:::Blinking Eyes:::

The Knifty Knitter emerges from her cave of an apartment blinking and rubbing her eyes.

Oi, it's been awhile.

One of the bloggers that I enjoy reading is Lisa Grossman, a.k.a The Tsock Tsarina. Sometimes The Tsarina will be absent from her blog for a rather lengthy period of time. She calls this time "Pattern Purdah," the time of limbo between when her most recent (and always amazing) sock pattern has been written and when it is released to the public. Lisa takes some self imposed time away form her blog to finish the last minute crunch of double checking the design with the test knitters, printing and packaging the pattern, and conferring with her (very talented) dye artist.

I've been in something of a "Pattern Purdah" myself.

Except that it didn't involve a pattern at all.

It involved 60 pages of handouts.

Yep, 60.

There were lots of pictures, but still...

I was writing 60 pages of handouts for a workshop I taught on Saturday called "Ravelry Rules". It was an introductory+ class on how to use Ravelry. I say introductory+ because I covered a bit more than just the basics.

There were about 15 people who took the class and, overall, it seemed to be a success.
This was my first workshop and, while I'm no master, it went easier than I expected. I had a great audience so that helped a lot I think. Now the biggest problem has been how to access the worksheets via the internets. The file is so big I can't send it via email to anyone unless I break it into parts (which I could but I'd rather not). Currently a solution involving posting it somewhere on my website is in the works.

Anyways, all that planning and writing and driving to pick up a projector took up the majority of my week last week. Throw in the fact that the Ravelympics had started and that pretty much left me with no time for anything except knitting and writing and taking screen shots from Ravelry and knitting and writing. Oh, and running around on Saturday morning reformatting the entire packet so that I could print copies for less than $100. But I digress...

So, the knitting. I haz it. In fact I haz a lot of it. I just have to post to the appropriate Ravelympics pages and I'm good to go.

1st Hat of the Ravelympics 2010
Cast on during opening ceremonies and finished on Sunday (I think). This is a generic ribbed hat pattern that I wrote to use in classes and I needed to "test knit" some different sizes. This is a large adult size.

2nd Ravelympics 2010 Hat
Unoriginal Hat for my mom. Made from the same Cascade Eco + as her Irish Hiking scarf that she got for Christmas.

3rd Ravelympics 2010 Hat
A black Unoriginal Hat. I started making this for my future SIL, Brandi, and had almost gotten through the final repeat of the pattern when I realized that she and I had discussed the possibility of doing her hat in a different color other than black (because she already has several black hats). So, I'll make another in the same color as my aunt's Unoriginal Hat and if Brandi wants them both she can have them and if she wants one or the other she can have that too. If she does end up taking the black on I think I'm going to make one for myself. This is a totally classic hat. And, apparently, they are just like potato chips, you can't have/make just one, seeing as how I just finished my 3rd and I'm thinking about making another one.

Tonight on the needles is another "test knit" of my generic ribbed hat pattern in an infant size. The goal for the Ravelympics was to make 5 hats which I think I can reach but originally I had planned to knit a Turn a Square hat. We'll see if that happens. The TaS may be replaced by another "test knit" since they seem to go pretty quick. Or another Unoriginal Hat.