Wrap me in dark vines...

As you can see from the Bobicus medal, below, I've crossed the finish line in the Short Track Shawl race of the 2010 Ravelympics.



I cast on in a hotel room on the ocean while watching the Opening ceremonies last weekend - away for Valentine's with my sweetie. He was very supportive of my Ravelympics obsession and understood my need to cast on at this exact moment! After I got a good number or rows down, we went down to the bar and watched the rest of the Olympic opening there, with good wine and chocolate covered strawberries...

My Ravelympics challenge was the beautiful Saroyan pattern by Liz Abinante, but in shawlette size...



I used Blue Moon Fiber Arts in their gorgeous Luscious Single Silk fiber - the Thraven colourway, and a size 10 (6 mm) circular Addi needle. It worked perfectly - just as I'd hoped. I thought I would need to add repeats on the increase section to make it wide enough for a shawl, but in fact, I knit it exactly as written. The soft bulky-ness of the yarn did the rest...



The season seems to be struggling to turn - winter is trudging towards the bus stop, her tattered skirts trailing in the dirt and remnants of snow... but spring hasn't arrived. We have dark days that smell like rain and I'm often melancholy and dark. You can see that my new shawl suits me perfectly right now. I'll wear it today!

January Spring

It is still winter - and should be the dark bleak ice of winter, being January in the Northeast. But an unexpected warmer temperature brought rain instead of snow and today the bright sunshine and glistening streets actually make me think we are closer to spring than my dark, frozen heart expected.

Along with this spring-like feeling, Rowan came out with the previews for their Spring/Summer issue: #47. I found full pictures on the HULU website, a place where the magazine can be ordered, though I usually just pay the extra bucks to pick it up at my local addiction supplier (AKA: LYS).

I've read a lot of grousing about the Rowan Spring/Summer story being too "pastel" but I thought the images were very spring-like and romantic. There were several designs that caught my eye, but only three that I think I would actually make.

This one - definitely a favorite style, with a fitted bodice and those gorgeous vintage-style sleeves:


This one intrigues me, though it looks loose and not very defined, it seems to made with a very fine, almost diaphanous, fiber - I have to admit I love and wear long droopy sweaters quite a bit, especially in my air-conditioned workplace:


and this one - I can't tell exactly what it is - vest? shawl? scarf? - but I'm a sucker for anything that shows a picture of the ocean, so this is definitely on my list!


Right now, all of my spring knitting is just in dreams. I'm still in the dead of winter where knitting is concerned, having finished an unsuccessful pair of dog-walking mitts, one sock of a pair of very lovely BMFA bf socks, and almost the whole front of a brown tweed alpaca cabled man's vest - coming along nicely, thank you!, if a bit boring st st knitting for the whole back.

In other news, BMFA has created two special colourways for the Ravelympics!


One, called Vancouver Violet is a shaded solid just the colour of the logo. The other, called Ilanaaq, which is the name of the Olympics Rings logo and means "friend" has all the colours of the rings in one skein. Very exciting!

more domestic

There is nothing like small projects to restore your confidence, your inspiration, and your general interest in life around you. This last month - October - was so difficult as I struggled to re-enter my usual cycle of days and occupations after a month on the west coast with my far-flung family and new family members. Work responsibilities, phone calls from friends, my bf's lovely dogs... nothing was sinking its hooks into my heart and I felt restless, sleepless, and dissatisfied.

Some months ago when I was at a loose end, my friend Briley had suggested "small projects". His advice came back to me, so for the past four weeks I've concentrated on finishing those little WIPs and starting up fast-moving fiber snacks - hats, the long-neglected second sock, the final rows of a project never completed. This project is one of those results:

More Domestic
Fine Cotton Dish Towel


Each towel: 2 balls Filatura de Crosi Millifili Fine or Filatura de Crosi Dolce Amore, 100% mercerized cotton

Needles: Size 5 (3.75 mm) straights

Directions

Cast on 56 sts, leaving a tail twice the width of the towel (you will use this to sew down the picot edge later).
Knit 5 rows in stockinette stitch. You will end with a wrong side (WS) row.
Next row: Knit 2 together, Yarn Over. Repeat across row.
Knit 5 rows in stockinette stitch. You will end with a wrong side (WS) row.

Begin Pattern:
Row 1: Knit 5 stitches, (Knit 1, yarn foward, slip 1 purlwise, yarn back as if to knit) repeat to last 5 stiches, knit 5.
Row 2: Knit 5, purl across to last 5 stitches, Knit 5.
Row 3: Knit 5, (yarn foward, slip 1 purlwise, yarn back as if to knit, knit 1) repeat across to last 5 stitches, knit 5.
Row 4: Knit 5, purl across to last 5 stitches, Knit 5.

Repeat these four rows for 5 inches, then change to stockinette stitch, keeping the five edging stitches at beginning and end of each row.

When the towel is the almost the length you like, repeat the Pattern for 5 inches, then repeat the 11 rows of the beginning picot edge. Bind off fairly loosely, leaving a tail twice the width of the towel.

Finishing: Fold the beginning and ending edges at the Yarn Over row and neatly sew the edge down on the wrong size of the towel, using the tails of yarn attached. Weave in ends.

Fini

These cotton towels are soft immediately, but will get more soft and more absorbent with use. That's the nature of this beautiful, fine gauge, vibrant cotton yarn. I love the colours it comes in. Sadly, my LYS has discontinued stocking it so I'll have to find an alternate source but it's well worth it.

Finishing this project marked my re-entry into my east coast life. I immediately felt that gratification that only a quick project that results in an item that is lovely way beyond its effort of creation can give. I smiled. I looked forward to other, more complicated projects. I made plans for the future.

Holiday knitting. Ahhh... that's the ticket!

On another note, if you're on Ravelry, we are all gearing up for the 2010 Ravelympics - that wonderful time when we join a team and challenge ourselves to complete an entire project within the confines of the broadcast winter Olympics. The Winter Olympics in 2010 span February 12 to the 28th, so... not many days, but oh so fun!!

I am a co-captain of Team Blue Moon, and all of our projects, both knit and crochet, will be made out Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarns. We already have 50 team members. Blue Moon has given us permission to use the BMFA logo in our Team Ravatar and, in that email, Tina - the dyer extrodinaire of Blue Moon - asked an innocent little question that sent my heart soaring: "Do we need a colourway for this?" Oh, my! Imagine - a Ravelympics colourway! Stay tuned, because you know if this does happen, that colourway will show up here on my blog!



If you want to join the Ravelympics - and I sincerely hope you do - the official group is Ravelympics 2010. In the Team lists of that group, you will find many Team threads, including Team Blue Moon, our official team thread. Do you want to be team member 51?

Bluejay Wings

C'est fini!



Stats:
Pattern: Shetland Triangle by Evelyn A Clark, in Wrap Style
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Socks That Rock lightweight in Smoky Topaz, 1 skein 360 yards
Needles: Addi lace needles, size US 6, 4 mm, circular 32"
Started August 8, 2008 at 8:08 am
Finished August 15, 2008 at 11:20 pm

The obligatory "bathroom mirror photo":



My Ravelympics medal!



sigh....that was so much fun! Being part of Ravelympics, especially Team Blue Moon, it was "the experience of a lifetime"!!

Blogging Ravelympics 2

Did you watch the opening of the Olympics? It was a spectacular preformance of Chinese history shown through the Arts. The entire display started at 7:30 pm and ended after 11 pm when I went to bed... I was excited to finally be able to relax with my sweetheart and watch it while knitting my Ravelypics shawl! By the end of the opening ceremonies, I had completed 50 rows of the Shetland triangle:



It doesn't look like much - more like a wrinkly newborn at the moment. But it's getting more challenging because the rows get longer and longer as I go, instead of shorter and shorter. I much prefer shawls that start at the long end and work towards the point...my enthusiasm and energy is always greater at the beginning of a project. Still, I'm going to work through any doldrums and finish my shawl event! I am! I am! (cheering myself on)

The Olympic ceremonies were held in the Bird's Nest stadium that was built in downtown Beijing:



From the video of the surrounding area that they showed, it appeared to be in or near the college district of the city.



The performance started with very early civilization in China, and went forward through history to the present time and then the future, and even to hopes for the future. The broadcast I watched (actually the only broadcast available in my area) didn't show every performance and also cut out some due to commercials, so I didn't see all of it, sadly. The show used thousands of dancers, acrobats, artists, musicians, actors, costume designers and light technicians. The whole spectacle took place on a moving scroll that opened and unwound on the stadium floor.



One of the early performances showed Chinese longboats and exploration on the ocean:



Another was of the Imperial Court period, and the court ladies:



You can't see it very well in the picture, but this dancer is dancing on a thin flexible platform upheld on poles, each pole held by one of a hundred men. She had to dance and keep her balance at the same time as they walked around the scroll!



The performances representing modern times used technology and light in an amazing way. This huge globe rose out of the scroll. At first it changed shape and colour to represent the various heavenly bodies in our solar system, then it glowed from within to show Earth, with the oceans and continents, then people's faces from around the world began to appear on the globe and dancers and acrobats scampered and twirled around it - sideways, upside down, running, walking, dancing, flipping - it was incredible!



In this long view you can see the image of whales swirling in the ocean around the stadium, and the dancers suspended on wires that "flew" through the air around the globe to represent the good spirits who bless the earth. The thousands of little lights that look like stars are actually the attendees on thier seats around the stadium. On top of the globe stand Sarah Brightman and a very prominent Chinese singer. They sang a lovely ballad in both Chinese and English.



Protecting water, the environment, and children were very prominent themes throughout the Ceremony's performances. Quite often school children were included in the performances, child performers of around 8 years old took the stage with amazing voices and musical abilities, and images of children were used to illustrate that everything was about the future, their future. The numbers of little ones who took part in these artistic symbolic performances was amazing. Here you see the 'light dancers' - one of my favorite parts - surrounding a photograph of a Chinese child. I think the dancers represented raindrops or water, and this particular dance had been about protecting the environment. It had started out with a group of Chinese school children in a classroom in the middle, with two of their teachers, and they were learning about the world's environment.



One of the final dances also involved light dancers, this time, all in white. They formed this dove, which lit up the stadium and as they danced back and forth, the wings of the dove moved as though it were flying.



It was a beautiful, amazing, awe-inspiring artistic display. So many times, my eyes filled with tears at the touching messages, and the hainting music. So many performances took my breath away!

The reality of politics seemed far away. But my appreciation of these ceremonies does not mean that I accept China's political policies and stances - not at all. I believe that no one is free until we all are are free, and that alone will preserve this earth for the future of all the world's children.

Tibet:

blogging Ravelympics

At 8:08 on 8/8/08 I cast on the my Ravelympics project: the Laceweight Longjump:

This is 20 rows of the Shetland Shawl from Wrap Style in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock yarn, lightweight, Smokey Topaz....



Now must rush to get to work (late - yikes!)...

I'm not a slacker, I'm just boring. My days have been filled with things, but little that's blog-worthy.



Here is my tea - Dragon of Fire green tea - Tears, tightly wounds, that blossom onto this beautiful tea flower.

And here is my book - Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, an Isobel Dalhousie gentle, philosophical mystery...

Other than that, the only thing I have done is sign onto the Ravelry Ravelympics,

where I promise to cast on a project on the 8th of August, and finish it by the 24th....I am entered in the Laceweight Longjump with The Shetland Triangle





I'm using my Blue Moon skein, Smokey Topaz, a soothing combination of light blue, charcoal black, and gold-ish beige:




and a size 6 circular needle, and the one you see in the picture above is from Grafton Fibers and is beautiful!

Other than that, I've neglected my friends, ignored my house and garden, and frittered away my time. I guess last week was just way too exciting and full of "stuff" and I'm still in recovery mode....