Subversive
Monday February 26th 2007, 8:05 pm
Filed under: Knit

I was in the lab waiting for a routine blood test this afternoon, and so were a lot of other people. They had a sign up: “Projected wait: 20 minutes.” I pulled out my knitting, a lace scarf I’d begun. People came, people went, lots of people. Knit on. The sign got changed: “30 minutes.” I knew I wasn’t a stat, so I’d be pretty much last in line. I didn’t *think* I would run out of yarn…

An elegant elderly woman in a wheelchair came in, being pushed by her granddaughter. They came over next to me, the granddaughter sat down, and we all struck up a conversation; it is amazing how welcoming yarn and needles seem to universally be. The grandmother said, almost as if it were an admission and a failure on her part, a shirking of her grandmotherly role, that she’d never learned; the granddaughter told me she’d made a stab at it herself, and that a lot of young women like her seemed to be learning these days.

I picked up my ball of blue baby alpaca/silk and had them each hold it a moment, as I said that there are so many really nice yarns out there these days, and they don’t have to cost a lot. They oohed and aahed over the sheen and the softness, stroking it a bit; I went on, saying, to fall in love with knitting, you really need a nice yarn. Not, say, a cheap acrylic.

The granddaughter nodded and said that cheap acrylic is indeed what she’d used, that one time when someone had been teaching her. But touching this, she could see how the knitting bug could really reach out and grab you.

You betcha. (Now. Why did you think I held it out to you, eh?)


4 Comments so far
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You crack me up. You are the best enabler! Reel ’em in Alison!

Comment by Lisa 02.27.07 @ 4:52 am

You’re wonderful. 🙂

Comment by Kristine 02.27.07 @ 5:37 am

I always make sure and let everyone feel the yarn and always make sure they goggle over the pretty handpainted sock yarns. I may soon have some converts in some of the moms in my homeschooling group.

Comment by Alison 02.27.07 @ 5:57 am

Ooo, you were devious!

Comment by sweetfigs 02.27.07 @ 8:59 am



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