I had forgotten how much I like to go to a baseball park to take in a game, but I was reminded of the serenity that can be achieved on the grassy diamonds when I went to the 2014 Stitch N’ Pitch at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

After getting out the door a few minutes later than I would have liked, my husband and I got to the ball park at the bottom of the second inning, The Stitch N’ Pitch table was nearly empty, but the envelope with the three game tickets I had purchased (my son had been slated to come but ended up with other plans) was waiting for me, and there were still five swag bags left: one for me, one for my long-suffering husband, and three for anyone who might get there after us.

The flashiest items in our swag bags were these skeins of Berroco Ric Rac:

After a cursory look at our swag, we took what was probably the most circuitous route possible to our seats, settled in, and watched the Durham Bulls take on the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs:

The weather (like the light) was perfect, and I settled in with my hook and yarn, working on a gusset for the cookie bag.

While I and other stitchers plied our crafts, one of the organizers would occasionally hold up a small white board with a three-digit number written on it. What, my husband wanted to know, was that about?

Because we had been running late, I had not paid as much attention to what was in the red envelope with the tickets for our seats, but I had a vague recollection of their having been something else in there, and I dug out the envelope to find three raffle tickets — one for each of the baseball tickets we had purchased — and handed them to my husband.

Soon after I had given my husband the tickets, the woman raised the white board with the number 240 written on it: turned out that my husband and I had won two skeins of mohair yarn.

Half-an-hour later, she held up another of our numbers. This time we won 4 tickets to the North Carolina Zoo courtesy of The National NeedleArts Association (aka TNNA).

Shortly after that, a woman sitting near me won the last prize of the evening — a jar of buttons. She looked disappointed, and as I love buttons, I offered to trade her for my two skeins of mohair.

Here are my raffle spoils for the evening:

As for the game, there were a couple of nail-biting innings, but the Durham Bulls managed to pull it together and eventually prevailed.

With a lovely Friday night of baseball behind me and the rest of the weekend ahead of me, I got back to work on the pieces I need for my 2014 World Cups soccer ball.

First up was the hexagon based on the flag of Italy, which is, as it happens, a lot like the flag of Mexico. There was no way to recreate all of the detail of the Mexican coat of arms at the center of the flag of Mexico, but I came up with what I found to be an acceptable abstract rendition:

With the more challenging Mexico hexagon completed, I felt ready to take on the challenge of the flag of England. After lots of doing and redoing, I finally got it done (except for weaving in ends):

The new week starts tomorrow, which means the kick-off for the 2014 World Cup will be just nine days away. At least I don’t have to wonder what I will do with my time.