How to Knit... and watch football... but mostly, knit

Friday was a beautiful day for football, and the pace of the game allowed me to think about taking a few photos. For all you non-football readers out there, here are some pointers for paying attention without having to actually watch the whole game.

First, in early autumn, there may be some glorious sunsets shortly after kickoff. In our home stadium, the home crowd faces west and I've included a photo last year of the treetops against the night sky. This week's game was in another town, where it's the visitors who face west. There was a lovely sunset last night, and just after I took this shot the team doc came up to comment on the view. See, not everyone is watching every nanosecond of action on the field!

Speaking of the team doc (he's actually a physical therapist with a specialty in sports medicine), he didn't have to be too busy this week. Thank goodness. When an injury happens, the players show respect and the crowd gets quiet. If you look up from your knitting and see players on the sideline doing this, you might say something like, "Is it his knee?" Hopefully that's all it is, and in a few seconds he'll be helped off the field to a shower of applause. This would be a good time to refrain from other conversation, however.

Injuries can be scary, and for this reason it may be difficult for tender-hearted people to watch every crashing tackle. Knitting is a handy and productive distraction. You can also claim that you're too nervous about the outcome and it helps to keep your hands busy. That makes it sound like you're really into the game.

When a team is really close to scoring, way down at the end of the field, the orange down markers are not needed. If you glance up and see the teams playing at one end of the field, check out the "sticks". When these orange padded poles are cast aside on the turf, stop knitting and watch the game for a minute. Something exciting might happen, one way or the other.

That's enough about football for one post. While waiting for the game to start, I learned about a cool device for knitting the cable stitch. It's a short double-ended needle with a kink in the middle, and you use it to hold stitches and then transfer them back into your cable work. Very cool! I think my mom used a straight double-ended needle or something like a blunt safety pin.