Saturday, May 1, 2010

Have a KIP

I like knitting in public. I knit in church and creche and playgroup. I often head over to Stockland (an indoor shopping center) on my Friday evenings "off" and knit, and people sometimes stop to chat. Knitting and babies: good conversation starters. Today I headed into Spotlight because they'd advertised a knitting day. Kelly kindly offered to mind the kids for a bit so I could go solo (muuuch easier Ü). They didn't have much in the way of bargains. Some of the specials from my last visit were back to full price, and I think Spotlight is slowly being overtaken by acrylics. But there were a heap of people, sitting around the table knitting!
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That impresses me, because I thought our little knitting group was likely to be all the knitters in the Ballarat area; apparently that was a bit misguided! I didn't even know anyone there, except a woman I used to do night shift with. Half of them were learners; they had a stack of acrylic and needles and hooks. I chatted to a woman called Isabella, who was knitting left-handed (and it took me a while to figure that out) about the Bendi S&W festival while I knitted some stripey socks. Two of the knitters were about 10, and each had half a white scarf already done. There were half-a-dozen high-school age girls, teaching each other.
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There was barely room to sit around the table, and we were getting in the way of other customers Ü. I did move for a pram, because the baby in it had a very cute hand-knitted jumper on, but the mum stopped to join in.
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Thanks, Spotlight, for putting on a day. You might be sliding downhill into Acrylic Valley, but you're ok.

6 comments:

Sam said...

sounds like a great day! Did you spread the Ravelry love? ;)

Alrischa said...

I wanted to put up a sign or something. Hehe. But everyone was talking in little groups, so I couldn't really make a speech ;) and the woman who was knitting left-handed said she didn't know how to turn a computer on! I did a sales-pitch on KnitPicks needles, though.

Sinéad said...

That looked like fun! I love knitting in public too. Why not?

Lynne said...

Yep, knitting in public is great. I missed the Spotlight Knitting Party because I was attending a friend's birthday party but I'm pleased to hear those who attended (in three different locations) enjoyed it! I heard last year that some were cancelled due to lack of interest!

kelgell said...

Yeah, it's kinda fun to knit in public. It's always fun to discover others who knit/crochet too. Looking forward to Tuesday!

Oh, I've noticed the increased acrylic in Spotlight too. I sure hope it doesn't take over completely.

Tara said...

Swarms of knitters are good. Freaks the muggles out, which is ALWAYS a hoot, heh. Yay for the 10 year-old knitters! Bring on the next generation!

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