A Series of Thoughts: Ravelypmics a threat to the Olympics??

For those of you muggles out there, Ravelympics is an event that coincides with the Olympics that is held withing the forums on Ravelry.com, an online community of over 2 million knitters, crocheters, and spinners.  It's a silly event that encourages people to knit/spin/crochet while watching the Olympics.  I've participated the last couple times and it's fun.  It gives me a goal and a time frame to complete projects and I feel I actually watch the Olympics more because of it.

My last Ravelympics project ready for cast on!

Yesterday, Ravelympics blew up on twitter and the knitting blogsphere because the US Olympic Committee sent an email to Casey and Jess the creators, which was quite disturbing.  While they asked them to change the name of the event, which I'm all for since they have the rights to the Olympic name...their following comment struck a nerve.

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.

What are they trying to say?  That crafters around the world watching the games and knitting/spinning/crocheting along is disrespectful to the athletes?  Really? When I first heard about the letter, I was sort of just taken aback but wasn't surprised that the letter was sent...then I started reading about the letter on blogs and comments on twitter, so I had to go actually read the full thing, which was posted by Casey within ravelry forums(rav link).  You can also read full letter on the gawker site here.  Once I read this part, I was disturbed.  Not all 2 million people on Ravelry participate but a large chunk of them do.  Currently, in the Ravelympics 2012 group on Ravelry.com there are 7562 members and I'm sure with the press it's getting that number will increase.  Why wouldn't you want to encourage almost 8 thousand people to all watch the opening ceremonies and the games?  I used to not worry about the opening ceremonies until I started participating in the ravelympics.  You can't cast on your project until the ceremonies start so I watched and cast on with thousands of others!

This morning I read a post by Kay on the Mason & Dixon blog and I immediately felt I needed to join her call!  She tweeted Stephen Colbert that if he did a piece on the "Knitters who are destroying the Olympics" that he would then receive a lifetime supply of hand knit socks!  I love her call to action and I'm all for knitting him a pair of socks if he does the piece!  As I've said before and will say again, you just don't mess with knitters because they are really taking over the world and are armed with pointy sticks! 

There have also been calls of action to boycott all Olympic sponsors.  While I don't know if I'll go that far, I am thinking this wasn't a good way to handle the issue by the lawyers for the Olympic Committee.  I hope that no one goes so far as to bother the actual US team about it as this isn't coming from them but let's get this out there because you can't say knitters are trying to destroy the Olympics and get away with it!

Happy Knitting!

EDITED: They issued an apology but this is seriously not a real response.  It says it was a standard letter...umm...just see comment above...that isn't standard! 

And ANOTHER apology this time on their Facebook wall!  They are getting closer...

What do you think of all this?  Are you bothered by their comment?  What do you plan to do to take action?

A sock FO, test knitting, and Ravelympics begins!!

So, my goal for today was to finish up the Spring Forward sock that I've been knitting prior to the start of the Ravelympics...and I did it! They came out great! These are knit from the Franconia yarn from NHKnittingmama.com in the colorway Darcie. I love this base as well as the color. What do you think??
I'm also planning to knit my third pair of this sock pattern. This time it's a test knit for NHKnittimama.com out of her Farmington base.
Today is the first day of the Olympics also the first day of the Ravelympics. I'm planning to knit the Shalom Cardigan by Megan McFalane in some Eco Wool + in the Rainer Heather colorway. I saw this cardigan knit up at SAFF and I just really liked it so I added it to my queue and then I saw another version at knit night and knew it had to be my Ravelympics project! I have the yarn all wound up, swatched, and ready to go! We can't cast on until the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics so I have a couple hours to go, but I'm getting ready to knit like the wind!!

Hope you are having a great weekend!! Happy Valentine's Day!!

I have fallen and I can't get up!

I have fallen in love...(Yes, I'm still in love with Special K and this does not change my love for him)...but I have fallen in love with a spinning wheel and she is called a Suzie. This past week I posted on the Ravelry Florida Spinning board about where I could go to try out a spinning wheel. As of last week I had spun on two wheels, both where Ashfords. One was a single treadle Traditional and the other a double treadle Traveler. I really wanted to try several different kinds.

So, Allison, who works at Uncommon Threads in Palm Harbor, sent me a message and told me that she is teaching a class on saturday and there will be wheels there and that I could try hers. So, I spoke to my friend Sheryl and asked her if she wanted to go for the ride. She said OF COURSE!! I called my high school friend who has shown interest in learning to knit and lives up by the store and told her we'd meet her there. She didn't show but oh well. I'll keep trying.

Off we went on Saturday and when we showed up everyone was very nice. It was the first time I met Rosemary, the owner of the shop and she was very sweet and helpful. I waited until noon when they broke for lunch and Allison said I could spin on her Lendrum. For a visual click here. I sat down and had to relearn how to draft since I haven't been using my spindle as much I should be. But I spent 30 minutes getting to know the wheel, which is a double treadle. I liked it. It seems to be easy to use and a good height for my shortness.

After I had been sitting for a bit, Rosemary came over and said I could try out her wheel. She has a Majacraft Suzie, which is also a double treadle. I sat down and started to spin and OH MY was it nice. It seemed to be so much easier to spin on than any wheel I had sat down on. I spent 15 minutes on the wheel and I could have spent hours more. I realized then that I had found my wheel. After I finished trying her wheel and the class resumed I spoke to Rosemary a bit about the wheel and she is a dealer which is great. The wheel was really sweet and again perfect for my size. I left smiling and knowing that some how I was going to have to find a way to get me a Majacraft Suzie. There are three different Suzie's and I would take any of the three. :)

I now am in search for ways to make some extra money to go towards my spinning wheel fund. I have decided that any money I make on crafts will go straight to that fund. I know that right now it's going to be hard to save for a wheel while saving for a wedding. So, I have to categorize where this money is coming from. :) So, I guess I'll be busy for a while! :) You'll just have to check back and see how I decide to make this money!

Hope everyone is well!! I have been knitting on my sweater and am almost done with the second sleeve! I should be done tonight and have pictures for you tomorrow!! Ravelympics is going strong!!!

Happy Knitting, Spinning, and dog walking!!

Ravelympics 2008!! Begins tomorrow!

Some of you who may have noticed that a bunch of projects have popped up with this logo as their picture on my side bar recently.

These are projects that I'm knitting for Ravelympics 2008!!

Oh yes, the fiber world some how got involved in this years Olympics and made it our own. :) You knew it was coming. I think it's great there is always something fiber related to go along with any event in the world or in life. I love how Knitters/Fiber folks step up and make themselves useful.

For a quick overview of Ravelympics, it's a team or individual competition per say. You pick projects that you plan to cast on during the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and finish these items before or during the closing ceremonies. You have to add your projects before 8/8/08 and have all the yarn and needles ready to go. You can however use projects you are currently knitting in the WIPwrestling event. I am hoping to finish my current sweater for that event and have a couple more as you see added to my projects to keep me busy. My main goal is to cast on and finish the green clapotis that I'm making. It's a lot of knitting but I think I can do it in 17 days!! Wish me luck. I'll be posting occasional updates so keep checking back.

Since you know I love Photoshop, I also make some cute ravatars for my team. I joined Team Bob, which had some of my fiber friends. For those of you not on ravelry, Bob is Casey and Jess's dog who is the Ravelry mascot!! Isn't he cute!!!

There are some great teams though!! I can't name them all because there are so many but just know...there are some great ones!! Not sure how the points and such are going to go so the more I learn the more I'll update you.

I wish everyone a safe and fun time during this Ravelympic time. I hope to finish my projects and be able to stay sane. Just need to figure out how to maximize my knitting time and keep the house and dogs clean! ;) That's always a tough one!

Happy Competing!!

PS...I think I may have a piece of glass or metal chip from Special K's work in my foot. I'm going for a doc apt tomorrow to see what he can find. I tried having SK dig in and take it out but I just couldn't handle the pain. I'll update you on this tomorrow!!