A Crazy Move

Yesterday after a visit to the chiropractor to see if he could make my over-crocheted left forearm stop hurting, I stopped at Patti's Yarn Shop to see if she had buttons I could use for eyes on my eye stalks. She did. While there I asked what might possibly be the craziest question I could have asked--can you teach me to knit? What was I thinking? I already have a crocheting injury, that's why I was at the bonecracker, and now I want to learn yet-another craft guaranteed to exacerbate said injury? Well, Patti's no fool, she could see the yarn addiction in my eyes, so she said sure, found a nice pair of birch needles for me to use (shockingly I had a skein of yarn in the van), invited me into her kitchen, and we began with casting on. Before I had 10 stitches on, the buzzer sounded indicating a customer had come in. So she went to wait on them while I prowled the shelves fondling all the yarn. On the heels of the customers came, one by one, 3 older ladies carrying bags of knitting. They made a beeline for the kitchen and plopped themselves down in the remaining chairs. Seems I'd butted into an impromptu knitting bee! Dorothy was sewing together a pretty deep rose cabled cardigan, Edna pulled out a cute yellow seed stitch sweater she's making for a granddaughter, and Iris was looking for an easy sweater pattern she could make with ribbon yarn and size 13 needles. In between customers, Patti came back to pour coffee for her guests, demonstrate to me how to knit, and field questions from the other 3. Back and forth she went most of the afternoon. Dorothy who sat on my left, kept leaning over to encourage me that I was doing the stitch correctly. In time I noticed that none of the other 3 ladies had made so much as a single stitch; they were drinking their coffee and comparing their ailments. When I commented on it, Iris shook her finger at me and said, grinning, "Listen, I'm 91 and I can do what I want." Guess she told me. Naturally the knitting motion made my arm ache, so I kept stopping between rows to shake my hand and let the muscles relax--the ladies had quite a bit to say about that too. I stayed for about 3 hours and never once did any of them knit! But they sure could talk! Even if I never become a regular knitter I'm so glad I was there to be a part of that little group for one afternoon.