Knit & Chat

As ever, the predictions of my anxiety were given the smackdown by the realities of the evening. Which I knew would probably happen, but practicality never seems to be able to gain a foothold when your Worst Case Scenerio Demon is having its playtime.

The lighting was poor, and it turned out we were sat in the smoking section, but I found these two facts to be ultimately ignorable. The ladies were quite warm and welcoming, and I began to feel at ease quite quickly. This time there were five, not counting myself of course: Steph, Sue, Jane, Rosie and … I want to say her name is Abigail. If I’m misremembering I’ll have to correct that after next month’s meeting. Anyway.

Rosie and Abigail are young—I’m a poor judge of age but I want to say late teens—and new to knitting. I know that one of them is the daughter of one of the other women, but I’m not sure whom belongs to whom. They both had their first scarves there to show, and Rosie is jumping into the deep-end feet first and planning on knitting herself a little top, which I think is awesome. No fear!

Those two took themselves off to a table with slightly better lighting for Rosie to work on her gauge swatch, leaving us “old married ladies” to our corner by the fireplace, haha.

The conversation flowed around the knitting, with comfortable silences smattered throughout. I managed to knit 5 rounds of Soleil during the two hours, but I admit it was hard for me to concentrate on my own knitting. I was absolutely fascinated by watching their hands. They all knit English, but they all hold their yarn and needles differently, and wow are they fast. I was especially blown away by Jane, who was making a lacey scarf out of mohair, and whipping through the rows like she was working simple stockinette in smooth yarn. Vroom vroom!

It honestly didn’t feel like I was there two hours, and I’m already looking forward to the next meeting in February. Hopefully we’ll find some seats with better lighting in the non-smoking section.