Knitting Olympics and Ravelympics Gold (in handspun)

Out of 4oz of Crown Mt. Shetland Roving:

Peggy spun 200 yds of 2 ply for the 2010 Ravelympics.

She then knit up the Peter Seamans Scarf
from Myrna Stahman's Shawls & Scarves book
using handspun 5% chinchilla, and 95% wool.
The ‘chinchilla’ fiber is from Kate Painter
at Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival 2009

I used almost all of the 1080 yards of handspun Jacob/Angora for my second February Lady Sweater:

This year we're committed to knitting only with handspun so we're busy figuring out what to work on next. Swatching is a huge part of the process, more than usual although we always swatch a lot. We both finished our Olympic projects early and spent the rest of the time going through stash and swatching, pulling out patterns and comparing swatch results to potential projects. I do believe some designing will be involved...

Peggy's February Lady Sweater

It’s countdown to 2010 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies!

We're ready to knit and dreaming of 2010 Gold.

Just to show you what can be accomplished
we give you Peggy's 2008 Ravelympics Project
and the twists and turns of a very tough knitting venue.

Here's her story:

Aug 8/08 6:00 am PDT - cast on for the Ravelympics, even though I didn’t actually sign up to be a competitor until August 18th (sorry, my bad.) The February Lady Sweater was only one of two patterns that I could find which would use ALL of this particular handspun-twice dyed yarn without going over AND one of two patterns that I wanted to knit.

Aug 11/08 6:00 pm PDT - injury! OH NO. Infected index finger may slow knitting. Doctor visited for antibiotics. Note to self: wear gloves when gardening, especially if I have a cut on my finger which may pick up a puss-causing vile infectious bug.

Aug 15/08 7:15 am PDT - detected MISTAKE in lace pattern 4 inches back. Frogged back and reknit incorrect row. Lost 2 whole days re-knitting to where I was before frogging. SAD and DISAPPOINTED that GOLD may now be out of reach. sob.

Aug 18/08 6:55 pm PDT - Regrouped and picked up for the sleeves, using two 29” circulars to knit both at the same time. Wrapping my brain around right back and left front on one needle, and the right front and left back on the other and then knitting in the round – it will be a challenge on the commuter bus!


Aug 20/08 7:51 am PDT - posted the photo on Ravelry showing the finished body length, and 5 pattern repeats into the sleeves. How will this ever be finished by Sunday when I still have to go to work every day???

Aug 23/08 4:37 pm PDT - Knitting done, ends sewn in and into the tub of water for soaking before blocking! Yea!! Posted a pre-blocking photo at 5:25p.

Aug 24/08 11:15 am PDT - Buttons on. Finished photo posted to the Ravelympics page for the Sweater Sprint. (Many thanks to Ellen for helping with that.)

The Gold Medal was awarded by

The Head of The International Ravelympic Committee:

Adonis Dionysius Bobicus Maximus

"I was just so darned proud to compete for my craft."

...Peggy

***************

Reunion

Here's a photo from 1959,
Second Grade, the beginning of our Bluebird Group.

Front row: Clair, Jan, Tina, Ann
Middle row: Donna, Bobbi, RoseLee, Becky, Miss. Eddy
Top row: Janice, Barbara, Peggy, Liz, Mary

(same little girls, different order)

Fast forward to July 31st, 2009

and our reunion weekend in

La Push, Washington
15.3 miles from the famous Forks, WA,
(the rainiest location in the US)
It sports a beautiful beach which is visible even in the fog
and is about 10 to 20 degrees cooler than Seattle,
which was a real relief to many of us who had recently dealt with
the high 90's for over a week and over 100 degrees one day. ick.

Martha, Diane and Peggy chatting on the beach

back row: Peggy F., Jan, Sue, Valerie
front row: Bobbi, Martha, Diane, Robin

back row: Mary, Jan, Rebecca, Martha, Peggy F.
front row: Bobbi, Valerie, Peggy M.

Same group with Diane at the top left.Jan and Mary

In 1986 many of the group contributed to a quilt,
presented to our long-time leader, Eddy Duryee.
Eddy was pivotal in our lives, mentoring and befriending,
encouraging and counseling for not just our school years but
on into adulthood, until the day she died.

We've managed to meet twice since this trip to the coast, not so many of us each time but some that didn't make it to the initial event were able to join the holiday potluck in December and the small dinner party at Bobbi's house on Feb. 5th. It looks like we'll be able to keep in touch more often now and it's fun to reconnect.