News Flash

Darling daughter finished her Very First Hat Ever!

It's wonderful!   True, I have to say that because I'm her mother.

But this time it's not a lie.   :-) 

Going for Gold

In conjunction with the 2012 Olympics, the good people on Ravelry have set up the Ravellinic Games.  (Ravelry is an on-line hang out for knitters and crocheters.  It's awesome.  You should join.  But only if you make stuff with yarn.  Otherwise it would just be creepy and stalkerish.)

I choose to enter the WIP Wrestling event.  WIP stands for Work In Progress and I definitely have a lot of those.  Some eventually become UFO's (Un-Finished Objects), but I couldn't let that happen to my Realta.  It's too beautiful to sit half-completed in a box.

And so, last Friday our Ravellinic group, called Team Sparklers, met during the official Olympic Opening Ceremonies, London time.  A mass-cast on ensued for the knitters, and I dug the partially completed Realta out of my bag and tried to remember how to crochet an octagon.

It came back quickly.  :-)

I'm pleased to report that ALL FOURTY-EIGHT (yeah, I said 48) octagons are DONE!  Done, as in the ends are woven in too.  Whoa.  Dude.  That's ambition.

In between each octagon will be a small square with a colored dot in the center.  All 35 of those are started and laid out above.  See anything that needs adjusted?  Every time I walk by I seem to switch something around.  It's supposed to be random but that's hard to do when a color can't be immediately adjacent to itself.

So, to earn a Virtual Gold Medal on Ravelry, I need to finish this beast by Closing Ceremonies.  A lot needs to happen.

1.  Add a black border around the 35 dots, making them squares.
2. Sew all the squares and octagons together.
3. Make 24 triangles for the edges.
4. Sew those on.
5. Add a border.
6. Weave in ends.

Wow.  Even if I don't get it 100% completed and earn a medal, it's still really helped motivate me to make Serious Progress.  

And if I ever, ever say anything about doing a motif-based afghan again, distract me immediately.  Preferably with something chocolate.  Mexican food and margaritas work too.