Spontaneous Scarf #423,098,982

Here is the Spontaneous Scarf I made with the 3 new yarns from Stitch Nation: 1 skein each of Bamboo Ewe, Full of Sheep, and Alpaca Love. Basically I cast on somewhere between 200 and 300 sts on a long size 8 circ and did seed stitch using one color per row with about an 8" tail for knotting at each end for fringe. For more info about the much-loved Spontaneous Scarf, I did a blog post HERE that shows a scan of many scarves from the original Spin-Off article.

I added stripes in this scarf but most of my versions have been just one color in as many different yarns and fibers as I could manage. These scarves are a perfect way to use up all those odds and ends of yarns that result from a lot of color knitting.

MORE OLYMPIC KNITTING LINKS

Hannah Kearney, Olympic moguls gold medalist, is a knitter. HERE is an interview Sarah from Knitting.about.com did with her.

The free pattern for Mitts for Medals uses colorwork and cables.

HERE's gold medalist skiier Lindsey Vonn wearing the Dale of Norway Valle sweater. Personally I wouldn't  pair it with a La Perla bikini and high heels but I'm just boring that way. And HERE is the same sweater for purchase. I can't find a pattern for the sweater unfortunately.

HERE is a graph of the Olympic rings motif to be used for knitting.

HERE are lots of photos from the Kama web site of the athletes from Andorra wearing those gorgeous colorwork sweaters around the events.

Go check out MariannAn's beautiful Wintersocks for Ravelympics 2010. They're one of the most beautiful Ravelry knitting projects I've seen lately.

Sunday at the lake

Sunday was so sunny we just had to get outside. We headed to one of our favorite summer places, which is also pretty great in the winter too...
We bundled up and set off on the hiking trails.

...along Lake Ontario,

...along the creek,

...and through the woods.

These tracks had us puzzled at first until my very observant husband noticed the huge hoof prints that went with them...

They were from a horse drawn sleigh...I could just imagine what fun that must have been!

{fingerless gloves pattern ~ toasty}

~

Hot cocoa was the perfect ending.

Ravelympics Day 11: Lamby

Yep! Its a Lamb! Isn't he cute?

This was a pretty fun pattern to make.

It only took me a couple of evenings to create. I knit my Lamb from the Itty Bitty Knits book,

but you can also find this pattern for free online here in Petite Purls magazine.

What knitter doesn't love a knitted lamb?

My daughter loves him too.. especially since she didn't have to

wait a long time for him to be done.

I used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Astrakhan for his nubbly woolly body, and O-wool Balance for his legs and face. The combination makes for quite a cuddly little toy. I love the boucle texture of the Astrakhan yarn but it was sort of a pain to knit with on such a tight gauge. The results were well worth it though! I think that the textured body really makes him extra special.

His I-cord legs are stuffed with pieces of a plastic drinking straw to make them rigid so that he can stand. I think that I made my legs a little too long, so Lamby is not so great on his feet. My daughter helps him though.. :)

Well.. its 11 days into the "Ravelympics" and I have 2 out of 3 toys completed!

Don't Francis and Lamby look so cute together on my daughter's shelf?

I've been working very hard on my Ravelympics projects and I'm glad that I'm ahead of the game. I didn't plan the end of this month very well.. and now I have Stitches West, the Ravelympics and a new podcast episode due all at the same time! Ahh!

What exactly was I thinking?