Late Saturday morning I was waiting for the bus to get downtown, knitting a sock, minding my own business. An older woman joins me at the bus stop, and within 30 seconds asks what I’m knitting and wants a closer look. This happens from time to time, but surprisingly not that often considering how often I do knit on the bus or at the bus stop. Anyway, she was very complimentary about the yarn I was using and my even stitches and had a lot of questions about knitting socks from the toe up. It was my lucky day – I found another knitter.
The bus was about 10 minutes late, and it was just the two of us hanging out at the bus shelter, so we had time to chat. She’s a lifelong knitter and a part-time Seattle resident. When she’s not living here, she lives in her native Norway. She told me about learning to knit as a six year old in school – “the boys had to learn too. We would start by knitting squares for washclothes, then scarves. The next year we would learn how to make mittens and hats” She told me about how knitting was a VERY social activity there and it’s just what you did when you had a group of friends or family together.
So I’ve been starting to get really interested in traditional scandanavian patterns recently (proof would be in the list of library books I currently have checked out) and I was actually on my way into downtown to catch up with Sharyn and take the ferry out to Bainbridge Island for yarn shopping. (I’ve since started a pair of gloves from Selbuvotter). So I started asking her questions, and next thing I know, we’re boarding the bus and I have a list of more books to check out and local museums and exhibits about nordic knitting. I’m ecstatic.
Still on the bus, she and I are still talking about knitting. And another woman already on the bus when we boarded, has moved to sit by us. Yup – found another knitter. Again my sock in progress is inspected and she’s telling us all about this afghan she’s been working on. It was such a neat experience finding two long-time knitters in the course of a half hour waiting for and riding the bus. How often does that happend?
World of JDub 