Ravelympics!

Tonight the Olympics begin.

I love the Olympics.  They even top the Stanley Cup final in the race for favourite sporting event to watch.

What is it about the Olympics that is so inspiring?  Watching these athletes give their all, I am inspired, energised. As a child, I remember setting cross country ski courses across our yard and drawing up swimming schedules for "training," briefly adhered to but created out of a determination to be part of the action someday.

In fact, I was a small part of the 1988 Calgary Olympic Games. Small part in that I was only 8 years old, and I carried the actual Olympic torch as the relay made its way through New Brunswick. My memory of the event is fuzzy, though I do recall the torch was extremely heavy and that it is hard to run on a snowy highway with snowboots whilst carrying something that is on fire.


However, this time around, I've chosen to participate in a different way. I'm an actual competitor this time in the Ravelympics. The Short Track Shawl event, to be precise, for Team Stitch and Bitch London.

Ravelympics, you ask? Why, you must not be a knitter.  The online knitting community Ravelry hosts their very own stitching Olympics concurrent to the sporting event.

What does this mean? Knitters, crocheters, and spinners choose a project, choose a wittily named event, and cast on during the opening ceremonies.  The goal is to complete the project by the close of the Olympics.

Not that I'll be staying up until 2 am to cast on my Travelling Woman shawl, mind you, but I'll be doing so first thing tomorrow morning.

So I'm doubly excited to begin my first shawl (which I hope to wear to my wedding next summer) and watch Canada go for gold. The cursing level may reach an all time high, particularly if I'm knitting during the hockey games.

Let the Games begin!