Nocturnal Knits » bamboo

Girls Burning Yarn

Laura — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:50:00 +0000

Excuse my absence from the blog: I’ve been too ashamed by my complete failure at the 2008 Ravelympics to show my face. I’m still less than half done with the Bamboo Garden scarf.

But I learned my lesson: knitting a complicated, double-knit, DK-weight scarf in two weeks is not possible when you have six relatives from Hungary visiting for the duration of the Ravelympics. The good news is that I had a great visit with my foreign family, and I see them so rarely that it was worth not crossing the finish line.

And now I present to you girls burning yarn:

This is what happens when you mix three crafty ladies and a bottle of champagne. Yes, it’s so very scandalous. We were celebrating my roommate’s birthday, and we got to talking about whether bamboo yarn was appropriate for baby knits because it’s supposedly very flammable. This led to our very unscientific burn test. (We had a fire extinguisher next to us, ’cause we’re careful like that.)Then we went out to a bar in Hollywood. Then we had a pillow fight in our underwear. Okay, that last one was a lie for the menfolk…

And she’s off!

Laura — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 05:13:00 +0000

My Ravelympics project is off to a slow start, but I think I’m starting to hit my stride. I’m really going to have to pick up the pace if I want to finish it in time.

I designed a bamboo motif for the double-knit scarf—appropriate, since the yarn is made of 100% bamboo. I have seven pages of charts altogether (all 460 rows), which means I have to pay attention to each row.

With the double-knitting, it can get a smidge confusing which color to use, but it looks like I haven’t messed up yet! Knock on wood for me! I’m going for the gold!

Ravelympics, here I come!

Laura — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 06:38:00 +0000

Don’t you just love those clever folks over at Ravelry? They’ve come up with the 2008 Ravelympics, a sort of knitting olympics, where the goal is to cast on and finish a project during the 17 days of the Summer Olympics.

As a proud Angeleno, I am playing for Team LaLa Land in the event “Designers Discus.” My plan is to make a double-knit scarf out of some stash Rowan Bamboo Soft yarn I’ve had lying around for about a year. I’m not allowed to cast on until the opening ceremonies, but swatching is considered “training,” so here are my swatches:

I created the charts for the colorwork tonight and I’m starting to wonder if I’m biting off more than I can chew. The chart is 34 stitches wide and 460 rows long, and each row has a colorwork pattern to follow. Gulp.

Check back soon to see if I survive, or if I drop out with a pulled hamstring. (Or, more likely, tendonitis in my wrist!)