cheater, or the grass isn't always greener

a while back i kvetched about my knitting group and my desire to visit other groups.  an opportunity cropped up this week, when a knitting group from one of my favorite LYS met up at the new B&N/starbucks in a neighboring community.

i got there early to get my salted caramel hot chocky and visit the knitting books and magazines.  i couldn't remember where the group was meeting in the store so i wandered around looking for ladies with sticks and string.

i located a group of ladies sitting in the front window, so i approached them and inquired if they were the knitters.  while the ladies told me it was and welcomed me, another lady said "what gave us away, our yarn and needles?"  i suppose she was trying to be cutesy about it, but it rubbed me wrong.  here's why:

the ladies averaged between my mom's age and my grandmother's age.  you do the math.  i suppose when i approached them, they thought i was a snotty young thing about to make fun of their granny hobby.  the irony was the lady who made the comment was knitting her first sock.  if only she knew i was an award winning sock knitter!

i saw L, the lady who owned the LYS sponsoring the group, and waved to her and she acknowledged me, but she was busy talking to the ladies around her and getting drinks (she sat opposite me).  i pulled up a wooden chair (!!!  as i like knitting curled up in a stuffed chair - not ideal, but it's cozy for me), pulled out my shawl and started knitting away.  some ladies inquired what i was knitting, some gave me and my project the fish eye.  what, i shouldn't be knitting a shawl?  what were they expecting, a washrag? (not that there's anything wrong with that).

one lady was knitting a really cool stadium blanket in steelers colors - it was striped and looked like it was illusion knitting.  another lady was making a really pretty lacy shawl (leaves) and when she inquired about my project she said "oh, a shawl like me!"  yeah, but my shawl will be about 5 times bigger than yours...

i knitted for about an hour and then left.  quite honestly, i felt very uncomfortable there.  i was wearing my new shrug (yes, my new ribbed shrug which one day i will photograph and blog here) and it was warm. the space literally sucked up the noise so it was very hard to hear people converse.  since i didn't know anyone there except L, it was very hard to carry on a conversation.  lastly, i hate sitting in a wooden chair with no way to prop up my feet, curl up on it, or even rest my knitting and pattern on a table.  i also had a mother of a headache, so i bid my goodbyes and left.

i think i now know how a new person feels when they come to my regular knit group.  it's like facing a knitting gauntlet - insanely nerve wracking and humbling.  i'm not a social butterfly so i have that hurdle straight away.  i don't have the gift of gab so it's hard for me to open up in a strange situation.  lastly, while i enjoy knitting with "seasoned" women, i do wish there were people there my own age, so i could talk about my kiddos.

tonight i got an email from L saying that she was pleased with last night's showing - at least 16 people showed up!  she also said that next month's knit night might  meet up in an upstairs study room, where it is quieter and brighter.  i also hope the room has more tables and stuffed chairs.  at least a table to sit at.  if not a stuffed chair, then a table to put my knitting and pattern on.

going to another knitting group made me feel a bit like a cheater.  i felt guilty and a bit like a traitor.  i shouldn't tho, i certainly have the right to visit other knitting groups.  but it felt weird.

i'll try it again, going to the other knitting group.  give it a chance.  a big positive - it gets me out of the house and gives me a break from the kids, if at least for an hour.