A blessing and a curse

This weekend Michele and I found ourselves in a rare position of both having a few free hours on Saturday. Now, what knitter in her right mind would turn down a couple of good hours of knitting time, kid and husband free?

Now, refer to the title of the post-- the blessing here is that we've managed to find each other, and strike up quite a friendship in a state where knitting seems to be the most uncommon hobby ever. The curse is that we've managed to find one another, and yet there are just enough miles separating us to make any impromptu get-togethers nearly impossible.

We've talked a lot about getting together for regular knit nights, whether it be once a week, or every other week, or whatever, but so far the stars have not managed to align themselves properly. But Saturday, those few stolen hours were golden. Oh, and I think we may have found a mutually agreeable half-way point that also boasts decent coffee, a wi-fi connection, and sinful pastries. What could be better?

There's been a whole lot of nothing being knit around here. I don't know if it has more to do with just not having the time to do so, or a lack of enthusiasm for the stuff dangling from the needles, but it's been a boring several months in knit-land for me.

Imagine my surprise when Michele reached into her cute little knitting bag and pulled out the beginnings of a sock in the exact same yarn and color as the one that has been travelling around in my purse since August. Neat! To further the geeky knitter concidence-- we're both knitting the exact same yarn in the exact same plain-jane rib pattern. It was just enough to get my knitterly mojo flowing again. Oh yeah, and the kid-free time helped, too.

So, we sat and knitted our twin socks for a few hours, she doing a bang-up job of learning magic loop. Let me tell ya- that girl is tenacious! She doesn't give up, even when I was useless to help her figure out a delimma. She's a true problem solver, that's for sure.

We also sat oogling yarn online and putting the final touches on our joint order from knitpicks. We're so good at enabling each other. :) Our original plan was to order together so that we could get the free shipping, but by the time we were done, I think we could just about have qualified for the free shipping individually. It's the most yarn I've ever ordered at once, and it gave me little tingles of excitement, laced with pangs of guilt for spending that much. But I justified them away by tellimg myself that I would have spent at least that much on two sweaters (which is the amount of yarn I'm ordering) even at a bargain store.

All the excitement over our order sort of had us giddy, and also feeling a bit sheepish (pardon the crappy pun). I know people who can spend more than we did on just one skein of yarn. That's all fine and good if you can afford it, and I applaud you. But see, we have these pesky things like bills getting in the way of our addictions, and apparently neither of us are that far over the edge yet, so we knit with what we can afford, and not what we'd really love to. This, my friends, is how "The Broke-Ass Knitter's Club" ws conceived. Seriously, look for it on Ravelry, just as soon as I get around to actually setting it up. We can all get together and discuss the merits of cheaper yarn, and why it doesn't all have to suck. Maybe we can share our reviews of yarns we've substituted for the more expensive stuff, etc. Whatever-- we'll see where it leads.

BTW Michele-- you better get moving on those socks, girlfriend. The Orlando Needleworks Show is only a few weeks away! I kitchenered my last toe this morning.

And today, to celebrate, hubby took me to the mall (yes, that evil and suffocating beast of consumerism) and I bought myself a pair of adorable little mary-janes in which to show off my, as J-man calls them, "yarnsocks".

More about today tomorrow. This has been long enough... and there's not even a picture to break up the monotony. Bad blogger!