Training days

We're in the midst of gearing up for the (renamed) Ravellenic Games here. After all, there's only 21 days to go before the Mass Cast On! Across the world, there's a staggering 532 teams registered to take part. It's still possible to join the Team This Is Knit high jinks, of course, so if you haven't already done so, head over to our thread in the Ravellenics forum. Choice of events will be both crucial and strategic. You'll find a chart detailing what events your project can be entered for at this Ravelry link - it's a good idea to check this out carefully, because some projects can be entered for more than one event. Of course, you can enter more than one event, with multiple projects, if you like! What projects you choose is entirely up to you, of course, but the general idea is to embark on something which is a bit of a challenge. There are first Tunisian crochet shawls and first pieces of beaded lace in our team's sights, as well as entire cardigans from start to finish and several languishing WIPs that will be proud FOs by the end of the Games. If you have questions relating to events, then you may very well find the answers in the Events FAQ page. The official starting time is 9.00pm GMT on July 27th, so if you're one of our overseas team members, you can synchronize with us with this time zone calculator. And as with any endeavour of this sort, preparation is key, utterly key. Your own training regimen is entirely up to you, but these are some of the things that qualify:

choosing your event

choosing your pattern

doing any needful arithmetic

buying your yarn

buying your pattern

reading your pattern through to the end

marking your pattern for sizes

charting cables or lace

swatching

Some dedicated participants are even going so far as to cook and freeze meals in advance so as to minimize the amount of time they spend away from their projects. In other words, at Mass Cast On time, you can be wholly focussed on starting, secure in the knowledge that you could not be better prepared. And on having a ton of fun during the seventeen days of the Games, which is, after all, the entire point.