WIP Wednesday: Doomsday Mitts

First and foremost:

a very Happy 8th Birthday to my niece, Sophie!

And now back to the regularly scheduled post:

One of the projects I’m working on right now is a dk weight fingerless mittens, that I’ve dubbed the Zombie Doomsday Mitts. The pattern, Rose Tyler Wrist Warmers (Ravelry link), were inspired by a pair of fingerless gloves worn by the Doctor’s Companion in the episode Doomsday. I’m working on them as a knit a long (KAL) for the Walking Dead fan group I belong to on Ravelry. Put those things together and Zombie Doomsday seemed a great name for them.


The mitts have a beautiful cable pattern that creates several large diamonds, filled in with seed stitch down the middle. The diamonds are flanked by a single cable on either side. I’m making them out of Silky Merino yarn from Malabrigo in a greenish-yellow color.

Knitting these as a KAL project has helped immensely, I’m pretty sure that they would have ended up frogged by now if not for the support of the group. I don’t know why exactly these have been so troublesome, I’ve done projects that were considerably more complicated before, but for some reason I have ran into problem after problem with them. Extra stitches have appeared on my needles, cables have been mistwisted, I started the pattern on the wrong row. The most current problem I have encountered has been large holes at the thumb gusset increases. I changed to the very nearly Invisible increase from the TechKnitting Blog, which seems to have solved the problem.

Now that I’ve gotten the hang of the pattern, things seem to be going a bit more smoothly. I’ve completely finished one mitt and have just finished the thumb gusset increases on the second.

 

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The View from the Podium

Look at this:

That is a completed February Lady Sweater, it is done. And by done, I mean done, except for the buttons. Ends have been woven in, and it has been washed and blocked and I have already picked out and purchased the buttons, so I’m calling it done.

And, I finished with a week to spare as part of the Ravelympics. That gave me plenty of time to devote to my second Ravelympic project. For project number two, I decided to make a pair of fingerless gloves. The pattern is called Zombie Vixen, which under any circumstances be almost enough reason for me to make them, but they are also super cute. This project is intended to be a gift, but I like the pattern so much, I think I’m going to have to make a pair for myself. Plus, I always need more fingerless gloves, I love fingerless gloves. The gloves went quickly, and I was able to finish those Friday night and wove in the ends Saturday morning.

However, success at the Ravelympic projects has come at the cost of progress on other projects, namely socks. My Michigan Lakeshore socks are idling at a standstill. I was almost to the heel of the second one when I discovered a problem that forced me to rip back to the cuff. Seeing as how those socks are my mom’s birthday present, and my mom’s birthday was July 27, I might want to get those done some day.

I’m not going to worry about those things now, instead, I’m just going to bask in my Ravelympic success.

I'm on the podium for several events:

WIP Wrestling

One Skein Sprint

Cable Steeplechase

And, Mitten Medly

 

 

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It's the Most Wonderful Time of Every Four Years

Hello, my name is Nicole and I’m an Olympic Junkie. I love, love, love the Olympics. With the start of the summer games in London just hours away as I write this, I am looking forward to the next two weeks of Olympic goodness.

And with the Olympics come the Ravelympics, or the Ravellenic Games. Honestly, I’m not sure which one the official name was, weeks ago there was a big dust up with copyright and the U.S. Olympic Committee. I’m not going to get into the whole thing, but the USOC learned that insulting and upsetting knitters is not a good idea.

The Ravellenic Games are celebration of both the Olympic games and of the fiber arts held on Ravelry (a social networking site for fiber artists). Teams compete in such events as the Afghan Marathon, Sock Put, Work in Progress Wrestling (believe me there are a lot more too). It runs from the opening ceremonies to the closing ceremonies.

I’ll be competing first and foremost in the WIP wrestling. My goal is to finish the February Lady Sweater, which I have not touched since March. If, by some miracle, I finish that, I’ll be casting on in the Sock Put event, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.

I might be able to accomplish more than I think though. Next Thursday, Husband leaves on his annual golf trip. This means I will be left to my own devices Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday. Even factoring in that I have to work at the bank on Saturday, and I am available to work at the grocery store Saturday and Sunday, there should be plenty of knitting time (especially when I factor in that I have Thursday off from both jobs).

So, if anybody needs me the next two weeks, and I’m not at work; you will most likely find my happily curled up on my couch, enjoying two of my favorite things, knitting and the Olympics.

Life is good.

 

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