About Last Night

Whew!

Hello, kittens! So much to tell!

As you know, I moved to MinneSNOWta. And lived for over a week in the hollow depths of a house without internet. What TORTURE!

But I can say that cable was installed yesterday, I got our phone all hooked up today (we use Vonage), and we're now good to go on outward communications sans use of horrible cell phones.

But I digress. I mean, there IS a photo of yarn right there. Of course that means I'm going to talk about fiber something.

A few weeks ago when we leased this house I looked on the internet to see if there were any local yarn shops nearby. Well, I struck the jackpot, kittens, because there's a beauty of a yarn shop three minutes from my house. I'm in heaven.

Not only is said yarn shop sinfully close, but it also hosts many many get-togethers throughout the month. One of them is what they call the "Second Monday Starbucks Knitting" (or S.M.S.K.) where a bunch of knitters from the area meet at the local Starbucks and knit. Together.

Awesome. Take a minute to realize what this means for me. In Wisconsin where we were, there were no local yarn shops anywhere near me. Not one. So no chance to meet other knitters/crocheters that way. And I didn't know any other knitters or crocheters to even start one myself. So sad for AJ.

But now here, wow. Anyway, if you haven't guessed, last night was the Second Monday of the month and I went to the S.M.S.K. It was SO much fun! There were only a few of us there which they said was probably due to the holiday craziness and the rainy cold weather we were having. Still though, there were five of us there plus the yarn store owner, Steven. He's awesome!

The second I got there, I introduced myself and he asked if I'd ever knit before. I told him yes, and then he asked me what I brought to knit. He then dove (and I really mean dove) into my knitting bag to see what goodies I'd brought along. Fun!

So to commence on with the knitting and chatting. What a blast! We all sat around two tables FILLED with baskets of beautiful, scrumptious yarn that Steven had brought from the store. He'd also brought along projects he's worked on with some of the newer stock and new patterns. It was an absolute fiber field day. I saw and felt yarns I'd never even heard of before and now deeply covet.

As we knit, he gave advice if anyone had questions or helped them with a difficult part of the pattern they were working with. We talked a little about everyone's experience and how they got started. They were also very welcoming to me about just having moved here and were delighted that I joined in with their knitting group right away.

Now for details about the above photo of yarn. I bought that on Sunday at the yarn shop. It's Schaefer's Yarn called "Anne" - a very soft dreamy fiber. It's a hand painted blend of 60% Merino Wool Superwash, 25% Mohair, and 15% Nylon. I'm using it to make a smaller gauged version of Clapotis from Knitty.

I started it yesterday and actually had a pretty good start going when I got to Starbucks last night. But while I was there and chatting I made a mistake I couldn't trace back so I frogged it all this morning and will start again in a little while. Oh well.

One bad thing about the evening? I didn't bring Eleanor. Why? Well because it was raining, mostly. But also because I guess I'm a little shy. It's one thing to show something that I'm in the middle of making. It's another to bring something along that's already finished... I didn't want to seem pretentious or boastful. But oh was I ever kicking myself halfway through the night and I was telling them about her. I will bring her next time.

Hell, I didn't bring anything with me that I've finished. Not even one of my felted purses nor did I wear one of my pairs of knitted socks! *sigh*

But I sure did have a good time!