Five Questions for…Michelle, The Knitting Lady

Perhaps you’ve seen her behind the glass at any number of Penguins games. Perhaps you saw her featured on a post on the wildly popular The Pensblog – one of Pittsburgh’s premier Penguins blogs. “Her” being the Pittsburgh Penguins fan who can be seen sporting Penguins gear and knitting in her seat during Penguins games.

I learned of her through Twitter when I tweeted a picture of her and her husband because I didn’t understand a sign he was holding. Twitter responded with, “Hey! That’s the Knitting Lady next to him!” and I was all, “The Knitting Lady?!”

I hunted around the Internet to find that indeed, she had become well known in hockey circles, with commentary ranging from “Hey, it’s her ticket,” to basically, and I’m paraphrasing here, “She’s crazy.”

I decided that I must get her story in order to understand WHY she’s knitting while attending games. Part of me wanted to know, “IS she crazy?”

The verdict? Not even a little bit crazy. She’s an extremely likable, down to earth, completely sane woman, whose passion for the Penguins is only rivaled by her passion for knitting.

Her name is Michelle, she lives in Maryland and she grew to love hockey, particularly Penguins hockey, through her boyfriend at the time and eventual husband, Mike, while both were living in Arizona prior to moving East.

I asked her five questions with the goal of learning about who she is as a person and as a Penguins fan and, yes, as a knitter.

1) This is the question everyone wants to know. WHY? Why knitting and why at hockey games?

"I started out crocheting. My mom taught me when I was 4 and that has followed me through life. I started knitting about 16 years ago and then hockey got involved when I met my husband, Mike. We moved to Maryland in 2006 and this gave us the opportunity to attend Penguins games at the Igloo. We went to one game during the 2006-07 season. It’s 500 miles roundtrip for us to go to the games, and as Maryland residents we aren’t allowed to be season ticket holders so we have to hunt for tickets to each game, but we decided it was well worth the effort. We increased our hockey travelling in 2007-08 and saw 22 games. We attended another 22 games in 2008-09. So far this season we have been to 23 regular season games and hope to make it to lots of playoff games!"

"Why do I knit at hockey games? I don’t want to miss a single second of the game. I am in my seat for warm-ups and don’t leave until the score is final. I started bringing small, easy projects to pass time while waiting for the game to start and during intermissions. Then, even the commercial breaks started to seem long and I had just learned to knit socks, so I thought hey, they’re small and I could just hold them in my hands while the game was going on and have them ready to work on during stoppages in play. And without paying attention, my hands started knitting during the game. I realized when I was knitting, I didn’t get so mad at the bad plays or that my team was losing or the refs weren’t paying attention or whatever. And when I wasn’t so mad, I enjoyed the game a whole lot more. When knitting, I tend to pay attention better; I remember more plays; I can watch the action closer AND I don’t get angry (big plus for me!)."

2) Do you knit at every Penguins game you attend and/or watch at home?

Yep, pretty much – home, the Igloo, visiting other arenas, preseason, regular season, playoffs – knitting happens everywhere.

In fact, The 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs provided two of my most memorable “knitting at the hockey game” moments. The first came in round 2, game 5 against the Washington Capitals at Verizon Center in DC. For the second time that series, we were in a luxury suite next to the one occupied by the Penguins brass, including owner Mario Lemieux and wife Nathalie, team president David Morehouse, GM Ray Shero, and some famous parents in Troy Crosby and “The Genos.”