Welcome to the Ravellenic Games …so far. It’s my own little halftime show. Does anyone else have this running through their mind? Anyway, once again I’m on Team Reckless in Dublin (Voxless’ blog post). *crowd cheers* Once again, I created our team ravager, which I’ll show at the end of this blog post. Rest assured, the Ravellenic Games isn’t just about clever culturally-accurate graphic designs. No, no, no, it’s also about fibre awesomeness and challenging one’s self to create. Just as the athletes in those games over in Sochi are challenging themselves athletically, but we’re doing it while cheering them on (or binge-watching House of Cards).You will find, I don’t mention the Sochi games much because I don’t want to overstep their trademark. As you know, that was an issue in 2008. Read about it here (Bloomberg Business Week) and here (NY Times). Now, may the games begin!
The first thing I knit was a WIP long forgotten. It initially was cast on by my friend Carol as a front piece of a jumper or handbag, but wasn’t turning out right so she destashed it to me. I thought it could be made into something then it sat neglected for years until the 2014 Ravellenic Games encouraged me to use it as a WIP and make it something once and for all. With a couple days devotion, it became a lovely iPad case!
I cut apart a discount store neoprene iPad sleeve to create the lining for this case. It adds a sturdy feel, some insulation, and additional padding. The stitch work isn’t top notch, but it works and doesn’t show from the other side.
It fits like a glove.
The back is entirely violet cable knit.
Though I don’t love purple, I’m delighted with how it came out and I like my choice to use the contrasting yarn for the ruffled edge and the blanket stitching up the sides. To me, it makes it seem less like I ran out of one colour and more like they teamed up to create this charming gadget pouch. One more look.
I was sick after that and not leaving home, so I got A LOT of knitting done. Wanting to take on something with a pattern so my brain could relax (remember, the iPad case was all my creation from Carol’s old WIP), I chose a baby cardigan…and then another. My bestie since age two is having her very first child. Yay! I’m an ocean away but that doesn’t mean she will escape being showered with love by me. Not knowing the gender, I wanted to knit a boy cardigan and a girl cardigan so I could send the proper one once the baby arrives. Shall I call her my niece? What do you call the child of your lifelong best friend? Cherished. Anyway, the results are below.
I looked to patterns on Ravelry for inspiration, but as usual I did my own thing. No wonder I finally started writing up my own designs, I’m horrible at following other patterns because my imagination edits them as I go. The boy’s cardigan was inspired by the Basic Baby Cardigan pattern by Leslie Gonzalez. The girl’s cardigan was inspired by the Sugared Violet pattern by Taiga Hilliard Designs.
Buttons were bought locally. The sailboat buttons are available online through Cork Button Company. The yarn was old and from my stash. I actually thought I had used it all but then found more.
These YouTube tutorials helped me with the crochet edge I created for the button holes. Usually, I add them in as I go, but I forgot then the spacing would have been off and it was Ravellenics so I didn’t want to rip back. Then I thought I’d just do a loop off the edge (like this) but it pulled weird with the one I tried so I decided to give a crochet edge all around a try and it actually worked. Here are the links:
The seed stitch edging was to give this quick little girl cardigan a more unified feel. I did something similar with the jumper I knit for Quinn a few years ago. Here’s my Ravelry project page for that sweater.
Take a closer look at the cute kitty buttons!
As promised, my Ravatar design and backstory. The design is inspired by the domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Russia. Here is a photo from Tinou on Flickr of them:
And here is my Ravatar:
What have you been challenging yourself to do lately?