Seriously USOC?

Only in America...

Within the last month, the United States Olympic Committee sent a cease-and-desist letter to a World Wide Fiber community on the Internet called Ravelry. A few Olympics ago, it sent a letter with a just reason - Ravelry was selling a knitting pin with the Olympic logo. This is an infringement, and Ravelry stopped it immediatly.  

Maybe I should stop to explain Ravelry and our addiction to it. For anyone out there that knits/crochets/spins/weaves, Ravelry is the world's largest online resource for patterns, groups, knit-alongs (please excuse when I use the word knit, I am using it to encompass all yarning people).

So each Olympics as far back as 2008, I think, as a group we do what we call Knitting Olympics, and most of us watch our young athletes compete to win the gold, and knit. During this time we work on projects that push our abilities, something we have never tried, even if it means finishing a project that is something you struggle with. It is different for everybody. Special Olympics even asked that we as knitters knit red, white and blue scarves for the participants. Knitters are very generous people and do tons of charity knitting.

So we have been doing this for a few years and no Olympic contestants have been harmed in the process. This year, the USOC decided that this is kind of mocking our athletes and a trademark infringement and basically stirred up a 2 million Raverly, hornets nest of members with pointy needles. People not just in the United States, but all over the world protested. The Ravelers hit the social media and the FB pages of the Olympics in revolt. 

So the USOC apologized, but it's a weak apology. They even had nerve to say we can still donate knitted items to them. Really? I guess I don't get it.

As for making a mockery of the athletes, McDonalds and Coca-Cola are the largest sponsors, and if that isn't a mockery, what is? As for me, I am still going to watch the Olympics and see if they can stop me from knitting during it. For those of you that don't know about Ravelry, it is wonderful: www.ravelry.com