Quickie Question: Olympic Craft?
By TwistieI’m sure by now many of you know about the recent flapdoodle when the US Olympic Committee sent a snarky cease and desist letter to Ravelry over their Ravelympics event.
Did I say snarky? Well, here’s a direct quote from the letter:
“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.”
You see, the committee wants the Olympics to look like this:
not this:
Not that knitting looks quite like that these days…
Yeah, whichever side people were on, they talked about knitting like it’s something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. You know, something painfully wholesome, old-fashioned, and not quite real. Obviously knitting doesn’t involve hard work or long hours of practice! (/sarcasm)
Anyway, the USOC did apologize in a maelstrom of bad press saying they were just protecting their copyright. The virtual black eye of being seen as people who are cruel to little old cat ladies, however, lives on.
But it makes me wonder… what sort of craft/sport hybrid would you like to see at the Olympics?
Me? I’d like to see short track speed skating combined with needle felting. After all, it’s basically roller derby on ice skates. Handing everyone barbed needles feels right. Or, if I have to stick with the events of the summer Games, how about adding drop spindles to the artistic gymnastics rotation? After all, right now they keep ribbons, balls, and hoops twirling while they tumble. And with drop spindles, they would wind up with yarn at the end, too. Oh, and how that yarn turns out is part of the score, too.
How about you? Hit me with your best shot!
I’ll definitely miss you and your take on the world. Best of...
June 29th, 2012 at 3:10 pm
Archery and weaving. It only makes sense that people who can shoot a target at 100 paces be able to shoot an arrow through a line of yarns to make a piece of fabric. Extra points if they weave a table mat with less than 20 arrows!
June 29th, 2012 at 3:41 pm
Awesome new sport, Sarah R! That’s something I want to watch.
June 30th, 2012 at 11:51 am
Knitting doesn’t look like that these days, ’cause that’s crochet. But I’m sure you already knew that and were just keeping us on our toes, right?
June 30th, 2012 at 1:21 pm
Um… Yeah! Right, BSAG! That totally didn’t happen because I was in a hurry and made a serious rookie error. (facepalms)
July 10th, 2012 at 11:48 am
Possible Olympic sport – sock knitting. Each entrant gets the same yarn and the same pattern. Entrant chooses their own equipment – circular, 5 needles, 4 needles, whatever. First to complete two matching socks wins.
July 29th, 2012 at 7:57 pm
I’m late on this — but the Maryland Sheep & Wool festival has a Sheep to Shaw contest. I think this would be a great addition to the Olympics. And so many countries are proud of their sheep!
http://www.sheepandwool.org/events_detail.php?eid=183