2021 Tokyo Olympics Stitching Challenge Start #12

Day 12 of the Olympics and Elle got through to the semi-finals! Also 2 Canadian runners that happen to be sisters as well. So it will be exciting to see the semi-finals take place tomorrow. 

For today's Olympic sport, I chose one I've also attempted, and it was even in the Ancient Olympics. Any guesses? It's the javelin toss or spear throw. I assume they used actual spears in the Ancient times. They did a distance event in the Ancient Olympics, and a targeted event. In today's modern Olympics it's a distance event only. The javelin throw has evolved over time to first have no run-up, like you would while hunting maybe? I assume you'd be lying in wait for prey and have no chance to sort of wind up your throw. Now you can take an unlimited run up to the line. 

When I competed in high school, I could throw farther without the run-up. I think I got confused on the technique because they taught us a way of crossing over your feet and I ended up with a much farther standing throw than with the run. Theoretically, you should be able to get more distance with the run because of your momentum. I think I maybe hit 20m or so (60 feetish) on my best day. Now the best results for men and women are well over 70m. It was a fun sport, and I hope there's options for DD to try out different track and field events in high school as well. My school was fairly big for an Ontario school, so we had a lot of different equipment for different events. 

On to today's start, which I can't think of any way to work into javelin throwing like I managed to shoe horn the 1500m. :)

Eventually it will look something like this:

and my start, about 350 stitches:

Warm Winter Wishes by Waxing Moon Designs

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Cumailitis by Chromatic Alchemy

with stash threads, DD Down Under Blues so far

The chart calls for a lot of variegated threads, and I'm sure I can find some in my stash to work for most of the colours. I've seen this stitched a few times and it's very cute. I hope to maybe get this one done for winter as well. 

I hope you're all staying healthy!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

2021 Tokyo Olympics Stitching Challenge Start #11

Day 11! This means less than a week left. It's a little sad how quickly the Olympics seem to pass. I suppose we might have the Winter Olympics next year, so that's something to look forward to provided we can all survive this new wave of the Delta variant of COVID-19. Although our state has been doing very well and has over 83% vaccination rate for those eligible, it is tourist season and our cases have been rising as well. We wear masks at work and I wear one when I go out since my risk of transmission is higher given the close contact with people every day at work. 

On to more fun things, Olympic track and field! I might have to spread this out over a few days, but today I'd like to mention a local Olympian that's competing in Tokyo. Elle Purrier St. Pierre handily won her qualifying event, so I don't know if she's a favourite, or I just keep hearing about her because she's local. She'll be entering the 1500m race and the first heat was today! 

The 1500m race has been in the Olympics since they started holding them in modern times. Women's 1500m wasn't added until 1972, and has been a staple since then. Several nations have medals in this event in both men's and women's categories. It seems like one of the more balanced events since several countries have won gold. One person has even won gold twice in 2 different Olympics, Sebastian Coe of Great Britain. Other people have multiple medals, but not 2 gold. 

It will be an interesting one to watch. The part where they all start in a different lane, then group together can be dangerous and that tends to be where a fall might happen. Good luck to Elle!

My start today is smallish for full coverage, so maybe it qualifies as mid-distance like the 1500m race? It's not as big as some I have started, but larger than others and will eventually look like this:

This is similar to the art from Wind Waker, my very favourite Zelda game. Zelda is the princess, and Link is the character in green, the one that you play the game through. Zelda occasionally appears in games throughout the history of the franchise as well. 

Here's my 500 stitch start:

Zelda Cross Stitch by Sprite Stitch

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct easy guide fabric

as charted with DMC

Fortunately the entire width fits in my 11x11 qsnap, so that will make it easier to go cross country with some colours. I hope to fill in some of the black first. It's not quite all outlined, but it will be a good reference, even with the easy guide fabric. 

I hope you're all staying healthy and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

2021 Tokyo Olympics Stitching Challenge Start #10

Day 10 brings another seasonal start! Any surprised readers out there? :) It is just a small start though since I joined another FB group that was having an Olympic-themed challenge event. One of the challenges was "specialty" stitches, which included beads, so I pulled out a little Mill Hill kit I had planned on starting. 

But first, let's learn a bit about diving. I've never attempted any kind of high diving, and am a little afraid of the higher dives. I jumped off the 3m board once when I was taking swimming lessons at a big pool, but mostly just stepped off, not bounced or twisted or anything complicated. And I'm satisfied to never do that again. DH actually went off a high platform when he was a kid at the Olympic facility in Montreal. He wasn't supposed to go up to the highest platform, but he did. And survived the jump, but was regretting it as soon as he leaped off the edge. 

I love watching the events in the Olympics. The skill and precision it takes to synchronize your dive with a teammate, plus just entering the water so cleanly to make barely a splash after a complicated dive? Incredible to see. China has overwhelmingly dominated this sport in the last few decades, in both men's and women's events. Great Britain took home gold this Olympics for men's synchronized 10m though, so it might still be anyone's event. I feel like the Chinese athletes dominate more in the women's events, but that could be because I tend to watch these more carefully since there's often Canadians competing in the women's events. Not only Canadian, but from Quebec, which is right nearby. 

The history of diving in the Olympics goes all the way back over 100 years ago to 1904 and had "fancy" diving and plunge diving, meaning someone would just do a dive and try and get as far down into the pool as possible. In 1908 they changed that out for springboard, because the plunge wasn't all that interesting. Women's diving was added in 1912, although not until 1920 did they also use the springboard. I'm thinking of women's bathing costumes back then and wondering how they managed!

Although apparently women's bathing suits were undergoing a significant change around then, so it might not have been too bad, that's nice to see. I was thinking of them struggling in those dresses after diving, which would not have been easy. 

Enough anticipation for my start now? Here's what it will look like eventually:

And my very small start:

Winter Feast by Mill Hill

stitched as charted with kit threads and fabric

Lots of colour changes in this one, but it's still a pretty small kit, so it shouldn't take too long to finish once I get back to it. This might make a good gift for my birdwatching parents. They put out tons of bird feeders in their backyard because they back onto some woods and get many different types of birds. They also put out oriole and hummingbird feeders and almost always have orioles. 

I hope you've all been staying well and stay tuned for tomorrow when I add a new one to my ridiculous amount of full coverage WIPs. :)

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

2021 Tokyo Olympics Stitching Challenge Start #9

Day 9 and I've managed to post before the end of the day this time. :) Today I've got another sport to discuss, softball! This is another one I played when I was younger, and even slo-pitch into undergrad. That's still almost 20 years ago now though. I definitely never played at the Olympic level, the pitching is pretty intense. I'm impressed how fast they can pitch underhand, although the windmill effect must be difficult on the shoulder. 

The above video gives tips on how to pitch if you're interested in the details. 

The softball diamond is a little smaller than a regulation baseball diamond. There's the same number of players and positions, so the main difference is how the pitchers address the plate. Underhand for softball and almost any other way for baseball. Some pitchers in baseball go sidearm, although overhand is the most common. There's the same 3 outs, although it's usually only 7 innings instead of 9 innings like baseball. 

This year the Japan team beat the USA women's team for the gold medal match. It was really close, with some amazing plays. At one point a member of team USA was able to keep a home run ball from going over the wall by making an outstanding catch. Canada was able to get the bronze medal in a hard fought game with Mexico. It was a really close one, 3-2 was the final score. 

There won't be softball or baseball at the next summer Olympics in Paris. I'm not sure if it will return in 2028, maybe since I think that's in L.A. again? 

I didn't have a lot of time to stitch last night either, so just a smallish start on the last ornament. Here's how they'll all look again:

And here's the last ornament:

Joyeux Noel by Hands on Design

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Chromatic Alchemy

with DMC C321 Etoile

I had to check with DH on this one to make sure the French was correct. I've seen other patterns where it isn't. Bonne fête is Happy Birthday in French, but Bonne fêtes is Happy Holidays. They're pronounced the same, so as long as your birthday isn't near the holidays, you'll understand which one is meant. :) 

Again, once I spend some time on each one of these I don't think it will be more than a couple good stitching sessions to get them completed. There are only 2 colours really, besides my change on the first one. That will make it easier, even with a little backstitch on each one. 

I hope you're all staying well and will tomorrow bring something different than yet another seasonal project? Stay tuned to the same bat channel, same bat station!

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

2021 Tokyo Olympic Stitching Challenge Start #8

Better late than never right? Unless maybe you're running an Olympic marathon. For Day 8 I thought I'd talk about soccer/football/futbol. This is another sport I played from about age 5 to 17. I was on my high school team as well as keeper/goalie. Soccer was a lot of fun, but hockey is still my favourite sport. 

Soccer has been at the Olympics every year except 1896 and 1932, but was only for men's competition until 1996. Women's soccer was added in Atlanta and is still going strong this year. Apparently the World Champions almost never win Olympic gold as well and the USA women's team was hoping to get both this year. They had a rough start with a shut-out loss to Sweden (meaning the US team didn't score any goals). They've battled back to be in the semi-finals against Canada. I have my doubts Canada will win, so the American team will likely move on to the final and the gold medal game. The opponent will be the winner of Australia and Sweden. Whomever doesn't win the semi-final games will compete against each other for the bronze medal. My guess is that will be the Canadian team and the Australian team, but we shall see. 

I just realized this is one sport where the women and men's teams all wear the same equipment, so there hasn't been any uniform controversy in this one. That must be a welcome break for the women's teams not to have to fight over that as well as the lower pay most teams battle compared to men's teams. 

For today's start, I continued on with yesterday's set of 3 ornaments. I didn't have a lot of stitching time, so there wasn't a big start, but it's still a start!

Here's how they'll look again:

and this is the start of Bonne Annee:

Joyeux Noel by Hands on Design

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Chromatic Alchemy

stitched with DMC C321 Etoile

These will be fun little ones to finish up and should be done before Christmas if I manage to get back to them. I'll have a fair few of these to work on I think by the end of this round of starts. :)

I hope you're all staying healthy!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

2021 Tokyo Olympics Stitching Challenge Start #7

Here we are at Day 7! That means a week since the Opening Ceremonies, and if you haven't had a chance to see the pictogram section, I found a video on YouTube. 

It was so funny, and I hope you enjoy it. 

Today I thought I'd talk about one of other sports I've played, but not one of the most action-packed events. Golf. This wasn't always in the Olympics, it was played in 1900 and 1904, and then not again until 2016! Interestingly, in 1904, the event was won by a Canadian, George Lyon. He and 2 other Canadians played against 31 Americans in an elimination style event. There were 12 nations at this Olympics (held in the USA), so I don't know why there weren't any other countries involved in this one. Also, check out the natty golf uniform:

I wasn't that great at golf, but enjoyed it when I had a chance to play. I haven't had a chance in many years now. DD has expressed an interest, so maybe we'll go out someday and see how she does. Another interesting fact, both men and women competed in golf in all Olympics. 

I don't think they've started the golf tourney yet this year, at least I haven't seen any info on it, and it's one of those games where I don't mind watching highlights. :)

Today's start is sort of a 1 of 3, as you'll see by the photo of the eventual finish:

And I got a good start on one ornament last night:

Joyeux Noel by Hands on Design

stitched 1 or 2 over 2 on 28ct Chromatic Alchemy (I forget the name!)

with DMC C321 (Etoile), DMC 310 and WDW Okeefenokee

I used up the last of my Okeefenokee on this one, so the other ornaments will be more similar to the picture of the design. They only call for 2 colours, but I've had this strand of Okeefenokee hanging around and wanted to use it up. I like the look, but I like the look of just 2 colour as well. 

These will likely be for DH's family since they all speak French as their first language. I've had this for a few years now and only needed a good excuse to get them started. Thank you again Rachel!

I hope you're all staying healthy and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

2021 Tokyo Olympics Stitching Challenge Start #6

Day 6 and it's time for another holiday/seasonal stitch. I don't know if any of you guessed it might not be Christmas/winter themed this time, and if you did, you're right! 

First a quick fun fact for the Olympics, did you know that gold medals are actually mostly made of silver? I only recently found this out. They're over 90% silver content, and enough gold to make it look golden. Apparently if they were entirely made of gold they'd be worth over $30K USD. So I can see why they can't use solid gold for the medals. 

Onto the new start!

Which will eventually look like this:

I'm changing up the fabric a bit though, and I think this might be a fun pillow some day when I finish it. Here's where I managed to get last night:

Pumpkin Patch by Lois Winston

stitched 2 over 2 on Pumpkin King by Chromatic Alchemy

with Cauldron by BeStitchMe

Another seasonal start; I have so many now! But it's all good. I'm starting a lot of things I've wanted to work on, and I don't think I'll quite get to triple digits by the end. :) 

I hope you're all staying healthy and enjoying your day. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch