Ravelympics update finally!

It is time to reflect on my performance in the Ravelympics. Firstly, I have learned that I am no knitting athlete. I am better at over-committing to things than completing things and I have boundless optimism when it comes to gauge-ing how long my projects are going to take. That’s a nice way of saying I don’t know my limits.

My ability to speed-knit is enhanced by the company of other knitters and a lack of distractions. Therefore, since the Ravelympics was happening at the same time as my trip to Naples with MANY distractions and NO other knitters present to chivvy me along, progress was slow. I haven’t even got off the starting block with my colourwork cross-country activities, my vest vaults red drops design vest is painfully slow in its progress and the hopscotch socks are languishing in my to-do pile with a serious case of Second Sock Syndrome. It was just too hot to knit with actual wool in Naples. But the red cotton was fine to knit with, even in such hot locations as Vesuvius, Pompeii and various train stations around Pozzuoli. In the absence of any FO shots with which to celebrate glorious knitting victories, I’ll share instead the growing progress of the knitted vest as I knit my way around Naples.

Here is the knitting happening on a boat from Pozzuoli to Ischia.

…and here it is, slightly larger, at the train station nearest to our hotel. You’ll note that it’s slightly longer here.

Here is the knitting one day later, waiting for a return train from Pozzuoli to our train station. The graffiti is ubiquitous at Naples’ train stations!

Here is the knitting happening at the summit of mount Vesuvius. You can see Monkl clinging onto my sides for dear life. He was very afraid of falling into the crater!

…and finally: the knitting happening at Pompeii.

There are many more interesting photos to come of these places; in truth the places where the knitting happened are themselves are far more interesting than my vest, but I did want to document my Ravelympics progress in some way. And hopefully, as the Naples trip unfolds, it will be obvious why I was too distracted to complete any of the projects I so optimistically signed up for!

Mark has done an amazing job of documenting the Ravelympics and his boys fully embraced the competitive nature of this knitting project, which appealed immensely to their sporting instincts. The front of the vest – which I was knitting in Naples – is now finished. The back has been ripped back to around row 7 so it will be some time before we see this project finished.

I adjusted the pattern so it would have a much more flattering handkerchief edge rather than a short-waisted straight edge. The maths of this are really not difficult; instead of doing a few rows of straight ribbing, I decided to CO 120 stitches instead of 100 and reduce by 2 sts every 4 rows in the pattern. In this way the double decreases at the centre of the pattern should immediately begin to shape a lovely pointy edge. Easy, yes?

But for some reason my brain turned to mush whilst doing this simple thing on the bus between Reading and Oxford yesterday. At row 25 I found I had reduced by many more stitches than I had meant to, and feeling despairing and unhappy about the vest back, I decided better to rip the whole thing back and start over than muck about trying to work out my own inscrutable knitterly doings.

It is much better now and hopefully I will make great progress on this tonight at the Global Cafe!

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