Winner of the gold medal: Heidi, who was actually in Greece during the Olympics! She finished this cute baby sweater during her trip.

Winner of the silver medal: Michelle from the fabulous quidnunc.org and mastermind behind craftPOP.com. Michelle finished a beautiful baby blanket.

Winner of the bronze medal: Leslie, who earns her medal for completing a summer top and making progress on a winter sweater for her daughter all while watching olympics, taking care of three kids and a new house!

Congratulations, ladies! Send me your addresses and I'll drop your prizes in the mail first thing next week. Thanks to everyone who participated. I loved reading about everyone's olympic knitting and checking out all your blogs. What a productive bunch we all were! Bravo, everyone.

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Winners were selected via a random number generator that hubby programmed up for me in about a minute and a half. The numbers corresponded to the order of comments to the contest post. Here's a pic of the winning numbers being selected.

Now that I have my medal, I wanna give you one.

The original idea for the Herculean Effort knitalong was to give medals to the knitalongers with the best projects finished during the Olympics. Karen didn't end up doing her knitalong, but I loved that idea. Well, credit her great olympic spirit and my finishing high (six finished projects in August!) for the blue blog's first contest! I'd like to offer up a few Olympic medals (yarns, of course) to you other Olympic knitters out there. Just share with me what you knit during the Olympics and I'll put your name in the hat to win one of these...

Gold: 3 skeins Phildar Sunset yarn (color Dore, of course), which is very similar to Rowan Lurex Shimmer. You could make a fabulous scarf or purse with this stuff. It's most often used as a carry-along yarn to add a bit of sparkle to a project.

Silver: 1 skein Tosca yarn, a really soft, bulky wool/acrylic blend. It's a brand new yarn from Lang and this skein is color #5 with beautiful greys that will stripe like Noro yarns. This would make a wonderful winter hat.

Bronze: 1 skein Noro Silk Garden in a lovely bronze/beige/green colorway (#34). Silk Garden is the self-striping silk/mohair/wool blend that EVERYONE is using for Klaralund. This skein would make a pretty hat or could also be a start for a longer scarf or maybe even your own Klaralund!

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RULES: Leave a comment to this post by the end of the day tomorrow (8/31) and tell me what you were knitting during the Olympics. I'm really curious to hear what everyone's been working on and how much knitting you got done. Be sure to include a link to a picture if you can. We love looking at pictures! If you don't have a picture or a website, just leave a description so we can imagine what you've been knitting. I'll toss all the names in a hat (or do something equally random) and pull out winners at the end of the week. I'll post the winners names and contact them by email for snail mail addresses. And you too can have an olympic medal! What fun!

After sewing on 13 tiny buttons and weaving in about a bazillion ends, I finished ava, just in time for the Olympic closing ceremonies tonight. My summer olympic finishing marathon is complete. And she gets the gold!

On to ava details. I love the fact that it's a light cardigan with really good waist shaping. Boxy cardigan + me = no way. And I so enjoyed using the Rowan Calmer. It's soft to work with and feels heavenly on. The gauge was a little different from the wool cotton that the pattern called for, but I was able to use the numbers from a different size to adjust. Still the pattern is a little weird. The sleeves as written were incredibly long (Nora mentioned that she had the same problem when working on her ava). I ripped them back and reknit them, leaving out a few increases near the top. That seemed to do the trick.

I really like this cardigan. I think I'll get a lot of wear out of it. I'm always chilly and with some basic, goes-with-everything cardis like this one, I'll be able to bring one with me all the time. I must admit to having cardigan issues - I don't really understand when to wear them and am always feeling like they're just light jackets and I should take them off when I get inside somewhere. But I'm hoping that a lighter, more feminine cardi like ava will change that. I can bring it with me as a light jacket, simply wear it like a sweater, or layer it on even cooler days. With ava, the cardi raye, and my paris loop poncho, I'll be looking forward to sweater weather!

I made up with the habu tank after recovering from my pick-up stitches-finger callous and sewed on the collar and pockets (hadn't mentioned them before, had !?). Redoing this tank was so worth it. Although the asian tank from Rebecca #26 provided the shape I wanted, I knew I had to go back and add the detailing from 1000 Sweaters. I love everything about it now - the style, the fit, the feel. This unique cotton yarn from Habu with colored thread wrapped around it is so light and comfortable. And it has incredible drape. It's just a pleasure to wear.

Keeping on track for my Herculean Effort at finishing four projects during the Olympics, I hereby annouce the triumphant return of ava!

Remember how wrong she went a while back? Well, I ripped and reknit the first sleeve, finished the second sleeve, sewed them both in, slipped them on and they're just right now. I've got button bands and buttons left to do and she's all done. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

I'm just starting the Habu redo. I've ripped back to the start of the armholes and am reknitting the top front and back with ribbing at either armhole opening to match the collar. I think I'll also end up picking up stitches along the cast on row and adding a bit of ribbing there too to make the whole thing all matchy-matchy. Still hoping to have it done by the end of the Olympics!

My Olympic record so far: 2 of 4 projects finished. Woo hoo!

...to the Phildar giraffe coat. Finally finished and sent off to the happy new parents.

Once I heard it was going to be a girl, I went ahead and did the blanket stitch trim in a more feminine lilac color. And I actually really like the navy for a little girl.

Of course, I absolutely love the giraffe! I'm such a sucker for these Phildar giraffes. In typical Phildar baby knits fashion, it's all about the finishing touches. They're a lot of work, but they do make all the difference.

Hey, I wish I had a coat like this!

(As always, specific project info like pattern and yarn details are at the top of the archive page for this project. Just click on the time stamp and page up from there.)

Sunday again, and here's an update of my current non-knitting crafty pursuit, crochet.

ta da, it's the cro-phie!

The crocheted daria sophie bag all done! Shannon helped me pick out the zipper this afternoon. Crochet Claire from the Knitsmiths helped me sew in the strap during knitting group. And voila, she's finished with a little help from my friends.

I do love this Noro Daria yarn. The colors are so incredible. And you know what just occurred to me while I was crocheting the last few rounds?.... Pool-knitalongers, are you listening?.... I think you could pool this yarn to make stripes! If I could only think of something I could do with a six inch wide strap of stripey cord yarn.

Update: Now that I'm dressed, I can show you a picture of me modeling the bag!

What could be better than a call from the yarn store saying "your yarn is in"?!

cotton angora, yummm...

Here's the Debbie Bliss yarn that I need to make mom's Jess sweater. All lovely in army green. I would never have picked out this color when just looking at the balls on display, but when knitted up, like the sweater Purl had on display or the models in the book, it looks really good. Much more like a neutral than like army fatigues!

Okay, I'll tell you what's better than your yarn order arriving, the store having just enough of another yarn that you were looking for.

Silk Garden, double yummm...

While in NYC, my mom and I spied the awesome Klaralund pattern in Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton's new book. And what do you know, but Wendy and Froggy start up a Klaralund-along for September AND my LYS had exactly the right number of skeins in stock for me. Count me in!

September's shaping up to be a great month for knitting. But first I gotta make it through my August knits. The Olympics to the rescue! Karen suggested an Olympic knitalong, which she was calling "a Herculean Effort". I wanted to join, but couldn't imagine starting another project now. Then I thought, if I really want to make a Herculean effort, I could try to finish up all the projects that are right on the verge of being finished. That's the giraffe jacket, the habu tank, the daria bag, and ava. I got two weeks. Let the games begin!