As I sat down to write this post, I wondered if there were any famous baseball players with a documented love of fiber arts. You know, like Antti Koskinen, coach of the 2018 Finnish Olympic snowboarding team, who knit at the top of the slopes while his athletes were preparing for their runs in PyeongChang. Or, like Rosey Grier, the 1970s professional football player who, back in the day, wrote a book on needlepoint for men.
So, I googled it, but didn’t come up with knit- or crochet-loving professional baseball players. But that’s not to say there haven’t been any. If you know of one (or more), please let me know! Why? Well, this summer, there’s been a lot of talk about baseball in our house. Our daughter is dating a delightful young man who plays college ball, and in exchange for our getting to know him and his sport, he has shown an interest in my passion for knitting and weaving, along with Izzy Knits. It could be he’s just trying to curry favor with the parents! But I actually think he’s interested, and I’d love to have the inside scoop on some little-known baseball trivia.
Coincidentally, a few weeks ago, Dave bought tickets for he and me and the girls to see the Angels play the Houston Astros this past Monday in Anaheim. What fun! I hadn’t been to a professional game in years. What wasn’t as fun was arriving at the game more than an hour and a half early. However, I was prepared! (It’s guaranteed that the Watkins will always be early to an event like this, because Dave hates to be late and “must beat the traffic”.)
One of my goals is to knit, crochet, and weave a swatch using every yarn we sell at Izzy Knits so that I have at least some personal experience with it. This week, I’ve been swatching with Zen Yarn Garden’s Serenity DK, which is due to arrive in the store next week. At the game, I was working on my crochet swatch…thinking that a crochet hook might be easier to get through security than knitting needles! (Mind you, the security guy told me that anything that won’t break can be used as a stabbing weapon…for example, a pen, a key, etc….so my claim that “it’s not a weapon” wasn’t really accurate.)
Zen Yarn Garden’s Serenity DK is lovely to work with! Watch for a future post about my experience making knit, crochet, and woven swatches with it.
And remember! I’d love to hear about any fiber-loving baseball players (amateur or professional) that you know of, so I can share their story with my daughter’s new beau. Let’s see if we can get him to try his hand at knitting, weaving, or crochet before the summer’s out.