It started like this…
The phone rang last night and a woman asked for me. If she hadn’t named the town she lived in, I’d have hung up right off the bat. Then she said she’d contacted me before for me email and I’m thinking.. ‘I don’t THINK SO…’ but let her continue. Turns out, she was calling to get contact info for a high school reunion. I’ve never attended one. It’s way to far away and I just can’t think of anyone I’d really like to see. Doesn’t sound very charitable on my part, I know. I bite my tongue and hear her out. It (the reunion) wouldn’t just be OUR year, but it would cover a decade worth of classes. A DECADE! That sort of indicates the level of interest.
She says.. ‘We’ll be the youngest class’. That’s a good thing. Then she mentions that some of the classes may be able to get a *senior discount*. I shut down. A bit more la de da and then we play ‘catch up’. (Let’s be clear, I don’t really remember her. I’m sure we didn’t hang out. I’m flying blind.) I mention knitting. She knits. Okay. I mention the knitting guild in her area.
Me.. " I am a member, sometimes they have good workshops. You might be interested."
She.. " Why would I want to join a group, what’s to learn, there are two stitiches, a knit and a purl."
Me.. "Yep. .. you’re right". I lose interest in the conversation. During the next five minutes (took that long) we cover sushi, her name change, and finally I offer ONE LAST TRY.
Me.. (again) ‘Lots of the woman in the guild are knitting lace items, its interesting, its fun.’
That stops her.
She.. " I didn’t know…."
Remember when you didn’t either (know how to make lacy knitted items)?? Once I started, I wanted a lace project on the needles ALL THE TIME. It’s a treat to jump into when everything else is feeling a bit stagnant. I remember.
Comments
8 responses to “Before Lace”
I almost always have something lace-y on the needles. It’s such fun and I love the finished product. I’ve been thinking I want to try knitting some lace with silk. Any recommendations?
It may only be two stitches but there are so many things to learn. You can never know them all. I do remember BL and it wasn’t as fun as knitting is today. Lace is the process in action…pure and simple.
I think I woulda paid money to be a fly on the wall to see the expression on her face change when you said that. 🙂
BL was last month. L is this month. I’m thinking of the wool peddler’s shawl, but I have two (!) leaf lace shawls first. And I don’t even wear shawls. (They’re nice gifts though). FWIW, I don’t go to my reunions either. They stopped calling.
You are a patient woman! But it paid off the right word was “LACE”.Missed you yesterday….
Well. I love looking at everyone’s lace knitting. And I have yet to get back to a high school reunion. And I remember the last time someone called and surprised me (very evil grin):-)))
Yea, there are just two stitches..but I am still trying to figure out that brioche!
Before the holidays, I was at THE arts & crafts fair for our state. There was a woman minding the booth for an exhibitor. She was knitting what appeared to be a sock. I stopped to speak with her and commented on how interesting her sock was and asked about the pattern. “Oh, I don’t use patterns, I just make it up as I go.” “Wow, how creative,” I said, “I would love it if you would come knit with our group sometime and share how you do that. We meet..blah, blah, blah… Love to see what other knitters are doing, bl, bl, bl,….. YOu are Always welcome…..” AND SHE SAID::
“I can’t imagine anything except a root canal without pain medication that I would consider doing LESS! I knit alone in front of the fireplace when it’s dead quiet and no one is around. How awful to knit with other people! Not in a million years!”
When my mind un-boggled, instead of smacking her one, I said “My group loves it when new knitters come so we can share their and our ideas, and so we can help brand new “baby” knitters figure out patterns, stitches and all the stuff they can’t do alone. We cheer each other on and celebrate when we finish things and show them.”
“Hhhm,” she said. I left.
I saw Cyndy’s comment about Brioche stitch -I have a good source and contacted her.