Work-in-Progress: Status of the Ty Cobb Sweater, May 2018

Here's the thing people are probably most interested in: the status of the sweaters reproductions. This spring, I've been concentrating on the Ty Cobb Sweater--I'll get to the ECL Sweater next--and I'm pleased to say that, unlike my previous status update, it's finally starting to look like a sweater.

 

As you can see, the body--everything but the sleeves, pockets, collar/button placket, and logo--is done. Lest you think, "That can't possibly be a sweater!", here's what the it looks like with the front folded in:

 

 Here, we discover one of the first major differences between a sweater from 1921 and one made now. As you see, this one has no side seams. (As you'll soon discover, it has almost no seams at all.)  I'm not sure why that's the case, other than that, when hand-knitting, fewer seams make for faster projects. There are also fewer pieces to misplace. 

What has me most excited is that--after several false starts (I'll talk about them later)--this version is stitch-for-stitch accurate. The fabric weight is right; the stitch gauge is right; the neck decreases work out exactly... In short, I think I've got it! I suppose it depends on your priorities, but, for me, successfully reverse-engineering a historical artifact (often using construction methods that have been lost for decades) is a real accomplishment.

What are those construction methods, you ask? Once again, those are for future blog posts. Be prepared for nitty-gritty, though. If you're a knitter, you may be introduced to techniques you've never seen before. If you're a baseball sweater enthusiast, think of it as a history lesson. After all, 100 years ago, you might have been wearing a sweater just like this and never thought twice about it.

Rain... er, Life... Delay

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."       - John Lennon

Hey everybody! I'm back! Yes, it's been a while. Actually, it's been quite a while. Do I have any excuses? Probably; excuses are pretty easy to come by. Are they good excuses? Probably not, but at least they're fun and interesting.

My life is still full of knitting and full of baseball. On the baseball side, I was the Official Scorer last summer for the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders, a new team in the Northwoods League (a collegiate summer league). This season, I'm with 2080 Baseball, doing behind-the-scenes work like database construction/administration, video compilation (you should the see the prospect video library I've helped build!), intern management, you name it.  On the knitting side, I've gotten a couple patterns published (including a scarf modeled by the fabulous Jenn Decker), and I have a few more in the pipeline that will come out later this year. (No spoilers, sorry, but I'll let you know when they're up.)

Taffy Twist Tam, pattern at Knit Picks

Tescherae Scarf, pattern at Knitty

And, because it's me, I did find a way to mix knitting (well, yarn), baseball, and scientific research. As you probably recall, one of the bigger stories last year was the Home Run Surge. There are clearly myriad contributing factors (swing mechanics, hitting strategy etc.), but a Saber Seminar talk last summer by Alan Nathan got me thinking that part of the difference might be the ball itself. Therefore, I spent a lot of time over the last 6-8 months systematically tearing apart baseballs and gathering data on their contents and construction. (Yes, no doubt some of you know I have a history of tearing apart baseballs to get at the yarn. Here, though, I was tearing apart baseballs for science. If that yarn gets used in the future, so be it. For now, it's still a source of data.)

The exciting news is that, yes, there's a difference! (I'm in the process of writing everything up now.) Thanks to Rob Arthur, I even got the chance to talk about my findings on NBC Left Field.



So now, finally, I'm getting back to my sweater reproductions. I'll give you details on the status of the Ty Cobb Sweater in the next post, but suffice it to say that it's coming along very, very well. Thanks for being patient with my hiatus. Let's get this ball rolling again!