England Experiences - Number 4 - Olympic Mania

We were in London a few weeks before the Olympics began but there was already a lot of Olympic stuff around.  Rings were everywhere! On the Tower Bridge:

In the train station (St. Pancras).

And although we couldn't go into any venues we did see a lot (from a distance).


The Olympic Stadium.

The Aquatic Centre.

The Equestrian Stadium.

The Olympic Park.

Not a venue but just as important - security!

Transport for London was getting ready for the Games, putting up signs to venues and warning people that it would get busy on transit.

The British Museum had a display about the Olympics, not very big but there were gold medals on display!

On our last night we were in Cambridge and saw the torch relay.  We arrived over an hour before the torch came through to stake out our spot and it turned out to be perfect - right in front of an exchange!  First lots of promotional vehicles came through.

The next torch bearer took pictures with the crowd while he waited for the torch to arrive.

Police kept everyone in order.

 Finally the torch arrived and the flame was passed.

The media was there to capture it all.

I meant to have this post up earlier but since the Games started I've been spending a lot of time sitting on my couch watching! I'll admit it's pretty much all the time I don't have to be at work or somewhere else.  Thankfully they only last 2 weeks and then life can return to normal!

What I've been up to...

In my blogging absence I've been keeping busy with lots of things.  Most notably I've been training for triathlons (the short, try-a-tri version!) and have competed in two!  I've joined a training group that meets at a local lake.  The weather has been great and going swimming at the lake has just seemed more appealing then sitting inside at a sewing machine or craft desk.  This is me in action, getting ready to head out on the bike during a race.

Back in June I had the opportunity to attend a celebration for Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.  It was a great way to continue the Olympic high I rode in February. The highlight for me was getting to hold one of their gold medals!  Tessa and Scott have been so generous in sharing them with Canada.  Wherever they go the medals come along for people to touch and hold.  They also signed autographs and chatted with the many fans who turned out for the event.  As well as being brilliant skaters they are just awesome nice people.

Right now I'm in my last couple weeks of my ECE distance ed program.  After three years of taking courses I am less then two weeks from being done!!  Yipee!!!  Less school work = more time for crafting.  Speaking of which, I attended a talk on Japanese paper yesterday.  Very interesting and inspiring, I'll be back to share.

Olympic Adventure

I'm back from an incredible, amazing, once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Olympics!  It was such a great experience, definitely worth 7 years of planning and waiting!  I think the crowds exceeded anything the organizers anticpated - downtown was packed just about any time you went and there were hours long lines for most of the attractions.  Being part of a crowd at an event was energizing - we cheered for everyone but cheered super hard for any Canadian athlete, I read some athletes felt that they really fed off the crowd and I can believe that completely!  Huge shout out to all the volunteers - happy, enthusiastic, always available for photo taking - they contributed greatly to the Games' success.

My favourite moment was watching Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir win the gold medal in ice dance.  They are amazingly talented skaters who are always a pleasure to watch.

Other highlights included seeing the bobsleigh event and standing right there as the sleds went by, watching Canadians win a gold medal in every medal event I saw and getting an audience participation package at the Closing Ceremony (kinda geeky but also so cool)!  As well as Olympic events I have lots of family and friends in Vancouver so it was a busy two weeks.  The maple leaf scarf was great - got a few compliments on it and the album did get worked on, but not quite completed.  The mittens, and the rest of the clothes, were a big hit - the mitts went right onto a stuffed mascot.

Now it's back to normal life - suffering a little bit of Olympic Hangover this week as I realize it's all over!

Olympic Accessories

If you live in Canada I'm sure you've seen the red Olympic mittens.  For those of you reading from other parts of the globe these red mittens are the "must have" souvenir of the 2010 Olympic Games. So I thought I would finish off my doll sized Olympic wardrobe with a pair.

Doesn't it complete the outfit?  (Yes, I know she's missing shoes.  My talents do not, as yet, run to shoemaking!)

If you'd like to make a pair of your own I've posted a pattern for the mittens below.  When you've knit them cut a little maple leaf from felt and sew on!

Doll Mittens - Tutorial

I made these into Canada/Olympic mittens for a Cabbage Patch Kid but they could be used on any soft doll in the 16" - 20" range.

I used Cascade 220 and 4.5mm needles.  You could always vary the yarn weight and needle size to make the mittens bigger/smaller!

Cast on 22 stitches and join in the round. **

Knit the body of the mitten:

Rounds 1-6:  K1, P1 rib.

Rounds 7-8: knit

Round 9: K2, K4 onto waste yarn, knit to end with regular yarn.

Continue knitting in the round until the mitten is 3 inches from the edge of the cuff.

K1, K2tog for 2 rounds

K2tog for 1 round

Cut yarn and thread through remaining stitches, pull tight and sew the end in.

Make the thumb:

Unpick the stiches on the waste yarn and put on to two needles, picking up an extra stitch at each end of the hole (10 stitches total).

Round 1: K3, K2tog. Repeat.

Continue knitting for 5-6 rounds.

K2tog, K1 for one round.

Cut yarn and thread through remaining stitches, pull tight and sew the end in.

Sew in any remaining yarn ends and knit the matching mitt!

**I used to have a hard time keeping the stitches tightly together when joining in the round until I read about this trick: Cast on an extra stitch (23 for these mitts).  Divide the stitches onto three needles as normal.  Without using the fourth needle knit the first stitch onto the last needle and cast off one stitch.  Now you should have 22 stitches on three needles.  Pick up your fourth needle and continue as usual!

Doll Sized Olympic Excitement!

Doesn't every doll need her own Olympic gear? No, I'm not heading towards complete madness again, just a few outfits to give to my cousin when I see her in February. (These dolls, my dolls, are modeling the gear - which they won't get to keep.)

I got these done in less then a day as I was able to use patterns I'd already created rather then drafting new ones.  And because there were only two colours there was minimal changing of thread in the sewing machine.

These shirts were appliqued like my scarf and then put together like 1) a t-shirt 2) a combo between t-shirt and a hooded towel.

I did some freezer paper stenciling to create the logo and added some letters with mini alphabet stamps and acrylic paint.

This one uses freezer paper stenciling only.

All this talk of doll clothes reminds me that there are still some tutorials/patterns in that area that need to be written/posted.  Christmas kind of took over and they got forgotten.  oops.  They're coming, I promise!

Olympic Excitement!

This past weekend I was in London (Ontario, not England!) watching the national championships of figure skating.  The results from this competition decide who makes it onto the Olympic team and I think everyone rose to the challenge.  There were lots of good performances as well as a couple truly amazing ones that blew me away!

Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir are always a treat to watch and this was no exception - their program seemed to fly by in half the time of any of their competitors!  Patrick Chan was the other skater that really stood out head and shoulders above the rest.

At the end of the weekend they announced the Olympic figure skating team and it was great to see how excited these athletes are to be representing their country in the Olympic Games.  It made me a *teeny* bit less excited about going as a spectator (not nearly as exciting as going to compete after all) but since I have neither the dedication, drive or passion to pursue anything at an Olympic level I will be very satisfied with watching others and cheering them on. Much less pressure that way!