SWTC Sock Boot Camp

So it occurs to me that I may have left out some of the details of my first ever visit to Webs, in my haste to update you on the past two weeks. On Sunday was the SWTC Sock Boot Camp from 12-4. I signed up and had been anticipating it for weeks. However, due to the fact that I had a medium sized emotional breakdown the Thursday (or Wednesday) before the Sock Boot Camp, I was filled with the dread you feel on the first day of classes at a new school. Will I meet anyone? Will anyone talk to me? Will I be an island in the middle of an LYS sea? Will I be the only beginner? What if I don’t knit “correctly”? All of these things and more were running through my head, and with a great deal of nervousness I made it out the door and to the Boot Camp, without getting lost. I arrived with a) no needles b) no sock yarn and c) no idea how to knit socks, but I did arrive with a very firm grasp on how to knit with DPNs and Circulars. (Ry tried to convince me to take my beach-now-knitting bag with me, and I said, “No, no, no, besides I don’t have any sock-type thing to knit anyway!)

So I arrived (friendless) behind two ladies that were obviously very good friends. “Here we go,” I thought. “Here I am the only with no knitting friends.” Well, I walked in and the the ladies that work there were wonderful, thery made me feel very welcome, friends or no friends. They directed me to the beginners table with my wee skein of yarn and my new Pony needles and when I looked at the table, it was full. So I wandered around for a bit and then when I checked back, halleluiah, there was an empty seat. So I took it! I sat down and immediately the instructor asked me if I had worked in the round before and I said yes but never with such eensy-weensy yarn or needles before and she said fine & I got started. Well as we were all knitting away, we were (of course) chatting and people asked me how long I had been knitting, and I said since September of ’06. And then they asked me how I learned to knit.

Me: “Ummmm…I taught myself”

Lady#1 :“You did? How?”

Me: “Well, I just Googled ‘how to knit’ and it came back with instructions and videos and all kinds of things so I just read all of those things and then just practiced.”

Lady #2: “Oh, that’s terrible.”

Me: “What?”

Lady #2: “That’s just awful, teaching yourself how to knit on-line. I tried that and found all those tutorials to be such garbage, you can’t learn anything right on there.”

Me: “Well, it seems to be working out…”

Lady #2: “Why didn’t you just have a friend teach you or a grandmother or take a class, so you could learn it properly?”

Me: “I don’t have any friends in Mass, my Gramma lives in Arizona, and I think I do alright at it…I mean it’s not perfect…but I seem to be doing okay.”

Lady#2: “Well, as long as you’re all right with it.”

I take a special kind of glee in saying that the lady who learned how to knit properly did NOT know how to do a knitted cast-on. Ha-HA!!! So anyway, I also spoke with 2 other ladies that were really nice (I only remember one’s name) and completely ruined my foundation row of K2P2, seems easy right? Apparently I can’t chat with people until the first 2-3 rows have been knit, or I’ll get too caught up in talking and end up with four purl stitches all together. I can, however walk and chew gum at the same time…so I’m getting there. (I ended up ripping the whole damn thing out & starting over, even I can’t live with that much imperfection.) I also realized that I am a slow knitter. Everyone reassured me that with practice I will get faster, I certainly hope so…I have a lot of projects in mind and I’d like to be able to finish them before Christmas (for the gifts) and next summer (for me). That was about it for the LYS visit. However, when I came back I felt pretty good, and Ry is encouraging me to go back and maybe take a Saturday class, or just hang out and knit with other people. So, after finals, that’s my plan. I like the idea of meeting people who share in this newly acquired addiction of mine, and being able to ask questions of more experienced knitters. The whole thing appeals to me. The next event I plan to go to is the Tent Sale, which I will be saving for. I plan on increasing my stash, much to Ry’s chagrin, I’m sure. Oh! And I have completely fallen in love with knitting socks! The tiny yarn, the little needles, the transportability of it all…I just LOVE it!