Today is the antepenultimate start! Anyone care to hazard a guess if I went back to something seasonal? I think I had pulled 15 or so holiday-themed starts and a few other random ones in case I had a need for change. And all these starts hasn't made me stop wanting to buy charts either. There's a couple new Mill Hills they showed on the back of the Just Cross Stitch Halloween magazine that I might have to get.
I really like the Spooky Gate one, so that will have to go in the cart soon. I feel like my Mom might like the fall one with the farm background since she grew up on a farm and lives in an area where the leaves changed like that. Plus she probably had a tire swing.
But this is the Olympics stitching challenge, so let's get back to the Olympics events! They're definitely winding down, and I don't know if anyone noticed how off I was on my soccer/football expectations, but Canada beat the USA women's team in the semi-final, so Canada is playing Sweden for gold. Sweden is undefeated in the tournament, so it would be highly unusual for Canada to win, but pretty amazing if it happened.
Today let's talk about pole vaulting. This is another event that I've never tried and will never try. Certainly I'm not in physical shape to do it, but also, kind of terrified. Just watching how the athletes flip themselves up and over a bar with a skinny, flexible pole, it's awe-inspiring, and a little scary.
The Olympic record for pole vault in the men's division is 6.03m(19 feet 9 1/4 inches) and for women's, which has only been part of the Olympics since 2000, it's 5.05m (16 feet 6 3/4 inches). I can't even imagine flipping yourself that high in the air without support. Well done on all these athletes for first being inspired by this event, and then competing at such a high level.
My favourite random fact I found about the Olympics was that in 1936, 2 athletes from Japan tied for 2nd in the medals. They don't usually let you share a podium, and I think they use your next best finish or qualifying numbers to decide who finishes 2nd or 3rd. The athletes took their medals and cut them in half and had them joined, so they each have a half silver/half bronze medal. Pretty fascinating idea.
Also, poles are made from fibreglass or carbon fibre currently, but used to be made from bamboo or aluminum before those materials were available. I assume that's also helped the athletes reach greater heights in their events.
On to the actual stitching! I don't think I have a lead in for this one, unless there's trees in this, so it's like a pole? Here's what it will look like eventually:
And my start of 210 stitches:
Happy Christmas by Prairie Schooler
stitched 2 over 2 as charted on black 28ct Monaco
This is another long-haul one, although it only has 8 colours, so not too much colour changing or confetti, minimalistic as most of the Prairie Schooler designs are.
I hope you're all staying safe and healthy, Happy Stitching!
Tiffstitch
That Spooky gate is fabulous. Such a nice story about sharing the medals too, very sportsmanlike.
ReplyDeleteIt is! And there was another one at this Olympics when the 2 people tied for first in men's high jump both got gold instead of doing a jump off.
DeleteDidn't that tied/sharing a medal thing happen this year as well? It was all over the news!
ReplyDeleteLovely new start, but I'm pretty excited about that Spooky Gate too!
Sort of! The men's high jump winners were tied and could do a jump off or share gold, and they decided to share.
DeleteMy absence from blogdom has meant I’ve missed an Olympics challenge? Sigh. I live the Olympics. You have made some wonderful starts. I live the gate too. It’s a shame it’s nit a chart but a lot but still.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I haven't purchased it yet, but maybe soon.
DeleteI'm not a Prairie Schooler fan but this one's not too bad. Guess it looks a bit like the sets of cottages by CCN?
ReplyDeleteSpooky Gate is awesome, although (thankfully) not available from any of my usual stores in the UK. It's not as if I haven't got enough stash anyway! :)