Represent

My Hero:

So, after much “hmming” and “haaaaing” and self pity, I sucked it up and decided to “REPRESENT” my knitting pride in New York.

Oh my god, I’m so glad I had the yarn balls to do this.

I originally thought that happiness was cozied up on my couch and knitting whatever I felt like in that moment. I was wrong. Happiness is being around people who are just as insane, crazy and obsessed with knitting as you are. Happiness is talking about gauge without having to explain it to the ‘knitting muggle’. Happiness is someone helping you justify buying more sock yarn, even when you have six skeins of unused sock yarn at home. Happiness is not having to explain why you are stroking the soft sea silk in a manner that could be accurately described as “pervy”. Happiness is knowing that there is also someone out there who is even crazier than you are. Happiness IS the knitting community, actually getting to knit, is a pleasant bonus to that.

I rolled my butt out of bed rather early yesterday morning and took my sock for a train ride into the city. Once I arrived to the city I had less time than originally planned and so decided to hop into a cab instead of search for the subway entrance I needed.

Just a little break from knitting chat to talk about my cab experience for a quick moment. I’ve pretty much run the gambit on NYC cabbies and thought I had experienced just about everything. This time I had a) the cab driver who rejects deodorant in all of it’s forms and b) the SLOWEST. DRIVER. IN. THE. HISTORY. OF. NEW. YORK. TRANSPORTATION. Cab drivers are not usually known for their slow pace yet I managed to get the only one who is actually afraid of his gas pedal.. The man sat in non-moving lanes when the lane next to us was clear and free. He peddled on at such an under-whelming pace that I thought I was going to be late for the picture- and even though I got into the cab almost 20 minutes prior to the picture, I was frantic and running when he dropped me off, hoping I was still going to be in the picture.

I arrived just in time as we all put our socks around the “Imagine” mosaic. I’m not even sure how many people were there, (30? 40? 50?) but it was lovely to be surrounded by excited knitters and socks in various stages of progress. After the group photo, which I’m sure will show up on Steph’s blog any day now, we all kind of mingled around for a bit. (How lame is it that I’m so excited my humble sock is “representing” in the blog picture she currently has up? I am vicariously living through it’s celebrity status.)

This is where it kind of got scary for me. I’m horrible at just being the person who immediately introduces herself and makes friends. I’m not even an all that shy of a person, but, for some unknown, entirely stupid reason, I feel more comfortable if someone initiates with me first. However, since I knew that I didn’t want to spend the afternoon hanging out alone and that yarn shops are best enjoyed WITH knitters, I knew it was time to step out of the “shy zone”. Besides, it’s very easy to strike up a conversation with a knitter; compliment them on what they’re knitting or ask them about their yarn, and you immediately can talk for hours on numerous things that revolve around knitting. Thankfully, this technique worked and I was able to join Jessica (http://www.yarngineering.com) from Boston, (who was working TWO socks at once… now THERE’S a technique to end second sock syndrome) and we joined up with JENN (http://passionknitly.blogspot.com/) who is the ultimate Yarn Crawl host. (If you’re reading this Jen—thanks… seriously- you should host tours on a regular basis, you were great.)

We headed over to Knitty City where despite my weak attempts at not purchasing yarn, I bought the prettiest hand dyed sock yarn. (I cannot resist sock yarn. What is it about sock yarn that makes me want to horde it in quantities that I can’t even handle?) We also checked out Yarn Company which is such a lovely colorful store, but my yarn guilt kept me from doing further damage.

After our little yarn crawl, we headed back to FIT where we did a little pre-game knitting outside. (The Knitting Gods were clearly smiling down upon us, as the weather was absolutely perfect and cooperative.) While at FIT, I managed to finally get around to registering for the “knitwear design” class, which you’ll be hearing a lot more about when I start it mid April.

While we were knitting outside a woman from http://www.woolworksltd.com/ came around and was selling these nifty contraptions to hold your dpn’s while you’re knitting a sock. The minute our group saw what she had, we opened our wallets and were buying up a storm. I do believe she sold out of her stash of these little things very, VERY quickly. ($15 well spent might I add!)

We all did the tour at 4:15 of the FIT Machine Knitting Lab. The lab was pretty cool, with all kinds of machines that can produce mass bolts of fabric as well as a “SUPER KNIT MACHINE” that knit things up items seamlessly. To be honest I wasn’t super interested in the machines, but I really enjoyed seeing the colorful walls of thread and yarn on display and that’s now my desktop wallpaper.

Back from the tour, we all headed into the auditorium- where waiting for us were bags with a free skein of yarn and needles donated by the Craft Yarn Council for us to knit up for ***Warm up America*** while we waited and listened to Steph talk. The only thing that excites me more than new yarn and new needles, is FREE new yarn and new needles—thanks CYC! The room began to fill up quickly with very anxious knitters- hearing and hearing chatter and clicking of their needles was just one of those things I wish I could hear all the time. The sound of a large group collectively knitting gives me shivers of happiness.

When Steph came on, it was like a rock star entered the building. A loud cheer rose up from the crowd and from the second she walked on stage, we were eating out of the palm of her hands. (Even though the first thing she said was how nervous she was and how much we were scaring her.) By the way- did I mention “We” were 700 strong? That? Is awesome. Not only was she wearing her newly finished Bohus, (which is lovely) but she immediately snapped some pics of the crowd for her blog. Just as she was about to really get into it, she noticed that her husband had flown out to surprise her, and she immediately ran over and gave him a big hug and kiss- which I thought was so sweet.

I really can’t put into words how great Steph’s talk was. She’s hilarious. Non-knitters could sit there and enjoy it as much as the obsessed folks. She conveys “our world” clearly. She lives in “our world”, she’s like the unofficial president of “our world”, and we hung on her every word. She talked about how much people under estimate knitters and how quickly they are to judge something they don’t take the time to understand. She’s empowering to listen to and you can’t help but feel a strong welling of pride for being apart of such an unbelievably community. I love knitting. I love what I create when I’m knitting. I’m proud and I achieve a great amount of satisfaction from what I create. Steph, in her funny and understanding way, really drove the point home that we need to be PROUD of the craft we love.

Steph was awesome, and talked to us for nearly 2 hours. I wish I could have stayed longer, to mingle with the knitters and take my picture with Stephanie, but honestly, by the time the event ended I could hardly stand up I was so hungry and I needed some food. I practically ran across the street, to the first place that could serve me dinner- and enjoyed a yummy Burger and fries.

After dinner- and the excitement of the day finally catching up with me, I dropped my tired butt into a cab and headed over to Grand Central to catch the train home. I had planned to knit the sock more or read Steph’s book, but ended up sleeping a good portion of that time. You KNOW it was a big day if you’re too tired to knit or read about knitting! When I arrived in New Haven, and had tried my best to cover up the “not-so-lovely-I-just-slept-on-the-train” drool spot I wouldn’t let the husband get a word in edge wise as I chattered his ear off filling him in on everything that had happened.

As a bonus- instead of making the “YOU ALREADY HAVE 8 SKEINS OF SOCK YARN THAT AREN’T BEING USED” face, husband congratulated me on my restraint for only buying one more, saying he figured I was bound to come back with something, and he had envisioned much worse.

All in all- an amazing day and I feel so lucky to have been able to have been apart of it. Now I really can’t wait until the 30th, where I’m taking my mother-in-law to “Represent” at WEBS! (All those interested should go to their website now, apparently you need to register in advance in order to go.)

I leave you with this awesome pic that for me, just kind of wraps up the day right: here is our little yarn crawl waiting in the subway for our train to take us back to FIT: