Originally published Thursday, May 14, 2009
The second round of the National Hockey League Championship is nearly over, and last night the Pittsburgh Penguins won their series with the Washington Capitals by a score of 6-2 to advance to the next round. This series was highly anticipated because it matched up arguably the two best players in hockey, Alexander Ovechkin of the Caps and Sidney “Sid the Kid” Crosby of the Pens. The series lived up to its billing until last night. The Caps jumped out to a two games to none lead, then the Pens won three straight to lead the series three games to two. Game six was played in “The Igloo”—Mellon Arena—in Pittsburgh, but in spite of playing on home ice, the Pens lost in overtime, the third overtime game of the series.
Caps fans felt pretty confident going into last night’s game in Washington. The series was tied three games to three, they had just won a hard-fought victory in Pittsburgh, and game seven, the deciding game, was being played on their home ice, the Verizon Center in Washington, DC. But when the Pens took the ice, they skated fast and furious and they totally overwhelmed and outplayed the Caps. Sid scored a goal in the first period that was followed a mere eight seconds later by a goal from teammate Craig Adams, and it was all over but the crying. The fat lady had sung.
For the Capitals, the season is over. The Penguins get to keep playing hockey. Next up–either Boston or Carolina. Good luck, Pens! Bring Lord Stanley’s Cup back to the City of Champions!
Now comes the part where I make a smooth and clever transition from hockey to knitting by somehow tying the hockey game to my knitting. The best I can do is to say that I didn’t watch much of the game last night and instead watched Law and Order: CI, Criminal Minds, and Law and Order while I slogged away on Kinsale. The night before I had sewn in both sleeves, so last night I worked on seaming the side and sleeve seams. I was able to seam up one side and most of one sleeve.Here’s a picture of the sweater as it looks at the moment, with the sleeve and seam on the left all sewn up and the sleeve and the seam on the right still untouched by tapestry needle and yarn.
And here’s a picture of the side seam that has been joined with the magical mattress stitch.
Mattress stitch is very easy to do and results in a very nice, neat, strong, and invisible seam. I marked the seam so that you can see just how nicely mattress stitch blends in. It looks as though there is no seam at all.
And I have been making progress on my knitting to-do list also. I finally got all the ends woven in on my black hap shawl. It hasn’t been washed and dressed yet, but it still looks nice, doncha think? Next time, I’m splicing the yarn when I change colors. All the darning in of ends is a royal PITA! Never again! LOL
But I am very pleased with how this shawl turned out. Here’s a close-up shot of one of the corners.
I like how the yo-k1-yo increase looks. You cannot tell from the picture how much the edging, that band of black on the out edge, ruffles. It really is in need of a good stretching to eliminate the ruffling.
And, yes, dear readers, I’m so very proud of you for being so observant. I have finally learned how to wrap text around a picture. So happy you noticed. Who says old dogs can’t learn new tricks?☺
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All Kinds Of Knitting 