Finally underway

2 Hexipuff's down and 15 more to go. Managed to do one whilst watching the opening ceremony with two over-excited small peeps. Had to stop at one though as I had a glass of fizzy stuff after they went to bed and as we all know - knitting and alcohol is a combination that often ends in tears (or frogging).

I also managed to make a start on my Hitchhiker scarf in some beautiful sock yarn from Solstice Yarns. It is slightly sparkly with beautiful shades of blue. Truely gorgeous to work with and I'm having a lot of fun with the pattern.
Looking at the 'Finish Line' for the 'Single Skein Sprint' on Ravelry though I am watching in awe as folks are churning out finished scarfs and shawls already. Such speedy knitting I can only dream of. Then again, with my two boys around I count myself lucky to grab half an hour or so to myself during their waking hours :)

Still, I will go for slow and steady rather than a full on sprint

Final preparations...

Time to fly our flag with pride...

A re-do of the nail art I originally had done (by a very talented neighbour) for the Jubilee.

Good luck one and all in your Ravellenic endeavours

Ravellenics of course

Of course the non-knitting world is obsessed with the Olympics but for us more enlightened folk it is all about the Ravellenics games. For weeks now we have have been planning our projects, assessing our stash (this took quite a while), tagging our pages on Ravelry and hanging out with our team mates.

The more energetic amongst us have even done some training (swatching) and a bit of gentle limbering up ready for the mass cast on at 9pm BST.

And so we sit, needles poised....

I have several projects lined up, the first of which comes under the Charity rowing banner. The lovely Sarah of The Sheep Shop, Cambridge is organising a charity Hexipuff quilt for a fundraising event and is asking fellow Ravellenic competitors to knit/crochet 1 hexipuff per day during the Games.

Now, it's been some time since my Hexipuff mania subsided (see previous posts) but I couldn't resist digging out some mini-skeins and getting them all ready for the off:

Don't they look cute - all nestled in their little bowl.Waiting patiently to become little hexi's

Back again

It's been good to have a break but it did reveal that actually I do quite like blogging and I do quite miss it. I just don't like the self-imposed deadlines.

So, here we go again. The same old me, just a bit more relaxed and but still just as mad about the knitting.

Another change - for the better I hope - is that I am dipping my toe into the waters of sock design. I have started out in a small way with a design for a simple toe-up sock with a central cable: Whinlatter socks

I like that it is simple and plain enough to suit a mans sock but that, with a lovely skein of handpainted yarn it would make a great pair of socks for me too.

It is a free Ravelry download and although it has been test knit I would be happy to receive comments and feedback on it.

Another sock is in the pipeline soon along with the Ravellenics projects so drop by again soon to see more knitting progress.