The USOC Limp Picks Ravelry

Best Quote I Heard All Day
"The Olympics motto is 'Citius, Altius, Fortius,' which, of course, is Greek for, 'Go for the gold, but also try to keep your bones organized." --Will and Guy (British comedians)

Actually, it's Latin: Faster, Higher, Stronger. Evidently, the US Olympic Committee (USOC) didn't keep their brain cells organized. If you haven't read the news, here's the letter they sent that Casey put up on Ravelry June 20th. They also hit Ravelry with a cease and desist.

“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.”

I shot a comment to the USOC on a Facebook News page, which has conveniently disappeared.
Your apology is unacceptable. Given that Ravelry donated money to you and you depend on sponsors, offending the knitting community was an idiotic and thoughtless move. Fire your PR team for this one. Yes, legally you had the right to confront Casey and Jesse with a cease and desist; however, to insult people who are serious artisans will do you harm. Denying that it was a personal attack is a total "cover your ass". Using the words "denigrate" and "disrespectful" tells me that whoever wrote that letter was themselves disrespectful and has denigrated the fiber world.

It's over now. If nothing else, it gave us a ton of positive publicity.

HOT JOB IGNITED

Those of you who are friends on Facebook know that I lost my tech writing job at the big financial joint and have gotten a book contract for an interactive How to Knit book. I'm happy. After all, back in 1983, my career began at McCall's Needlework & Crafts and I've always wanted to go back to knitting writing, editing, and designing. Looks like it's happening! 

Yeah, I'm still working on my sock book--Keep It Simple Socks--but won't publish that until I've finished this one. I'm very excited and thrilled that my career may be taking a turn. 

And thank God Obamacare made it through the Supreme Court. For people like me, sans insurance, this is critical. I think we should all make crappy Romney Mitts and send them to him. Nah, second thought...let's not waste beautiful fiber. One of my upcoming designs will be 99% Socks. That will go for free on Ravelry, through my Fiberality Designs company.

KC REALLY BACK

Now that I'm not stuck going to work, I can reignite the blog. I probably won't continue writing Steekin' Geek because The Knitting Curmudgeon is my blog birthplace, with the 10th anniversary coming this month. So now I'll be posting at least once a week. And put up pix. My Canon Rebel is gathering dust but out it comes now! Taking pictures of knitting is so rare and handy, especially when you're working on designs. But you'll see some of the book's socks before I publish it.

Later, skanks. Have a good 4th of July and fucking cool down.