Friday, February 12, 2010

Ravelympics 2010

In a fit of joining-in-ness, I agreed a few months ago to join the Ravelympics for the upcoming winter Olympics, and also agreed to co-captain a team, from the Over The Fence group, TeamDoingABradbury.

(For those of you who don't know, Stephen Bradbury was the first Australian to win a gold medal at any winter Olympics, in the 2002 Games short track speed skating (1000m). He won after all of the competitors in the final crashed out on the last corner. Figuring he couldn't win, his strategy going into the final was basically to sit at the back and hope that maybe a couple of the others would fall. I don't think he expected they all would!! So now in Australia anyone who takes this approach is known as "doing a Bradbury"! Check out the video of the race here.)

So there are about 35 events, and I'm entering a couple:

WIP Dancing - in an aim to finally finish, in one fell swoop, my Alpine Lace Shawl. I reckon I've got 78% done now, so I think I can do it...

Stash Compulsory Dance and Junior Olympics - I'm going to use this 1lb (453g) CONE of Peaches n Cream to make some blurp cloths for Teddy from the first Mason Dixon book. I know blurp cloths are hardly challenging knitting, but since I'm going to be at the beach for the second week of the Olympics, I figure they'll be good beach/poolside knitting. I had only planned to do one, but I might even get 2 or 3 done, which would be pretty cool.

Cast-on time for us Aussies on Eastern Standard Time is 1pm tomorrow (Saturday 13th). Plenty of time to join in if you haven't already signed up!

17 comments:

DrK said...

i decided to bail because of my recent experience with deadline knitting, but it is going to be great fun watching you all do your thing. and looking at ice. and snow. great blurp cloth idea! go for gold rosered :)

2paw said...

Due to the unseasonal heat we have been having, I could only knit if it was actually Winter here. I shall be arracking though!!
Go TeamDoingABradbury!!!!!

Jen said...

Gosh I love watching that footage of that race! Thanks for reminding us. To his credit, he kept up with the leaders most of the way, and just to get to that final, to be no. 5 in the world, was pretty great!

Good luck with the knitting!

Anonymous said...

I thought about joining in but every time I dipped into the rav thread about it, my brain shut down. There seemed to be too much going on so I'm happy to leave it up to you.

I am still, however, wondering if I could do the Yarn Harlot's version since that seems more straight forward...

Lynne said...

Good luck. I won't be participating but it will be interesting to be a spectator (just like the Winter Olympics really!! LOL)

Sam said...

thanks for captaining our team! I'm really looking forward to the challenge!

Jennifer said...

I saw that! The look on his face was SO absolutely priceless....!

MadMad said...

Great projects - good luck! I just finished two deadline knits FOR OTHER PEOPLE, and the trauma of it all has me on the "injured" (mentally) list. So I'm sitting this one out. With knitting, of course. But have-to-finish-by challenges.

roxie said...

TWO events? You are a double threat! Rock on, Rose Red!

And enjoy your time at the beach!

amy said...

I sort of ended up in Ravelympics the same way... someone in the group I mod asked if we could start a team, I said, sure! Let me know what you need! And now I'm a co-captain. Except I HATE deadline knitting and I didn't feel like waiting to cast on the project I wanted to make next, so I'm not exactly sure WHAT to knit starting tonight in fewer than ten hours, and I don't want to stop working on my current project anyway, and it's all a bit too much for me to deal with in February! Yeah, somehow I don't think I'll be finishing with glory or anything...

Donna Lee said...

I feel the pull of joininginness but I am resisting. I hate deadline knitting and tend to do poor quality work when i do that. I don't pay a lot of attention to the olympic games anyway so I won't feel too left out.

And the evenstar kal is starting today so I'll have that. No pressure there.

Ruby Girl said...

I was too late to enter,so you 'go girl' and get some gold for us Aussie girls, I will be on the side line barracking you on.

Gidgetknits said...

I just love watching that video... good luck! Bring in the gold!

michele said...

have fun at the beach!

Ann said...

Sounds like fun. Happy knitting. I don't have time to sit & knit now that school is on plus all the extra activities. Have a good holiday too.

TinkingBell said...

IU WIP, you WIPPEST, they couldn't raffle a duck in a pub

I have a list of WIPs as long as your arm - and will be trying to free up some of my needles and cables (instead of just buying more, which has been the strategy to date!)

Yoga Knitdra said...

I recognise that cone of cotton! I haven't joined in any teams, I think my approach is pure 'Bradbury' ie I might just accidently finish a few things while the olympics are on!