Thursday, June 22, 2006

Younger knitters in Madison?

i started writing a comment on Madisonienne's blog, only to realize that (like most things I blog about here) it was getting giant and unwieldy in that rather philosophical way. You know -- picture speaks a thousand words and all, but I still haven't gotten in the habit of taking pictures. (I'm just full of excuses. Note the huge posts and few FOs.)

Regarding "finding the right knitting group in Madison," I don't know what the deal is, or what I want, really. I belong to an established crafting group, but they're only half crafty and half "gossip about the club and eat yummy food." Which is SO not a problem, except that they were a) established long before I came around and b) don't really knit, though there are a couple who do small starter-type projects. I went to a Madison SnB once and it was fun, but because it was sort of in the beginning stages I think everyone was a little wary. (And someone came who was significantly different from everyone else in terms of age, lifestyle and interest, which wasn't terrible but made things a little stilted.)

personally, one challenge I have (as I said to her) is that I don't have a car. I'm constantly bumming rides to my craft group, which is a pain because only a couple people live further west than I do, and they don't always come. I really hate asking or hinting for someone to drive out of their way to pick me up. In the summer it's not so bad, but no matter what time of year it is I'm not very comfortable riding my bike, my scooter or the bus for a significant distance when it's dark. I think a fair amount of people are probably in the same boat, either carless or sharing a car with someone else, and it's too bad that more yarn stores aren't open later.

I guess it's kind of like finding a doctor you can trust. On the one hand you have first impressions, and the skill should be the primary concern, but on the other you have to really cultivate a relationship and give it time to see how it goes. That's hard. You don't want to waste your time on something that won't pan out, but at the same time you want your needs to be met and are willing to give it a chance.

It's sometimes difficult, too, to strike a good balance between the sort of SnB hipster cutesy stuff and the big sack sweaters or shawls that you see geared towards older knitters. Obviously we all do things on a project basis, but for younger, intermediate knitters it's more of a challenge. I suppose, too, it parallels what a lot of us are trying to do with life in general -- some of us are further along the life curve than others, whether by choice or by circumstance.

Know what I mean?

1 Comments:

At 9:52 AM, Blogger Madisonienne said...

The girls from 4 the love o'knit and I are going to be going out on the town on Friday night. You are more than welcome to meet up with us. It would be awesome to meet you. We're planning Tornado Room around 10 and then off to wherever after.

 

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