03.22.07
Kansas Knitting II
Ooh, it was a tough night - I had to juggle knitting and KU basketball.
Top: rows of busy knitters. Bottom: a blurry Yarn Harlot at the podium and the beginning of a seed stitch afghan square in the foreground.
You see, I wanted to go see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee represent at 6:00 p.m. and the Kansas/Southern Illinois game was starting at 7:15 p.m. I figured if I stuck around for at least an hour, and if all went well on the subway, I should get home in time to see the second half of the game. I was feeling pretty confident about Kansas. I figured even though I didn’t know anything about the Southern Illinois team, the Jayhawks were strong. I did take a glance at the CBS website and the one line that caught my eye: “Southern Illinois’ defense vs. Kansas’ offense: Which one will come out on top?” Da da da dum - ominous music - a foreshadow of things to come?
This was my first time to hear the Yarn Harlot. She got a good turnout of NYC knitters and a very enthusiastic audience. That Stephanie - she is damn funny. Lots of loud belly laughs while knitting - I’m sorry I had to sneak out at 7:30 p.m. I felt incredibly conspicuous but this was the compromise I had made to the KU fan in me. I consoled myself by promising to continue knitting on the charity afghan square we knitters were encouraged to start while waiting for Ms. Pearl-McPhee to come out.
I got home just in time for the beginning of the second half. (Warning: for those knitters not a part of the March Madness, you might want to stop reading now.) It was an edge-of-the-seat game. I’m not usually like this (my honey is completely bewildered by my behavior) but I was screaming and cursing at the television. I was mad, MAD, at the Jayhawks for their sloppy playing for the first 15 minutes. They were literally giving the ball away to the Southern Illinois dogs! And they weren’t kidding about the dogs defense - they were a wall, difficult to penetrate, on top of each Kansas player - the SIUC Salukis were a worthy opponent. Oooh, I was seriously pissed off. I felt like KU had this wide open defense, more openings than the laciest of lace shawls, and they weren’t playing aggressively when they had the ball. At about the ten minute mark, I remembered my afghan square and peeked at it in its bag, but by then the Jayhawks had begun to turn it around. First, those Jayhawks lucked out with their free-throws - those easy baskets helped them gain the upper hand. There were many close calls on the court and each team must be suffering from floor burns for all that scuffling for the ball, but the Jayhawks tightened up and won the game 61-58 to take them to the Big Eight. Phew, I can breathe now and pay attention to knitting again.
Lucinda said,
March 22, 2007 at 7:02 pm
I get to hear about the Yarn Harlot & the Big-Game-I-Couldn’t-Bear-To-Watch in one blog! Bonus! (My grandfather went to KU, but I grew up in Southern Illinois — I didn’t know who to root for, although I was still pulling slightly more for Kansas, as that’s also where my husband is from.)
St. Louis had it’s own knitting event going on today/this evening, with a different Canadian, so we “represented” in our own way.
I’m looking forward to being able to read Harlot stories on lots of blogs over the next few days, though. It’s *nearly* as good as being there.
Veronique said,
March 23, 2007 at 4:20 am
I was there too! And I managed to finish my square just in time.
Lara said,
March 26, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Yay! Go Jayhawks!
Let’s not even talk about the next game.
As far as I’m concerned the NCAA Tournament is over.
Take care -