Ravelympics

Have you heard of the Ravelympics? Well it was a wonderful little idea that someone had that exploded into a massive group of knitters and crocheters around the world all planning to cast on a new project (or pick up a long-ignored one) when the olympic torch is lit in Beijing on August 8, 2008.

At the time of typing there was 4,773 people in the goup, 2,725 people committed to finish 6,339 projects! That is amazing. The programmers at Ravelry have even been designing special features just to make tracking our group easier.

The idea is that you are competing against yourself. You pick a project that would be a challenge to complete by the end of the olympics. That's only 17 days. Then you can enter your project in the various events it qualifies for. You can also join a team.

Some of the teams are geographical, others are based on TV shows, and others are specific to the type of project you have chosen. Some have rules others dont. I have joined Team Canada. Last I checked we were the second biggest group. Go Team Canada!!!

I have chosen to make the Flutter Scarf in Sea Cloud. This is a challenge for me because I have never knit lace before or knit in yarn as small as laceweight. And I only have 17 days. Yikes! This project qualifies me for 3 events, the Scarf Stroke, the Laceweight Long Jump and the Handdyed Hurdles. I have set up my project and done some test swatches. I even got khetala to make me some custom needles and stitch markers, special just for this project.

In case that's not enough I entered two of my ignored projects into the WIPs Wrestling event. I have two little teddy bears with only heads that would really like some bodies and limbs. My Alpaca Bear was started April 2007 and my Panda Bear was started January 2008. This should be some good motivation to get them finished.

I will keep you updated on my progress...

Cali