WIP Wednesday: Training for runs and rows

My upcoming marathon is not the only big sporting event to look forward to, there's also this little gathering of athletes happening in Sochi.  And like it's warm season counterpart, there will once again be a corresponding event for crafters who will be watching the Games and challenging themselves in their own way between torch lighting and torch extinguishing.

Some people will be knitting entire sweaters in this relatively short timespan.  I'm not that bold, but I am going to be attempting something totally new and exciting for me: socks!

Technically these aren't a work in progress because I can't officially cast on until the opening ceremonies, but as these are my first pair of socks ever, I wanted to make sure to do them right.  I would hate to put all of that effort into turning a heel only to find that I've ended up with socks that are so tight I can't put them on or so loose that they end up in a puddle around my ankles.  And so, I have swatched:

Look, a thumb cosy!  No, just the first of three swatches I knit before reaching the gauge specified in the pattern.  I'm calling the project Sochi Socki and using a pattern from the wonderful Alicia from Woolen Diversions.  My Hot Cocoa Cowl was a test knit for her and I really like her thorough pattern writing, so I feel like I'm in good hands.  Or should that be feet?  And the yarn is Heavenly Fiber, a dyer I love both for her yarn and herself.  This yarn was always destined to be socks.  I'm so excited to hopefully get these done and be able to wear them the next time I see her at the same fiber festival where I bought the yarn last year.

Until I can actually cast on the socks, I still have my standby WIP that was almost an FO and then became decidedly a WIP again, the Fruit Loopy Shawl.  Here it is last Friday, during what is becoming a weekly frozen yogurt and knitting fest at Chill Out:

Still a bit of a ways to go, but it's pretty mindless knitting.  I'll probably bring it to a meeting tomorrow and hopefully get another 'wedge' of short rows done.

For more WIP Wednesday posts for this week, go to Tami's Amis.

Meet Jack!

Well, there goes the Olympics, hopping into a bedazzled cab with the Spice Girls and a giant octopus.  That's how I want to leave every party from now on.

But as we say goodbye to the athletes, let's say hello to someone very special: Jack!

As in, the Union Jack monster I began at the start of the Games and completed on Sunday.  Isn't he precious and patriotic?

He was mostly done by the end of the first few days, body and appendages all complete.  It's those finishing touches, the eyes and the mouth, that had to be carefully considered.  Eventually I defaulted to Rebecca Danger's standard zigzag of felt, slathered in decoupage and weighted down until dry.  Of course, the only appropriate volume for such a task was the complete works of Shakespeare.

But the flurry of fiber crafting is never over.  I'm currently working on some epically colorful spoilage for the Favorite Color swap, but you won't be seeing any of that until my spoiler does...

A flipping good find, old chap

Most of the time, channel surfing yields only reality television and an eventual settling on something on the Food Network or HGTV.  But every once in a while, I get drawn into something good.  Case in point: A Yank at Oxford.

You have to love TCM.  Because once you get caught up in one of their classic movies, there aren't any commercials to break the spell.  So when I caught a glimpse of this about 20 minutes in, there was no escape.  I was in from Robert Taylor's ridiculous run around the track to his final bump against Cambridge.

It's a cute little classic, black and white, with plenty of Oxfordian quirks.  Like loyal porters serving a student's every whim, dining hall food fights, and a good debagging.  However, unlike an episode of Inspector Morse or Lewis, no one ended up dead.  There was a scandalous Vivien Leigh, though. Apparently this role was part of the reason she ended up in 'Gone with the Wind'.  Because when you're looking for a Southern belle, you look in an Oxford bookstore for the owner's philandering wife.

Seems that TCM was focusing on Lionel Barrymore for the evening, but I think this movie is more well-timed for being a perfect example of the British love of track and field, just in time for the end of the Olympics.  So while NBC had their weird little pause in coverage between the daytime and prime time, I was still technically knitting on theme for Ravelympics.

Which I'm pretty much done with, actually.  It's those pesky finishing details.  I cast off my second dishcloth in the pair on Wednesday, they both just need to be blocked and have the ends woven in.  And the monster has eyes, but he needs a mouth.  Or, to be British about it, a gob.

So there's a random film recommendation for those who want to know why the British crowds seem so excited by

Give it your best?

The other night I was watching some tape-delayed primetime Olympic swimming drama, and a thought occurred to me.  It was a semi-final race, and the commentator was remarking that a particular swimmer needed to save their legs and 'only' swim a certain time here in order to qualify for the finals.  They had other races to swim, and there was no need to burn out a world record when they would have to do the same again tomorrow, or even later that day.

While I've been watching the Olympics, I haven't been up on all the news.  Despite my dad accusing me of watching one stream on the TV and another on my iPad (I wasn't, I just had what was streaming online via my iPad plugged into the TV to make the picture bigger), I'm focused mostly on the tennis, with the primetime coverage in the background while I knit and draft blog posts in the evening.  I also want to catch some women's soccer, but that's another story.

So I only vaguely remembered hearing about this badminton scandal, where people were up in arms and players were retiring from the sport altogether because teams were deliberately losing matches in qualifying rounds because they didn't need to win them to advance, and losing would actually give them an advantage in later rounds.  They were disqualified for not performing to their best ability, and it's been a huge scandal of sportsmanship.

I'm just not sure how the two things are so different.  A swimmer only swims fast enough to make it to the finals, a team only wins the matches that help them win the tournament.  They are both examples of holding back.  I can see where it's not really fair to the audience, to watch something that isn't a competitive ideal.  But in my mind, this is a fault in the organization of the tournament if teams can extract so much advantage from this.

Just another thing to ponder this Olympics as I knit furiously.  Because I'm always putting forward my best crafting efforts, I have completed one of the lace dishcloths in a planned pair.  Can you see the hearts?

The Union Jack Monster is nearly done, by the way, there are just some finishing touches to be decided and done before he's ready for his close-up.

My jammin' cookies are crack-a-lackin'

After massively restocking in Fredericksburg, I've been keeping my eye out for recipes that use my new yummy jams.  One of the classics is thumbprint cookies, simple sugar cookies with little wells for jam or other spreads.  This recipe from Two Peas & Their Pod struck me with it's simplicity.  I mean, four ingredients?  Sign me up!

One thing to note is that this recipe calls for the jam to be added after baking.  I liked this because I wanted to bake the cookies a day before I actually served them, and I didn't want the jam to soften the cookies in the meantime.  I could probably have done the same thing with any other recipe, but since this one told me to, all the better.

I got the dough together, but I really wouldn't call it a dough, because it was so super-crumbly.  I thought I must have done something wrong, but I powered through even though I couldn't quite turn them into the 1-inch balls with thumbprints because they were falling apart.  I just tried to get them as close to the intended shape as possible, slipped them into the oven and crossed my fingers.

Thirteen minutes later, I did, in fact, have cookies.  I wasn't entirely confident in their ability to act as conveyors of jam.  So when I did top them with jam, I did anyway with any notion that the jam would be contained.  Instead, I took my peach blossom jam, a few tablespoons, and mixed in just a little water in a mug, then heated it in the microwave until it was more like a glaze.  I spooned that over the cookies and let the sugary goodness drip over the sides through the deeper cracks of the cookies.

Here's how they looked as I took them to the Ravellenics cast-on/Olympics opening ceremony viewing party:

Probably not the prettiest cookies, and I won't lie, I was worried that I'd still have 18 of them at the end of the night.  But no, just two remained (so I got to try one - yummy!), and I was even asked for the recipe.  Just goes to show you, even when you think something has gone wrong, it can still be right.  And tasty.

The Olympic sport of sports coverage

When I think about the Olympics this year, it's mostly connected with Ravelympics/Ravellenics.  I'm almost done with my Union Jack improvised monster, and have already started my second project, a pair of dishcloths.  I can knit things up so much faster now, it's amazing.

It seems like there are two things everyone not crafting is talking about when it comes to the Olympics: the Queen jumping out of a helicopter with James Bond, and how awful NBC's coverage is.

For my international readers, and any Americans not watching, NBC Universal is showing live coverage of the Olympics online as well as on their basketful of other networks, like MSNBC and Bravo.  NBC itself also has live coverage throughout the day, with occasional breaks for local news, etc.  However, they are saving what they feel are the most popular events to show on tape delay in primetime.  Basically, pretending like we don't already know what happened earlier in the day.  Because we don't go online, watch ESPN, or listen to NPR.  We also wear corsets and have candles in the streetlamps.

This is nothing new for NBC.  Their desire to pretend that we live in the dark ages of information is something tennis fans know all too well.  Until this year, we were being held hostage by their coverage of the last week of Wimbledon, when they would put semi-finals and even the finals themselves on tape delay and block any means of watching live.  Thankfully tennis seems to be the one sport with great TV coverage because it's taken over daytime on Bravo.

Live is an important concept for sports-watching.  Aside from it being far less fun when you know the result, you lose that irrational suspension of disbelief that makes you feel like you can actually impact the way your team or player performs if you just shout a little louder, clap a little harder, or think more empowering thoughts.  And without that, a lot of the magic is gone.

You know who's good at magic?  Mickey Mouse.  Disney and ABC are one and the same, and they also include among their ranks the powerhouse of sports programming: ESPN.  ESPN, which, starting this year, had the entire Championships live.  They had it on ESPN2, then simultaneously on both ESPN and ESPN2 in the second week to catch all the important matches.  They even had it online on ESPN3 where you could choose to watch matches that would never make it onto the air.  The finals were live on ESPN and then rebroadcast on tape delay on ABC. So those who only get those basic networks still got to sleep in and watch on their own time with the same kind of coverage, while a whole lot of us got something a million times better.

All I'm saying is, NBC likes to pretend that gymnasts are actually getting their medals at 4 in the morning in London.  If they keep pretending, soon they are also only going to be pretending to have contracts for all of these events.  They have until 2020 to get it together...

Ravletes, are you ready?

Yeah, it's still annoying that the Olympics continues to make more headlines for brand-enforcement and security issues, but I'm determined to stay peppy.  After all, Andy Roddick could win gold!  Haha, what was that I said about not getting my hopes up at Wimbledon?  Anyway, there's tennis to be watched, and even more importantly, things to be knit.  I am counting down the minutes until I'm allowed to cast on and get started with my Ravellenics projects.

Big thanks to one of the gals in my mom's knitting group, she sewed up project bags for everyone, and included me amongst their ranks, even though I don't get to join them weekly.  It's London-themed, and fits my supplies perfectly:

Given how perfectly-themed my bag is, it's only right that my first project in line for the next fortnight or so is an attempt to make a Union Jack Danger Monster.  I'm hoping it will look something like this:

Cute, right?  I'm challenging myself with this one because I haven't really done any color work before, and I've never made a monster.  Hopefully I can keep my tension, and the improvisations that are required in adding the chart into the original pattern don't end in chaos and tears.  Positive thoughts!  If those athletes can walk in the opening ceremonies in some truly eye-searing national uniforms with a straight face, I can knit this monster!

Technically, I could start knitting at 3 pm, when the opening ceremonies are actually happening, but I'm going to hold off until The Knitting Nest's viewing party, when NBC will show the whole ceremony and we will be noshing on a pot luck dinner.  More on the results of my contributions later, because knitters have to carb-load just like Olympic athletes!

Hypocrisy of Olympic proportions

Several years ago, I was lucky enough to visit Olympia, Greece.  It's one of many places I went with my grandparents over summer breaks that I look back on and almost can't believe I was really there.  But sure enough, there is proof:

Olympia a beautiful place, and even as ruins, the scale of the Olympic Games is breathtaking.  A celebration of peace and athleticism across an empire that was only just beginning to take shape, but would become perhaps the most influential to ever exist.  The myth that surrounds the Games is continually built upon by athletes who spend their lives working to display their abilities on this one stage.  With so much determination focused on a single idea and goal, it's a unifying force that's hard to deny.

Unfortunately, it's also an opportunity to make money that is far too tempting to exploit.  By reserving the rights to anything vaguely 'Olympic', or any image which involves multiple interlocking circles, Olympic Committees around the world protect a trademark which is indeed precious.  But only because of what giant corporations like McDonald's and Coca-Cola will pay for it.

Yesterday a kerfuffle broke loose in the crafting community because the US Olympic Committee requested that Ravelry rename their Ravelympics event.  Some of you may not know what this is, so I'll try to be brief: it's essentially crafters around the world challenging themselves to complete projects while watching the Olympics.  As athletes compete against each other for international glory and medals, knitters push their skill boundaries for online glory and a little badge to add to their profile.  I want to emphasize that no one 'wins' anything except pride and a sense of community not only with fellow crafters, but with the Olympics.

Aside from the argument of whether or not Ravelympics is a violation of trademark, what has angered so many is the tone of the letter which was sent to those who run Ravelry.  Here's the particular paragraph that sparked my ire:

The USOC is responsible for preserving the Olympic Movement and its ideals within the United States.  Part of that responsibility is to ensure that Olympic trademarks, imagery and terminology are protected and given the appropriate respect.  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.

First of all, as I've already pointed out, it's not really a competition.  It's not a for-profit endeavor, and seeks only to bring crafters together in their participatory viewing of the Games.

Second, 'denigrate'?  'Disrespectful'?  Was that in any way necessary?  No one is saying that these knitters think they are Olympians (although ironically knitting was an event in the first modern Olympics), the idea was to be inspired by their efforts and apply that inspiration to something we love to do.

And let's set the whole idea of 'disrespect' aside.  Because aside from being yet another example of people just not 'getting' what it means to knit, there's a larger trend at work.  They wouldn't care if people were comparing knitting the simplest stockinette scarf to the monumental effort of running a marathon.  If we were paying them for it.  Because selling $5 footlongs don't exactly compare well to the lifelong commitment of amateur athletes either.  What's offensive is not that we are connecting craft to the Games, it's that we aren't paying admission.

There's so much more I could vent about this.  But there would be no point.  Most of you probably already know what I mean.  This is hardly the first time there's been negative press for the aggressive protection of the 'true nature' of the Olympic Games.  These examples of rudeness and greed are constantly standing in the way of our view of the actual event.  Kind of like a tourist who won't step out of the frame of your picture, it gets a little annoying:

The Olympics has a wealth of goodwill that springs from tradition and the inspiration that the event continues to evoke.  I think that when these kinds of cease and desist requests are made against well-meaning knitters, school field days, long-established cafes, or newspapers in cities called Olympia, they assume that they just have an endless supply of that goodwill to counteract their bullying.  But each step they take, people get closer and closer to a finish line of putting up with an Olympic Games that is one long commercial.