A Little Yarn On The Side

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...

Bob:  We're here at Ravelympics Training camp with some very surprising developments. Ron:  Right you are, Bob.  In a sudden burst of activity, Ms. Sutton blocked FIVE scarves yesterday, without incident.....   Bob:  It looks like there might have been a little kitty subterfuge involved, but Ms. Sutton has completed her stretching exercises, and possibly even more surprisingly,  is on day 3 of what could become her endurance test. Ron:  Now this is earlier than you expected for the endurance test, isn't it Bob? Bob:  It is indeed, Ron.  We had expected to see a little more activity with the mohair sweater but some ongoing yarn thinning problems have landed it in the Project Protection Program, and we believe the sweater is currently in hiding somewhere in Montana and answering to the name "Beauford." Ron:  Certainly an unexpected turn of events, but with the new baby sweater already being on the third day, it's off to...

Bob and Ron have the weekend off, so I thought I'd do a quick update without them. I have had a weekend all by myself.  This was not actually the intention, as we had agreed to go on a 3-day camping trip with friends, but my back could neither handle the car ride there nor (most likely) any part of actually being there, so Andy went with our friends and I have had a resting/crafting weekend.  The fact that MY weekend involved indoor plumbing was an added bonus. I have 2 more mitten ornaments: a pair of fleece pants finished (which are in the washing machine which makes them difficult to photograph, but you can take my word for this one),the start of a Mr. Flurry snowman: a potential project for my "high jump" item:   which is a brioche stitch ha t.....that currently makes me want to drink heavily, but I'm hoping will improve once I get past the beginning whole-bunch-of-needles-and-few-stitches nightmare.  This is why I generally prefer hats that start wit...

Items needing to be blocked: Blocking day beginning: Blocking day after Theo's "rodent gift episode:" Tomorrow:  Blocking Day part two...............

Bob:  We're back at the Ravelympics training camp, where Ms. Sutton is showing tremendous progress on the one-row scarf: Ron:  I believe she's more than half finished with the scarf, is that correct? Bob: It does look like it Ron.  From here it looks like she might be even farther along--maybe 65%. Ron:  Now this is her core training project--any chance this is also her endurance test project? Bob:  Not a chance.  Ms. Sutton has spent a small amount of time with the mohair sweater, and even some time with Ron:  Cross stitch, now that is a surprising turn of events.  Seeing such an uncharacteristic move this early--could it be Ms. Sutton is cracking from the strain already? Bob:  It's hard to say, Ron, but the presence of the slowest possible craft Ms. Sutton has ever undertaken is a bit worrisome, though perhaps she is trying to finish up her "12 threads" for the 12-12s event before the year advances too far.   Ron:...