IMG_4384.JPG, originally uploaded by limonene.
The heat wave finally seems to have broken, but to counteract the gray skies currently overhead, I bring you some of the tigerlilies from the garden back home.
I’ve also still been knitting away at the Razor Cami. I’m at approximately 11 inches now, out of the 16 called for by the pattern. I’m going to have to keep trying it on, though, because with the amount of negative ease I’m knitting into it, it does get a bit shorter on.
My friend M. came in last weekend, and since we’re both huge baseball fans (although we’re on opposite sides most of the time), we decided to catch a Mets game. My plan was to buy the tickets at the stadium, but cooler heads (i.e. my friend D.) prevailed, so he was nice enough to take care of all the arrangements. We left early for Shea so we’d have plenty of time to pick up the tickets and get to our seats in the upper deck. One of the stadium’s distinguishing characteristics is its proximity to LaGuardia airport.
The planes fly really, really close to Shea Stadium. I have to admit that I find it all very unnerving.
We got to see the ending of Oakland’s batting practice, and then after the Mets presented a few awards it was time for things to get underway.
Mike Piazza, Oakland’s new DH handed in the lineup card. He got a really nice round of applause from the fans in the stadium.
The Mets organization seems to bring in more artists to perform the National Anthem than the Yankees do. That night it was the actor who played Uncle Junior on the Sopranos. I think. I have to confess that I only watched that show a couple of times, and I’m a little fuzzy on how they introduced him. His rendition was distinctly downtempo.
We were lucky enough to go to a game that was being pitched by one of my favorite former Yankees: Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez. He’s getting up there in years, but he’s definitely still one of my favorite pitchers to watch. I mean, the man has an eephus in his arsenal. What’s more fun than that?
El Duque pitched very well, going 7 innings and shutting out Oakland. He made some of the batters look downright silly by following up a 55 mph curve with some 86 mph “heat”. Duque is in his 40s, so his velocity isn’t there any more (he may have hit 90 on the gun once), but he’s definitely a pitcher, rather than a thrower, and he still knows how to get guys out. I wish the Yankees had held onto him, but then I may be a bit biased–I’ve been fond of him for years.
The game was just cruising along (both Hernandez and Blanton worked into and out of a couple of jams each) until the bottom of the 6th inning, when the crowd at Shea learned that Mets starting catcher Paul Lo Duca has a little bit of a temper. He didn’t like a strike call that the umpire made, and turned around to argue about it. When the umpire ejected him–arguing balls and strikes is grounds for ejection–Lo Duca didn’t take that very well. While still holding his bat, Lo Duca really got into the ump’s face. At one point manager Willie Randolph was attempting to stand between the two men to defuse the situation, but Lo Duca just sort of pulled him out of the way. After a few minutes of having his say, Lo Duca stalked off the field, tossing his bat, his helmet and his gloves. I guess that wasn’t enough throwing stuff around, though, because a few seconds later, his shin guards came flying out of the dugout and onto the field. He got pretty good distance on those too.
According to the AP, Lo Duca also tried to throw his chest protector onto the field, but it got caught on the dugout railing. Backup catcher Ramon Castro had to come in to finish the at-bat and to catch for the rest of the game. He seemed to get his signals crossed up a bit, but they got out of the 7th inning just fine.
After that, the game was relatively uneventful until the 9th, save for blast-from-the-past Ricky Ledee getting himself thrown out at home plate. That’s when Billy Wagner, the Mets closer came in to attempt to finish out the game.
And then it was the bottom of the ninth, with 2-3-4 in the batting order coming up. Ramon Castro doubled, and then the Oakland manager made the bizarre, ultimately unwise decision to intentionally walk Carlos Beltran.
That brought up the Mets third baseman and NL heartthrob David Wright. He hit a walkoff double, plating Castro, and winning the game 1-0.
There was much rejoicing all around the stadium. Much less joyful was the hourlong trek back from Queens, but that’s another story for another day.
Categories: baseball
IMG_1021.JPG, originally uploaded by limonene.
The hydrangeas on campus are all in full bloom right now. I’d seen blue and pink ones growing up, but I definitely never knew what a variety of textures and colors they come in.
IMG_1222.JPG, originally uploaded by limonene.
Today my roommate P and a few other grad school friends of mine received their Ph.D.s It was a very nice ceremony, as usual, and it was very interesting to see what each adviser had to say about the students they were presenting for their degrees. Also interesting were the remarks by the two recipients of honorary degrees from the university: Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Professor E.O. Wilson.
Both gave very good talks, I thought, although the mayor’s was definitely receiving much more coverage:
and his appearance was a bit more of a circus in general (he got called away during part of the ceremony). No word on whether or not he’ll make a presidential run now that he’s declared himself an independent, although his speech did touch on some larger scale issues like immigration reform. Professor Wilson talked a bit about his research career and about the necessity for observing and cataloging the various organisms on the planet because we’ve only scratched the surface.
I’m also still knitting away on the razor cami. The goal is to have it done while it’s still warm enough to wear the thing. I think I can make it.
Razor Cami, originally uploaded by limonene.
I’ve got startitis. Have I finished the socks for my grandmother? Have I finished the Sea Wool socks for me? Have I seamed that baby sweater? No on all three counts. Will I let that stop me from casting on something new? Of course not! I was in the process of photographing my stash for Ravelry, and I came across the SWTC Bamboo I picked up at The Point last year. It’s such a nice, summery yarn that I wanted to get going on the project that I had purchased it for: the Razor Cami by Katie Marcus. It’s a pretty big change from the original yarn–it’s got a lot more drape and less elasticity, so it might not work out quite as I had planned, but it’s definitely going to be an adventure either way.
The bamboo has been really nice to work with. It’s very soft and silky, and I adore the color (Plum). I do have to be mindful not to snag the plies of the yarn, though. I started on 3.25 mm Bryspun circular needles, and after trying on the first few inches, I’ve moved down to 3 mm Addis. As much as I do love knitting socks, I’m looking forward to this project as a nice change of pace.
IMG_0772.JPG, originally uploaded by limonene.
It may not have had the entertainment value of Jose Reyes falling down as he attempted to hit one of Chien-Ming Wang’s pitches, but I had an up-close view of the pitchers’ duel between Roger Clemens and Oliver Perez on Friday night. Unfortunately for us, the role of Alexander Hamilton was played by Roger Clemens.
Clemens gave the Yankees a quality start, going 6.1 innings, with 6 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk and 8 strikeouts, keeping the Yankees in the game,
but unfortunately that just wasn’t enough. Vizcaino, , Meyers,, and Bruney held the Mets scoreless, so the pitching was definitely there–it was all on the hitters. Between not getting some crucial hits, and terrible, Little-League style baserunning (Hideki Matsui, I’m looking at you), they just couldn’t plate a run and Clemens got charged with the loss.
Although the outcome of the game was a bit disappointing, the seat that I was sitting in definitely wasn’t. One of the trustees of my school donated a bunch of Main Level box seats to the university, so we were sitting behind the Yankees’ on deck circle and not far from the batter’s box. I really did appreciate the view (hey, I’m not made of stone here!).
(Abreu and Rodriguez didn’t have great nights at the plate, although Bobby did walk once. It was refreshing, though, to hear that all the fans were really behind Alex–a nice change from last season)
(This is before Derek hit a double, his second hit of the night–he singled in the first).
The seats also provided a bit of a different angle on the dancing groundskeepers that are so beloved by my mother.
I may never sit in seats this nice ever again, but I’m very grateful for the opportunity to do so in the “old” Yankee Stadium. The bleachers and the upper deck are more my speed price-wise, but I could totally see myself developing a taste for the better seats in the house.
IMG_3932.JPG, originally uploaded by limonene.
“Nature” isn’t really a word that springs to mind when you think of “Shea Stadium” (heck, there aren’t even any Bleacher Creatures there!), but as is the case in the city, it seems to find a way to sneak in wherever it can. This little guy landed on the hat of one of the ladies sitting in front of me, creating quite a stir in our section. I think it’s a black swallowtail butterfly, but something seems to have taken a chunk out of the back of his wings, so I can’t tell for sure.
The game that surrounded this butterfly was a pretty good one–the only one that the Mets took from the Diamondbacks that weekend. I’m not a Met hater, like some Yankee fans can be. I really liked Willie Randolph, and I enjoy seeing him do well, and El Duque is one of the most fun pitchers to watch in the league. As long as they lose all or most of the 6 games per year they play against my Yankees (like the one I’ll be at tonight), I bear them no ill will whatsoever.
IMG_0620.JPG, originally uploaded by limonene.
After I collected myself from my sprint to make the train to Boston last Thursday, I cast on for my new set of traveling socks. I wanted to do something simpler than the Gothic Spire socks, and something toe-up, because so far I do like the short-row heel the best. I made a lot of good progress on the train (it’s amazing how fast having an extra .5 mm in needle diameter makes the knitting go!), and continued on and off throughout my 5-year college reunion.
I’m still not sure how I managed to get any knitting in during the reunion, but over the weekend, I managed to get to the point where I turned the heel. Of course, I also took time to take a tour on “enemy turf”:
Spend an afternoon at my class’ “Field Day”:
which also gave me the opportunity to be a “dizzy bat” referee/participant catcher…
Watch them fully light the Great Dome for the first time in 30 years or so:
And just generally see a ton of my old friends and have a wonderful time.
As you can guess from my first photo, I also took my socks to a Diamondbacks-Yankees game this week.
Chien-Ming Wang wasn’t brilliant, but he was more than good enough, lasting 7 innings and only giving up a solo home run. Brandon Webb didn’t fare so well–the majority of the scoring happened in the first inning, where an error was followed by a single by Jeter, which was followed up by a 3-run homer by Bobby Abreu. To top it all off, Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless 9th inning, and sure looked like he’s back to being the Mo of old:
A good time was clearly had by all:
Finally, here’s a closeup of the toe of the socks. I’m using Fleece Artist Sea Wool in Parrot from my latest The Loopy Ewe on 2.5 mm Addi Lace needles. Before I headed out, I copied and charted out the Drooping Elm Leaf pattern from Barbara Walker’s First Treasury. I had to use a “figure 8″ toe-up cast-on because I forgot how to do the Magic Cast On, and it seems to have worked out.
Categories: Boston · Knitting · New York · Yankees · baseball · socks · travel
IMG_4053.JPG, originally uploaded by limonene.
And, of course, knitting the last I-cord tie. The body of the sweater is 11 inches wide, and 6 inches long, up to the base of the sleeves, and the sleeves are 7-8 inches, I believe. My only modification to the pattern itself was knitting it at a larger gauge than the one in Mason Dixon Knitting, and I mostly just breezed right through it. The only place I ran into trouble was on the fronts, when I had to add the navy blue edging to conserve the pink yarn. It took several attempts to come up with a pattern of stripes that would look like I meant for it to be like that all along and would leave me with enough yarn (I hope) for the seaming. The back is just plain pink, but I think it’s still pretty darn cute.
As a special treat for myself, I think I’m going to let myself cast on a new pair of socks for my college reunion this weekend. I’m still not done with my grandmother’s Mothers Day socks, but Gothic Spire is definitely not a pattern for social kntting (ask me how I know!).
Categories: Knitting · Uncategorized
IMG_3783.JPG, originally uploaded by limonene.
Sometimes, when things aren’t going exactly as you’d planned, you just need to stop and look at the ducks.
Much better.
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