Ravelympics 2010 and Crafting Craziness

24 Feb 2010 2 Comments

by madsilence in Craft, Life, links Tags: charity crafting, craft for charity, crafting, crafts, crochet, fun, links, Ravelry, Ravelympics

Hey all!  I’m having great fun this year watching my second Olympic Games in Japan (the first was Beijing).  What did you think of the opening ceremony?   I have to say I was absolutely floored by it – the colors, the incorporation of different cultures, the dancing (the ballet dancers seriously brought a tear to my eye), the AMAZING PUNK CONTRA-DANCE AT THE END OMG (I think they were called the Fiddlers from the East?  Does anyone have a link to a video of that section?)… does anyone else want one of the costumes from that section for Saint Paddy’s Day or just for some awesome fun days out?  Holy Moly!!  The Boston Globe’s got some great pictures from the ceremony over here.

But that’s all beside the point… because…. I’ve joined the:

Ravelry is hosting this great event for all crafters!  Basically, you start a project while watching the opening ceremony and must complete it before the closing ceremony.  There are 33 events for people to join like the aerial unwind (for those frogging old projects), skelegurumi (amigurumi projects) and the Hat Halfpipe (which is pretty obvious ^^).  I’ve joined the WIPs-dancing category with this lovely yet-to-be-finished project, what I’m calling the “Sunny Sky” baby blanket!  It’s for a dear co-worker who’s just started his family with a little baby boy.  I hate blatantly “boy” or “girl” color schemes for kids, so I went with this happy sky blue/sun yellow/cloud white combo.

The pattern’s from the Coats and Clark website.  It’s a free pattern called the “Hexagon Baby Blanket” and is very easy… as long as you stick to the required six sides… which I didn’t.  I was completing the 3rd round at a stitch’n'bitch gathering, which is where you establish the 6 sides… and a week later I looked at the little bugger after adding a few more rows and realized that it was very… extremely… ruffly O.o  I passed it to my friend to take a look at.  She gave me a funny look and asked to see the pattern.  “MS” she said, “What’s this pattern called?”  I said, “It’s a hexagon baby blanket.”  “… how many sides does a hexagon have?”  “6?”  “Then, why does your blanket have 14 sides?”  We laughed until out sides burst!!  …and then I pulled out a mile of yarn and started again!!

The pattern’s completely made of DCs and Chain stitches, combined to make bobbles.  It’s really useful to put stitch markers at each of the 6 corners.  So you don’t make extras.  Unless you like corners as much as I do! ^^

Anyway, I’ve found some freaking amazing websites recently in my trawl of the internet for free crafting instructions.  First runner-up is Craft Hope.  The people at Craft Hope collect donations of hand-crafted goods like scarves, sock monkeys, and quilts.  Their current projects is CraftHope for Haiti.  They collected an amazing array of handmade items and put them into an Etsy store.  So far they’ve raised over $30,000 to donate to Doctors without Borders.  Head over there quick to see what’s left, they’re closing the store down soon!  Head over to their “Get Involved” page if you’re interested in donating hand-made items to their next project.  What a wonderful way for people to help out while doing something they love (and finding good homes for those extra scarves and outerwear pieces knitters and crocheters always seem to have hanging about.)

Next is The Cottage Industrialist.  I’m loving her blog, with its combination of free printables like that amazing Valentine you see on the left, super fun craft and project ideas, and of course the (necessary for blogs I subscribe to) food references!!!  I’m especially loving her printable month-by-month calendar.  First, they’re cute and well designed.  Second, they include recipes seasonal foods.  They’re a collaboration!  Which led me to discover the person who put the recipes in the calendar, the lovely lady over at HomeEc101 – all the things you wish your mother had taught you.  She’s like Martha Stewart, except without the scary.

Woo, this post is getting a bit long, but there’s still so much to tell you about!  Guess we’ll just have to wait for next time.  Happy crafting people!

~MS the Crochet-crazy

Related MadSilence post: Knit Your Bit

Related Links:
The 2010 Knitting Olympics
Olympians in magazines – Crochet Today

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