Fiber Follies

Well done, Rothane! You dug up a bit of information on knitting groups here and there in our area, and alerted a mitt-full of local forum members to a meeting at a nearby bookseller’s. You managed to round us up into a small happy group, all eager to apply faces to forum identities. It was a grand evening. We knitted, we chatted about knitting and school and work and whatever seemed worth covering.

I’ve got pictures!
Sadly, I was prevented from getting a picture of tashagurl. sigh. I won’t name the bookseller. I will state that it’s a huge chain, highly popular and a trendy place to hang out and be seen. What is this, “you can’t take pictures in here”? I wanted to be a smartypants, but restrained myself. It wouldn’t have helped us. And if I let my yap go, well, it’s never pretty. So I contained myself, apologised to Ms. Nazi (who was regally firm yet coolly polite [condescending?] when informing me that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures), and our group departed soon after. At least I’ve got pics of Rothane, Little Mousling, and wispylittlesnot (who you already know as Precious Child). I coloured in the backgrounds, in a nice chocolate, in the remote possibility the store might appear and be recognisable. Is this really the chain’s policy? Is it posted at highly visible spots in and around the store? I honestly don’t know. I admit I never looked. I never gave thought to it. Whoops. I’ll have a glance round next time I’m there. I really want to be cranky about it but can’t so will acquiesce to store policies. Just believe me that tashagurl is just as picture-worthy as everyone else. I’ll get her at the next SSK! meeting. Our Coffee Shop & Wine Bar is much friendlier to customers. They don’t mind pictures being taken in the shop. It’s publicity. They encourage us to enjoy ourselves. We don’t exactly swing from the chandeliers (which they lack, but the beams look interesting), we talk and knit and enjoy ourselves thoroughly. We have a big round table to meet at, and a choice of plushy sofas and chairs to camp in for the meetings. The Coffee Shop is most comfortably arranged for meetings of any sort.

Anyway, back to the meeting. We five are forum participants at a most wonderful online knitting magazine. The magazine is packed with patterns and great techniques articles-which have given me strong development since I took up the needles last year. Whenever I need insight over a particular technique, I look there first. If it’s not immediately comprehensible to my aging mind, I trek over to its forums. And have discovered a world of knitters with a lot to offer. They are terrific people.

Meet Rothane. She wore a pair of socks she’d knitted. Her socks looked so cool that I was embarassed to pull out my first sock, the Eternal Sock, which I’ve been knitting since April. I’m slow, okay? And it is my very first sock. And it doesn’t look at all sockly next to Rothane’s neatly made socks.

Rothane is working on a cardigan here. She wasn’t too thrilled with some aspects of the pattern, so is freely altering it to suit her taste. She has good taste-just look at how nicely she dressed. Casual with flair. She travelled a fair distance to meet us. We deeply appreciate Rothane’s presence, both at this meeting and on the forum.

Look at the merry countenance on this elfin lady! Hasn’t she got the prettiest eyes? This is Little Mousling. I’m thrilled to meet her, too. She’s working a shawl, using, if I remember correctly, the Magic Loop method? She tried to describe it to me, then in her brilliant manner, told me of how she’d picked up the technique from the Internet. So I’ll go a-hunting for the way to do this. I’m still reeling from my Olympic KAL doily, which began with six stitches of scrawny cotton thread on weenie dpn’s, and grew to monstrous proportions, finally covering 10 hair-thin dpn’s before I got sick of it and cast off. This looks much more intelligent an approach. And I have evil intent to pester Little Mousling when I need help. I know she’s got intellect to spare, she attends Bryn Mawr. If she shares a bit of that brain power with me I might manage to make some of it stick.
You remember Precious Child, I’m sure. Her forum name is wispylittlesnot. That tag goes back to when she was very small and her grandmother once called her that. Naturally the child argued that she was not “wisty”. “Snot” apparently wasn’t a problem.

She’s crocheting Mario stars, probably a toy for the niece or nephew to be born several months hence. She’s quite excited about this child! She is also knitting the baby cardi from One Skein. It’s the prettiest thing, especially in the creamy white she’s using. I rather like the Mario stars. We’re having another Share the Love meeting in September, which I thought might be nice to aim towards the local Humane Society. People donate for the animals, we can too. Mabel came to us with three toys: a fishing pole made by local Girl Scouts, with feathers and a bell; a fur paw which she carries around like fresh-killed prey; and a crocheted ball which she seems to think is her baby. I think of the lovely people who provided for these animals during their stay at the orphanage, and want to be nice too. And those charming stars are adorable. I have a few other ideas, so maybe we’ll pass around a few patterns for ideas-the stars could be a grand thing to make.

The time passed quickly, as it will when people enjoy themselves. I look forward to seeing Little Mousling, the stately tashagurl, and Rothane at the next SSK! meeting.