Football and all those Famous Folks

This past holiday season, I had the wonderful opportunity of going to visit Alfred and Nathy-Boo at their home in Cleveland.   My dearest sister put up with me let me stay for a whole week!  We had tons of fun.

Now, in case you haven’t noticed from previous posts (about skirts and socks and life), Alfred is a huge Packer fan.  And I’m pretty fond of football as well.  So I knew she’d at least think about it when I begged, “Can we go to the Football Hall of Fame? Please? Pretty please?”  And we did.

One snowy morning, we got in her car, fishtailed out the driveway and sludged down the freeway to Canton and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  It’s a drive that, to Alfred, is a bit of a roadtrip, but in Bay Area terms is just around the corner.  We had fun counting cars spun out in the ditches on our way there.

The museum – or whatever it is – is pretty neat.  I liked the exhibit on old football gear the best.  My top favorite was the old nose guard that was supposed to prevent broken noses.  Players stopped using it when it became apparent that the guard caused more broken noses than it prevented.  Reminds me a bit of discussions around a current piece of equipment…

The busts of all the inductees was pretty neat, too, especially since there’s so many Packers.  Sadly, there’s less Packers than Bears.  The video display of Ditka is also very cool, but Ditka’s such a part of American culture now that anything with him would be cool.  I didn’t know he used to be a player, so I learned something new!

Alfred didn’t take too kindly to one of the displays, which amused some of the other patrons.

The part of our visit that surprised me most was something that shouldn’t have been surprising; I’d just forgotten.  We were practically the only females in the place, and definitely the only females without male accompaniment, even though it was quite busy.  You see, where we come from, everyone’s a football fan.  There’s no such thing as football widows.  The loudest screamers and angriest yellers are always my aunts.  Mommy’s great-nieces have jerseys practically as soon as their born, same as her great-nephews.  But I guess the rest of the country isn’t quite the same.  Wisconsinites really are the luckiest people on earth.

And we got our picture taken with the Lombardi trophy!

Packer Socks

They were supposed to be Alfred’s birthday present, but with a supply delay and my own busy schedule, they turned into Alfred’s one-month-after-birthday present.

I’d been wanting to make some cable-knit socks, and when I saw that green and gold Team Spirit yarn, I just knew I had to make something for Alfred.  I poured through pattern book after pattern book at knitting group.  I scoured the internet.  But I just couldn’t find a cable-knit sock pattern I liked.

Then I found this leg warmer pattern.  So I started knitting it, but Alfred’s not a leg warmer person.  I decided I’d try turning the leg warmer pattern into socks by referring to the pattern for my lace stockings.  It sort of worked, but the upper part was still very legwarmer-y and was far too large to be part of a sock.  So I started over.

I looked at the leg warmer pattern, and the stocking pattern, and the footed legwarmer I’d just made. I grabbed a pencil and some paper and started writing.  Two months later, Alfred had her new socks.

They aren’t perfect.  Alfred mentioned them to me on the phone one day, “one looks like it was made for Daddy and the other looks like it was made for Munchkinhead.”  (except she calls Munchkinhead by her real name.)  That’s my Alfred, never one to beat around the bush and always one too look a geschenkten gaul in the mouth.  “Hush, wash them and wear them and they’ll wind up the same size eventually.”

She confirmed that once she put them on, they both fit.

 

yarn: Red Heart Team Spirit in green/gold

I was There

There’s those special days in our lives, the one’s we’ll never forget, the one’s when we see history being made and we know it.  The Moon Landing, the Berlin Wall coming down, the election that took months to count.  And we can say, “I was there.”

I was there; I saw history being made; I was there for the call that ended the lockout.

One of my twitter friends, a Seahawks fan, graciously invited a couple of his Packer-fan friends up for the game.  I traded in a pile of my Amtrak rewards points for a roundtrip ticket and bordered the train.  A short ride up, only a day, Daddy Bunny and I watched the beautiful Northwestern coast role past as I headed to one of the most exciting days ever, my first Packer game.

I met up with my friend for a tailgate in a parking lot near the stadium.  A wonderful mix of Packers and Seahawks fans milled around the area.  Brats and burgers were grilling; footballs were flying through the air; and one crazy group of people was playing beer pong.  My favorite part was the State Farm commercial impressions, “Roggg-ers!”  Everyone was so nice, some Vikings fans even came over to chat.

The stadium was packed and packed with Packers fans as well as Seahawks fans.  I estimated about a quarter of the stadium was Packers fans; others estimated about a third.  Mind you, Seattle is 1,933 miles away from Green Bay.   There were Packers fans behind me and Packer fans down to my right.  Everyone else in my group was a Seahawks fan, but that only made the game that much more fun.

All of us on the edge of our seats, back and forth, up, down, another sack.  Another ridiculous call, another amazing play.  Football, football at it’s finest; reffing at it’s worst.

When the game ended, I mean actually ended, after the players came back out of the locker rooms to pretend to kick the extra point that the refs had just not bothered about until they realized they had to bother about it – when the game ended, the sympathy came pouring in.  Texts from angry family members on the other side of the country.  Texts from friends in Cali telling me it was ok to be mad.  Tweets from everywhere offering condolences and decrying the horrible call.  And most of all, apologies from Seahawks fans who sincerely meant it when they said it was a bad call, but couldn’t hide their own joy at winning.  Permission to be mad?  How could I be mad?  I was surrounded by incredibly happy people, and incredibly happy people who weren’t gloating, who were gracious winners, who accepted the win for the sketchiness that it was.

It was a most amazing game to be at.  What a great first Packer game!  Thank you, MtySeahawk

Now, I just wonder how many people’s Facebook pages I’m on. People really wanted a photo with a real, live cheesehead.

A Well-Dressed Packer Fan

My sister, Alfred, is a huge Packer fan.  On every single game day, she decks herself out in green and gold, with her cheesehead earrings, Packers sock, a Packers top and Packers bottoms.
Unfortunately, her Packers bottoms, as seen here, resemble pajama bottoms.  With most Packer games being on Sundays, that means Alfred, much to the chagrin of her fashion-diva sister, often wears these knit pants to church.

Sewing machine to the rescue!  (And a very patient mommy/seamstress phone consultant.)
Now Alfred has a nice outfit for game days.  She described it as “the coolest Packer dressy outfit ever!”  I am very happy.



A green velvet circle skirt with matching jacket.  Instead of a poodle, like the traditional circle skirt, it has cheese! 

Hooray for giant sequins.
I made the skirt a size bigger than Alfred’s normal size on purpose.  Circle skirts are designed to go on your natural waistline, and Alfred hates things at her waist.  She said it feels slightly loose, but that could just be the weight.  (It’s 3.5 lbs!)  She danced around a bit in it and it didn’t fall off.  Plus, she knows how to sew too, so she can move the hook and eye if need be.

The only slightly bad part was hemming the skirt.  It took 3 days.  I actually ran out of the pretty gold lace hem tape and had to go back to the store to get a third pack.  The skirt is 7 yds around!  The Legend commented, ‘make it slightly bigger and she could mark 1st downs.’
The jacket is reversible.  On one side, it’s the regular green velvet, like the skirt.  On the other, green satin with her favorite player’s number.  This was a bit tricky.  The pattern was for an unlined jacket with facing.  Plhhh.  How boring.  With plenty of virtual assistance from Mommy, I managed to create a reversible version without two much trouble.  Somehow, I managed to get most of it stitched together inside out, leaving only a small place at the bottom for turning that had to be stitched up by hand.

I also lengthened the jacket because the pattern was designed to go with a skirt on the waist, not on the hips.  If I didn’t lengthen it, it would stop at an awkward place above the top of the skirt.  I think it came out a good length. Alfred seemed to think it was ok, too.

Originally, Mommy and I were thinking this would make a good Christmas gift for Alfred.  Then, we thought maybe she’d wnt to wear it on Christmas.  No Packer game that day, but it’s still a pretty outfit.  But then, we realized the Packers play on Thanksgiving.  What a perfect day for a nice new Packer outfit!  She got it in the mail today. :)
I’m so happy she likes it.  I was worried it wouldn’t fit at all, or that she wouldn’t like something about it.  I hope she sends picture of her wearing it.  Maybe some with her and PackerSpockMonkey hint, hint…