Ravlympics Update

I've officially finished the Sock Put competition.

Hoorah!!!

And I'm also officially past the "tragic error" point on the Lotus Blossom.



Double Hoorah!!!

I don't have time for anything but knitting this week, so consider yourselves warned.

martiangirl has landed

My niece Thea arrived yesterday, and she brought gifts from afar.

She brought the August button-of-the-month (the dragonfly button that just arrived was July's - I'd lost track)and it's a very lovely golden sunflower.



It's a perfect button for the month of August, a salute to the happy sunshiney faces of late summer. Thank you Jane!

Jane also sent this fantastic book:



A lovely book with loads of interesting and amusing patterns to stitch for our little creatures. I'm already planning a couple of Christmas gifts - Gus really needs a new sweater, and maybe a hat for Whimsy. Can't wait!

The ravlympics continue, though I've slowed down considerably.

I escorted Thea and Ian to the pool today and knitted poolside while they enjoyed a swim.





I'm more than half finished that second sock, which I'm sure will be all done by the end of the week-end, and then it's back to the Lotus Blossom and the race to the finish!

In the meantime I'll be enjoying a fairly leisurely couple of days with the family.

There and Back Again

There she is. The Lotus Blossom is back up on the needles. I'm almost finished the first lace repeat - again. I plan to work on this tonight, and maybe a little bit tomorrow, then I'll start that second sock. My niece Thea is coming to visit on Thursday and through the week-end. Working a sock while visiting is far less consuming than that lace. Next week will be full steam ahead.

Today the post brought August's button-of-the-month.



Another stunner, it's a large (3 cm?) purple glass circle with a dragonfly in the center. Jane also included a backing piece that allows me to change the button into a pendant. I just might do that.

Thank you Jane. It's gorgeous.

Damn You X-Files!

You mesmerise me so.

As I indulged in a few more episodes today while knitting the Lotus Blossom, I set my knitting down on the ottoman for a moment to grab a glass of water. When I returned I pressed "play" and knocked my knitting to the floor (that's not a big deal). I reached down to grab the two ends of the circular needle while paying attention to the plot, and by mistake had hold of only one end of the needle.

Yes.

Zzzziiiiip. Off fell my stitches.

I tried to pick them up, but the bamboo yarn is so smooth and silky it just unravelled further and further.

It looks like this now:



that's it posing with my marbles.

My horoscope in the paper today said:

LIBRA - This is a mildly accident-prone day, so keep your eyes open. Don't be hasty in your actions or your speech. Whatever trips you up will be minor.

Minor? Bah!

In good news, I finished that first sock last night.



Hooray.

Crazy Mad Knitting Demon

The Ravelympics continue at a furious pace.

I bought seasons 6 and 7 of The X-Files to keep me company while I knit. How much have I watched? All of season 6 and a third of season 7.

The Lotus Blossom has almost two complete lace repeats. That may not sound like much, but remember it's 230 stitches on each row.



And the first sock is more than half finished.



I wonder what Mulder and Scully would say...

Mulder: Where'd she get this superhuman speed? A bend in the space time continuum? A gravitational aberration? This is something science can't explain.

Scully: And maybe she's just a bored housewife.

Me: Shh, just one more row...

The Games Have Begun

A few weeks back I signed up for the Ravelympics. Through Ravelry, this is where knitters and crocheters sign up to start and finish a project while the Olympics play out in Beijing. The rules are, you have to cast-on your project during the opening ceremonies and finish before or during the closing ceremonies.

I don't normally sign up for this sort of thing, but it sounded like fun when I was surfing through Ravelry late one night, and so up I signed. There are lots of different events; there's the sweater sprint, the shawl relay and the baby dressage just to name a few. I wanted to make the Lotus Blossom Tank from Interweave Knits and the closest category was vest vault, so I signed on for that (though I did e-mail them and suggested tankoline, like trampoline, as an event, but they never got back to me). Then after thinking it over, I decided that I could easily finish a tank top in 17 days, so I signed up for the sock put too. I'll be making the Bellatrix socks (which I can't link to, because they exist in the Ravelry library, to which you have to be a member).

And so...

I crawled out of bed at six this morning and plonked myself in front of the tv and started to knit.

It wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done: casting on 230 stitches of slippery bamboo yarn, joining on a circular needle without any twisting while watching a distractingly good opening ceremony, but I did it.



(At least I'm fairly sure there aren't any twists in that cast on.)

I also started the socks, finishing the cuff and 4 rounds of pattern.



Now comes the challenge - how on earth do I finish all this in seventeen days?

Nigel and Ian have very kindly skipped town for this week-end, so at least I've got two fewer distractions. They've gone to Minneapolis to see this. Maybe they'll bring me back a droid to do all the housework while I knit.

To The Grotto

This past Monday, Nigel, Ian and I took a short road trip to visit the Grotto at St. Malo. I say it was a short road trip, but it would have been shorter if I'd navigated us down the right highway (that would be 52 rather than 59). We ended up taking a scenic tour through Steinbach first. We'd read about the Grotto in a Manitoba guidebook, and thought it sounded quaint and charming, almost Gothic.



The site wasn't quite what I'd expected.

I've lived in Manitoba most of my life, and I should know by now that Manitoba doesn't do Gothic very well. Quaint? Yes. Rustic? Absolutely. Charming? Well, sure, in a quirky sort of way.

The Grotto is a little ways from the town of St. Malo, in a wooded area near St. Malo Provincial Park, next to the Rat River and near a series of small rapids. The sound of swiftly flowing water echoes off the stone walls.



And in front of the grotto are rows and rows of wooden pews.



It was very rustic. The trees were growing right up between the pews, blocking some parishioners views.



Can you guess what these are?





That's right, they're outhouses.

Did I mention that Manitoba was a little quirky?