Showing off

Well, I never won a medal for anything, unless you count the hard-won bronze swimming certificate I finally managed around age 14. I was a late developer confidence-wise with swimming - Mum never has learnt to swim so maybe that didn't help. By the time I was confident enough to have taken my silver and gold certificates, we were into options and swimming wasn't a regular part of the curriculum, so I missed the boat. I think I won a book prize at school for something but being musical and artistic at a private school that emphasised sportiness more (this was the 80s) I was never going to win much acclaim there. The less said about that disastrous shot putt on sports day, when I fouled every time BECAUSE I AM TIDY AND WENT TO RETRIEVE MY SHOT the better!

So I reserve the right to show off my Ravellenic medals - not bad for only four projects completed really. We shall not speak of the sweater still waiting for a decent neck - Knitware underestimated it so there's half a neck that has to come off because it is ruching up the garment - it won't get completed any time soon and missed the Sochi deadline anyway. It's nothing special so I wouldn't hold your breath...























There did seem to be some confusion in the MK group as to the how and what of Ravellenics. The idea is supposed to be to challenge yourself. In my case, working full time, it's often a challenge just to find the time to knit and the inspiration to make something other than hats. So I try and make the projects fall into a few categories.

So, the multicoloured hat - a charity knit, from a single skein, knit from stash and it's a machine-knit hat (5 medals)
The colour-work socks - socks, with swiss darning, machine-knitted (3 medals)
The bubble pops scarf - a scarf, using a drop lace technique, also a single skein, machine-knitted (4 medals)
The green mittens - mittens, with a cable added, machine-knitted (3 medals)
For aerial unwind I unravelled the Blueberry Shortcake jumper as being totally unsuitable for my shape. (1 medal)

So I use the Ravellenic games in a slightly different way - I try and see if I can make the project fit more than one category, so instead of making plain gloves as the pattern dictated, I added a cable.

I managed to turn out a decent SWAN sock yesterday - these are with oddments so there's no mate for it at the moment. It came out a lot better this time when I actually READ the pattern. It's a little snug to get on but is fine once on, if a little too short in the ankle for my liking. Haven't loaded up the photo yet, yesterday's attempt has been shared in the "Argh! Drat it!" thread if anyone really wants to see how wrong I went.

Ravellenics medals

We had our own little mini-competition within the Ravellenic games, with categories for machine-specific events:

• Alpine Accessories- including colour changer, shadow transfer tool, garter bar MKRG14alpine
• Biathlon - Combine: punch a new card or use DAK etc then make the project MKRG14biathlon
• Freestyle - any new technique that hasn’t been tried on your machine MKRG14freestyle
• Luge - lace carriage MKRG14luge
• Nordic Combined - Fair Isle MKRG14nordic
• Pattern hockey Knock-off - converted to MK from any source MKRG14ko
• Purling (curling) - hand manipulated stitches MKRG14purling
• Short track tuck MKRG14tuck
• Skeleton - using the ribber MKRG14ribber
• Speed socks all sorts MKRG14socks
• Steek jumping MKRG14steek
• Super G - for garter carriage MKRG14gc
• Synchronized machine skate Knit leader/radar - complete project(s) using your knit leader/radar MKRG14kr-kl
• Weave-a-thon - complete a knit-weave project MKRG14weave

Edit to add: These are the ones I "won". The official Ravellenics ones aren't out yet.