I have the coolest news: one of my new glove designs--my "Tenth Anniversary Gloves"--has been selected as a finalist in the 2009 Pattern Design Contest of the The Knitting Guild Association (TKGA). (Well, heck, maybe everyone who entered is a finalist, but I'm excited anyway. :) Because of this, I will be attending the TKGA Regional Conference in Portland, Oregon in, May, where they will announce the winners. Wish me luck! Who knows? Maybe I'll see you there. :)

Man, I love Spring Training, especially in Arizona. It's the best way in the world to shake off the winter doldrums. We've started making an annual pilgrimage to Cactus League Spring Training, usually taking a long weekend and catching three Rockies games. It's a ton of fun: the weather's great, the people are friendly, and the baseball is always exciting.

This year, we changed it up a bit, in that our friend Marybeth joined us on our "mini-vacation." Marybeth is a former student of mine, and quite possibly one of the smartest, sweetest, cutest people on the planet. She too is a crack knitter, but, because she's Marybeth, her story is, of course, remarkable. She asked me to teach her to knit about a year ago. Now, when I say "teach her to knit," this meant that she had already taught herself to knit by watching videos on the internet, and she really just wanted a few pointers. Not only that, but, as her first project, she ambitiously dug into a pair of Bavarian-cabled gloves that I designed especially for her. Double-pointed needles, cabling, twisted stitches, the whole nine yards.

Having finished the gloves last fall, she has moved onto slightly simpler fare-- scarves and hats, mostly, but still cabled. As she's a junior in college this year, she tells me she's taken to knitting through her physics and math lectures (much as I knit during meetings and conference talks). She's still acing her classes, of course (didn't I say she was smart?), but she's apparently thrown her professors a bit by knitting and participating in the class simultaneously. (A note to all of you non-knitters out there: yes, it is quite possible to knit and still pay attention. Ever known any doodlers? Same idea.)

Well, after a series of simple projects, Marybeth clearly had a hankering for a new glove pattern. After talking it over, we decided that a celtic braid theme was the way to go. After a day or two of designing, swatching, and measuring, we came up with the template for "Marybeth's Celtic Gloves." Personally, I think they're going to be awesome, and this time, I took enough notes that you guys will eventully get the pattern. Marybeth just has to knit them first, so we know they work. :)

This is a picture of Marybeth and I at one of the Rockies games. I am, as always, watching and writing in my ever-present scorebook. Marybeth is doing a provisional cast-on for the Celtic Glove cuff.

First, a little back story.

If you figure out anything about me, you'll quickly learn that I'm a HUGE baseball fan. Huger than huge. I show up for batting practice. I keep score religiously. I love extra innings. I love rain delays even more. From November to February, I pine away for the day that pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training. My birthday is even on Opening Day (most years, at least).

So, yeah, you could say I love baseball. When I first discovered Stitch 'n Pitch, it was like an answer from heaven. Knitting and baseball! Who'd 've thunk it?

In 2007, the first year I attended a Stitch 'n Pitch game, the National Needle Arts Association had a baseball-themed needle arts contest as part of Stitch 'n Pitch. In my rabid baseball fan-dom, I had already designed some baseball socks for myself. At the time, there were two pairs--for my two teams, the Yankees and the Rockies--but I realized I could expand the pattern to apply to most of the Major League Baseball teams.

So, needless to say, I entered photos of my socks, and (astonishingly, I thought) I won! As part of the prize, CRAFT Magazine posted the pattern on its website.

You think that alone would be cool enough: getting your pattern posted by a major magazine, discovering Ravelers everywhere are knitting your pattern. Rockies Magazine, the official magazine of the Colorado Rockies even ran a half-page article on me and my socks.

But then, this spring, something even cooler happened. It started when I discovered that Stitch 'n Pitch was hosting an event at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Well, I love the Hall of Fame, and I haven't been in years, so I thought, "Hey, maybe I could get involved with this Stitch 'n Pitch thing." Well, after a couple emails, I tracked down the Stitch 'n Pitch organizers, and, what with one thing and another, I'm now scheduled to be the knitting demonstrator for "Stitch 'n Pitch" Day at the Baseball Hall of Fame on April 19!

Needless to say, I'm super-psyched! I've got a bunch of stuff I plan to display. I'll definitely be bringing my baseball socks, and (depending on what we decide to use) I've got all sorts of other interesting projects that I might show as well. Think colorwork, cables, cool felted hats...

In the end, we're just going to make a fun weekend of it. My mom (a crack knitter, and the woman who taught me) is coming, as well as my friend Gemma. In addition to being a crocheter, she too is an astrophysicist who loves baseball--particularly remarkable, as she's British and has only been in the U.S. since last fall. (We corrupted her early... :)

If you can make, we'd love to see you there. Feel free to drop me a line at meredith@meredithknitting.com, and I'll be sure to look for you. After all, what could be better than knitting and baseball?