Citius, Altius, Fortius!

We're delighted to announce that for the first time ever, This Is Knit will have a team in Ravelympics 2012! The Ravelympics is a two-week-and-a-bit-long event coinciding with the Olympics, and just like the athletic competitions, it provides a challenge and a stretch and lots of community spirit and a ton of gleeful fun, for Ravelry members all over the world. Here's how it works: you join a team (or more than one!) and choose a yarny project or goal (or more than one!). We can't start before the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Games, and the event officially ends with the Closing Ceremony. So that's a start date of July 27th with a finish on August 12th. There's lots more information on the Ravelympics FAQ thread at this link. We've got two excellent captains, Jacqui (Jacquithisisknit) and Nadia (bunnyt), who'll keep us focussed and on track. To participate. you need to register with a team (ours is here). Then you decide what events you're going to take part in - there's something for everyone on the list, from the Frogging Trampoline (ripping out that thing from the back of the wardrobe that never fitted right) to the Hat Dash (a hat, start to finish), from WIP Wrestling (finish that long-neglected object) to the Sweater Triathlon (a jumper or cardigan, cast on to cast off). You decide what's a challenge for you, and we'll cheer you on. Throughout, there'll be support and camaraderie and good crack, because we are Team This Is Knit. So no starting before the Opening Ceremony! But we can train. Training is choosing our projects, practising the intriguing cast on, swatching and so forth. And we want to hear about that too - over in the Team This Is Knit thread we'll be cheering each other on long before the torch is lit. Over the next few weeks we'll be blogging more about the Ravelympics and talking about how to tag your projects and how to report what you're doing. For now, we'd like to invite you to take part, and to suggest that you might want to save the date and time of the Opening Ceremony for a rather special event at the shop....