Stitchin' With the 'Lympics!

James Bond and his latest Bond Girl (with Corgies)

I joined many of my yarny friends as a participant in the Ravellenic Games 2012 on Friday, during the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympic Games. There are thousands of us on Ravelry knitting and/or crocheting along with the Olympics. Usually, a stitcher will choose a certain goal or "personal best" to complete or learn during the games. I'll be happy to actually finish an entire project within the allotted time of July 27th through August 12th!
I did love the wacky, whimsical portions of the Opening Ceremonies, especially Queen Liz with James Bond! Jolly good fun!
This is the project I chose to complete. It's a large pillow, designed by Anna Elliott called "Make Do and Mend."

Naturally, I could not just follow the pattern. I had to devise my own version. I do love Anna's color combinations, so I'm copying her. Knitting is rather slow for me, so I decided to do a crocheted version of this design. I charted out the British flag and figured I could just crochet a basket weave pattern for the solid squares. I wasn't sure how big the flag square would turn out, so I started with it.
First, I tried intarsia crochet. Ack! Bad idea. It was a pulled and jumbled mess. THEN, I crocheted a background and tried cross stitch for the diagonals of the flag. Nope! This didn't look good either.

Cross-Stitch Mess

I decided to bite the bullet and try traditional knit intarsia.....another jumbled mess. THEN, I knit a bit of background in stockinette stitch and tried some duplicate stitch for the flag design. My duplicates didn't duplicate at all!

Duplicate Stitch Mess

Although I do love the look of that jazzy Union Jack, I finally gave up and decided to be patriotic to my own beloved country and crocheted a version of the United States flag! YES! Love those easy-to-crochet stripes! I will add a few stars later with embroidery stitches.

On to the finish, sports fans! NOW, I have to find a pillow form large enough for my humongous project!