Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Three strikes and you're out?

Before got pregnant again I was still dancing with a semi-professional ballet company and a friend's modern company here in town (I danced until I was 5 months pregnant with my daughter, then started dancing again when she was 3 months old). The result was that I danced a minimum of three days a week, usually more, for around fourteen to eighteen hours a week so even after I was a stay at home mom I still had plenty of opportunity for adult interaction. Now that I am pregnant again, not so much. I have been searching for new social outlets and thought I had found one when a search of Yahoo Groups produced Seattle Stitch'n'Bitch. It was perfect, a knitting group that met weekly at time that was convenient for me at a location that was close to my house!! What could possibly be better?

I'll tell you what would be better. It would be better if people actually SHOWED UP for the group. Two weeks ago I attended the my first meeting with much trepidation. I'm not particularly keen on walking into a social environment where I know no one, it makes me nervous - what if nobody likes me? You know, all the usual self-confidence issues (Crazy Aunt Purl had a great post about this recently). At any rate, I overcame all those things and hauled myself and my knitting bag over to Cupcake Royale. I walked in, searching frantically for folks with needles. I found, ONE. One other person was in attendance, and get this: she was new too! Eventually a third knitter joined us but I was pretty disappointed by the turn out. Not that the women who were there weren't great but as someone who is trying expand her social circle, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

Last week I made arrangements for a babysitter as Hubby had a work function- I was not about to pass up my knitting/socialization opportunity. Again I walked in to CR and this time, NOBODY. Not a single one. I stayed and had a latte but I had a couple errands I needed to do so I left after thirty minutes. Tonight I decided I would give it one more try... Maybe last week's freaky weather (snow!) had my fellow Seattle knitters hibernating? Once more I had a sitter since Hubby is out of town for work. Yup. You guessed it, I was the only knitter there. I stayed. I knitted. I had a cupcake (yes, that means the Seattle Cupcake Tour Part 3 will be making an appearance soon). It wasn't too bad, sitting by myself, knitting. I needed a break and this worked. But still... I want a knitting group. I want to chat and laugh and bitch with my fellow needle wielders. *sigh* There are at least two other groups that meet to knit in Seattle but neither is really that convenient... I'm a glutton for punishment so I'll probably head back again next week, I mean, at some point someone might show up. At least next week I won't have to pay a sitter.

Oh my, this post is significantly longer than I intended - sorry for all the whining. I will end on a good note however. On my way out the door a small square red object caught my eye. Could that be? Was it? OMG, it WAS a row counter. Perched right there in front of someone with needles. And yarn. A knitter! Looking up at her I asked, "Are you here for the knitting? I mean the Stitch'n'Bitch?" (so stunned was I by the sight of knitting paraphernalia I had a hard time forming sentences) "No," the knitter replied, "but you look familiar." Lo' and behold it was Daphne from my LYS! I stood there by the door talking her ear off for ten or so minutes (thanks for being so kind and patient with me Daphne, I was in serious need of a chat!). She had just decided to pop in on her own, not realizing there were knitterly things scheduled (at least in theory). I walked out with a smile on my face.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my. Definitely come by Cafe Vita and give us a go. We're really not huge yet (we just started meeting here a few months ago) but we're friendly. And we'd all like to expand our social circle as well.

I used to frequent the Cupcake Royal group but have since stopped going because of the convenience factor for me. I'm kind of sad to hear that it's dwindled so small.

Stacia
www.pipandtom.com

Anonymous said...

Hello! I left with a smile as well thanks to meeting you. I'm planning to come in on Wednesdays on purpose at least once a month now.

a. said...

i met you tonight at the blue star - i'm the crocheter who was working on the ripple blanket. i too had a not so good experience at cupcake royale. there were people there when i went once last year but they seemed very exclusive! then it took me weeks to get up the courage to go to purly girls and i've been there ever since. i don't know if you're subscribed to the purly girls email list, but debbie (she was the one who brought her new little girl for a few minutes tonight) is trying to organize a spinoff group that would meet in the daytime and would be kid friendly - she sent out an email about it last week or so. of course we want you on monday nights :) but i know it's hard for some moms to get there and debbie would love to have company so i just wanted to make sure that you knew about it.