Where's the vest?

I didn't entirely neglect my Vest Vault event in the Ravelypmics. I finished the back, and started the left front before the Olympic flame was extinguished.

I also resurrected the bamboo shawl on a long car journey over the holiday weekend. I had frogged back a fair way, but decided to live with a couple of minor mistakes further back. Before my trip, I gave up with the written instructions and decided to chart out the pattern. I find charts much easier to follow to work a lace pattern.



All was well until I found a knot in the yarn part way through a row. I tinked back, and joined in the new length. A couple of rows later it happened again. And then again. 3 knots within about 4 rows! That's really poor quality control. By this point, I was so fed up that I rewound the rest of the ball just to check for more knots. I'll be doing the same for the remaining balls...

Olympics over

So the Olympics is over, and it was spectacular. Unfortunately, I failed to finish in both of my Ravelympics events, due to prioritising the gift I was working on. However, I can now unveil the completed gift items.

A set of golf club cosies! A belated birthday present for my father, who was gratifyingly delighted with them. They were pretty quick to knit, but the swiss darning, seaming and pom poms took as long as the knitting itself. I knew he liked them when they were quickly put on the clubs before I'd even completed the pompoms.

I love it when a gift comes together.

Entering the vest vault

I ended up entering two events in the Ravelympics; the vest vault and WIP wrestling. For the former, I am tackling my sister's waistcoat, and for the latter, the bamboo tape top that is not too far from being finished. I had hoped to enter a third event, the gift knits pentathlon, but my broadband died in the critical few days before and during the start of the Olympics. Back online now though, and my gift knit will be a kind of shadow competitor, as I do have a deadline of next weekend to complete it.


At my husband's behest, I agreed to stashdive for the vest rather than rush out and buy more yarn. The pattern is from Noro's mini knits, but I am using some Rowan aran tweed which has been in the stash a while. I had to swatch several times and am using pretty small needles compared to the ball band, but now my main fabric is knitting up tighter than my swatch! My row gauge is off too, so I'm having to throw in extra rows here and there to get to roughly the right length.

The knitting for the ribwarmer is completed, so I now need to block and sew together the pieces. They still look quite odd, so I am hoping for a transformation into a recognisable garment.

The bamboo lace shawl has been a vale of tears, as I discovered my stitch count was off, and that I'd missed yarnovers about 20 rows down. Of course I didn't have a recent lifeline, so have been painstakingly tinking back. Unsurprisingly, I'm not keen to pick it up again. The moment has also passed, as the event to which I planned to wear it has now been and gone.

I made the mistake of offering to knit my sister a waistcoat, then realising that the Noro Iro I had bought was too bulky for the pattern. She has however taken to the idea of the waistcoat, so I now have to find some suitable yarn. I told her about the Ravelympics, which compounded my error, as she has now declared with satisfaction that I should enter the Vest Vault event, and knit her waistcoat during the Olympics.