Knitters Outraged after Olympic Committee Quashes Knitting Olympics

Do you believe this??? The U.S. Olympic Committee thinks Ravelry's Knitting Olympics, known as the Ravelympics, denigrates real athletes.

http://gawker.com/5920036/us-olympics-committee-is-mad-at-knitting-olympics-for-denigrating-real-athletes

Does this make sense to anyone?

Knitting a man's Aran sweater between the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics does not rank with running a four-minute mile or a finishing a marathon faster than anyone else in the world, but it isn't something most people can do. Like the marathon, it's something only a small percentage of people even attempt.

What do you think? Does a knitting olympics denigrate the world's athletes?

Update: The U.S. Olympic Committee apologized for their cease-and-desist letter after two million outraged knitters with pointy sticks set up a world-wide howl. And posted to the U.S.O.C.'s Facebook wall, tweeted, called, and wrote letters.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/06/21/155508908/after-knitters-get-in-a-twist-usoc-apologizes-for-cease-and-desist-letter

Is that a pitiful excuse for an apology or what? And how about that request for knitters to send the objects the U.S.O.C. scorned yesterday to the athletes? Badly done, U.S.O.C. Your mothers would be ashamed of you.

Susannah

Shawls!

This year my goal is to knit at least twelve shawls. Last year my goal was to knit eleven, and I ended up knitting 24, plus finishing three large ones I'd started in 2010.

I started 2012 knitting Jared Flood's Bridgewater Shawl, but ran out of yarn (after 1250 yards) near the end of the first lace chart. So far, I haven't been able to find more of the yarn, but I'm still looking.

The next shawl I knit was Storm Fir by Erica Jackofsky. This shawl was designed for bulky yarn, so it knits up fast. The shawl could probably be knit in one day, but since I was knitting other things at the same time, it took me three days. I started on 29 January and finished on 31 January. I used just over three skeins (381 yards) of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky in the Blue Blood Red (M-80) colorway. (As always, click on any photo to enlarge.)

Next I knit the Ballerina Shawl by Michelle Miller. I knit this as part of a knit-along with several other people on Ravelry. I used just over one skein (1.06 skeins, or 475 yards) of Dream in Color Smooshy in the Rose Smash colorway. The shawl was fun to knit, and it worked up pretty quickly. I started on 08 April and finished on 13 April.

Then I decided to knit the Sabrina Shawl by Marisa Hernandez. I test knit this shawl last year and loved it, then gave it to my son's fiancee's grandmother because she fell in love with a photo of it I'd posted on Facebook. I decided I wanted one of these shawls for myself, so I knit another one. This time I used Monkeypal Superwash Sock yarn (1.33 skeins or 506 yards). I started the shawl on 20 April and finished on 25 April. I like the shawl just as much the second time as I did the first.

Then I knit Fluid Velocity, another shawl by Michelle Miller. As an engineer who took a lot of fluid dynamics classes on the way to my B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering (but none for my Ph.D.), the name of the shawl appealed to me---as does the resulting shawl. I knit this shawl with Colinette Jitterbug yarn (1.48 skeins or 554 yards) in the Blue Parrot colorway. I started the shawl on 26 April and finished on 30 April.

Next I chose the Baah Shawl, another Michelle Miller pattern. Like the Ballerina Shawl, I knit this with other fans of Michelle's shawls on Ravelry as a knit-along. I used Dream in Color Starry in the Flamingo Pie colorway (0.89 skeins or 400.5 yards). I started the shawl on 01 May and finished on 04 May.

I chose some-thing slightly smaller for my next shawl: Victorine by Cindy Guggemos. This is more of a scarf than a shawl, at least for someone who is 68 inches tall (which I am). I knit this scarf/shawl in Dream in Color Smooshy in the Some Summer Sky (VS170) colorway (0.72 skeins or 324 yards). Although it's difficult to see in the photo, the color is glorious. And the pattern is lovely, too! I started this scarf/shawl on 11 May and finished on 13 May.

Six shawls in four and a half months, not counting the waiting-for-more-yarn Bridgewater. Not bad, especially since I knit two sweaters and have had two more sweaters, a baby surprise jacket, and a started-but-nowhere-near-finished lace scarf on my needles during that time period.

What have you been knitting?

Susannah