Rainbows over Ravelry

Coinciding with the Summer and Winter Olympics, it's a Ravelry tradition to craft something challenging while the games are on. Crafters enter the Ravellenic Games alone or in teams, competing against themselves to finish their project before the end of the closing ceremonies. This year, because the Winter Olympics are being held in Russia, many of us are crafting rainbow-themed projects to raise awareness and as a gentle protest against Russia's new anti-human-rights laws.

My plan is to make a big crocheted blanket, in concentric rounds alternating between rainbow colours and natural white wool. I'll arrange the rainbow colours in a gradient, splicing in each new colour as the previous one runs out:

Colour amounts not to scale!

I'm probably mad to attempt making a whole blanket in two weeks, but this is supposed to be a challenge, right? :)

The rainbow-coloured yarn is Prism Organic DK from Skeinz, mostly leftovers from making Rowan's Tetris scarf. The natural white is Norway 8ply from Morris & Sons.

The pattern I'll be using is the Op-Art Afghan Square, expanded to one giant square. I used the same pattern last year to make a tree-cosy for Yarn Corner's 'Royal Granny Parade' project. Sadly, many of our tree-cosies were removed by dastardly vandals before I could see them myself, including my one. Ah well, that's yarn bombing... I did get to see photos though! They're all on Facebook here and here.

This one's mine - thanks Bali for the photos. I hope my blankie will have better luck...

 

Pick a path

I'm knitting something a bit different at the moment, which is teaching me a lot about the way I knit these days - I've joined in Ysolda's "mystery" knit-along (or KAL), Follow Your Arrow.

The idea of a mystery KAL is that each week, a new "clue" or section of the knitting pattern is released, and the knitters taking part complete that section and share photos. This is the first mystery KAL I've attempted! I got seduced into it by the choose-your-own-adventure aspect: there are 2 options per "clue", and 5 clues in total, so there are 32 possible shawls.
Plus, I'm an Ysolda fangirl, so it was inevitable really. ;)

I'm choosing between the 2 options for each clue by flipping a coin. This is so I don't change my mind a million times, and to preserve the mystery aspect - I don't know quite what's going to emerge from my needles....

Because I don't have any pictures or diagrams of the finished shawl as I'm knitting, I find I really have to pay attention to each set of instructions - I sometimes need to read sentences several times, and compare the charts to the written instructions to be sure of what to do. It shows how much I usually rely on the visual cues when following other patterns. It's kind of like being a beginner again.

This is my shawl with 3 clues completed (and lifelines in place between sections):

Follow Your Arrow by Ysolda, knit in Vintage Purls Sock.

Of course, after looking at everyone else's photos, I really want to knit some of the other options too! My plan is to knit a second shawl, taking the opposite "path" through the options. The two shawls will be knit from the same pattern, but have no elements in common. Pretty cool. :)

I'm in a book!

Last July, I was contacted via Ravelry by an author who wished to use some of my photos in her new book about geek knitting and crochet. I provided some high-res files, and proceeded to forget all about it until I got an email a few days ago. Now the book is out!

You can find it here at the publisher's website: Häkeln + Stricken für Geeks. Yes, it's in German! Fortunately I have enough of my basic German skills remaining to understand the title: "Crochet + Knitting for Geeks". :)

Two of my designs have been featured in the book's list of cool, geeky knitting patterns: my Tetris scarf 'I Dream of Falling Blocks', (p.231), and my Dalek hat 'INSULATE!' (p.232):

As one of the contributing crafters, I've received a free e-book copy to nosey through. It looks like a seriously interesting book, covering maths, science, coding, and pop culture geekery as they relate to knitting and crochet. It looks nicely in-depth and substantial - the e-book version is 388 pages. I really hope they do an English edition so I can read it properly!

Music to wrap presents by

This is my first Christmas in a long time with no choir to sing with. I'm used to a big build-up of practices and carols concerts, culminating in Midnight Mass (I always skive off on Christmas morning). One of the special things about Midnight Mass at St Mary's was the fun of blasting out carols like 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing' from the choir loft, together with a trio of trumpets and the organ...

I love a lot of the special music for this time of year, so I've tried to make do with listening to recordings and singing on my own. I found an absolute treasure-trove of downloadable free scores at the Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL) site - they have six pages worth of Music for the Advent, Christmas and Epiphany seasons, including traditional carols as well as choral music from the 14th century to the present.

One new discovery is Charpentier's 'Salve puerule':

And here's an old favourite, Bach's Christmas Oratorio:

And this is a lovely concert/documentary hybrid - a special Christmas episode of the BBC series Sacred Music (featuring The Sixteen), 'A Choral Christmas':

I recognised several pieces I've sung over the years, including Victoria's amazing 'O Magnum Mysterium', and the 15thC carol 'There is no Rose of such Virtue'.

Merry Christmas, folks! Enjoy your holiday. :)

'The Twelve Months of Knitting'

Want to know what a year's worth of knitting and crochet looks like? Tash of HRYC posted a photo of her 2013 finished projects in two tidy stacks, and I was curious to see what mine would look like. Folding things tidily is not my forte, so mine's more of a pile... ;)

Finished knit/crochet projects, 2013

I had to double-check with my Ravelry projects page which things were completed this year - there were more than I thought! There are a couple of items not shown, such as the tea-cosy I sent off for the Royal Melbourne Show swap, the tree-cosy for Yarn Corner's Royal Parade project, the yellow circles for their NGV display, and the handlebar-cosies on my bike. And I included my green cardie, which was begun in 2012 but finished this year.

So what's in the pile? All together now:

On the twelfth month of knitting, my needles gave to meee:
One pair of mittens,
Two cutesy cardies,
One cashmere jersey,

Four cooo-zyyy haaats!

Four fancy shawls,
Three woven hearts,
Two woollen birds,
And a pavlova tee-ea cooosyyy!