My Meetup Day

Today, I spent most of my day knitting with groups that I found on Meetup.com. Meetup.com is a great site to find people who are interested in the same activities as you.

During my hiatus from the real world. I have attended a lot of meetup events. I love going to these events, because I meet nice people and get to see really amazing knit and crochet pieces. People are doing things that I can only dream of creating. A couple of weeks ago, I had a 15 minute conversation with a guy about how he is creating knitwear for knight/medieval costumes. (Yes medieval costumes. Crazy I know, but cool at the same time.)

Every time I leave an event I tell myself that I need to step up my knitting game. I really need to get my 2010 Knitting Challenge in full gear. No more simple projects. I need to bust out the cables and the color knitting. I need to start making sweaters. Better yet why don't I make a sweater that incorporates color knitting and cables. (insert laugh track here)

Tony, the organizer of the Knit PH Group, needed a volunteer to facilitate today's afternoon session. (Today's session was the first afternoon event this group ever held.) Since I was available I volunteered.

The meetup was held at the Lefferts Historic House in Prospect Park. I have walked passed this place a million times, but I have never been inside. This was an interesting place to hold a knitting meetup. The venue is a house museum displaying artifacts from the Lefferts family that lived there from 1785 - 1915. (While we were there an intern was setting up a textile installation. So we fit in perfectly.) The original house was on the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Maple Street. What I am trying to figure out is if the house was where 10 Maple Street is or where 11 Maple Street (my first apartment in Brooklyn).

Unfortunately the afternoon session was not very popular. It was just me and one other person, but I had a great time. Abbey was super sweet. She brought her 13 year old son. He was very nice too. Abbey and I spent the afternoon sitting under the covered porch knitting, chatting with each other and talking to museum visitors and staff who were curious about our projects. Her son spent the afternoon playing the piano in the park. (This summer the Parks Department has placed 60 pianos in different areas of the city. You can read more about this program here.)

I worked on Mr. Crawford's Scarf for a little while, but had to stop, because the wool was getting too hot and itchy, so I worked on Baby Legall's Jacket. Abbey worked on this.

After I left the Lefferts Historic House I hopped on the B41 bus and headed over to Park Slope to go to Hanco's Bubble Tea and Vietnamese Sandwich Shop to cool off, grab a bite to eat and send out my resume before the Park Slope Knitting Circle began.

I found the Park Slope Knitting Circle by accident. I had nothing to do one Saturday afternoon and took a walk down Smith Street and decided to visit La Casita to see what all of the raving was about. (I will tell you more about La Casita in another post, because I love this little shop and it deserves its own post.) When I walked into La Casita I saw a group of women sitting at the project table knitting. The leader invited me to sit and knit with them. After exploring the little store and meeting the owners I sat down and fell in love with the ladies of the group.

The group is run by this Russian spit fire named Olga. I love Olga, because she says what she means and means what she says. Every time I see Olga I am amazed by her knitting projects. She is so talented. She made her nephew a beautiful blue sweater. The amazing thing about this sweater is that she made it without a pattern. I could only dream of making my own sweater pattern. I also met Jackie. Jackie is so sweet. She is a bold new knitter. She is taking on knitting projects that I didn't do until I was knitting for at least a year. After meeting them that day, I knew it was a group that I wanted to be apart of.

Today's meetup was nice. There was a ton of people there. I didn't know any of them expect Olga. (Abbey joined us after eating dinner with her family.)

As usual I had great conversations and I was amazed by all of the things that people were working on. I did have a proud moment when some of the girls said that they couldn't figure out to how to make the Baby Surprise Jacket. I think I would have been happier if I was actually working on my Baby Surprise Jacket. Since it was cool in Hanco's I worked on Mr. Crawford's scarf.

The best part about going to a meetup held at Hanco's is the food. OMG the sandwiches are amazing! Today I had a grilled chicken sandwich, 2 summer rolls and a decaf passion fruit bubble tea. The flavors in the grilled chicken sandwich are amazing! Everyone who eats there gets addicted. It is like crack. I really need to try other Vietnamese sandwich places to see if this place is really good or if I can find a better place.