(Knitting) Group Therapy

When I worked in West Virginia I was in a knitting group  that met once a week at the old Morgantown Hotel downtown. It's a beautiful, well preserved turn of the century hotel and every week I would go stepping past the concierge and up the marble steps, past the crystal chandelier with knitting bag in hand. One of the members of the group is a member of the family that owns the hotel and from what I could figure, they had been meeting for about 20 years - or more. Most knitting groups are a fluid lot as people discover it, move, come back. Some nights it would be me and Dotty, other nights they would be dragging more chairs to the table but it was never boring - we chatted with two people or twenty, about everything and nothing.  I've also been a member of the group in the little store downtown for a short period of time,  but I think it was the time they held the group, I could just never make it in time no matter how fast I scrambled. When I did make it there I enjoyed it - I sat next to a sheriff who sometimes would hide her yarn stash in the patrol car until her husband went to work so she could sneak it in the house. Since we've moved around a bit I've been to different groups, very rarely are they not fun. 

I did go to to one in the Poconos that was no fun - it was an established group but they were not very friendly to newcomers. You know that feeling you got in the beginning of school, when you realized none of your friends were in the same lunch period - you'd stand there holding your tray scanning the lunch room looking for a friendly face or at least an empty table.  Then when you finally sat -  a group would come and sit that knew each other, but not you - so they would look past you, talking to each other as if you were not there - that was exactly that group. The third time I finally gave up after sitting and keeping my eyes on my knitting while everyone else talked around me, never inviting me into the conversation. The only good that came out of that experience was I make sure to introduce myself to new people and include them in the conversation.

So, now I work in Pittsburgh and can no longer make it to Morgantown - so after I started working I found another knitting group and this one is halfway between work and home. I try to schedule my clients so the one I see on knitting group nights are the closest to Kid Ewe Knot - the store I knit at. The meeting are late enough in the afternoon I can get there in time to knit. Knitting groups are fun because you meet all sorts of people - a retired physical therapist, a homeland security agent, a retired CEO, housewife, ball room dance instructor, special education teacher. We speak about everything - traveling, retirement, getting married, babies, crockpot recipes and the latest book we're reading. We laugh - a lot - it's one of the most relaxing, enjoyable things about my week. If things are not going well, my knitting group gives me that welcome respite I sometimes need so much. But most of the time it's just a fun time spent with talented friends.