Knitting guild and a meme

Last night my knitting buddy Ileana and I went to the Houston Knit at Night Guild's monthly meeting. What a blast!

We were pretty late because a) we didn't have directions and had to have my Mom look them up, with help/interference from my brother who didn't want to relinquish the computer and b) we didn't even call for directions until like five minutes before the meeting started.

Even though we came in late they wanted us to introduce ourselves, which I guess means we were forgiven, and I told them my good old joke about learning to knit when I was 8 and learning to purl when I was a sophomore in college. It's fun making a room full of about 40 knitters crack up. The problem with that joke is that I'd just said I was a student (didn't mention the "grad" part) and that I look like I'm about 16. They were probably thinking "gosh, she's a sophomore in college? she looks so young!" So they probably figured I'd been purling for all of a month.

At the break, though, about five women came over to see my kneesocks. (I'd meant to work on the sweater at the meeting, because I am *this close* to being done, but I forgot the extra DPN. Grr.) And they *loved* them. I felt like a rockstar.

The best part of the meeting was at the end when everybody showed off their finished objects. It was amazing to see the range of experience and all the beautiful things people were working on. There were women knitting variations on the garter stitch scarf and women knitting ganseys on size four needles, women knitting with Red Heart and one lady who said she'd just finished her first project with a synthetic yarn in the whole length of her knitting life. What was so great about this group was that they really celebrated each other. Ileana and I loved it, and we can't wait to go back.

Auntie Ann did this meme- "10 knitterly things you didn't know about me" and I am trying to come up with some things.

1) My first project, a pair of mittens to be felted, took me about six years to finish and i'd outgrown the mittens by the time they were done. By that time I'd also lost the book with the felting instructions, and never got around to felting them. So I guess that technically counts as my oldest unfinished object-- somewhere around 15 years old.

2) As much as I love knitting socks, I'm not sure that any of them will ever get worn in public more than once or twice. It's hard to say yet because I started knitting socks right when it got to be about 80 degrees last spring, so we'll see, but I just don't have the shoes or the style required for crazy handknit socks. And I hate clogs.

3) I knit a Fair Isle PDA cozy once, to practice my two-handed fair isle, but I made it with some slippery cotton yarn that stretched out too much to hold the PDA.

4) I don't want to knit anything that I wouldn't buy in a store, so I will never (I hope) knit shapeless, unflattering sweaters.

5) I will tolerate very small mistakes in my knitting, but only if they're almost completely unnoticeable. As much as I hate frogging, I hate obvious imperfections more.

6) I can't wait until I can knit a sweater for my boyfriend. Something with ribbing to show off his muscles. I'm not worried about the Curse as much as I'm worried about the Laundromat.

7) In case my advisor (with whom I took a class on the writings of Karl Marx last semester) ever gives me grief about knitting, I have devised an elaborate defense based on Marx as to why I should be able to knit. I think he will like it. ("This is labor from which I am not alienated!")

8) I kind of believe #7. My knitting is the only thing I have that's truly mine, that I do for myself and no one else. But maybe Marx would want me to knit for the common good? He's a little fuzzy on the details.

9) I am a fearless knitter--I'm never afraid to try anything (except knitting ugly things)--and I sometimes have a hard time understanding why people do fear things in knitting. Especially because they're always surprised when they realize how easy it really was.

10) My mom is my knitting hero, so I felt pretty L33T when I got her knitting socks.