Ravellenics Closing Ceremony

My camera came back from the repair shop yesterday with a brand-new lens, so I thought I'd use the rare appearance of sunshine to play hooky for a few hours and go to the beach.

Look at that sky! It's gorgeous. The 'washed out' effect that used to be in my photos is gone,

 which makes me think it wasn't a setting but a problem with the lens.

I am so lucky that this view is at the end of my street! I do love living near the beach - looking at these photos makes me happy.

I took my knitting with me to the beach and, well, let's just say that I won't be getting a medal for my performance this Games.

This combined with four rows on the front panels of the cardy is the sum total of knitting I've done on my Ravellenics challenge. I am the knitting Olympics Steve Hooker! The truth is I just don't really like knitting jumpers. The thicker yarn feels really unwieldy and I find cabling stupid and boring and even though I want the jumper I most certainly do not want to take the time to finish it. If I wasn't so poor I would seriously pay someone to finish this because it's so close I can taste it yet so very very far away.  Bleurgh! Does anyone have a shawl or a pair of socks languishing away somewhere that they don't want to finish? I'll swap with you and I finish your wanted-but-unfinished project and you finish mine...? Well, a girl can dream.

Ravellenics Day 7

Today is Day 7 of the Olympics and my Ravellenics challenge is going just about as well as Australia's quest for gold medals...that is, it is not going well at all with one exception.

The exception

 I finished the fronts and blocked the fronts and back. I was pretty chuffed at this stage - that's the majority of the knitting completed! Only two sleeves, two button bands and a hood to go. That is, I was chuffed until I noticed this:

Oh no!

The fronts are two centimetres shorter than the back!  Given that it took me literally five years to get around to finishing the fronts means that is absolutely no chance I am going to rip them back to fix this error, so I'm going to try to fudge it when I'm seaming it. Knitted fabric is very forgiving, right?

I was happily motoring on the sleeves, working them both at the same time to ensure that they were the same length (see - I learn!) when I noticed one of my needles was a bit bent. Used to my Knitpro metal sock needles I tried to bend it back into shape but casein =/= metal and *crack* - this was the result.

Urgh. I do not think I am going to get this cardigan finished in the next 10 days! Part of me suspects this will be my Ravellenics project for both this and the next Olympics in four years time...

RIP Maeve Binchy


Maeve Binchy died this week. I didn't know her personally and I wouldn't have recognised her if I saw her in the street but I loved her books and she was one of my favourite authors. It's her work I turn to when I feel sad and in need of a literary hug and Christmas won't be the same without the latest Maeve Binchy to take me back to the warm streets of Maeve Binchy's Dublin.  Maeve Binchy, thank you for the hours of sweetness and happiness your books brought me. Rest in peace.