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

Personalizing My Boyfriend's Graduation Cap

My boyfriend wanted to make his cap his own and his printer isn't working so he sent me a few pictures he liked. His were the blue life star(he's going into nursing), the eagle scout patch, and the order of the arrow image. I couldn't get just those three to fit well, so I added the squid (my nick name for him) and a bariton, which he plays in the matching band. I set them up on my old Graduation cap, so mine is maroon and his will be navy.

What I Want to do With the Kitchen Table

This is a paper version of what I would like to do to the kitchen table at my mom's. I want to sands the whole table, rout out the words of this irish blessing,  fill the words with something like wood filler so it's a different color, and then restain the table to match. So all the knicks will be sanded out and it will add a personalized touch. I may do this soon, if my mom changes her mind and thinks its a good idea.  Let you know :) seeya

Microwave Cake

Making cake in the microwave today :) its super easy and pretty tasty for only taking 3 minutes in the microwave. I found the recipe on youtube. You can find it by searching "cake in a mug sorted". Sorted is the name of the group that made the series of videos on cooking.

A Bunch More Monsters Started

Making a bunch of new monsters, mentioned in my first post. Making two of each color. Made 6 already and the next color I'm working on is red. The picture is of the bodies, before I add the faces or stuffing.

Nanny's Cat Lapghan (Lap Afghan)

So I noticed my last couple posts hadn't been much crocheting, so I decided to share the pretty big project I am currently working on. My nanny (father's mother) is a huge fan of cats, so while I was at school and thinking about her and also not having a lot of time to crochet I designed this lap afghan. The letters above the cats denote the color of each cat (Orange, Green, Red, Blue). Once you get the hang of changing colors it is basically just counting. 

 Also as I go along the pattern I cross out what I have done with highlighter. I use a highlighter so I can see where I am as well as what I have done, but also to help me if I get lost. I love doing picture patterns and designing picture patterns. The graph paper is something I made myself in Microsoft Excel, the blocks are slightly taller than they are wide.  

This is a picture of after I finished the cats and a little bit of the middle of the "lapghan". I included the car keys to give a sense of the size. The stitch used in the middle is something I came up with myself, though it's pretty basic so I'm sure it has been done before. You can see the sketch of it at the top of the first picture. I wanted it to look something like bricks. I may change to the cream color, the same color from behind the cats, for some of the middle. I'm not sure yet. When I think it is big enough there will be another set of the cats, but flipped upside down. I lost the pattern of the cats, which adds a level of difficulty, luckily I took a picture first. It'll work out some how =) See ya