Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Olympian recaps!


 Alright, it has been a BUSY BUSY month. I will do my Olympics/Ravellenic Games recap, but first just a little bit of random housekeeping.

First off, tomatoes! My tomato jungle is producing like crazy right now. Below is what I picked in one day. I generally pick one day a week - typically this ends up being Saturday right after my workout. For the past three weeks, this is the amount of tomatoes I've picked. This is only the ripe ones - and the rotten or slug-attacked or splitting open ones get thrown down into the beds to (hopefully) spring up as voluntaries next year. How crazy is this? I think the best part is that I go through most of these in a week. It's no secret that I love tomatoes.....but this is a lot to get through even for me. So far I think I may have given away about 10 tomatoes. I can only hope that this bounty continues every year. I feel so fortunate to have so many good tomatoes to eat without having to hit the store for months.




And just because I can:  a closeup of the beauties!






Next up we have a picture of  my new sparkly copper heels. Aren't the fab? I know I know, this isn't a show blog, but seriously, how can people harbor anything but happiness in their hearts when shoes like this exist? 


 And now, time to get down to some serious Olympic business: The Ravellenic Games! So, most people who read this will know that the Ravellenic Games (previously the Knitting Olympics until the US Olympic peeps got mad and claimed copyright infringement) runs concurrently to the Olypmics. It's a chance for knitters and spinners, and other crafters, to support their teams by watching the events while practicing their craft. It's also the thing that's gotten me back into the Olympics, which I hadn't had any interest in for years. New favorite sport is gymnastics - the uneven bars are AMAZING! 

The lovely fiber you see to the left was my goal to spin during the Olypmics. I had a total of 73 oz, 18 of which I had already spun. That left 55 to finish during the Games. Each bobbin you see here hold 2 oz (except for 2 that have 4). I finished this goal early - by at least 4 days! I couldn't believe that I spun a full 55 oz in just over a week. I am, officially, a spinning machine. I also have officially hurt my left ankle doing it (re-injured an old running injury)
 But, looking at the picture, totally worth it. Now I just need to let it rest until my ankle calms down and I can ply it. 73 oz should make a good sweater! I award myself with the Gold for this portion of my goal.


Lastly, the Icarus shawl, from Interweave 2006. I, sadly, only get the Silver on this one. I think Silver is fair, and here's why:

I got through all the way to the 3rd row out of 5 total edging rows. That's right, finished all charts, and only stopped 2.5 rows short of finishing. The reason I didn't finish was simple: I ran out of yarn - and that's after I went the yarn store for more yarn mid-week. I still had time on Sunday and went back to the yarn store for my second yarn infusion and the store was closed. I then looked in my stash. No luck. So, although I had time and enough brain to do this on time, it was only lack of yarn that stopped me. I would have given myself the Bronze, but I think I bumped it up to silver by the 2nd yarn store trip + stash search. I'm looking forward to fully finishing this next weekend after I get the chance to hit the yarn store during open hours.

All in all, it was a very productive Olympics for me. I even managed to watch more of them than I have in years. I can't wait for the next challenge.


No comments: