WWKIP Day

I attended a Houston based World Wide Kinit In Public (WWKIP) Day event at the Heights library yesterday and truly enjoyed myself. Knitters are not a loud bunch but when you get about 60 of us together at a time you can just feel the energy bubbling around you.

I did not take any photos but I think you can get a feel for the event from these little descriptions:

10 - 12 women sitting in circles, watching their busy hands and counting under their breath...knit one, purl two, yarn over etc. Each of us had our own little soft chant.

Color, color everywhere - there were grannies knitting with wild bright colors and young mothers with dull grey and everything in between.

It became tricky to walk around and see what every one was doing as there were a lot of stray balls of yarn on the ground to avoid.

Knitting celebrities were there. Who would have thought that Mama LLama was a sweet looking twenty something who was embarassed about giving out free samples?

There was one older woman with a beautiful set of interchangeable circular needles working on a complex sweater with two little girls who she was teaching to knt. One was not happy about spending time learning to knit with Grandma but the other got right into it. Iw onder if either will take up the needles as a life long skill.

Tons of yarn was on the swap table and I scored nine ounces of a hand dyed mohair blend. It took me forever to get it wound into a ball and I am looking forward to making a lacy something out of it... if Alex doesn't run off with it for his toy of the hour!

Great door prizes abounded. One woman won some wildly dyed pure cashmere wool and turned it back in as she didn't want it! Doesn't she have friends? I could be a friend for life for some pure cashmere.

Companies that wre represented in the door prizes included The Great Yarn Company, Yarntopia, Mama LLama, Yarns2Ewe, and W. C. Mercantile. The latter apparently has their own hand dyed yarns available so I must make the trek out there some time to check them out.

The location was lovely, a library built in the 20's with a red tile roof and intricate carving in the older parts of the building. It was a great location for a gathering but not for the purpose of WWKIP as it wasn't all that public. The Library was packed with users but we were knitting in the meeting room so not too many people saw us. Last year it was in a failing mall, also not a great place. I hope they (Kimberly?) can find another location for next year that is more public and at least as comfortable as this year's location.

So much for my knitting adventure yesterday. I must admit that it was just a stop in between other activities with dropping off a quilt for the Ovarian Cancer auction before and a visit to Niko Niko's afterwards for dinner. Niko Niko's serves huge portions of Greek food and there is always a debate as to whether their French Fries or Oven Roasted Potatoes are best. I vote for the fries but Paul loves the potatoes. When I see their heaping plates of food I always wonder how if I can finsh it all... silly me... of course I finsh it all!