A Little Yarn On The Side

Bob:   With the 2012 Ravellenic Games less than 24 hours away, we're here with one of the contestants.  Ms. Sutton, as a previous knitlete, what can you tell us about this year's games? Toni:  Well, as you know, Bob, there's been some contention with the U.S. Olympic Committee that Americans knitting in something called the "Ravelympics" denigrates U.S. Olympic athletes, while having their uniforms made in China by underpaid workers does not.  In the end, it was decided that since the knitters had no unskilled workers to exploit for profit or sponsorships to sell to fast food and chemical companies , it would be best to rename the knitting games to preserve the purity of the Ravellenic spirit. Ron:  Has the controversy changed the games at all? Toni:  Yes--this year we have more than 11,000 knitters worldwide set to denigrate the U.S. athletes, and an event that normally gathers no press coverage has been covered by NPR, the Atlantic Monthly , Busi...

Random update time: *  Because of the bullies at the U.S. Olympic Committee, the Ravelympics have been changed to the Ravellenics.  I think I like the new name.  The behavior of USOC has tainted the Olympics forever for me, so I'm pleased that the games will now have nothing to do with them at all.  There are discussions about changing the dates in the future or having the yearly, so maybe it's a good move after all.  I will not be bothering to update any of the verbiage on the blog.  Even if USOC is so petty as to start stalking blogs, the games WERE called the Ravelympics until USOC decided they owned even partial BITS of the word "Olympics," so I'll just add the following disclaimer: Any mention of the word "Ravelympics" occurred before the jerks at the USOC decided to persecute anyone even using a fraction of the word "Olympics," so even in your wildest pettiness, I used the term before you decided to insult 2 million knitters. That s...

Bob:  We're here at the formerly-known-as-Ravelympics training camp, where the knitting world was stunned yesterday by an official Cease and Desist letter from the United States Olympic Committee, which asserted the term "Ravelympics" and knitting events such as scarf hockey "denigrates" the game's athletes.  Knitters worldwide surprisingly responded with something strongly resembling outrage. Ron:  They did indeed, Bob.  Rumor has it that the email inbox of the U.S. Olympic Committee was filled by evening.  I believe officials were slightly shocked by the fury of 2-million crafters wielding sharp, pointy objects whose passion had just been insulted.  I'm sure they believed that the grandmotherly-types who were clearly exploiting the Olympic fervor for their own nefarious means (fun) would assume "denigrate" was meant in its very nicest sense.  Bob:  In further developments today, the U.S. Olympic Committee has issued a statement :  ...

So, remember all the fun we knitters have with Ravelympics ?  Ravelry--a free social networking site for knitters--has been contacted by the Office of General Counsel for the United States Olympic committee.  Details on Ravelry here .  Among other pretty obnoxious things, the letter says: "We believe using the name 'Ravelympics' for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games.  In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country’s finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work." Well I, for one, think that such a sentence is CLEARLY disrespectful to anyone who has a hobby that he or she has tried to master.  Obviously, we do denigrate the true nature of the games as this person sees them--ours have been about fun and teamwork, and NOT about raking in the greatest number of sponsorships. Count this as one VERY angry knitter wh...

AAAAAUUURRRGGGHHHHH!!!! It's the Ravelympics and instead of getting in some quality knitting time tonight, I worked late, had dinner with my very patient husband, cleaned what we hope is the last trace of this weekend's pumpkin butter incident off the counters and stove (turns out hot soapy water and one of those plastic scratchy things will remove darn near anything), and now it's 9:00 PM. Blast--real life has no respect for my knitting!!!!

Late last night I was awarded a gold medal by Bobicus Maximus for my first Ravelympics WIP which is my 7th WIP in a row. Yay!!! Tonight I've spent some time with my second entry, then rewarded myself with a little lace: And the cheering section is waving me on!

My first WIP for the Ravelympics isn't quite done, but it's really close. I just finished the sleeve and just need to sew it on. That will be 1 for Team Stashdown and WIP number 7 in the WIP marathon. And if I get some of the seam done tonight, I've promised myself some quality time with those beads!

The Ravelympics started yesterday, but I didn't get to start on my entries for WIP Wrestling until today. Bright and early this morning, I cast on the second sleeve for my nephew's sweater and it's making great progress. It could possibly be done this weekend, which would be WIP number 7 in my WIP marathon, and 1 completed for Ravelympics. YAY! The poncho got a little attention today as well. Then as a reward, I got to work on Fleur This is the beaded band that will go all around the edges. I am still totally in love with beading, but I've reached a bit of a snag: I can't get more beads until the spending ban is over, so I might start showing a little more loyalty to the WIP Wrestling entries. I might only be capable of project monogamy under extreme circumstances, but when a gift is already 6 months late, I'll resort to pretty much anything.

The Ravelympics have officially begun! Over 6000 knitters are competing, and the games are being presided over by Adonis Dyonisis Bobicus Maximus , who has officially declared the games open. In the name of all the competitors, I promise that we shall take part in these Ravelympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, committing ourselves to a sport without Copyright infringement and with lots of yarn, in the true spirit of fiberworks, for the glory of finished product and the honor of our teams. Ya gotta love knitters like these--great knitted objects AND a sense of humor. Go Team Stashdown!!!!!

At the risk of Google including me in some very strange searches, I'm getting ready for the Ravelympics , which in my time zone starts at 6:00 PM this Friday. For the uninitiated, it does indeed coincide with the 2008 summer games, but unlike the summer games, those of any age can participate, no one is going to be tossed out for supporting humanitarian causes, and lots of wool is involved. Our events are: Afghan Marathon Amigurumi-n-Toys Toss Baby Dressage Bag-n-Tote Backstroke Balance Beads Cable Steeplechase Colorwork Cross-Country Cowl Jump Designers Discus Fantasy DecKnitathalon Felted Freestyle Free-For-All Freestyle Fleece to Finished Fencing Glove Decathlon Gift Knits Pentathlon Hand-Dyed Hurdles Handspun Heptathalon Hat Dash Holiday Handbal l Home-Stuff Hammerthrow Itsy Bitsy Bikini Breaststroke Laceweight Long Jump Mitten Medley Pets Pommel Horse Scarf Stroke Shawl Relay Sock Put Sweater Sprint Synchronized Flirty Skirts Vest Vault WIPs Wrestling I was all for the Sock P...