I attempted to go to my first knitting social at a great, newly discovered yarn store lastt week. I say attempted because here is how it went:
I happened upon super cute said shop where I learned of the upcoming Knit Night, which I quickly plugged into my mental calendar. I dreamed of mingling with like-minded women as needles clicked and words like worsted weight and cable and purl floated around the room, but truly, I wasn't sure what to expect.
So I packed up my yarn and did a drive-by peeking to see if there was anyone there. The bell on the door chime greeted the 5 women already sitting in the small shop, but no one looked up to welcome me into the fray. I surrepititiously browsed the yarn, waiting for some recognition of my presence until someone (I suppose one of the owners) finally sent a weak hello my way.
I continued around the store, touching, appearing to be busy, secretly eavesdropping and wondering if I would be allowed to enter the club, if even for a visit. I made a full circle without any acknowledgment of my presence, even nearly bumping into the owner-woman at one point, still being ignored.
So I left, thinking to myself that this was much less of a Knitting Social than it was a Knitting Antisocial. I also left feeling keenly aware of how easy it is to be a part of a clique and vowing to make a more concerted effort to not repeat this very high school behavior in my own life.
I will reach out to women who don't have a place at church, I will not let the unnoticeable students be invisible this year, and I will keep being friends with the underdogs.
What can you do to make sure an outsider is made welcome in your life?
2 comments:
I have to admit I am a nut knitter.
Once you get into it it is hard to stop.
I made about 5 huge blankets hats scarves booties sweaters shawls afghans etc..and once you begin to see other patterns, you challenge yourself till your hands hurt and then say ok enough.lol but your eye keeps turning towards the needles as you say to yourself ok a just few more rows. Its nice in winter cause you keep warm while watching TV Doing it with friends of course is a lot more fun.
It's tough to break into a knitting circle when you don't know anyone.
A few years ago I joined one I found though the yahoo groups and just kept going. Soon enough you join in on conversations and get to know more people.
Knitting isn't really an activity where you can look people in the eyes while you talk so I can see how it comes off as anti social.
If you're really interested in finding a group keep going back to that one or look on yahoo or Meetup.com
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