Gearing up for the Knitting Olympics

If I was any kind of patriot (and the owner of a blog read by thousands instead of a few), I would be organising a Knit-along for the Commonwealth Games which are being held in Melbourne from March 15 to 26 this year.

The only problem is only a handful of countries (ie: Commonwealth countries) compete in these games and the Australians are expected to wipe the floor against most of them - at least in the swimming. Swimming is possibly the only sport where it is harder for the athletes to make it into the Australian team than to win the international event.

Winter Olympics rates slightly lower on the radar for most Australians as we have very little ice or snow, although no Aussie will ever forget when speed skater Steve Bradbury won a gold by being too far behind the other skaters to get caught up in a collision which took all the other competitors down. As literally the only man left standing, he skated into gold medal place and Australian sporting history. Lest anyone knock Steve for his lucky break, there are very very few people in the world who could qualify on their own merit into a men's Olympic speed-skating final.

Not surprisingly, the Winter Olympics rate more highly in Canada which is why a Canadian blogger who goes by the name Yarn Harlot decided to set up the Knitting Olympics to coincide with the games. Already there are more than 2500 registered knitters for the program, far exceeding the number of athletes registered for the official Winter Olympics. I signed up today as an official Australian participant and I have the cute button on my side-bar.

The idea is to start and finish a challenging project during the life of the Olympics (February 10-26). I selected a pair of socks as I have never yet managed to complete a pair.

For anyone who questions knitting as a winter sport, curling has been included in the Winter Olympics for many years.

As part of my preparation (training) I will attempt to finish the short-row ribbed scarf before the Olympics begin.