Ravelympian

At first, I was not sure whether to take part in the Ravelympics, given my personal views on the hosting of the Olympics by China.  But I clearly have the scruples of a cat, because I did end up participating.  My goal, though, was to knit something orange, in support of the Tibetan freedom movement and, in particular, the Color Orange campaign.  My knitted item wouldn’t be going to the Olympics, to be worn by a spectator, but it was worn by me throughout the closing ceremony yesterday.  They actually started life as the Having Hope socks by Diane Mulholland, but I screwed the heel up and started over on August 12th.

 

Specifications

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.

Yarn: Posh Yarn Helena 4ply in ‘Seville’

Needles: 2.5mm Addi Lace Turbos, magic loop single socks

Cast on: 12 August 2008, 8pm BST

Finished: 22 August 2008, 11.58pm BST

Mods: One less pattern repeat for leg, although I have plenty yarn left over, so that was more a personal choice than a yardage necessity.

 

I do love me some Monkeys.  It has become my go-to pattern when I want to do a ‘plain’ sock (truly plain socks are a bit boring to knit, and ribbed?  Please, I’d rather gouge my eyes out with my needles.)  It is particularly good as a commute project, because one repeat typically takes/took me the 40 minutes on the tube/train, so it felt like I was making good progress – plain stockinette can feel a little unrewarding, as it’s difficult to eyeball how much you’ve knit.  Anyway, these may well be the only knitting I will be wearing at I Knit, as I’m working on a secret project that won’t likely be finished by September 6th.  But I think these will be enough.

Of Weans and Winners

There seems to be a rash of baby-growing amongst my contemporaries at the moment. One such mum-to-be used to work with me before gaining a well-deserved promotion to another area of the company. Although we don’t see each other much any more, we catch up occasionally over the odd coffee.  She went on maternity leave last week, so before she went I wanted to make sure she had something handknit for her little work-in-progress.  She had not told me the sex (it’s girl-flavoured, I found out later), so I chose this softly shaded Manos silk blend from I Knit, as green is, to me, the perfect unisex colour.  Ok, so it’s probably totally impractical to give handwash-only fibres to a new mum, but she seemed to be pretty happy with it. 

Statistics

Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by EZ

Yarn: Manos del Uruguay wool/silk blend

Needles: 4mm Addi Turbos

Started: Sometime in June

Finished: 13 July 2008

I’m not sure how I feel about the BSJ.  It is ingenious in its simplicity, I’ll give it that, but it does seem to take much longer to knit than the February Baby Jacket.  Plus, I hate to say it, but I’m not really a garter stitch girl.  I love the texture-and in this yarn? mm! SO smooshy!-but I find it a little dull to knit.  I’m wearing my fireproof bra and knickers, so feel free to flame me on the G-stitch issue.  What do you prefer – garter stitch or stockinette?

Now the fun part: the winner of the Aussie slang contest.  The winner, based on the downright filthiness of their slang choices (because, as we all know, knowing how to swear in a foreign country is the major selling point of language classes) is…

well, I couldn’t choose between Yberry and the ‘Mappatassie’ (not least for the fact that I found out that the very classy Clare has a pair of ‘tassie knickers! Noice!) and Leah at Hyena in Petticoats with ‘budgie smugglers’.  Nummy.

I have one skein of the Manos del Uruguay silk blend in colourway 7105 and one skein of mmmMalabrigo worsted in Damask Rose.  Yberry, as you commented first, you can have first pick.  If you could both send an e-mail to esmerelda DOT sp AT hotmail DOT co DOT uk with your mail addresses, I’ll get those in the post asap.

Thanks to everyone who commented, it was veeeeerrry instructional!