Awake at 6 a.m.

Being awake at 6 a.m. without an alarm clock going off means serious jet lag for me. I am not a morning person and my "natural" awaking time is between 10 and 11 (not that I can do that many often, hence the need for alarm clocks.)
But I am up, and I even had breakfast (me hungry in the morning? something is wrong with me!)

As I said before, my plan for the Ravelympics was socks, so let's talk about socks.

I knit the second Swim Team Jaywalker on my way to Europe:



Yes, it is right, definitely bigger than the first one. I had forgotten that the sole has fewer stitches than the instep. Rip rip rip. Then I knit the heel three times, because I could not remember what I did with the first one (I did remember that I had some serious problems like it is documented here and here.) But at the end I won:


Pattern: Jaywalker by Grumperina
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Multi, 2 skeins = 430.0 yards in Jungle Stripes

The there are the Upstream Socks:


Pattern: Master Upstream Pattern by Cat Bordhi
Yarn: LuLu's Yarns Supersock Merino Light, 1 skeins = 483.0 yards

These were a relatively quick knit since I did not make them very long; glad I made them, but really not sold on the whole "let's put the gusset increases someplace else."

Coming soon ...... December Socks.

Ravelympics 2008

The Ravelympics 2008 will start in 12 days while I am in Italy, with scarce internet access so I better get organized now (and I do have to decide what to bring with me anyway.)
I signed up with the Team FTA for the WIPs wrestling - I figured I had enough of them:

Logcabin Blanket
Sugar Maple Shawl
Gryffindor Socks
Sock Yarn Shawl
Jaywalker
Child's Vest
Boku Blanket
December Socks
Upstream Socks
Paperino's sweater
Back-to-School Vest
Scialle Diagonale
Very Red Cardigan
Rosso Decembre
Fall Fire Socks

So now, which ones to bring with me to Italy? The obvious choice is socks:

Jaywalker
Gryffindor Socks
December Socks
Upstream Socks
Fall Fire Socks

6 socks (the Gryffindor socks are a disaster, I have to start over, I am not even sure what I am doing) in 17 days? That is certainly doable (I need 10 about 12 hours to knit a sock), but can I knit only socks for 17 days without wanting to stab myself in the eye with a dpn out of boredom? That's a challenge ..........

This is why Ravelry was created

I started my Back-to-School vest from Fitted Knits in February 2008, so about 6 months after I joined Raverly. So why, may I ask, I did not look at the other Back-to-School vest BEFORE knitting it? Stupidity, I guess.

What's wrong with it? Well, pretty much what many of the other 433 knitters who made this say: the straps are too wide, the neck line is too high, it needs decreases after the bust increases, it is too long.

So, after weaving all the ends (yes, I often do that, denial denial denial), I have decided I need to rip back to the armholes in order to fix 3 out of 4 problems, or at least one inch into the ribbing to fix all 4 problems.

This sounds like a good candidate for my Ravelympics 2008.