I've been lurking at the Harlots blog with breathless anticipation since the 25th for news. Did she finish the sweater. She just had to finish, after all she started this insanity. Though I did have my doubts after reading her last post on the 25th. I was so worried that our great and inspiring leader of the knitting world would leave without a precious medal. That would be more than my heart could take. But today she calmed my fears and revealed her completed sweater. With a sigh of relief and shouts of joy I chanted "she did it, she did it! Our awe inspiring Queen has completed the course and won a gold!"
Shortly after her idea hit blog land the Knitting Olympics found its way into the newspapers, magazines, web casts and National Public Radio! Over 4,000 knitters caught the vision, dared to dream and created projects to challenge their own creativity. Almost overnight knitting blog teams seemed to form, complete with team captains. Teams of specific projects, countries of every origin could be found including a few multi-cultural teams. It was a glorious thing to behold. Race, creed or color didn't matter. People simply banned together with only one goal in mind. Knit something challenging. So many of chose to knit our projects for charity, others knitted for loved ones and some choose to knit for themselves.
During our own unique Olympics we encountered the pitfalls of life. One member encountered bereavement. For others illness took its toll creating many downed knitters. Some knitters had to completely frog their work due to technical difficulties and sadly left the arena. It broke my heart. Work also took our time. Laundry and housework was lost in the knitting frenzy. Some the took sick days to help the project along. Items were knitted on subways, buses, trains, planes and cars. You could find knitters in strange places like grocery stores, bank lobby's and in kitchens while preparing dinner. Every minute of each 24 hour day you could find someone knitting for the gold. So many of us woke from our slumber with sore wrists, elbows and shoulders. Several of us were tagged by reporters and shared the interviews. We ate more chocolate than normal. We cried. We frogged. We re-wrote patterns. We laughed, lost sleep and encouraged our knitting brothers and sisters along the way. But knit on we did. And we grew and learned much. It's an experience that we will never forget. Some day our great grand children will tell tales of the 2006 Knitting Olympics.
I'm sad to see all the madness end. I found so many new and interesting blogs to read and made a few friends along the way. But what I will miss is watching people of all races unite with a common goal. All of this came from a woman who has a passionate heart. If only others would learn this lesson and do likewise.
