It Feels Good to be a Gangsta Knitter!

I’m sitting here at work, waiting for the finalized P&L for the month so that I can complete the Product Line P&L and move on to the rest of my monthly reporting – before it’s time to close the next month already! I work in corporate finance – and most of my time is spent waiting for the details to be finalized, so that I can do analysis.

I can’t knit while I’m sitting here waiting, but I can write about knitting. And daydream about knitting. Which I seem to do far more than actually knitting anything. I'm taking steps toward that. Or, at least, steps toward being more social.

I moved to Minneapolis almost 6 months ago, and am just now venturing out to try to meet people. I spent the past 8 years in the Milwaukee/Chicago area, and didn’t quite realize the network of friends I made (thanks to 2 degrees and 3 companies) and have left behind. Although I didn’t consciously realize it, I guess I was scared about throwing myself out there to meet people, but my social nature won out. And here I am.

So, I've spent the past little while being the "new girl" at knit nites in the Cities. This past Friday was Drunken Knitting night @ Merlin’s Rest. I’ll be a monthly participant there when I can, as the combination of beer and knitting is too much to resist. However, I managed to completely mess up my simple pattern for my father-in-law’s scarf (which was: Row 1: K2, P1, Row 2: K, repeat rows 1 & 2 ad nauseam).

That precipitated a trip to Borealis Yarns in St. Paul after my beading class on Monday. Where I bought 4 balls of Noro Chirimen #1, and decided to do something else with the black yarn I’d been working with on Friday night.

And I brought the Chirimen to knit nite @ Borealis last night. It was, apparently, a little brighter than usual, thanks to the news camera there, filming pieces for a story about Etsy. I had a good time, even if I did determine, after starting over twice, that 1x1 ribbing was NOT what the Chirimen wants to knit up into. It’s a very comfortable place to sit for a couple of hours and knit, and I’m looking forward to getting to know people! Driving back to downtown Mpls in the snow was an adventure – I’m not familiar with that stretch of 94 between St. Paul & Mpls yet, and I couldn’t see the lane markers terribly well, and I’m sure a lot of drivers on the road were muttering in the general direction of the red Civic with Illinois plates. Thank goodness for the GPS Sean bought for me – I wouldn’t have been able to figure out how to get home without it!

And tonight, I’ll go find the knitters at Spyhouse Coffee Shop. Where I hope that the Chirimen wants to be Crazy Aunt Purl’s Magic Scarf. And where I hope that I can manage 3 rows of K, 10 rows of K3, K5, P5, K5, P5, K5, P5, K3, 10 rows of K3, P5, K5, P5, K5, P5, K5, K3, ad nauseam. I think I just need to go more slowly.

I’m still new to knitting, let alone trying to follow/participate in conversations while knitting.

But I know that I can’t meet people without going places, and I can’t become more skilled at knitting unless I do it. And the advice is always given to go find people who like what you like. I’m hoping that being around people who Actually Knit will inspire me to do the same.

Things like beading, cross-stitch, and photography will also end up in this blog, since they’re all things I nominally do, and would like to do more.

In fact, I'm asking Sean to help me with a tutorial on lighting/photography for crafty things soon, so that I can post photos of crafty things here and on ravelry. Hooray for combining 2 things I like into one: photography and knitting!

I figured one way to measure progress is to track actions. I'm hoping this blog will give me perspective on progress.