I did it!! Look! My sister won like 14, but whatever, I got one!

So with the Ravellenic Games behind me for another two years, the desire to knit my face off is still in full force. Thankfully my life is actually pretty conductive to that, so away I went casting on and finishing a pair of cute baby socks for my girl Sammie. Well, they’re for her baby duh, but that baby isn’t finished cooking yet. That gives me more time to knit other cute things for her!

But those socks are finished, May, where’s your work in progress?! These lovies were cast on shortly before the Games started and I set them aside to work on my puffs. The puffs are habit forming!! After I finished the pink baby socks, I immediately used the rest of the yarn to make puffs (I only got two out of what was left) and these socks are not even done yet and I’m already thinking about the puffs I will make with the leftover yarn. Here are Miss Wee One #3’s almost finished wee socks!

No lie, she is currently wearing the finished one. She wanted to wear the one that’s still on the needles, but eventually decided the one without the pokey things would be just fine for today. Don’t you eat cereal while watching My Little Pony on Netflix with one woolly sock on – in California in August?!

Sidebar: Our cousin’s girlfriend showed me Coursera a little while ago! Have you seen this?

I will be taking Networked Life, Model Thinking and Greek and Roman Mythology this term (they are all 10 weeks long) and then Nutrition for Health Promotion (6 weeks) in January. I’m excited that each of the courses I picked all award a certificate of completion if done well!

So, as you may recall, I jumped into the Ravellenic Games (aka the Knitting Olympics) on day 6, which is a little crazy but I figured I’d be able to challenge myself to something and actually do it.

I am beyond happy to report that I did! This is my official project page on Ravlery, I knit 100 puffs for my Beekeeper’s Quilt with literally just 15 minutes to go!

Since I focused all my efforts on this one event (the Modular Relay) I will only get one medal, which is what I originally set out to do, but as I watch so many other knitters collect a zillion medals for painfully easy tasks (like knitting 5 puffs, or knitting a stack of unstuffed puffs) I’m all butthurt! Haha. Which is totally ridic, I know. I could have chosen to knit like 10 puffs for that event, and I could have made cross-event projects (like if I had made a pair of quick baby socks from the pink bamboo in my stash it would have counted for 3 events; Baby Dressage, Synchronized Stash Busting and the Sock Put – actually, if I made them as a Chrismtas gift then I would have also gotten the Holiday Hurdles event). Anyhoo, I’m setting the lofty goal right now that I will try to participate in ALL the events in 2014. So I think I need a loom lol.

As for Menu Monday this week, I’m not sure what I’m doing because it’s been so hot! Last night we had sandwiches. Yes, really. At first I was thinking I should just BBQ this week, but I’m not as great with charcoal as I am with gas and my gas BBQ is about eleventy billion miles away. Soooo, we’ll see. I’m thinking at the very least I should have brought my slow cooker or toaster oven down with me for temps like these!

I did however, order this and can hardly wait for it to get here so I can make frozen treats for the wee ones!

Behold! Here are all 62/100 of the puffs I’ve been knitting for the Modular Event in Ravellenics 2012. Total I have over 100 puffs for the actual quilt I’m making these for, but as far as the knitting olympics goes, the count is 62, leaving 38 to do by Sunday. I think I can get them done by Friday, maybe even Thursday night. If I manage to do that I will cast on for another event over the weekend.

When I decided to challenge myself to make 100 puffs I figured getting one medal would be awesome, but my sister already has 12 (in order from most recent finish line crossed; TWO medals in the Shawl Sailing event, TWO medals in the Lace Longjump, Balance Beads, Synchronized Stash Busting, TWO medals in the Single Skein Sprint, WIPs Wrestling, Holiday Hurdles, Charity Rowing, and Scarf Hockey). Some of the events overlap, so for example if you make a scarf from stash yarn to save as a Christmas gift it would count in Scarf Hockey, Synchronized Stash Busting, and Holiday Hurdles. Clearly, I went about this all wrong. Watch out 2014!!

I’d like to make a little something special for Sammie‘s little one on the way, but I think I want to make her something more grand than a weekender project. Actually, I guess I could knit something small for her to go with a bigger package. If I do, that would be part of the Baby Dressage event, and hey if I make a wee pair of socks it would also count towards the Sock Put event (or the Toy Toss event if I made a little toy).

Anyhoo, less typing, more knitting!

I mentioned yesterday that I’m knitting furiously for the 2012 Knitting Olympics and promised a little background. So here goes. In 2006, one of my long time favorite knitting bloggers, The Yarn Harlot, had this crazy idea that we (‘we’ being readers of her blog) challenge ourselves to knit something personally ambitious during that year’s Olympic games. Her official post with all of our names and projects listed (scroll down, I’m there!) is here. Since it was the Yarn Harlot’s love of the winter Olympics specifically, she didn’t host again until 2010 and given that this year is a summer year, she’s not doing any crazy marathon knitting right now, she’s on the Friends for Life Bike Rally. Anyhoo, so Ravelry was born in 2007 and every Olympic year since then, there have been Ravelympics groups ranging from the standard ‘official’ group, to teams for different countries, to teams for different projects (like fingerless gloves, socks, etc).

It remained a relatively small thing, I say relatively because almost every knitter I know at least knows about it, but the only non-knitters who know about it seem to live with knitters. Last month, the United States Olympics Committee discovered the existence of this little event, and instead of reading up on it, they got really upset at the general idea of it and sent a good, old fashioned angry letter to Ravelry. Of course this letter made it’s rounds on the internet and a whole lot of Olympics-loving knitters read it.

This part of the letter was a little insulting:

We believe using the name “Ravelympics” for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games. In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country’s finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work

So, long story short, they apologized and while people are still irritated, I think it’s pretty amazing that an organization as huge as this would issue anyone an apology, let alone 7500 knitters. LOVE this.

This year, I have joined the Ravellenic Games 2012 group. I’m focusing on the Modular Relay event and I’m on Team Knit Picks Lovers, since I probably buy more Knit Picks yarn than any other.

I’m attempting to knit 100 puffs! Wish me luck!!