Knitting It Together

    Yesterday I had the privilege of teaching the Irish Diamond Shawl Workshop at Knit Knack.  The shop absolutley booms on Sundays and the reason is that there is a wonderful sense of community there among the knitters who come every week to be together and knit. 

     Getting to watch knitters with each other is always a joy for me.   It is one of my favorite things about knitting, the way it brings people from all backgrounds together, while their mutual love of working with the wool gives them common ground on which to meet.  Friendships are formed that often last a lifetime.  I've watched it happen over and over during the past twenty years of the Knitaway® retreats, at guild workshops and LYS around the country, in homes and coffee houses, and it never ceases to warm my heart.  It is simply beautiful seeing folks knitting it together. 
    If you haven't connected with a knitting group, do try to find one and see what you think.  Ravelry is a worldwide virtual meetup and also a great place to connect with knitters who live close to you.  One of my knitting friends founded her local group by putting a funny ad in the paper ("If you are rude, crude, socially unacceptable AND you love to knit.....") and years later many of the original respondees are still knitting together.  Or take a knitting class at your LYS.  As a teacher I know that  knitters often come to classes as much for the social time as for the learning, and I make it a point to create an atmosphere where both can happen.
   Of course knitting retreats and the Big Glam Events are fabulous.  Meg Swansen's Knitting Camp has been an annual highlight for me this past decade and registration for the four sessions of what is the world famous and original knitting camp opens early next week.  Imagine a room full of sixty of the most amazing knitters you've ever met, with Meg Swansen as the gracious and brilliant leader, all sharing and learning together.  Mind blowing!  And though I have to be absent from Camp 2.75  this year, I will be there in spirit, because that's what connection does, it gives you presence in the moment.
     If you've got a hankering for connection, please also consider joining me here at the Studio for a class or  Knitaway®.  There are so many ways we can get our knit together.  It's good for you and, I believe, it is good for the entire world.  Let's make that connection and see where it will take us.