Knitting Networking--a close-knit group

Back of D's shawl
Originally uploaded by sunasak

I haven't gotten much interesting work done this week, since in my personal life I was busy--three days of long training sessions followed by evening activities means little time to knit or blog. The good news is that I had three days of work this week, and next week I will start another 9-month contract, so the job worries are over for a while.

In the meantime, I have really been enjoying my knitting friends. One of the evening activities was Wednesday's Chicks with Sticks meeting. I got so caught up in admiring other people's work (like the shawl in the photo, my friend's first successful big lace project, which took her just a week), helping people with problems, and supporting a new knitter taking a class, so the yarn shop owner could eat lunch (at 7 pm), that I didn't knit much. But, the community of sweet and kind ladies really filled my heart with gladness. Watching people make friends, support each other, and learn from each other (no matter what their politics, religion or other beliefs may be) really reminds me how much all of us have in common. A lot more than how we differ.

One of our good knitting friends has been going through some hard personal times, and we have all tried to be there for her. She decided to move back to her home town up north and get away from the negativity here, and we all understand. Wednesday was her last time to be with us. There was a really cute cake for her, with a cheerful message to encourage her to enjoy the new chapter in her life, and the book called Chicks with Sticks, signed by lots and lots of the "regulars." It's just another example of the kind of community that has developed around our yarn shop.

I love it that all are welcome--it's a sanctuary for the socially inept, the lonely, and the gregarious and popular as well. I wish we all had such an accepting community!

I am going to be gone most of the weekend, but I'll take the computer and maybe share pictures of the last bunch of dishcloths and some yummy sock yarn I got--bought by a yarn shop friend on a trip to Seattle!