Olympic Socks, Alpaca Mittens

Ah, yes, the Olympics. I freely admit that didn't watch much of it, except for the opening ceremonies and the semifinal Canada vs USA mens' hockey game, and those were because it was Fridays and I was at my Friday fiber group get-together. Of course during the opening ceremonies we all ogled the various mittens, hats, and other knits the athletes were sporting. I'm just mildly annoyed that I couldn't find a decent picture of the Estonian team's mittens online afterwards, since they looked very nice...

But I did make an effort for the concurrent Ravellenic Games, and polished off not only that baby sweater with alpacas on the yoke, but my Alpha Socks. It was about time - my Rav page listed them as having been cast on just over 2 years previously!

Now I have to be heroic and not wear them until next fall, since I want to save them to enter in the local fair next August.

The other project which has gotten finished this week is this pair of mittens. These are the ones I've been designing as a counterpart to the dyeing classes I taught last summer at L'Ourse Qui Danse. Chantal of OQD has been testing the pattern, and I think it's about ready to go. So with any luck it will be up on Rav as well as available at L'Ourse Qui Danse in the next week or so.

I have to say they're a great knit to use up small amounts of yarn - I knit them in 5 colours because that's the number of samples each dye class produces, but you could technically use up to 20 colours if you felt inclined to. The only drawback is - you guessed it - weaving in ends. Whether it's 5 or 20 colours, you will still have something like 80 ends to deal with. Ah, well. Cuppa tea and something on the telly, and it goes pretty fast!