Stitch N' Pitch and a special shuffleboard night for knitters

I'm the one in the tie.

Stitch N' Pitch at Tropicana Field is this Saturday! I'm really looking forward to meeting tons of Florida knitters. To kick off Stitch N' Pitch weekend, a group of us are heading to St. Pete Shuffle this Friday for what I hope will be the first of many shuffle/knitting meetups. Some fellow Ravelers will be there; one all the way from the east coast. Sean is bringing people from our LYS, Needles N' Knobs. Tampa knitters, can I persuade you to represent? Orlando?


Think of the potential photo op for your blog: Florida knitters playing shuffleboard at the world's largest shuffleboard club. It doesn't get more Florida than that. Friday nights at the club are a blast. Cool music, diverse crowd, lots of fun. We're open from 7-11pm. Free to play and there are plenty of people (like me!) who can teach you the rules of the game. If there are enough people interested I'll give my official tour (I've got the flight attendant two-finger point down pat). If you have any questions, or need directions, just leave me a comment and I'll reply. Or check out St. Pete Shuffle. You'll easily spot me at the club because (hopefully) I'll be wearing one of those awesome Ravely buttons that Jess sent especially for us Florida knitters!

On Saturday there might be an impromptu, totally laid back yarn crawl. If you're from out of town and want a list of LYSs I'll be glad to provide. Rumor has it that Needles N' Knobs has 15 bins of 30% off yarn this week.


On Saturday evening there will be a parade of shuffle/knitters on Central Ave. making their way to Tropicana Field. Okay, I kid. I'm sure one day we'll have our own float. But for now you're on your own getting to the baseball game. Tropicana Field is that big white dome in downtown St. Pete. Can't miss it.

If you haven't bought tickets for Stitch N' Pitch you can still get them from Needles N' Knobs. Remember: Gate 6 is the gate to get into Tropicana Field with your needles!

See you there! I'm in Section 353, row B, seats 6-4. Come say hello!

Sockapalooza, samosas and shuffleboard

I'm almost finished with my Sockapalooza 4 socks. I'm making Poseiden socks with J. Knits in Newburyport. Have I mentioned how much I love J. Knits yet? I've knit two pairs with it and each one feels as comfortable as my favorite pair of jeans.

I'm much farther along than the photo below shows. All that's left is one more pattern repeat and the ribbing. I'm still having problems with my short row heels. I can make them mostly without holes now but for one rather large hole where heel meets ankle. I've tried every trick I've read about but still haven't been able to master it to my satisfaction. Oh, short row heels... you are my white whale!


This is a crappy photo. It has been raining for three days straight here. So, yay! for my lawn but boo! for outdoor photos.

Fortunately the weather was perfect at the St. Pete Shuffle last Friday. The Shuffleboard Club teamed up with SPIFFS (St. Petersburg International Folk Festival) and VICAS (Volunteers of Indian Culture & Art Society) and hosted India Night. About 250 people came out to shop for crafts, eat Indian food, watch traditional dance and yoga, and play shuffleboard while watching Bollywood movies. It was a perfect activity for a hot summer night in Florida.




A group of Florida crafters set up a craft show inside the clubhouse. Many of the crafters are members of the Florida Etsy Street Team.


There was a screen set up to watch Bollywood movies.


Our courts were full! We ran out of shuffleboard discs (which is saying something because it is the largest shuffleboard club in the world. For reals!).


My attempt at Georgia O'Keefe-esque photo of the roof of the club sans tripod.

Not fog. Smoke.

I have actual knitting photos to show you - as soon as I can take them. Right now my little corner of the world is a little smoky and not conducive to photo taking. The smoke from the wildfires (over 100 miles away, mind you) came in very suddenly about an hour ago. I had all the windows open, plus the back door was open for the dogs. It is now hazy inside my house, too. I hope my finished but damp from blocking socks, mom's Mother's Day present, don't smell like a campfire.

Here's a view near me. I was going to walk to a more picturesque area of my neighborhood, but after 30 seconds of being outside my eyes were screaming, "It burns! It burns!!!"



Sasha, cooped up inside until the smoke clears, is bored after being in the house for 10 minutes. This is what I call her "summer pose": cooling her belly and in general not looking lady-like at all. I can tell from her expression that she is planning and plotting some sort of sabotage to be revealed later in the day.


Coming tomorrow (if the smoke clears): knitting! I have finished socks to show you! Plus, new WIPs and the most awesome-ist stitch markers - ever!

Welcome to the Monkey House

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A. / Knitty Winter 2006
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Indian Summer
Modifications: None, except used 2.25 instead of 2.5 needles

These were fun and quick to knit. I never have the urge to knit the same thing twice, but I am already thinking of knitting another pair! I searched for awhile to find the yarn I wanted to use. I wanted a subtle varigation that would show off the pattern. I looked online then realized I had what I wanted in my stash all along.

After blocking, I took my Monkeys out to play shuffleboard.


These are some of the oldest courts at the club. I think they were installed around 1928. They're terrazzo (the other 50 courts are concrete). In their present condition the terrazzo courts are unplayable (terrazzo courts are very difficult to maintain). But they sure are purty.


Here's an eye-candy photo of my little monkeys (one of their more serious-looking poses for the camera). Jackson is in the back, Sasha in the middle, Betty in the front. One of Sasha's nicknames is Monkey (aka Sasha Monkey). She was six months old when I adopted her. She had been a stray for who knows how long so bringing her home was a little like bringing home a baby raccoon (she refused to eat from a bowl for a couple weeks!). She earned her Monkey nickname shortly after I adopted her. She decided she wanted to sit on my friend's lap so she climbed up by scaling his legs. She put her right paws on one leg, left paws on the other, and shimmied right up like a little spider monkey.

Extra! Extra! Guy in knitting t-shirt spotted in local newspaper

Read all about it! I don't know how long this will be on the home page of The St. Petersburg Times today, but I thought this was too good not to share. I of course didn't read the article (he's a con man or something) but instead just locked in on the photo. Here's the link. It's next to Hot Topic. If the photo is gone by the time you see this, here it is:


I love it when men aren't afraid to show they love to knit. But why does he have to be a con artist?

A weekend of knitting

I haven't had such a knitterly weekend in a long time. Unfortunately, for all the knitting I did I didn't actually finish anything. All my knitting projects are still WIPs.

Saturday afternoon I met some fellow members of the Rockin' Sock Club. I got to spend a delightful few hours with Phoebe from Knit Happened and Leslie from a blossom knits. Being able to spend an afternoon talking about knitting, yarn, blogs and designers with women who are as excited about knitting as I am was a dream. Phoebe and I worked on our Inside/Out socks (the first project from the Rockin' Sock Club) and Leslie worked on a gorgeous entrelac shawl. I'm looking forward to doing it again soon. Thanks, ladies!

After I got home from the sock club meet-up, I spent the rest of the evening working on my Inside/Out sock. I don't know if this happens to you, but every time I learn a new knitting technique I get obsessed with it. This is my first toe up sock and the first time I've done a short row heel. I could not, could not go to sleep until I saw how that heel was going to work. Does this happen to you? Plus, Judgement at Nuremberg was on the local PBS station. Oh yeah, spent Saturday night on the couch with the dogs knitting and watching a Nazi war crime trial movie. That's how I roll. At first I was like, okay I'll give this movie fifteen minutes then I'll switch over to... I don't know... America's Next Top Model reruns on VH1. Three hours later I hadn't moved from the couch. The movie is that good is all I'm saying. I made it through the heel and finally called it quits, bleary eyed, around 1 AM.


I worked on Veste Everest a little, too. I promise this is a different photo than from the last post. The difference between the photos is subtle. You have to really look hard to determine that yes, in fact I have progressed about two inches.


In non-knitting news... St. Pete Shuffle had a good night on Friday. The organizers of Project: HOME had an exhibit at the club of the artist's plans and sketches for the upcoming show at Williams Park. If you're in St. Petersburg next weekend, come by Williams Park to see the finished artwork, all dealing with the concept of "home".

Perks

362 days out of the year my neighborhood is (usually) peaceful and quiet. You know the type: lots of old homes, 100 year old live oaks creating a canopy over brick streets, neighbors who wave to each other, large 1920's Catholic cathedral smack dab in the middle of the neighborhood. I love it (which is surprising because I thought I'd always be a downtown urban chick). Then, for three days every March, the church has a fundraiser and the neighborhood gets all crazy and festival-y.

I love that I live five blocks away from this:





It was much more crowded than these photos make the festival out to be. For starters, every teenager in St. Petersburg that needed a place to make out was at the festival. By the time I got there most people had migrated from the rides to the food and beer. I didn't get a chance to photograph the food area (too busy eating, I suppose). In a 50 ft. row, there was a combination of foods that probably shouldn't all go into one's belly at once: chinese food, greek food, pancit noodles, fried green tomatoes, burritos, cookies baked by the nuns, and peach cobbler.

In knitting news, I think I'm suffering from startitis. I have a huge pile of sock yarn and patterns. For the past few days I've just stared at it all and thought, what to start next? Jaywalkers? Monkeys? STR club pattern? So many choices it makes my head spin! In the end I cast on for a project I bought the yarn for six months ago, the Veste Everest from IK Fall 2005. I'm using Harrisville Highland Style in #34 Aster.


This will be my first knitted sweater-type item. Read: this will be the first project I've knitted that actually needs to fit. Before starting I swatched, measured, washed, blocked and dried like a good knitter. So far so good: after one row I had the pattern memorized and have been able to knit on auto-pilot. Last night I finished several of the cable repeats while mostly concentrating on watching The Thin Man. Oh, that Asta!

I Heart St. Pete

The St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club is my favorite place in St. Petersburg. Last Saturday I was one of the volunteers at the I Love St. Pete show at the club. It was an all day event featuring local artists, local music and a chalk art contest.

I think the layout of the shuffleboard courts was perfect for the chalk contest: