Humbled By A Lowly Scarf

Your Friendly Neighborhood LYS

 

Last Saturday night I gathered my wits & my knitting needles & met my knitty pal Troy at our usual weekend meet up place, namely Starbucks and then the LYS.  We had our high-priced-yet-can’t-live-without caffeinated beverages of choice & caught up for about an hour, then headed over to the shop for the luxury yarn retreat.  The door opened with a whoosh and were at once inside the warmth of the shop where glittering piles of silk lay winking back at us from the table like stranded jewels.  We claimed our seats and then wandered around the shop waiting for the rest of the group to arrive.  There were goodies, small talk, pawing at yarn and more goodies.  This kind of atmosphere sends me into shivers of negative anticipation, though I know it’s good for me to mingle with other humans and I should really do it more often lest I become even more hermitous than I already am.  I am awful at small talk, and intolerably shy, so any kind of activity that involves having to make polite chit chat with strangers makes my stomach hurt.  But leave it to me to jinx myself.  I had told Troy during coffee that if they asked us to do that age-old first day of class thing where they make you stand up and say your name and a little something about yourself, I would probably run out the door on the spot.  But be proud of me.  When they did this (and, oh.yes.they.did.) I just flicked Troy under the table and waited my turn.  Guess making a scene and running out the door like my ass was on fire seemed far worse than choking out my name and a few words about myself, while nodding politely to everyone staring at me like I had suddenly sprouted 6 eyes and a tail.

 

The Boise Cashmere Scarf in Chocolate Urban Silk from Skacel

 

With introductions out of the way, we were all told to choose 2 balls of Skacel’s Urban Silk from the sparkling pile on the table.  I was drawn to this lovely boysenberry shade, but ended up choosing chocolate brown, feeling it would fit my wardrobe much better.  The pattern we would be working on as a group was The Boise Cashmere Scarf from the book Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders, though we were knitting it in silk rather than cashmere.  So, we cast on.  I knit the first row, then I knit the second.  I tried the third and the stitch count was off.  Craps.  Frog and try again.  Repeat entire process at least 40 times all while muttering curse words unintelligibly so as not to draw attention to oneself.  Once, I said “W.T.F.” rather loudly under my breath and Troy laughed out loud.  Now, I would not say that I know everything there is to know about knitting.  In fact, I’d rather guess that I know very little about knitting really.  But I am most definitely NOT a beginner.  A scarf with only one line of instructions should not, as a rule, be something that stumps me.  Yet apparently I am not hot shit after all.  Oh and p3tog – you are not my friend.  And your friend YO, as long as she’s with you we just can’t hang.  So deal.

 

Alas, after finally (finally!) figuring out the pattern, I was cruising along rather smoothly on my scarf when lo and behold – my second knot appeared in my ball of silk.  By then, I’d about had it anyway and was quite convinced I wasn’t going to wear the scarf in real life, so I laid down the needles and took myself off to look at more yarn.  All in all, it was a lovely evening and the LYS owner as well the staff were fantastically helpful as well as welcoming, something that’s always important in a good LYS.  Though I may not make the scarf, the event was fun and I’m really glad that Troy dragged my sorry ass out for some social interaction.  Thanks Troy!  I know that crap is good for me even if it’s a tough pill to swallow at times :)

 

Goodies!