Knitting Group

Tuesday gets short shrift.  It’s not near enough the weekend to have that “we’re almost there” joy of Thursday or Friday, and it doesn’t have fun alternate name like Wednesday.  No, Tuesday’s just thankfully-it’s-not Monday-day.  But my Tuesdays have something wonderfully redeeming about them: knitting group.

Every Tuesday, a large group gathers together at the same location in Richmond.  Organized by my knitting teacher, the group began as knitting lessons.  How splendidly it has evolved! 

In the past five months, it’s turned from a few knitters attempting to teach some interested women and children how to knit into a fun and relaxing yarn-infused craft night.  Knitting with needles, knitting with cans, knitting with fingers, crocheting with hooks, even coloring for the youngsters.  There’s still teaching going on, but it’s no longer just the few who came in as teachers.  It’s everyone helping each other, sharing techniques and ideas.  One of the best moments was one young girl wanted to try her hand at needle knitting and her older sister who had only recently learned herself said, “here, I can help you.”

The people change, in and out, who’s available, who’s around.  Mothers bring their children.  Fathers stop in to say hello and see the progress.  Children try and give up and try again, and the joy in their eyes when they finally finish their first project is wonderful.  One girl had started and stopped about 8 different times.  Scarves, purses, wash clothes, pink yarn, green yarn, multi-colored yarn.  And then one day she tried crocheting instead of knitting.  Within a few weeks, she had a beautiful crocheted little chick with bead eyes and beak.

As the evening draws to a close, the children get a special treat.  Picking through a large bag of books, the children pull out their selections for bed time stories.  As the stories are read aloud, the children pipe in with the parts they know and giggle at the silly pictures.

I look forward to knitting group; it’s one of the highlights of my week. It’s so wonderful to relax with everyone, to just sit and knit and chat.  There are several people I look forwards to seeing each week.  I’m even getting the hang of teaching the youngsters. And, I am very good at singing along when it’s time for the ten-little-teddy-bears-sleeping-in-a-bed bedtime story.