My Story of Ravelympic Gold

During the Olympics, I participated in the Ravelympics. I wrote about it a few posts ago. The basic idea was that participants were supposed to complete a project within the two weeks that the Olympics were going on. I think the idea was to watch the Olympics while knitting, but that didn’t happen much on our couch. Every time we turned on the TV, it was something like the zillion mile (excuse me, kilometer) ice skating marathon and neither of us were very interested in that. Had it been ski jumping, snow boarding or figure skating, I might have watched it. But I’m not really a sports person. Participating in an event that ends with ‘-ympics’ is about as close as I get to sports.

I started off a couple of weeks before the start date knitting the pattern I wanted to knit, but in a different yarn, an extra yarn that I had just sitting in a box. I wanted to see if there were any sticking points I could figure out before jumping into a project with a time limit. There are two sizes to the pattern I used: small and large. After I’d knit for a while, I realized that I had passed the changing point for the small pattern, so I kept knitting. I thought I’d just make the large. Not big deal. I have plenty of that yarn. Then while I was doing the lace pattern, I realized that I’d screwed up somewhere along the way and that my stitch count was off. What…ever. It was almost time to start the other shawl - the real shawl - anyway.

The real shawl was finished within a week and I qualified for a Ravelympic gold medal. (It’s not a competition. It’s more like the Special Olympics in that even if you finish late, you qualify for a medal - albeit bronze.) The pattern is Ishbel. It’s a very straight forward pattern that makes a nice looking shawl. I used Noro Kureyon Sock yarn, which I would never use for socks. That’s it in the photo above. Here it is folded up.

It’s a triangular shawl. The small version is sort of neckerchief sort of thing. Fred says it’s the perfect size for a midget. That last pink stripe just happened organically, but I saw it coming down the pike and I would have made it happen if it had not done it itself. Notice, by the way, the different between Fred’s photo at the top and my photo right here. He’s got better control of all the buttons and switches on the camera. Ain’t he handy to have around.

Anyway, with the second shawl done, I decided to rip back the first shawl and see if I could finish it before the Olympics were over. I wouldn’t qualify for a medal because I started it before the start date, but a goal is always good. I’m good with deadlines. It ended up being a fun knit. It was sort of endless in that it’s always the same basic pattern, but it looked nice while I was knitting it and thinking about the thrill of blocking it drove me on. I finished it last Saturday night and blocked it on Sunday. (Blocking is when you wet it and pin it out flat.) Here’s Fred’s arty shot of it.

This may be my favorite of the two shawls. It’s pretty big. It’s the size of a normal shawl - like it goes over the shoulders. And I love this yarn, which is Rowan Yorkshire Tweed 4-ply and was discontinued a few years ago. I’m going to do something for myself in the next month or so. I found a pattern called Daybreak (and met the designer who was in Amsterdam recently. Hi, Stephen.) As soon as I can wrap my head around the increases, I’ll start on it for my knitting night project. Lace and me at knitting night don’t mix. Here’s a close up of the shawl so you can see the color better.

So this is my year of lace. I have a good amount of lace yarn in my stash that needs to get knit up and I’m finally in the right mind to do it. Interestingly, I recently heard an interview with two big lace knitters - two straight male lace knitters. It always seems totally faggy, and it probably is, but lace is interesting and offers a lot of different challenges that the stuff I normally knit does not. And that’s a huge part of the appeal of knitting. Besides, it’s been years since I’ve been concerned with what people think of me doing faggy things.

Incidentally, I had a little discussion with a woman last night about the concept of ‘lace for men.’ When she asked me what I thought about the idea, I said, “Well, it would have to be…a certain kind of lace.” She suggested geometric patterns. I said that it would really have to be the right fit as well. It’s an interesting concept, not something I will be doing in the immediate future. But I’m open to the idea. I’m very open minded.

Thanks to Fred for the beautiful snaps.