PJ Trader

   5/28/2008   St. Louis Cardinal’s Albert Pujols at bat…

And the Card’s win over the Houston Astros 6-1!  It was a great night for baseball in St. Louis last night.  A pleasant 70 degrees, a full stadium, and lots of fellow stitchers to watch the game with.

I went to the Stitch ‘N Pitch event yesterday and had a great time even if I did obsess for two (ok, four) days over which project to bring with me.  I put aside the diagonal garter stitch baby blanket because at nearly 90% finished it was too big to manhandle in a seat where you’re elbow to elbow with the person next to you.  The Bernat Satin DK weight baby blanket was a strong choice, but I was afraid I’d drip mustard on it and that wouldn’t go well with the pinks and greens.  I considered starting a crocheted boxy top, but put that aside.  I swatched some beachy colored Satin until my fingers bled in considering the knit version, but the swatch gauge just wouldn’t cooperate.  So at the last minute I grabbed some cheap yarn and a G hook to make Warm Up America blanket squares.

One of the great things about our town and sports is that the mass transit people know how to make getting to the game painless.  Instead of driving downtown and paying $15 to park, then fighting the traffic to get home again, I drove 5 minutes to the local mall at St. Clair Square and hopped the RedBird Express.  For the price of a gallon of gas and couple of quarters more, I rode the bus to the game and got dropped off right in front of the stadium.  So easy.

The Stitch ‘N Pitch event coordinators had a nice area set aside on the second level for us.  We picked up our complimentary tote bags filled with all sorts of treats (I got a pair of bamboo knitting needles, a ball of yarn, several patterns, coupons, and a clever glass button in the shape of a leaf) and were invited to sit down at one of the large round tables and visit.  Not being the shy sort, I sat down next to another woman who was by herself and we chatted while she knitted a baby blanket. 

As the game’s start time got nearer, I grabbed a hot dog and a soda and headed for my seat.  A bit high, but with a good view of the field.  I sat next to Susie and her daughter Erin, from the Kirkwood Knittery.

Being the nosy sort, I asked everyone around me what they were making and what yarn they were using and all sorts of interestingly intrusive questions.  Susie was making a scarf – although it might end up being a fake mobius – out of three different types of ribbon yarns.  Down the row another woman was making socks with a new kind of yarn Susie called “Flatfoot” which is machine knit yarn that is then dyed and sold.  You knit it up by unraveling the fabric.  How cool is that?

The girl to my right was making socks too, so I got her to explain the mysteries (to me at least) of using five tiny needles to make a itty bitty sock.  She did a good enough job that I MIGHT just have to try socks someday.

Her friend worked on a striped scarf, another woman had a hemp yarn and was making a sweater.  In front of me a woman worked a sleeve for a sweater.  Thankfully I wasn’t the only one in my area crocheting – a doily and a lacy something were being hooked behind me.

I had a good time and made 4 blanket squares for my WMA stash.  It just might have been a bit more fun if some of my own friends had gone too.

Cruisin’ around some travel-stuff websites today, looking for things I just HAVE to have when I start my training tour in a few months.

Found one. And darned if I don’t wish I’d thought of it first!

The TRAYblecloth is a tablecloth/slipcover for an airline tray table.  Why do you need one?  Note the ingenious little pockets that will hang down whether the tray table is opened or closed.  Now you don’t have to stuff everything into the sometimes questionable Area 51 of the seat pocket.  Easy access to your music player and earphones, pens, chapstick, or what have you.  I can see my crochet hook and maybe whatever they’ll let me carry one to snip yarn with getting put in there.

It slips over the tray table a nd even has a pocket  on the underside (you’ll see it when the tray table is up – perfect! – for a book or magazine so all your stuff is in one place.

Here’s a pic of it in the tray table open mode:

And one in the closed mode.

For $15.95, this little tool could make air travel a lot more comfortable.  I bought one.  Will you?

American Airlines has just announced that it will start charging passengers for checking a bag. Read this carefully…I’m not talking about the recent practice of most of the airlines to charge for checking a second bag, oh no.  American will now start penalizing its customers for needing to check a bag for their vacation.  The first bag will cost you $15 and the second $25.

They’re blaming rising fuel costs.  I understand their issue, but when you factor checking a bag in both directions, you’re asking me to pony up $30 just for the privilege (apparently) of needing some clothes and tolietries at my destination location.

The odd thing is, I wouldn’t mind at all if they’d just raise fares $30.  All this new wrinkle will cause is customer dissatisfaction in so many ways.  The obvious being the inevitable “I have to PAY to check even onea bag on an airplane?” screeches of outrage even now being heard across the country.  It’s the added number of roll-on suitcases that we’ll all use so we can save $15 each way, and fighting for overhead bin space to put them in.

I protest.  I think I’ll have to start flying Southwest more often.

I was looking for something to blog about and came across this download on Lifehacker.com.  For Windows users only,  this “Freeware application HP Smart Web Printing combines clips from any number of web pages into one page, so you don’t have to print five different pages of filler to get one page worth of information. The tool—which despite its HP origins works with any printer—integrates directly with both Firefox and Internet Explorer, so clipping text, images, or any part of a page is as simple as clicking a button. Before you print, you can edit, resize, and adjust all of your clippings to your liking. The result is more useful printouts and less wasted paper.”

I think writers who do a lot of web research and printing from the web might find this useful.

Visit HP.com’s website HERE to download this time and paper-saver.