Knitting and the Olympics

The Olympics this year were great, I enjoyed watching the many exciting events and following the medal counts. There were many sad stories and many happy victories.

I decided to participate in the Ravelympics this year. The object of the Ravelympics is to cast on a project that is challenging to you during the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and complete it by the end of closing ceremonies. The project is supposed to be challenging to you personally, for example: a technique you've never done before. I chose to make a pair of felted slippers. These are knit holding two strands of yarn together for the sides and three strands for the bottoms on very large needles. They are knit to what appears to be a very ridiculous size and then felted in the washer. Felting binds the stitches and shrinks up the fabric. My family looked at the completed knitting and said there was no way they would shrink enough to fit. It took two full agitation cycles on my washer, but I think they came out just fine.

I finished the felting process on Wednesday evening, waited two days for them to dry, then painted traction/anti-skid lines on the bottoms with puff paint on Friday evening, and waited overnight for that to dry. Finally on Saturday morning I was able to wear them. I wore them as I watched the closing ceremonies on Sunday night, while of course, I knit on something new.