Detroit Lions Knitted Cloth

I love football.  A wee bit of personal history here - skip down to the picture if you're not interested.....  I grew up in Buffalo, where it is practically the law that you must be a Bills fan.  In my customary ornery-ness, I actually started out  supporting the Dallas Cowboys - this was waaaaayyyy back when Tom Landry was head coach there.  My mom was a huge fan of the Cowboys at the time, and their games always seemed to be on tv.  I can remember sitting in front of the television with a clipboard, trying to keep track of which player wore what number, like Ed "Too Tall" Jones - #72.  (He was my favorite.  I always seem to have a thing for defensive ends.  All hail Bruce Smith - Buffalo's best #78!)  No internet searching then for the team roster, so I every Sunday I had my handy clip board and a pencil, and I would frantically try to read the back of every player's jersey.   Then they fired Landry, and I thought that was unforgivable, so in protest I dumped the Cowboys and started learning about my home team, and I have never looked back.   No matter where I live, the Buffalo Bills have always had my heart!

Skipping forward to the present, I have a friend who grew up in Detroit and is an impressively fierce fan of all Detroit professional sports teams.  He and I often bet on who's hometown hockey or football team will make it farther during a season, or who will score the most points etc.  We've also done fantasy football against each other.  (I am quite proud to admit that my football prowess won me the Fantasy Football Super Bowl title one year, in a league with 9 guys.  Yup.  Got their butts kicked by a girl!)  Anyhow, I owed him a trophy of some sort for some bet or other, and decided to make him something.  I found a neat website where you can upload a graphic and it will give you a grid in return, making for an easy-peasy knit / purl pattern.

So here we have the Detroit Lions NFL Mascot cloth.  I have yet to write up the pattern, but if anyone is interested, send me a message and I'll make a concerted effort to put it on paper.  I altered it a bit from what the graphics program gave me, and have ideas on how to make it a little more defined after seeing the finished product.  This was just the basic Sugar & Cream cotton in Cornflower Blue.  Go Lions!