Inevitably, the arrival, celebration, and completion of another Olympic Games means that there has been a Ravellenic Games. Ravellenics brings the Ravelry community together for self-set knitting and crochet challenges to be started and completed during the Olympic Games. Though unaffiliated, there is an inspiration. You may remember it used to be called Ravelympics, until this happened. Ravellenic Games it is! I competed in London and Moscow, and now Rio! You can read a previous post about my Ravellenic Games accomplishments and in this post all about what I accomplished during the Rio games.
I really challenged myself this time and accomplished FIVE projects! I surprised myself, but am pleased to have risen to the challenge. Here, I’ll detail each of the five projects and any medals and laurels received.
Cascais Baby Blanket
I designed it in 2012 and it hibernated for ages until this summer. Now, it’s done. Such a great feeling. The yarn bled when I washed/blocked it, but otherwise it is a favorable outcome. But more background… back in 2012 a friend was expecting her first baby and I wanted to design and knit her something special. I bought the yarn, jotted the repeat pattern down on a slip of paper, and worked away on and off for a few months. Then I had to have big surgery and took a break to basically sleep for a month. Of course, her pregnancy progressed and the blanket did not so I ended up buying her a gift on Etsy. Without a deadline, the blanket hibernated until this summer. Ravellenics gave me the push I needed to knit for every spare minute for a weekend and IT IS FINALLY DONE! In the last four years, many other knit chevron baby blankets have appeared on the scene. This is not unique, but it is mine. I’ll fine tune the pattern and knit it again in the near future I’m sure. But, next time, a different yarn! Even with a color catcher sheet, the red border yarn bled onto the neighboring rows.
Pattern: My own design
Yarn: Rico Design Baby Classic DK
Finish date and [Irish] time: August 8, 2016 at 7pm
Medal Category: WIPs Wrestling
Laurel Category: None
The Miller’s Daughter Cowl
I paired this sturdy and shiny golden Drops Cotton Viscose with a creamy-yellow worsted weight yarn I found forgotten in my stash. The weight of the stash find with the shimmer of the Drops makes a lovely drape and sheen. I cast on 55 stitches, I think. This will be nice with a dressier coat. Named after the miller’s daughter in the tale “Rumpelstiltskin” because of the story’s element of spinning of straw into gold.
Pattern: My own design
Yarn: Garnstudio DROPS Cotton Viscose and a random stashed yarn
Finish date and [Irish] time: August 16, 2016 at 9pm
Medal Category: WIPs Wrestling
Laurel Category: None
Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Baby Beanie
This one is a nice preemie-sized baby hat with an intarsia blue crab. I created the chart myself from a photo of a blue crab. It is the state crustacean for the state of Maryland (my home state in the U.S. of A.). It was my first attempt at intarsia and it wasn’t perfect, but it looks good. The Sirdar Crofter colorway looks spot on for a blue crab. So, I named the project… Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Baby Beanie and you can see more HERE. I finished it last night then blocked it overnight on a small bowl. It is preemie-sized. In a perfect world, the grey bits of the Crofter would have landed at the crab’s eyes, but the baby won’t notice. Blue crabs are blue when alive and in nature, then red when cooked. So, it makes me happy this fellow is alive.
Pattern: My own design
Yarn: Rico Design Essentials Soft Merino Aran and Sirdar Crofter DK
Finish date and [Irish] time: August 19, 2016 at 7am
Medal Category: Hat Dash
Laurel Category: Colorwork and Stash
Striped Robot Boy’s Beanie
My four-and-three-quarters-year-old son really wanted a robot hat and was very specific about the design and colors. He joined me for a trip to the craft store to choose the yarn then he worked with me to create the colorwork chart. I kept expecting him to get bored with the project at some point, but he didn’t. He really wanted the robot to have a heartbeat across its chest so it shows it has power/electricity. Clever boy. My first cast on was too big and the second was just right, but the floats tightened the hat size a smidgen so it is not as big on his as I had hoped. But it took only three days to knit with all my spare time, so I’ll make another one a bit bigger this time.
Pattern: My son’s own design
Yarn: Rico Design Essentials Soft Merino Aran
Finish date and [Irish] time: August 21, 2016 at 11:56pm
Medal Category: Hat Dash
Laurel Category: Colorwork
Bumble Bee Bundle for Baby
A friend started the crochet and didn’t finish so I took that and knitted onto it to create a little baby cozy cocoon. I love the cheerful colors. Yellow and grey go so well together! It was a long rectangle when I adopted it, so I seamed it in the front centre and added buttons for the top for a cosy baby cocoon.
Pattern: Improvised design
Yarn: Generic DK
Finish date and [Irish] time: August 22, 2016 at 12:29am
Medal Category: WIPs Wrestling
Laurel Category: None
And, of course, I created a custom team Ravatar for anyone to use. Team Cáca Milis, which means something like cake in Irish.
And time for the showing off of my medals and laurels!
How did you do this Ravellenic Games?