What I learned at the Basketball Tournament

1. You can knit lace in the wind.

2. If you knit in public, especially at sporting events, everyone wants you to make them something with the team logo on it. Here is the conversation I had about 369 times this weekend:

Any sports fan (ASF): You knit? (while looking at me knitting lace in the wind, obviously envious of my talents).
Knitting Goddess (KG): Yes, I do. ( I say this without sarcasm the first time just in case they don't know the difference between knitting and crocheting)
ASF: Are you knitting right now?
After being tempted to reply with "No, I'm performing brain surgery on a pink flamingo right now," I decide that this might be offensive.
KG: Yes, I am knitting a lace project. (Have they noticed that I'm doing this in the wind!)
ASF: What are you making?
Obviously the sport's fan wasn't paying attention to my last response. I'm pretty sure that the fan is already planning the projects that I could make for him or her.
KG: Oh, I'm practicing a lace pattern. (I highly recommend this response instead of "I'm making lace for my Knitting Master's project. I now avoid mentioning this because a. I have to explain what the Master's project is, and most of the time people never seem to "get" why someone would want to do this and b. I end up looking like a knitting geek instead of a knitting goddess.
ASF: You can knit lace?
Hasn't the fan been watching me knit lace in the wind?
ASF: Can you make (here you insert one of the following: mittens, hats, sweaters, socks, scarves, blankets, or other knitted item)? I would love one for when I watch my (son's, daughter's) (soccer, football, baseball, track, cross country, golf, volleyball, swimming, lacrosse, rugby, watermelon seed spitting, etc) team. Can you knit it with a (first letter of the team's name) on it? The team starts up in (one, two, three, less than one) week(s) and it would be so nice to have something.
(After the first person mentioned this, I have to admit that I hadn't thought of this myself. I make a mental entry in my future project journal - Make team related mittens for family. What a great idea. I could probably make up a bunch and sell them. But not right now, I am creating lace)
KG: That's a great idea!
ASF: You could probably make a bunch and sell them (thinking that of course their knitted item would be free for having come up with the idea. After hearing ASF come up with this idea for the 49th time, I began saying "That's a great idea," more sarcastically.

And the final thing I learned this weekend -

3. If you are out in the sun for eight hours during the heat of the day, you really should put on the sunscreen that has been sitting in your knitting bag all day.

Armed with these three newly learned facts, I will head off for canoe camp tomorrow with the family to see if I can:
1. Knit lace on the Wisconsin River.
2. Avoid knitting in front of ASF.
3. Use sunscreen as recommended by the Surgeon General or any person with more sense than me. That means - Let's see if I can actually put it on and not get sunburned on my sunburn this week!

See you on Friday - or maybe Saturday if the fish are biting and the weather is nice!