in progress. As a part of the unwind event, I am hosting a Torch Passing Event on the Elliebelly Group. If you are doing the aerial unwind and want to pass your yarn on to another knitter in the Olympic spirit of friendship and cooperation, we've created a way for you to do that, and the Ravelry Mods have made us an official part of the activities, so please take a look and consider joining in.
Happy Opening Ceremonies and happy knitting!
I like the idea of a Knitting Olympics. Have fun in your events!