Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Knit Knight 3

For those of you who regularly attend LYS knit knights, this post will possibly elicit a slightly knowing, kind and condescending "Duh." But it's my blog as an intermediate novice knitter and to not include my weekly amazements would be leaving something out of my record for posterity.

I have the sense of humor of someone who is 10. I don't even remember what I was laughing at but I do know that when I left, there was that internal feeling of having laughed a lot which makes a person feel so great.

I'm pretty sure not everyone was struck in the same way by the things that popped up in my head but instead were laughing just at my laughing. An example was my glee at saying "baa" as I pressed the belly of my new sheep tape measure and it's measuring tail snapped back inside itself.

The LYS owner (Denise) had steeked her Kauni and I got to see it first hand. Unbelievable. She also didn't mind offering aid on the Tangled Yoke even though it wasn't shop yarn in use. Says she, Before we opened this store, X from X Needleworks, accosted me in her store and informed me that the yarn I was knitting with wasn't from HER store. When we opened this one (there are 5 owners) we swore we'd never be like that.

After I was whining about the gamble of the size of Tangled Yoke, Denise asked me if I did a swatch and got gauge. I said I did a swatch and then said, why don't you check the gauge for me and see if I'm really getting it. There was that moment after counting- a standoff of sorts- she said What did you need? I said What did you get? and then we both came up with the number 6. I don't recall ever being happier and more relieved to hear someone say "six.

She offered some additional help- for some reason I can mentally visualize top down knitting better than bottom up. Maybe because I'm so tall. It's just about time to start the sleeves. I've got 14" of body and it's flying along. Every so often as I contemplate attaching the sleeves I recreate the mental image she offered of how it will work.

There were 2 people I hadn't met yet- Ann and her adult son. Ann had lots of stories about herself to tell and it was most interesting to watch the regulars tune her in and out in the way one might go about reading one of those endless blog posts that have a lot of "first we did this, then we did this, then my sister went here" without any real reflection but just words for the sake of them. At one point her slightly peculiar adult son said to me "You better watch yourself, she's bigger than you."

And the final bonus of knit knight. While vacationing, the 5 yo grandson regularly (as in after every knitted row) asked Am I knitting? Am I doing it? Am I a good knitter? It made me laugh but I answered him every time as if he hadn't just asked it. Going to knit knight is like having someone answer the same question for me.

7 comments:

Lydee said...

I laughed too at the mental picture of you saying baa when you squeezed the sheep tape measure! That is funny!

Ooo, you made hummus, I've been wanting to make some and eat it with pita chips. I have never made black beans and rice, but I think I will soon. Let me know how the rice cooker turns out. I buy the great big burlap bags of basmatti rice at Sam's club.

Olga said...

I left my knit group feeling like I 'wore the lamp shade' and made a total fool of myself. We use to meet at Starbucks and there wasn't any 'where you bought the yarn' thing but there was a BIG issue about patterns and sharing them. If you didn't pay for the pattern they felt you couldn't use it. People got pretty heated over that.

carla said...

Yay, gauge!

I really should try to find a knitting group, yours sounds fun.

Anonymous said...

I would've been laughing too! Baaaa! I serously love my knit night and always have a barrel of laughs. Glad you both cam eup with 6. What a relief!

Anonymous said...

Here's my feeling on yarn stores- If you are going to get snippy about where I bought the yarn I likely won't be shopping in your store, within reason. It should be for the love of yarn!!

Yarnhog said...

You'd like my husband. You have the same sense of humor. I describe him as "a 7-year-old on a sugar high." That said, I giggled at your sheep, too.

I'm glad your lys owners seem cool. I can certainly see owners being a bit put out if you just come in asking for help on a project you bought elsewhere, but at knit night, you should be able to work on whatever you want.

5elementknitr said...

"She's bigger then you." WTF?? Whenever someone says something like that again, just say, "I may be little, but I'm mean."