It’s Furious Balancing

On we sweep with threshing oar,
Our only goal will be the western shore.

The Viking Baby Hat is now - officially - an FO. A Finished Object. Completed. Done. Stick a fork in it.

My highly cooperative model for this photo shoot is Socks the Cat. He usually sits on the back of our living room sofa, looking out the front window. Our other cats sit up there with him sometimes and watch the world go by. I wonder what our mailman thinks.¹

Socks is also responsible for all the Led Zeppelin lyrics scattered throughout this post. If you’re totally lost, go check out the Viking Kittens. (WARNING: Plays Led Zeppelin music and a Flash animation.) ²

We come from the land of the ice and snow
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.

The hammer of the gods
Will drive our ships to new lands
To fight the horde — singing and crying:
Valhalla I am coming!

This was my first FO for Ravelympics 2008. If you’re a knitter on Ravelry, you may have heard about this. The idea is to complete a challenging project, or several challenging projects,³ during the Beijing Summer Olympics. You couldn’t cast on before the Olympic flame was lit at the opening ceremonies, and you need to finish before the flame is extinguished at the end of the games.⁴

Knitting events were named after “real” Olympic events, and I signed up for Baby Dressage and the Glove Decathlon.⁵ We also joined up in teams, either by geographical region or Ravelry Group.  You didn’t have to pick a team to participate, but I did.   I’m a member of Team Obama and Team Michigan.

This is very loosely organized. You can be a member of multiple teams, but you must limit a project to one team only (i.e., I couldn’t count this one baby hat for both Team Obama and Team Michigan.  I had to choose one of them). You are competing only against yourself; you aren’t out to “beat” other knitters.⁶ Once you finish your project, you get a bloggy widget thing at the end of the games.  It’s sort of like the Special Olympics – all participants get a medal.⁷

PROJECT NOTES

Ravelympics Team:  Obama

Made for:  A gal in our old EverQuest 2 guild who is expecting her first baby.  I don’t know when she’s due, but it must be soon!  Edited to Add:  Baby Nicolai will make his appearance on or about November 3rd.

Pattern: Baby Viking Hat Kit from Bella Knitting.

Yarn: Karabella Aurora 8, Dark Gray (approx. ¼ ball, 25 yards); Brown (approx. ⅔ ball, 65 yards); and Cream (a teeny, tiny amount; they didn’t send a full ball of yarn with the kit).

Needles: US Size 6, both DPN’s and 16″ circular.

Mods: I made the hat ½ inch shorter (3½” instead of 4″) before beginning the “every other row” decreases.  I started doing the “every row” decreases for the crown about 4 rows earlier than the pattern called for.  I wanted to shorten the length a wee bit.  I saw too many FO pictures where the hat looked more like a stocking cap (or the Pope’s mitre) than a helmet.

Challenges: Sewing on those damned wings was the hardest part. Making 21 bobbles on the same row was the most tedious knitting I’ve done in a long time.  I consider overcoming Bobble Boredom a challenge. My personal preference is No Bobbles Whatsoever On Any Knitted Item,⁸ but the hat really needed them to get that certain je ne sais quoi that says “Viking Helmet.”

How soft your fields so green,
Can whisper tales of gore,
of how we calmed the tides of war.
We are your overlords.

My next Ravelympics challenge is the Welig Gloves from Robin Melanson’s Knitting New Mittens & Gloves for Team Michigan.

Those bobbles have got to go.

* * * * *

1. If I had to guess, it would be something like “Real Cat. Real Cat. Fake Cat. <pause> Wait a minute…” [↩]
2. Stay away if you’re allergic to Led Zeppelin and Flash animations, and don’t blame me if you have Immigrant Song stuck in your head for three days. [↩]
3. There’s even an event for finishing already-started, languishing projects — dubbed “WIP Wrestling” — with the goal of completing as many of your Works in Progress as you could during the games. [↩]
4. August 24th, a few minutes before noon, Eastern time. [↩]
5. Decathlon as in ten fingers, not that you have to churn out ten pairs of gloves. [↩]
6. I will confess, however, that I’m a little smirky that Team Obama outnumbers Team McCain in terms of members (90 vs. 25), number of projects planned (315 vs. 60), and FO’s (37 vs. 6 as of this writing). Neener, neener, neener. [↩]
7. Political Correctness Note: I’m not dissing the Special Olympics. I was a volunteer for them one year in high school. [↩]
8. The notable exception to this rule is bobbles as mouse ears on felted catnip mice. [↩]

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