Arial Unwind: The End Of The Ravellenics

My third project in the Ravellenics was the Aerial Unwind. It's the even where we unravel something that didn't work the first time around to use the yarn again. I unwound my Abundance Vest and if you can't remember why then...

So disgraceful I changed my hair colour to hide from it

Yeah... it now looks like this.

Ready to be made into something else. I have nothing against the Abundance but I have no desire to knit it again right now. I'm thinking of a Angostura but that's a blog entry for another time.

Rainbowllenics: The Putin Punchers

One of the events in the Ravellenics is the Rainbowllenics where we knit rainbow things as... well the description says for any reason but most of us are in it for the solidarity with GSM people in Russia. I bought myself two balls of Crystal Palace Mochi Plus in the colour intense Rainbow and decided to make a pair of Maine Morning Mitts. The Mochi Plus made a cute rainbow until...

You know what? I accept that it's convention to tie knots in ends on yarn to make whole ball up. I think it's crap but I accept it. But why, if you are going to do that, would you mess with the colour progression so badly? In the end, to get the matching rainbow I ended up with little five balls from the mochi and more joins than I wanted.

In the end I got these adorable mitts and the patten was lovely, simple and well thought. I'm pleased with the finished affect but I have an entire ball's worth left which won't join into a continuous progression.  At least I have my mitts.

Loving Liesl

Off the needles, blocked and pictured is the Liesl I knit for the Ravellenic Games. I thought that, along with the pictures, I might offer some insight into why I picked this pattern.

One Grumpy Face

Why do I have an obsession with bulky cardigans is probably the first question I need to answer. I'm aware that most people don't think they look good but I think the key is picking a pattern were you can tell the bulk is in the cardigan and not you. Cardigans are better then jumpers at this because you can always open a couple of buttons to show the shape underneath. But why going to the effort of finding one that flatters? Well I just think that they look more whimsical than their finer counterparts. Some people use whimsical as an insult. I'm not one.

One Silly Face

So then why Liesl in particular? Well a lacy bulky cardi is great for the in-between days. The days when you don't want to put your coat on but can't exactly manage jeans and t-shirt. Which is what we have instead of winter most of the time here in Torquay, at least it feels that way to my Northern Blood. I've had my eye on Liesl for a bit then but it wasn't until I saw this one (think you have to be logged into rav to view it) that I knew I had to make it out of handspun. Which is why the yarn was one of the first projects I did on my wheel.

As my other Ravellenics project seems to be finding reasons to be pissed at the Russian government may I direct you here.

Adding Events - Ravellenics 2014

This was intended to be more of a whinge than a weekly update but I spent far too long in the doctors office to post yesterday so we'll call it a weekly update.

As an aside- I have a fairly minor injury that makes it painful to sit. I wasn't going to mention it to the doctor but sitting for over an hour waiting for my appointment exacerbated it so much that I had to. Thankfully it's just a rest and paracetamol deal but how you rest your arse I don't know... anyway, really off topic.

Where was I? Well at the start of the Ravellenics it was just slip up after slip up. I frogged all the way back to the start three times and just before my Stephen phoned to tell me about Jenny Jones earning GB's first medal on snow I realised I needed to rip it out again.

Oh yeah, looking good with my needles hanging out

There was crying, balls where thrown at walls but the last cast on seemed blessed and I've raced through it. I've cast off the bottom section and I'm now working on the right sleeve. Hence my smug look above. The panic though is that I've run out of project. As next week is half term I have even more time to knit so it's time to add a couple more events.

This is the face I make over this project when I'm not in tears.

I have some rainbow yarn coming for the The Rainbowllenics Parade (seriously, screw any country with homophobic laws) but before that gets here I have something for the Arial Unwind. My Abundance Vest. It fit like a glove when I finished it but one trip in the washing machine (and, yes, I did wash my swatch. Thanks for asking.) and you could fit two of me in there now. I want to rip this apart and knit another vest, this time with a better idea of the growth potential.

So one week down and I'm 95% done on my first project and have added two more to keep the pressure up.

Ravellenic Training

Tomorrow the winter Olympics start and so do the Ravellenics. As as news of people being arrested comes through I'm thankful that I'm involved in the version that keeps me on my couch rather than in Russia. My thoughts are with the athletes, the activists, the people of Russia.

I've decided to take part in the decidedly less evil Ravellenics as part of Team Sasquach, the big group for Podcasters and their listeners. I'l be making a Liesl out of my hand spun alpaca. I've spend the last couple of weeks picking out buttons, swatching, measuring myself, deciding what variations I want and winding my yarn.

Soon this will be a cardigan... 

I'm ready to go now, all I need to do now is wait for the opening ceremonies.