I love the Olympics. I love yarn. What better way to combine these two things than the Ravelympics? Ravelry is a really fun social networking site for knitters, crocheters, spinners, and other fiber artists. There are message boards and groups for every sub-genre of yarn enthusiast. Like Joss Whedon and knitting? Join the Big Damn Knitters Firefly fan group, or the Whedoknitters. Like making bento lunches? Ther’s a group for that, too. How ’bout horses? Yup, there’s a knitting group for that, too. (I’ll let you guess which two of the three above I’m actually in.) And hundreds of other groups.

Given the diversity of the members of Ravelry, you can expect that entries into the Ravelympics to be equally diverse. When The Yarn Harlot came up with the Knitting Olympics for the 2006 winter games, the challenge was thus: set a goal for yourself, cast on during the opening ceremonies, and finish your project before the flame is extinguished at the end of the closing ceremonies. This year keeps those same guidelines, but with the use of the Ravelry universe (Ravelverse?) we fiber people have organized ourselves into teams and are aiming to compete in various events. Teams and events loosely sprung up in the 2006 games, but Ravelry helps keep us all organized, and we can more easily check out the work of our fellow competitors.

I had originally joined Team Big Damn Knitters and my goal was to knit as many Jayne hats as I could in preparation for all my upcoming Cons this spring and summer. Alas, I broke my finger and cannot knit. However, I can still crochet. Kinda. Well, I can loosely hold the work in my injured left hand and hold the hook with my right. Anyway, I’m going to try. I joined Team Teami (Teh-ahm-ee, Japanese for “hand knit/crochet”). The events are broken down into broad categories, such as spinning, hats, mittens/arm warmers, etc., except that they have super cute olympic-themed names. For example, I’m entering the Skelegurumi event for amigurumi (cute crochet toys), and the Platter Lift for home goods (Japanes dish scrubbies called tawashi in my case).

I plan on working entirely in cotton yarn, probably Lilly Sugar and Cream, as that’s the most readily available to me. To start with, I’m using patterns for tawashi in this book: Tawashis in Crochet by fellow Ravelry Tawashi Town member, Cindy Adams. I’ve also found some patterns in Japanese, as well as guides to understanding Japanese crochet patterns. We’ll see how that goes.

In 2006 my goal was to learn to spin and then make something from my handspun yarn. My goal this tim is also not so specific. I just want to make a bunch of tawashi and amigurumi (unspecified number), and complete at least one item using a pattern written in Japanese. This time the challenge will be learning how to crochet with my hand in a splint, which may not be so difficult, who knows.

I’ll of course have pictures and links to share along the way, and will keep track of my progress of my adventures in crocheting while injured.

Are any of you joining? What challenges have you set for yourself?