The Closing Ceremonies...

The Ravelympics are officially over...well, they ended about 6 hours ago...lol I just now got the chance to put up the last picture:

Yes, I finished the Dark Mark Illusion Scarf! Yay! :) I decided to not put fringe on it, as it's for my brother, who is not a fringe-y person. LOL I have yet to figure out, though, why the marks aren't lined up....I followed the pattern, recounted the rows, and all things pointed to having done it correctly....Maybe one side is stitched looser than the other....*sigh* Oh well. Too late now! LOL It still looks decent. :) Now I can prepare and practice knitting for the sock kit swap! :D

Ravelympics update (Days 12-13)

I'm in a last minute scramble to get as many projects done in the Ravelympics as humanly possible! I don't really see the entries I have over halfway to go as getting done in time (before the Olympics' closing ceremonies on the 24th), especially since we're having a birthday "party" for C tomorrow afternoon. ("Party" is used very loosely here....just having a couple friends with kids come over and eating cake...that's it....lol) But in order to have that "party," I have to make up for all the cleaning I've not been doing to further my fiber racing.....the house is presently not a pretty picture....lol So I entered a few last-minute, quick and easy projects to get them done to say I did a higher number of things. I need that sense of accomplishment. LOL (I'm not driven.....) Anyway, here are the latest additions from my projects to cross the ravelry finish line:

Potholders:



Spider/web bookmark:

Speedy the Turtle:



I've never done amigurumi before, so I'm actually quite pleased with the end result of Speedy, even if I did accidentally make him a little front-heavy by my lack of planning on the head and leg placement....but I'm not too worried about it....judging from my boys' reactions, I'll be getting plenty of amigurumi practice in soon! Now my sole goal in the Ravelympics is to finish the Dark Mark Illusion scarf....if I can do that, I will be happy....

HSKS6!

Wow! The Ravelympics has indirectly given me an "inside track," so to speak, on an amazing group on Ravelry! I loved the team members from Team Hogwarts so much that I requested we have our own group on the site, and lo and behold, they're already all part of one! So now I am a member of HSKS6, although sign-ups/house assignments aren't until September...which is scarily not far off....but looking into the whole group and their purpose and Hogwarts-ish-ness has got me very excited! I've already picked my own Hogwarts name ::places sticker reading "Hello, my name is Hermione Bagnold" on hand-knitted Hogwarts sweater:: and am about to start a count down to the day I get to find out what house I'm in! I'm hoping for Gryffindor, but we'll see how that goes.....oh, yay! I'm so excited!!!

Ravelympics update (Days 6-11)

Well, it seemed to me that my progress had slowed significantly, but maybe that's not the case.....I still haven't gotten my hands on the colors I need to finish the WIP Wrestling entry for the afghan, which is very frustrating because I am so close to finishing it...but as Ravelry changed the rules of entering projects, I am now able to add whatever projects I want....so I've done a few more hats and made great progress on the dark Mark Illusion Scarf. :) (I'm also writing out the pattern for it based on the charts for the people that want to make it that either have issues with charts or would just rather use the written pattern.) So here's what I've finished since my last Ravelympics post:

A's "wizard" hat:

C's "wizard" hat:

The hat that swallowed my head:

A hat that actually FITS:



A kerchief for a Green Bay Packer fan friend:

And this is how far I've gotten on the Dark Mark Illusion Scarf:

I like doing the hats....they're quick and easy. In a way, though, it's kind of "cheating" for counting all the FO's (finished objects) for the Ravelympics because of how many more hats I'll be turning out than anything. I mean, they take a couple hours to make one, whereas it can take a couple of days to make an afghan. And I've been crocheting over knitting (I think the scarf is my only knit entry) because it goes faster. Nothing like playing the system, right? ;) I really want to finish this scarf soon.....today, if I can swing it....which means no gaming....oh well. I can wait another day to make level 51. Knitting and crocheting has jumped back into the front seat. :) Off to press toward the finish line with my scarf!

Blasted hat...

I'm finally on my last entry for the Hat Dash in the Ravelympics....over halfway done with it....and I'm stumped. Ugh. I've looked around to see if anyone else has had any problems with it, but I can't seem to find anyone that has, so i guess I'm just counting wrong or weird or...something. But it's driving me crazy! I thought it looked like it was too big....but I kept plugging away anyway. Now I'm on row 15 of 21 (and that's not counting the 6 rows of brim) and I have something like 24 stitches too many! How the heck does that happen?! I guess what I don't get is that I've been over and over and over this, checking with the pattern, re-counting my stitches, examining each row, checking with the pattern again, and I just can't find where I messed up! Maybe it's the late hour....maybe it's the staring at yarn and counting stitches...maybe it's, aw, I don't know. I guess there's only one solution: Give it up for the night and try again tomorrow. What a novel idea....but then again, we all know that I am incapable of doing that. How sad is it that I would lose sleep over this issue....I'd better check over it again....

Oh....I see my mistake. And boy, do I feel stupid for it.....just had to unravel back through row 11...that's a lot of stitches! But my problem was that I continued to do the dc and the fpdc on the previous row's fpdc (and here's the kicker) instead of following the directions. I hate misreading things....maybe I should just not watch TV while I have to count or actually read a pattern to create something....that seems to be my downfall...ugh...but at least I'll know better the next time I make this hat! :D

Ravelympics update (Days 2-5)

I didn't expect to make near as much progress over any of the other days of the Ravelympics as I did the first day. None of my other projects are as quick and simple as the 5 hats I made! Unfortunately, I have yet to complete another project.

I didn't really expect to finish anything on Saturday, simply because I was supposed to be spending that day in Venice. When that didn't happen, I ended up spending about half the day in bed and relaxing the rest of the day, given the "passing out and hitting my head" situation. I took Sunday pretty easy, too, but managed to work on one of my entries in the WIPs Wrestling ("WIP" means work-in-progress, for those of you that don't know) and started a few other projects, but still had a horrible headache, so I didn't heavily pursue any one thing.

Monday (yesterday) was Family Day for my husband's squadron, so we spent over half the day outside, chatting with other military personnel and spouses, our boys running around and playing, partaking of the barbecue fare, and allowing ourselves to be the feast for the bugs that were out. lol After I came home, I worked some more on the WIPs Wrestling entry, but that was pretty much it.

Today, day 6 of the Ravelympics, I thought I would finish my WIP. But then I ran out of a color I need. :( I had picked up more yarn on Saturday, but it turns out I picked up the wrong color! I'm so bummed, because I'm only 8 rows away from finishing it, and I need that specific green to do two of those said rows! So to take my mind off of that, I undid what I had done on a Hat Dash entry to tweak it. I was almost done with it, but I didn't like how it looked, so I'm going to alter the pattern a little bit to make it fit what I've envisioned in my mind. We'll see how that goes, and hopefully tomorrow (or later on tonight, whichever), I'll be able to post two pictures of completed works! Here's hoping!

Cleaning Day...

I've been so caught up in my crafting that I've hardly been gaming, so when Tuesday rolled around, I hardly even noticed! (Tuesdays are my "cleaning" days because WoW is usually down all day for maintenance.) So today is cleaning day. Especially moreso because we have guests coming over tonight! Normally, I take breaks in my cleaning to quickly check my e-mail and profile pages, and at that time, shoot off a not to The Husband at work...problem is, he actually has to do stuff today! LOL (Not that he doesn't otherwise work...it's just today's not a good day to be distracting--er, I mean, interrupting his work day.) So instead, you all get to suffer! Bwahahahahaha! ;)

I'm actually feeling pretty productive! I've already picked up and sorted out and put away all the boys' toys (which had found their way to the most remote corners of the house...) so I could sweep their floors. Speaking of which, due to C's development of nightmares and sleep talking, where he woke A up and A started yelling at C to be quiet until C woke up and neither of them got good sleep, the boys now have separate rooms! C kept the room they were sharing, and A got to have his big boy bed moved to a big boy room upstairs near mommy and daddy's room, with the big boy toys! He was pretty excited about the change and seems to like having his own space, especially when his friends come over to play. :) When C naps, now A and his friends have somewhere to play where they don't have to keep things quiet! LOL

I've also cleaned up and swept the game/computer/TV room. I'm hoping that the futon that The Husband bought a while back (and that is still sitting in the warehouse, waiting to be picked up as soon as we borrow somebody's truck) will be here before the weekend.

And now that all the picking up of stuff is done, it's time to get to the heavy cleaning. The bathroom, kitchen and dining room! The dishes aren't really a big deal, but the rest of those three rooms take a lot of elbow grease and scrubbing! *sigh* I actually kinda wish I were done already. LOL But as soon as C's down for his nap and A's either settled in with a movie or playing in his room, it's back to cleaning for me! (They're eating lunch right now...) Eh, why put it off? I'll go turn on some music and start the dishes...I can't wait til this part of my day is over...I've got yarn and knitting needles calling out to me!!!

Day 1 of the Ravelympics

The first day was quite productive....but that was due to the fact that I chose crochet over knitting (crochet is much faster...) and hats are quick and easy to make. The Hat Dash is the only event that took part in yesterday, and here are the results!:

White mesh skull cap:

"Blueberry" mesh skull cap:

"Fiesta" mesh skull cap:

Red mesh skull cap:

Purple & white beret:

Now I only have 11 more projects to complete before the closing ceremonies in Beijing.....lol

Pre-Game Jitters...

I ended up signing up for 13 different projects....THIRTEEN!!! How crazy am I?! Thirteen projects in 17 days?! At least 3 of them are WIPs and a bunch of them are smaller ones that I can finish in less than a day....but I am going crazy and just want to get started! I've got roughly 33 more hours before I can begin my Ravelympics projects.....

So to settle my pre-game jitters, I'm making more book thongs! Yay! LOL I have a Cafemommer that wants some, so I'm working on the set of 10 today. I've already got one done and another halfway done, so I doubt these will carry me through all of the 3 days that are separating me from my pile of projects sitting in the corner....that are giving me intimidating looks....argh!

The Ravelympics!

So, for those of you that don't know, I'm also a part of a social networking site for knitters and crocheters. They're putting on this "competition" (it's really all more for fun....no prizes or anything...) in the spirit of the Olympics....we're allowed to start our projects when the opening ceremonies begin and are trying to see how many we can finish by the time the 17 days are up! I just signed up for something like 9 projects.....Yikes! I didn't realize it was that many until I counted them! LOL I'm pretty excited about it....I'll be posting them here as I complete them....this is going to be so fun!

In other news, since my last posting, I've finished not only the do-si-do lapghan for my mother-in-law and the snowflake scarf for a good friend, but started and completed the mentioned prayer blanket for a friend that lost her brother in a car accident, a prayer blanket for a son of a friend who is Jewish and in Iraq for the Army, a set of 6 book thongs, and a set of 4 daisy squares for charity! I've also started another 6-point-star for the wife of said Jewish soldier (who also happens to be stationed in Iraq for the Army) and a baby blanket for a fellow Cafemommer. Those two blankets and another granny square blanket are 3 of the projects on my Ravelympics, so I have to find something else to occupy me for the next 4 days....lol The blankets are in the WIPs wrestling category, seeing as how I started them a while ago, but I'm not supposed to continue work on them until the opening ceremonies, per Ravelympics rules. :) I guess I'd better go search my stash for the needed colors to do all the projects for the games! :)