Ravellenic Wrap-Up

I'm alive! I've survived the Olympics! What a show. I'm nuts about the Games, and having my home city hosting has been an experience, let me tell you. My workplace is right in the centre of Bloomsbury, which is where the press hub was located, and is right by both Euston and King's Cross. So walking from my office to get my afternoon tea, I'd pass a pair of Ukrainian swimmers, returning from Oxford Street and nattering about their new running shoes. Or walking past Euston on my way home, watch the extraordinary volunteers of Team London directing tourists, interpreting, and making people feel welcome and at ease. There was almost no direct impact on our daily lives. Deliveries were shifted earlier or later, but life went on as usual. It was remarkable.

And kudos to the BBC! I've never before been able to watch every single minute of every single event and medal ceremony. And believe me, I watched. ALL of it. Not while I was at work, obviously, but it was perfectly normal for Spouse and I to have one event running on the television, another on my computer and a third on his!

And while I was watching, I was knitting. My chosen project was the Vintage Tsocks that I started in February last year. Over and over, I've told myself that I'd finish them, and yet somehow they lingered in my WIPs basket. Here's how things stood at the beginning of the Ravellenic Games:



One sock with the heel turned, but before starting the ankle shaping. The second sock ready to turn the heel. Leaves of three colours completed, the first leaf of the last colour cast on but not finished.

The Opening Ceremony started, and I knit. I knit leaves while the athletes processed into the stadium. I worked the heel shaping while Great Britain earned her first medal of the Games in the women's road race. I finished the grapes on the second sock during some of the finest rowing I've ever had the pleasure of watching. I pinned out and blocked leaves as the first female boxers in Olympic history fought for their medals. I learned about the esoteric rules of fencing while I learned to knit an applied i-cord bind-off. I sewed in ends while marvelling at the sheer magic of the rhythmic gymnastics.

And finally, on Saturday, with less than 24 hours to spare, I finished my Tsocks



Pattern - Vintage, by Lisa Grossman aka The Tsarina of Tsocks
Yarn - Holiday Yarns FlockSock Sock Yarn
Needles - 2.25mm paired Addi circulars and 2.25mm steel DPNs
Ends woven in - 96 (no, that's not a typo. I counted them.)
New techniques learned - 7

I'm not an athlete. I'm a knitter. But I tell you this - when I snipped off that last end and put my new socks on my feet? Just for a moment, I knew what it felt like to win gold.