Knitters in a twist

Instead of the international symbol for "NO" shown above, please imagine a crest with an American Flag and 5 colored interlocking rings. I can't show that, because I wouldn't want to be accused of infringing upon a trademark.

I have been reading about the interesting news of a controversy between the U.S. Olympic Committee and a community of knitters and crocheters in an on-line social website called Ravelry. (I must make a disclaimer here that I, too, am a member of Ravelry and it is one of my favorite sites.) The 'yarn' begins when Ravelry established its 3rd Bi-Annual Ravelympics set to coincide with the 2012 Olympic Games in London

The U.S. Olympic Committee has written Ravelry a cease and desist letter (you will need a membership to view the link) which has twisted the stitches of many knitters and crocheters. The letter says, "We believe using the name “Ravelympics” for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games.  In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country’s finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work." Hard work? The writer of this letter obviously has never knit a pair of toe up, two at a time, cabled socks on a single circular knitting needle.

I understand that the U.S Olympic Committee feels the need, as does any corporation, to protect their "brand" and the trademarks that they have established. However, to insult a group that is at least two million strong is probably trouble. At the time of the writing of this letter, the U.S. Olympic Committee's Facebook site has been inundated with comments from knitters and their supporters, the Ravelry post on this letter has 92 pages of comments from members and there are already over 5,600 results to the Google search "US Olympic knitting". Online articles have been written by the likes of Businessweek, USA Today, and TNT Magazine.

Patrick Sandusky, USOC Chief Communications and Public Affairs Officer, issued a statement apologizing for their unintended denigration of fiber artists everywhere, then had to issue an apology for the apology as it sounded as if they were asking knitters to make them handmade items. If there is any lesson in this, it is don't mess with women holding sharp pointy things.