Ravellenic games

Back in 2006 I "competed" in what was then known as the Knitting Olympics. I found this old post about it whilst hunting around on my blog for something else. And how things have changed in eight years. Not only did Ravelry not exist then, but it was three jobs and an awful lot of house moves ago. In that post, I list all the things I need to do in the Olympic timeframe:

10th - 26th February. I calculate that I have two Knit Lincs meetings, four nights away for work, nine days at work, two days in London, 300 miles of train travel and 600 miles of car travel (but with me driving) to get done in that time too.

 How things change. This time around, for the 2014 Ravellenic Games (7th - 23rd February), I'll have:
Eight days at work
 249 miles of car travel
No train travel
No days in London
No nights away
4 knitting group meetings

However, according to my across the finishing line post, in 2006 I also had all the catering provided by Mum, plus a cat to cheer me on. Back in 2006 I managed to complete two baby jumpers for Feed the Children in the time. I know my knitting has speeded up since then, but that I also have much less time available now - all those nights away for work consisted of having an early meal in a pub, then spending the entire evening sitting in a B & B knitting away. Plus the trips into London each involved about 3 hours of knitting time.

So, I've joined Team GB for the Ravellenic games. And I'm trying to decide what to knit. I am stash-busting so I don't want to buy any more yarn for it, although I was very tempted to join in with the rainbow project idea to raise awareness and protest about the appalling way LGBT people are treated in Russia.

The idea is that it should be a personal challenge for you, so I have various different ideas:

• Age 9-10 cabled hoodie for nephew's birthday. I have to knit this anyway, and it's a pattern I know well (this will be the fourth). The challenge will be completing it in the time. It might be a good opportunity to do some more practice with continental knitting, which I haven't done for ages.
• A secret project. Needs doing, but I won't be able to blog about it or put it on Ravelry so probably not the greatest idea.
• A shawl in 4 ply - there won't be enough time to do one in laceweight. Not sure how feasible this is, as a lot of my knitting time recently has been whilst watching foreign language sub-titled TV, which really isn't compatible with knitting lace. I really like the Ashton shawlette, but would want to customise it up to a bigger shawl, and I don't have enough of one kind of 4ply yarn to do that, unless I use the Drops alpaca (actually a sport weight) and do stripes. I do have some Schaefer Yarn Anne which is a light fingering weight, although still not quite enough to do the bigger shawl suggested. Or there's the Misty Scarf, for which I actually already possess both yarn and pattern. Or the Juno Regina stole/wrap which looks more straightforward even if it is in laceweight.
• I also really like the Zuzu's Petals cowl/shawlette, which the Yarn Harlot recently blogged about, but it sounds like this pattern is quite quick, so perhaps won't be challenging enough. Or I could combine it with another project too? And I don't have the right quantity of yarn again for it, unless I use the aforementioned Drops alpaca. And I'm not sure I want a stripy one. Variegated would be fine, but not stripy.
• Then there are the sock possibilities. A simple pair of socks would only take me about 10 days, so I need something more challenging. It will have to be the stitch pattern, as I've given up with short-row heels as they just don't fit my ridiculously bony skinny heels. A few patterns are in my queue that I want to try. Aquaphobia socks: lovely pattern, but it's slip stitches so not particularly challenging? The Wraptor socks are quite exciting, but I don't think the heel will work with my feet. The Bigger on the Inside socks are quite cool, and have cables, which I haven't done on a sock before. Hermione's Everyday Socks are a definite possibility. As are the Baroque socks, which have twisted stitches/cables and a heel flap. Or the Sapient Pearwood socks, or Having Hope socks (which also has the advantage of all the pattern proceeds going to Cancer Research). I've wanted to knit the Monkey socks for ages too. And Chimaera.
• Or Fair Isle. I'd love to knit the Sheep Carousel tea cosy, Peerie Flooers hat or Rams and yowes blanket, but I don't have the yarn necessary, so those aren't an option, and definitely the blanket isn't feasible in the time frame!
• Or the adult size garments, although I'm really not sure how realistic that is. Possibilities here include Hey Teach, which is a cardigan involving lace. This has the disadvantage of being worked flat and needing seaming though. Liesl, which is top-down. Or the Lotus Blossom Tank, although there seems to be some negative comments about the pattern on Ravelry and I don't really want to be knitting with cotton in February.

But, after much much cogitation, the problem was solved by the arrival of this skein, as reported in my last post. And I really really really want to knit with it NOW, so I went searching around, and found the Canyonlands shawl, which looked like a good match. It's for fingering weight yarn, and can be tweaked relatively easily to get the most shawl out of the yarn. Plus, I've started wearing scarves/small shawls to work and this looked like the sort of thing I could wear with my work outfits. So, that's one event (Short Track Shawls) sorted. This one also qualifies for the Lace Luge and Single Skein Speed Skate events.

I had a look at my hibernating projects list, which isn't that long, and decided to have a go at finishing this wrapover cardigan. Started in January 2008, last knitted in June 2008. It appears to have two fronts, a back, one sleeve and a bit of a sleeve, so it just needs one sleeve finishing, the border knitting, blocking and then seaming. So, I have an entry in WIPs Dancing too.

No idea if all this is feasible in the time I've got available, but we shall see...
Are you competing in the Ravellenic Games this time too?