Olympic Ventures

I was rather productive during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, despite my inability to watch most of it (I've seen a little curling, freestyle skiing, and nordic combined on TV, and the men's snowboarding halfpipe full replay via NBCOlympics.com; I plan on catching up with figure skating shortly). My one and only goal for the games was to finished my Laminaria, which was easily achieved:



I actually finished it in a little outside a week, though the first and last day of the endeavored consisted solely of casting on and casting off/blocking respectively, so I don't know if they really count. It's a shawlette, made out of some lovely Malabrigo Lace in the mariposa colorway. It's the perfect size, and I love it (so do all the people at the LYS)!

I my mad Laminaria knitting, I also knocked out a dishcloth:



... ... ... ...

I can't believe I made a dishcloth either, but I needed to use up half a ball of cotton that was driving me batty, and I needed something to clean the whiteboard on my door.

Moving on:



Yep, that's a mug cozy. I've been meaning to make one for ages, and I finally got fed up with not being able to drink my tea at the hot temperature I like it without burning my hands. Stupid conduction. I knocked it out in an hour or two, after I had finished my laminaria and in the middle of these:



You remember these, right? From the last post? I almost had them done the day after that post - I was short by the inch of cuff on the second sock. Knocked that out the day after that, and wore them yesterday. Heel already looks worn, but that happens to all my socks (my heels are hot and sweaty and not hand-knit-sock friendly); I don't blame the yarn. The rest of the socks are just peachy though, and I looooooooooove them. I will gladly trade all my stash in for some more Malabrigo sock (or I'll just use that gift certificate I have for the LYS).

I'm gathering many imaginary awards for my Olympic-knitting feats. See those red badges on the left? Those are my Ravelympics 2010 badges, signifying my knitting awesomeness in this Olympics. And the LYS is having a similar type of this, except with less categories, you have to use yarn from the store, and there are prizes, in the form of coupons! A gold medal in a category is a 20% off coupon! I'm banking on my Laminaria for that coupon. The socks are entered too, but they're just your basic socks, nothing special (except they are super awesome, but not in the prize-gathering way).

With not-enough time left for something else in the Olympics, I've gotten back to my two WIPs (we're not counting the granny square blanket at a WIP - THAT'S an extended, I'm-bored-and-feel-like-making-a-granny-square project): my Bayerische socks, as seen in the previous post, and a starghan for my grandma. I'm focusing more on the starghan, because I feel like a grandma project should come first, AND it's a destash blanket, and I want this yarn out of here! But, the thing has gotten too big for travel, so it sits on my under-loft chair, and I work on it while I watch Heroes. The socks come with me, and I expect the second sock to go much faster than the first now that I practically have all the charts memorized (except chart D, but I can live with that). I'm going to need these two to keep my sanity this week: bio test coming up, and it's one of those that we're expected to know every minute little detail of the powerpoints. I'm going to need more chocolate...

Socken

I'm surprising myself greatly with my knitting speed this past week or so. Really, I am. I mean, it took me about two weeks to get this far on a single sock:



OK, granted these socks are covered with cables and it takes a while to complete a round, but still, that much on a single sock, my only project, took two weeks.

What happens now?

Well, I started these Saturday night:



It's Tuesday. I have a sock and 40% of the other one done. It's been four days. I think I'm going to finish them on Thursday, at the latest. Last week I knit an entire shawlette, when it took three weeks to knit a different one right before it. For some reason, I'm knitting at super-sonic speeds, and I'm good with that. I mean, I'm dying to wear these socks (hint: if you want a pair of some of the most comfortable socks ever, make some out of Malabrigo sock), so it's a good thing I'm knitting these at super sonic speeds. I suppose it also has something to do with the fact that these are plain vanilla socks, and that they're toe-up with a short-row heel, which, in my opinion, is a lot faster than the heel-flap and gusset of cuff-down. Ironically, the warm weather decided to come back to Miami today, so I don't know if I'll even get a chance to wear them when I finish.

Oh, and you're not crazy. You haven't seen those red socks before; I've only got the first one done, and promptly used the needles for the speedy socks (LYS is having an Olympic event: knit something in the span of the Olympics with yarn bought there). A non-FO does not belong in the FO montage.

Do the FO Dance

You see that? That collage of knitware right above this sentence? Well, that's pretty much everything I've made since last posting an actual blog post (not a pattern). When was that, waaaaaaay back in mid-December? And it's about two months later, and now I'm posting. That's not to say I haven't tried, but Picasa doesn't like to post more than four pics at a time to the blog, and the Miami Internet connection doesn't like me to upload photos with the blogger software at all. So I had to figure out how to get all of these pics up. Well, guess what? There's a neat little thing under the "create" tab in Picasa that allows you to make a collage out of any pics you select. The solution to all my problems! Let's get to the details, shall we?

Going in the order like you read a sentence:

Girder socks: made them over break; my first fingering weight socks, and I went a little high with the stitch count. Found a formula now, and making a better-fitting pair out of Mmmmmalabrigo sock (yum!)

French Press Slippers: Well, had a couple of leftover balls of Wool of the Andes from Dad's sweater, so I made myself some awesome felted slippers! They are now my regular dorm footware.

Ethan's Sweater: A curly-edge pullover, my first sweater. I thought it would be a bit big on him, but it fits him just right. Makes me a little concerned about how long it's going to fit him for. But it is snuggly, warm, and machine washable!

Dad's Sweater: Yay for cables! My second sweater, and he loves it! Stayed up until 3AM the night before my flight back down to Miami to finish it for him (and so I didn't have to lug the thing down to the tip of the country for some seaming and ship it back).

Hydrogen Bonding: Technically a water-bottle holder, because the little part that connects the lid to the bottle of my RSMAS nalgene broke off, and I needed some way to carry it. Actually made this before break... >.>

Spiral Soap Scrubby: This probably looks familiar, considering the pattern was the last post. It's working out well, though I'm trying to figure out the logistics of washing it (I know, seems a little odd to wash a soap bag, but trust me, it's needed).

Swallowtail: My first true lace project, complete with nupps (pronounced n-oo-ps), in laceweight alpaca. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find laceweight in brown. It's gorgeous, and I love it, but I think the humidity is making it lose it's block :(

Grandma's Socks: I made my Grandma Gifford a pair of socks back in September 2008, back when I first learned how to make the things and was on a kick. Well, they got holes in them about a month ago because she wears them so much, and she asked for a new pair. Ask, and ye shall receive!

Cables for Tea: Made this last night, because I'm tired of scalding my hands on hot mugs. I memorized the cable after a single repeat.

Mom's Mittens: Yet another one I made before break, but I didn't post here for a good reason: they were a Christmas gift for Mom, and I couldn't post about them until after Christmas, because she reads the blog. Waaaay too small for my hands, but the fit her.

Dishcloth: ... ... ... What?! It's the only thing that can effectively clean the whiteboard on my door, OK?

Flour Amour: This one should look familiar too, as a believe this pattern is, two posts down? I love the things to death, and they keep my hands super-toasty! Still a little bummed that I just barely didn't have enough for mittens, but these worked out nicely (NOTE: if you make these, please consider yourself warned that they take days to block; stupid chunky cables...)

Laminaria: Promptly after making the Swallowtail, I made a Laminara shawlette, which seems to be holding the block better. They're both gorgeous, and I would love to knit some more lace, except I don't really know what to do with the two of them now (ignore the two unused hanks of laceweight in my stash... >.>)

That's it, for now. Expect a post-Olympic update in a week or so. I have to detail all my Olympic speed-knitting adventures! (and how I did it in the midst of test season)