Ravelympics 2010 Final Podium

That's all folks! Seven medals for Team Ooh, Shiny! I haz a proud.

Now I need a new challenge. But first, a few days visiting down south and discussing the next steps re: employment and accommodation...

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Ravelympics 2010 Podium

Just waiting for my Weaving medal now!

and I've started spinning :-)

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Ravelympics 2010 Podium

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Ravelympics 2010 Update The Fifth

FINISHED. It has been officially decided that sleeves would make this Too Much of a Good Thing. So here it is!



Now just waiting to get called to the podium for my medals! Woo!

So now I'm picking up the socks which are entered in the WIPs category, plotting some weaving and / or spinning, and watching it snow:



It's been blowing a gale all night (kept waking me up dammit) and I got up this morning to blizzard conditions. It's been like this all day. I lit the fire at noon, which is unheard of :-)

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Ravelympics 2010 Update The Fourth

Back completed.



Fronts completed, lightly steamed, and waiting for darning in ends and sewing up. Once the sleeves are completed I will wash and block it properly.

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Snowdrops and crocuses! Pretty. Spring is coming. Hooray.



That's it for now folks. I have lots of other shit going on but I don't particularly feel like discussing it just now x

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Ravelympics 2010 Update The Third

A back view, for a change! Only a couple more inches to go. Look at that stranding. Mmm, stranded colourwork.



Apologies for the funny lighting - a big glowy ball has appeared in the sky today and I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Other than a sign to do laundry.

I went shopping with Ange yesterday - a mission to Gourock was required and I fell over and bought some pretty yarn:



Fyberspates Scrumptious 4-ply, silk / merino (nom nom) in colourway "Little Foxes" which is just too cute. Enough to make your ovaries cramp. I will probably make a nice little shawlette out of this. Socks were recommended but there is No Way In Hell I'm using this for socks. Far too pretty for that.

I will have another totally non-fibre related post for you in a wee while. Music review time! I can just tell you're frothing at the mouth with excitement.

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Ravelympics 2010 Update The Second

Progress continues apace. I've not done a huge amount so far today, I've been jobhunting. STILL nothing - what is going on? The few I've seen, the salaries have been an insult. Anyone want a skilled, hard-working Document Controller? Anywhere in the UK, all I ask is a realistic salary. Anyone?

I've got baking to do as well, now the Tesco man has been :-) but I might go and settle on the sofa for an hour first and catch up with some Olympics highlights. Saw some of the figure skating this morning, the Nordic Combined and the biathlon. As it's doing this out here today:



I don't feel too guilty at staying indoors :-)

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Ravelympics Podium

Ravelympics 2010 Update The First

The Berber Jacket progresses apace. This is it at 10am GMT today, and this is how it looked yesterday at the same time:



I also competed in the Aerial Unwind:







so I'm just waiting to get called to the podium for my medal! Woohoo!

Go Team Ooh, Shiny!

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Ravelympics

I'm ready. (Don't get me on the whole Knitting Olympics / Ravelympics thing, 'kay? This is supposed to be a fun challenge, not politics.)

I have wound the yarn.

I have swatched.

I have shed tears of frustration over colourwork knitted flat.

I have got over myself and figured how to work colourwork flat.

I am preparing to be up at 2am Saturday morning to cast on (but I'm trying to work out a way round that one. I'm not sure it's a good idea.)

I have prepared and tagged the projects on Ravelry.

And now...it's just the waiting.

Here is the yarn:



Here is the swatch - pretty isn't it?



It will be a Berber Jacket, pattern from the lovely Jane Thornley. I may not work the chequered pattern at the top of the yoke - in the swatch I didn't like it so much as the two-coloured ribbing. I'm also probably going to do the fronts and back, sew it up, then knit the sleeves downwards in the round. I will also have to watch the breadth of the shoulders - it's a dropped shoulder, and I do not have very wide shoulders. A lot of stuff ends up a bit big across my back so some careful measuring will need to be done I think.

Also I am going to finish my socks:



Which I have been working on since JUNE LAST YEAR, ffs. I have no warm socks. This will be remedied. Yarn is Regia Kaffe Fassett (I think - it's certainly Regia anyway.)

In other news.

I KNIT A SWEATER!!! AND IT FITS AND IS AWESOME. Also knit completely from stash. Go me.

Right, please excuse the pictures. I look like shit in this photo, well even more than usual. I am not a photogenic person without the aid of a team of make-up artists. And Photoshop. Jules - no rude remarks okay? Otherwise I will have to smack you. Hard.



Top-down raglan, in handspun Wensleydale from Teo's Handspun on the Isle of Skye. Bought when I was on my holidays up there, and I FINALLY got brave enough to knit it up. I have virtually no yarn left, right the way through the second sleeve I was panicking I was going to run out. As it turned out, I have maybe 20 yards left. It is delightfully sheepy, very cosy and surprisingly soft. I haven't dared wash it yet, to be honest. I have a terror it will drop about a foot. I will have to brave it sooner or later, but at the moment I'm wearing it :-) Ange's dog thought it was FABULOUS. He couldn't keep his paws off me :-)

Employment News

There is none. Nothing to report, not an interview, not a dickybird. Nowt.

Well, there's always tomorrow, right?

Road Trip

After a PARTICULARLY bad day, Ange took pity on me and carted me off to Twist in Newburgh, in sunny Fife, for a fibre fix. What a great shop! Fibre all laid out, ready for you to weigh out as much as you wanted. Fat wheels of lopi (yup, I bought some) just right for felting (I'm going to make a waistcoat) spinning and weaving stuff, yarns, buttons, books...Great stuff. Just what I needed, and I brought back some lovely merino tops and an 80/20 merino / silk blend for spinning for the Berber Jacket. I really need to get my ass in gear and take pictures. I also bought Caroline a maintenance kit JUST IN CASE - I have a horror of her snapping a driveband and leaving me wheel-less.

Tomorrow if he weather is decent I will try and take some pictures of the Woven Woods vest (I still need to finish the armholes...gah) and the bits from Twist. I have been a bit remiss on blogging things lately. Must remedy this.

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