Thursday, 3 September 2015

Footy Friendships & Corporate Crochet

A Crows scarf with a yellow peaked cap resting on top. The cap has a Crows logo on the front. The scarf has horizontal stripes in navy, red and yellow with red fringing at each end. One end of the scarf has an Adelaide Crows patch stitched onto it with membership badges pinned along the bottom edge. The other end of the double-sided scarf has the words "Premiers back to back 1997–1998" machine-knitted in fair isle.


I'm losing my voice, 
My throat is hoarse,
But not to the lurgy–
From footy, of course! 



Let's just say I got quite excited at the Adelaide Crows' last home game for the season. There was so much to cheer about:

  • 7 goals straight to zero against West Coast Eagles in the first 20 minutes alone, heralding a convincing win against the second-ranked side in the national AFL* competition.
  • An atmosphere buzzing with anticipation of a possible finals berth for the Crows–53,445 footy fans at Adelaide Oval on a picture-perfect spring day is like no other experience!
  • Completion of a footy-related crochet project as a surprise gift to delight a footy friend.
A pair of fingerless mitts in Adelaide Crows' colours. They have horizontal stripes, alternating navy and red. Each stripe has a row of yellow dots centred horizontally on the stripe. For example, starting at the cuff the colours are solid navy, yellow dots against the navy, solid navy; solid red, yellow dots against the red, solid red; and so forth ending with a row of solid navy at the fingers.
Clap your hands!
I wear these fingerless mitts
in Crows colours at every game.

Pattern: Dotty Hand-warmers
by Tara Murray (Mamachee)
Made by Jodiebodie (July 2011)



The goals kept coming; the Crows' skills were superb with so many great moves deserving applause that my fatigue was already setting in by the end of the first quarter!

By the end of the match, I was quite exhausted but all for a good cause.

This is the second AFL season at the Adelaide Oval (famous for test cricket) which is the new match day home ground shared by two local AFL clubs: Port Adelaide Power and the Adelaide Crows.

One of the things I love about attending the footy is meeting other people and enjoying the camaraderie. One gets to know 'the regulars', especially after a couple of seasons, so it is as much a social outing as it is sports entertainment. 

The smiling face of Adelaide Oval attendant Lisa.
Lisa greets everyone
with her friendly
and beautiful smile.
It is a pleasure to be welcomed by regular staff who recognise me and my party.  Lisa greets everyone with her warm and welcoming smile and she remembers just about everyone who sits in our section.  It is obvious that she enjoys working with people.

At one particularly cold game, Lisa noticed my fingerless mitts in Adelaide colours and remarked jokingly that she could use some mitts like those to keep her hands warm. When she complimented me on my choice of colours (in stitch pattern and team) I offered to make some for her. 
She thought I was joking but I was serious.

Lisa does a great job–fair and reasonable but also firm with people when she needs to be and her friendly manner enhances the game day experience. 
Lisa deserves to have warm hands when working outdoors.

When I suggested making gloves in team colours, she lamented that it probably wouldn't be a good idea.   Someone in her position needs to appear impartial to the outcome of the game and team colours do not go with her uniform. Oh well …

That's where our conversation on that subject ended but not my thoughts!  In my yarn stash, I happened to have some 8 ply acrylic in Adelaide Oval's corporate colours.  Yes! Surely that would be acceptable?
Lisa's hands (palms facing downwards) modelling fingerless mitts in horizontal stripes in Adelaide Oval colours. Solid stripes in mid blue and mid lime green are separated by horizontal rows of white dots.
Lisa models her gloves.
Thank you, Lisa, for being a good sport
and letting me share the photos here.
I got to work making the same mitts from Tara Murray's "Dotty Hand-warmers" pattern except I rearranged the stripes.  The solid rows and 'dotty' rows are in the same order as my Crows mitts but the colour changes are on different rows. (Compare the Crows ones below).
A pair of fingerless mitts in Adelaide Crows' colours. They have horizontal stripes, alternating navy and red. Each stripe has a row of yellow dots centred horizontally on the stripe. For example, starting at the cuff the colours are solid navy, yellow dots against the navy, solid navy; solid red, yellow dots against the red, solid red; and so forth ending with a row of solid navy at the fingers.
Crows Dotty Mitts.
The rows are the same, the colour changes are different.
A highlight of my day was being able to present Lisa with her own gloves to wear on those cold wintry days at Adelaide Oval. I take much delight in giving surprise gifts and seeing people smile.

Jodie & Lisa having fun showing off
the 'Dotty Hand-warmers'

 Go Crows!

Do you follow a sports team?
What sports-related crochet have you done?





If you scroll down to the bottom of this post, you will find the comment box where you can leave your answer(s). 

*Australian Football League

Match Details


Final Scores:
Adelaide:       19.12.(126)
West Coast:   10. 9. (69)

 Match report, "By the Numbers: Round 22", Adelaide Football Club, 31 August 2015: http://www.afc.com.au/news/2015-08-31/by-the-numbers-round-22


Pattern Details


Pattern:  "Dotty Hand-warmers" by Tara Murray
Source: Inside Crochet Issue 14, magazine, February 2011, http://www.insidecrochet.co.uk/
Ravelry pattern page: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dotty-hand-warmers
These hand-warmers are also listed as "AK HandWarmers" on Tara's web site and Ravery store.
 
Tara Murray aka Mamachee, designer:

 

Project Details


A pair of fingerless mitts in Adelaide Crows' colours. They have horizontal stripes, alternating navy and red. Each stripe has a row of yellow dots centred horizontally on the stripe. For example, starting at the cuff the colours are solid navy, yellow dots against the navy, solid navy; solid red, yellow dots against the red, solid red; and so forth ending with a row of solid navy at the fingers.Crows Dotty Fingerless Mitts
Hook:  4.5 mm
Yarn: Carnival DK 100% acrylic 100 grams / 310 metres per skein
Colour A:  Navy #089 Lot: #758484 x 1 skein
(19 g / 59 m used)
Colour B:  Red #1095 Lot: #757370 x 1 skein
(9 g / 28 m used)
Colour C:  Yellow #036 Lot: #760362 x 1 skein
(2 g / 6 m used)
My Ravelry project page: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Jodiebodie/dotty-hand-warmers

 
Lisa's hands (palms facing downwards) modelling fingerless mitts in horizontal stripes in Adelaide Oval colours. Solid stripes in mid blue and mid lime green are separated by horizontal rows of white dots.Adelaide Oval Fingerless Mitts
Hook: 4.5 mm
Yarn: 8 ply acrylic 310 m / 100 g skeins of various brands:
Colour A:  Mid Blue 'Saxe' #310 Lot: #753636; 15 g / 46.5 m used of Panda Magnum
Colour B:  Lime #1020 Lot: #1874; 15 g / 46.5 m used of Spotlight Basics Premium Marvel
Colour C:  White #301 Lot: #765326; 2 g / 6 m used of Homemaker Everyday
My Ravelry project page: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Jodiebodie/dotty-hand-warmers-2

 

Links


Adelaide Football Club, Adelaide, South Australia: www.afc.com.au
 
Adelaide Oval: http://www.adelaideoval.com.au/

Australian Football League: http://www.afl.com.au

Lupey Loops, "It's a Mark(er)!", blog entry, 17 June 2014: http://lupeyloops.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/its-marker.html
More information about Australian Rules football can be found in this post plus other Crows-themed crochet projects.

Port Adelaide Football Club, South Australia: http://www.portadelaidefc.com.au/

West Coast Eagles, Perth, Western Australia: http://www.westcoasteagles.com.au/


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8 comments:

  1. Sharon - creativity and family03/09/2015, 03:16

    What a lovely thoughtful gift :-) x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jodiebodie03/09/2015, 16:18

      It is always a pleasure to do nice things for nice people!

      Delete
  2. Gillian03/09/2015, 16:07

    The gloves are really great! I'm sure the surprise was very much appreciated. I did a reply to your question on my sea glass shawl but I think it will go to Amy because she did the original comment. I'm not always sure what way the comments/replies work. So anyway, here's the answer about how much difference blocking made. My shawl started at about 55” by 17” before it was blocked. After blocking, my shawl is now 72.5” wide and 24” deep.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jodiebodie03/09/2015, 16:25

      Wow! That is a significant difference. Beautiful shawl whatever size though :-)
      Your reply ended up underneath Amy's comment because I was replying to your reply to Amy! (If you can follow that! hehehe). You can either hit the reply button directly underneath an individual comment or you can reply to the thread of the post in general by clicking on Add Comment at the bottom of all the comments.

      Delete
  3. Amy at love made my home03/09/2015, 17:48

    Great mitts!!! Good colours too and how great that your friend can wear them with her uniform to keep warm and cosy! So kind of you to make this gift! xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jodiebodie03/09/2015, 20:03

      I really like the way the colours turned out, and am very pleased with the decision to change the positions of the stripe colour changes.

      Delete
  4. Anne10/09/2015, 01:09

    What a thoughtful gift! :)

    I don't follow a sports team but I live next to the soccer stadium here in Dortmund and the town is all about soccer (and the team of course). So one gets sucked in a bit...

    Take care
    Anne
    Crochet Between Worlds

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jodiebodie11/09/2015, 15:43

      I know what you mean! I had a football oval behind my back fence as I was growing up. It became my backyard playing footy in the winter and playing cricket in the summer. One day we were playing hide and seek and we hid so well that the groundsmen locked us in! We are still not sure whether we hid so well that he didn't know we were there or whether he knew very well that we were there and perhaps wanted to teach us a lesson! The football club becomes the heart of a community and it was exciting because there was always something going on. As teenagers we would watch the players training and when the team won the grand final, the party went on all night and well into the morning!

      Do you get involved with the club at all?

      Delete

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