Ravelympics Have Ended

The Ravelympics came to a close at 8:59am last Sunday. I managed to complete 8 projects - 4 new and for UFOs. I was up until 1am Saturday night, madly sewing a zipper in to Jackson's Max Jacket while watching the final Gold Medal Basketball game. The next morning, I was up early with the baby, photographing finished items and posting them to the "finish line" forum thread. My final post was entered at 8:56am with 3 minutes to spare.

Here is the Medal count:
2- Pinwheel Blankie #1 - Gift Knits Pentathalon & Afghan Marathon
2- Pinwheel Blankie #2 - Gift Knits Pentathalon & Afghan Marathon
2- Grrlfriend Market Bag - Gift Knits Pentathalon & Bag 'n Tote Backstroke
2- Calorimetry Headband - Gift Knits Pentathalon & Hat Dash
1- Spiral Shrug (purple wool) - WIP Wrestling
1- Lacy Diamonds Scarf - WIP Wrestling
1- Spiral Circle Felted Bag - WIP Wrestling
1- Max Jacket (Red) - WIP
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12 Medals Who-Hoo!

More importantly I have a ton of great gifts ready to send out, my UFO basket is half empty, and I've met a lot of fun knitaholics on the teams that I was competing with.

Final Photos and the scoop on each item:

Pinwheel Blankie #1 & #2

Here is "photo finish" proof that I actually made 2 blankies. They are identical except that I alternated stripe and tie colors between them. My mother is embroidering matching onesies and socks, then we will be sending out this gift to my new brand new baby cousins.

Grrlfriend Market Bag

I have been meaning to make a market bag, and It ended up the perfect project to work on while on a family road trip to northern California. Driving through central california was QUITE HOT, and the cotton yarn was a dream to work with. The pattern was interesting enough to keep me going, but easy enough that I didn't have to stare at my work and get car sick. I love the mitered square bottom and I love the way my ombre yarn decided to stripe perfectly for the bod and handles of the bag. I will definitely be making more of these.

Calorimetry Headband

This was a last minute entry into the Ravelympics. I needed a little brain break, and realized that I wasn't going to finish my Entrelac Pillow in time, so I chose to make this headband instead. It took about 3 hours and was really quite satisfying. I am thrilled with how the striping turned out. I am glad that I read the message boards about how if you make it according to the pattern it will be way to Big. I ended up using needles 2 sizes smaller than it called for and casting on 20 fewer stitches. It fits great and I love it. I may have enough yarn left for one more that I can keep for myself!

Spiral Shrug (purple wool)

This little purple number was to test my pattern for the original Spiral Shrug that I made for Charlotte. I was able to work out the things I was unsure of, and I'm quite happy with the end product. NOW, I need to sit down and actually WRITE the pattern and edit the photos. The other road-block that I'm struggling with is how many sizes to offer it in, and will I actually have to make a sweater in each size to make sure my directions will work?

Lacy Diamonds Scarf

I started knitting this scarf last Christmas to match some berets that I was making for gifts. I finished one skein of yarn and couldn't be bothered to dig through the next skein to find the perfect place to begin with. The self striping yarn is such a huge repeat, and I was dreading how much yarn I would waste. It ended up only taking a few minutes, and I only wasted about a yard. What was I so worried about? After a few hours of knitting, I was done. Now it's ready to give out this Christmas. Could I actually call myself ahead of the game?

Spiral Circle Felted Bag

This bag was a quick knit. I worked it up in 2 days. I had dreamed about how to do it, and I needed to get it out of my system. Then, it hibernated in my UFO basket until I got around o felting it during the Olympics. I have a front loading washer which is not friendly to felting, and I was dreading going to the laundromat. I discovered a drain setting and a no spin function on my machine that I thought I would try out. It ended up working out really well, and I may end up trusting future projects to my machine again.

Max Jacket (Red)

I worked feverishly on this sweater a few months ago, and stalled out when I couldn't find a zipper. I ended up ordering one online, but never had the drive to actually sew the dang thing in. It is actually quite torturous sewing a zipper into a sweater. I'll keep that in mind with future projects. The sweater is quite big on Jackson right now, so at least he will be able to wear it for a few seasons. Now if I could only get up the nerve to pull Mikey's green one out again!