It takes a great deal of pressure (and a deadline) for me to finish a sweater these days. I think this is the main reason that I am participating in the Ravellenic Games this year. If you don’t know the history of this event and its new name, check out this article about Ravelry’s little battle with the US Olympic Committee. Then check out this article from the New York Times about how the US Olympic Committee apologized to the knitting world 😉
Ravellenic Games is a virtual knit / crochet / spin – along that starts during the open ceremonies of the Olympics and ends at the closing ceremonies. The idea is to challenge yourself to an Olympic sized feat, whether it be a complicated sweater, your first pair of socks or a giant granny square blanket.
To help you figure out how to join the games, I am going to use my project as an example. Despite the number of sweaters that I currently have on needles (especially Brooklyn Tweed sweaters), I have decided to start another one, hoping that the pressure of the games and its deadline (and the camaraderie of all of you) will help me finish a cardigan in roughly two weeks. The new Wool People 3 (see our review here) is out, and I was inspired by the Reine Cardigan:
In these photos, Jared Flood shows us how the same sweater can have two different looks when worked with a different amount of ease. I think that I will actually make the larger version, since I love the Mr. Rogers-ness of it. (New word that I just made up).
SO, to join the games, I first picked a team. This was easy, since we have a team! Then I picked my project and went off to find out what “event” this project was part of. Then I made my project page, but didn’t cast on (only swatching allowed right now), because we aren’t allowed to cast on until the opening ceremonies tomorrow. I plan to swatch during Stitch in Space tonight. Here are the steps to join in:
- Pick an event (events are listed here) and project and create your Ravelry project page with special tags. The tags are what indicates that you are competing and what team you are on (Tutorial here). For my project, I have the following tags: Ravellenic2012, teamfibrespace, eventsweater. Here is a screenshot of what my project page looks like once set up:
- Cast on with thousands during the opening ceremonies and finish before the end of closing ceremonies. You have until midnight London time on August 12th. (That is 7 pm EST).
- Post pictures, etc in the Finish Line thread for your event in the Ravellenic Games forum (there will be one thread for each event).
That’s it in a nutshell.
So jump on over to our team fibre space forum and let us know what you are doing!
Join us during the opening ceremonies on July 27, 2012 at 2:30 pm for the kick off of team fibre space’s participation in the Ravellenic Games. We will watch the opening ceremonies on the flat screen and enjoy some noshing and stitching.