Olympian!

As I'm sure most of you are aware, there was some furious knitting going on all over the world the past few weeks for the Knitting Olympics, found in different degrees on The Yarn Harlot's Blog and Ravelry. I happened to be one of the, although I feel like I could have set the bar a little higher, given the Yarn Harlot's long and dangerous tiny-needle-colorwork-sweater journey. I knit my Aeolian Shawl for the wedding that I went to on the 26th, finishing it at the last possible minute. I was beading and knitting like a fool on the last day, finally binding off around midnight. I breathed a big sigh of relief and gave the thing a bath so it could be pinned out and displayed proudly the next night.

Well.. when I took it upstairs to pin it out I remember thinking "Hmm, that's strange, I didn't think that I left that long of a tail." Well, folks. Infact, I did not. I, however, discovered this:

Horror of horrors! My tired self did not secure that last stitch and it became unraveled! Well there was hardly a lot that I could do at midnight so I pinned it out, making sure to pin the last bound off stitch so it wouldn't unravel any further. The next day before I went to the wedding (After an icy mishap on the road I was already running late) I decided to do a sewn bind off on the rest of the stitches, and even though the edge was considerably messier it got the job done and I'm certain no one noticed the difference.

So, Without further ado, I give you the Aeolian Shawl:

I even have an action shot:

(That's the side with the original bind off)

Specs:
Yarn: Silky Sock by Squoosh Fibers in "Depth" (Really lovely stuff!)
Needles: Size 6 and a very tiny crochet hook for beading
Beads: 50(?) grams of size 6 seed beads in aquamarine
Pattern: Aeolian Shawl [Ravel it!] By Elizabeth Freeman
Mods: I used a bigger needle size and did a slightly different bind off. I also only did 1 strand of yarn for the bind off instead of doubled because A) I was worried about having enough yarn (I had 2 grams left over!) and B) It would have been complicated/taken more time to unwind the ball and bind off with 2 strands
Thoughts: Lovely pattern, fun to knit, although a bit complicated and fiddly. The Agave chart gave me a run for my money when the BOLDED "/" and "\" meant k3tog and sssk (double decreases) instead of k2tog and ssk (single decreases). Ravelry forums to the rescue. ;-)


I also entered myself in another event, Aerial Unwind. For frogging projects. I frogged my Damson. *sigh* Even though I just loved the way it came out, I never wear it. And I love the yarn (Malabrigo Sock in "Rayon Vert") too much to never wear it. So rrrrip it was!

Bye Damson! Hello possibilities!

I also started frogging my Hey, Teach! Because the fit is wonky and since I've gained a bit of weight I can't wear it anymore. Rrrrip!