Christmas Gifts I Made This Year

              The first gift I worked on this holiday season was my sister Britney's weather scarf. She is going to school for meteorology, so I thought it would be cute if she could tell the weather everyday with her scarf. I'm glad she liked it and I look forward to seeing it in her outdoor weather casts in the future.

              The second gift I finished was this skull scarf for my sister Magan. She was unavailable to model it so Mike was kind enough to volunteer. There are skull beads crocheted into the fabric and the ends of the scarf are about 5 inches of just black with no skulls. 

                 The next one, Meredith sent me a picture of some finger less gloves that she liked. They had scales and changed color fluidly as the went up. Unfortunately the author of the image did not include a pattern so I had to wing it. This is my result, they do not change colors as fluidly, but I think they have a neat look. She liked them and that's all that's important. I really liked them so even if she didn't I would hang on to them =)

                For her boyfriend, who is the before mentioned Mike, I made a blue and white hat. He gave me the yarn a couple weeks ago, so I gave it back to him in the form of a scarf. 

This is the last big gift I finished was this cat for my nanny. The body is just a rectangle folded and sewed together to make legs. The head is a hourglass shaped piece, folded in half, and sewn. The ears are made by pushing the poly-fil out of the corners and sewing across

I found the pattern here: http://marmaladerose.blogspot.com/2009/04/crochet-kitten-pattern.html

I also made a lady bug bookmark, but unfortunately I don't have a picture of it. Post again soon =)

Olympics Committee Sends Cease and Desist to Ravelry

Knitters Outraged After U.S. Olympic Committee Squashes Knitting Olympics—and Disses Knitters

If you mess with the Olympics trademark, a cloud of legal hurt will descend on you faster than Tyson Gay in the Men's 100 meters. Case in point: The U.S. Olympic Committee has sent a cease and desist letter to a knitting-based social network for hosting a knitting "olympics." Now, knitters are in revolt.
2012 was to be the third year that the knitting social network Ravelry—yes, this exists and is surprisingly popular—hosted a "Ravelympics," a knitting competition for users that includes events like an "afghan marathon," and "scarf hockey." Knitters were supposed to compete in their events while watching the actual Games on TV.
But that was before the U.S. Olympics Committee got wind of it and sent Ravelry a cease & desist, for making a mockery of the Games with their needlework. Here's a passage from the letter, sent by the USOC's general counsel and posted by Ravelry founder Casey Forbes to his blog (Ravelry account required):

The athletes of Team USA have usually spent the better part of their entire lives training for the opportunity to compete at the Olympic Games and represent their country in a sport that means everything to them.  For many, the Olympics represent the pinnacle of their sporting career.  Over more than a century, the Olympic Games have brought athletes around the world together to compete at the Olympic Games and represent their country in a sport that means everything to them.
[…]

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.

Yeah, Ravelry, do you want to make olympic athletes cry with your dumb knitting olympics?

If you would like to read the whole article you can by following the link below.

Knitters Outraged After U.S. Olympic Committee Squashes Knitting Olympics—and Disses Knitters

 This story really upset me. Especially the part in which they said "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." This implies that crocheting and knitting is a disrespectful pass time. The community that donates hand made scarves to the special Olympics and that donates many projects a year to other charities such as the purple stitch project.

Also the Olympic athletes themselves use crocheted and knitted goods for a lot of the winter Olympics. This was especially popular during the olympics that were hosted in Sweden. Crocheting can not be automated, so someone, somewhere use the time and effort to make that for them. Without skillful yarn crafters those goods would not exist.

Also the group organizing the Olympics in London paid a Crochet artist 500,000 pounds to complete giant lions that are meant to represent the London Olympics. So England can embrace it's yarn crafty community, but America see's it being associated with the Olympics "disrespectful". Video below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17915318

Also Ravelry was giving The Olympics free advertisement dedicated to a demographic that I do not think is normally reached for the Olympics. The Ravelympics encouraged that while you competed in your "event" your watch the Olympics. Now the one in three Americans who yarn craft may be so upset with the Olympics Team that they might not watch.

If you would like to read the whole article you can by following the link below.
Knitters Outraged After U.S. Olympic Committee Squashes Knitting Olympics—and Disses Knitters