Special Scarves

In 2009 Idaho hosted the Special Olympics, and as part of their efforts the organizing committee asked for volunteers to knit or crochet enough blue and white scarves so that every participant could have one. The idea was so popular and so successful that the Idaho folks decided to do the same for this year's Idaho Special Winter Games. I heard about it through the Crafty Folks Underground Network (that's not really what it is, it's a word of mouth thing, but it amuses me to think there's a network of subversive crocheters and knitters out there).

Since I had finished a project and I like to have something to keep out of trouble on these still chilly evenings, I decided to participate. We were given a wool brand, colours, and dimensions, but other than that it was up to us whether we crocheted or knitted and what pattern we did.

Here's what I came up with:

I'm very pleased with how they turned out, and it was fun to do, too. I got the patterns from here: http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory/scarves.php. They have all sorts of links to all sorts of scarves. I fiddled with the patterns a bit, of course. There are a lot of nifty ideas out there. I never knew that you could do a ribbed pattern using crochet, although it seems fabulously obvious now. It chews up the wool, though!

The scarves are now sitting in the kitchen sink soaking, and I will drop them off as soon as they're dry.

Oh, I forgot to mention that our friend Karen was the mascot for the 2009 Special Olympics. Here she is in all her Olympic glory: