AdVeNtUrEs in KnItTiNg-- Join the fun: it's Free!

Awhile back, I dropped in on the AdVeNtUrEs in KnItTiNg group, where members Pam, Ellen, and Valerie were holding court as part of the ongoing Pi Series. I grilled the ladies about this pi-as-it-applies-to-knitting thing. They explained how the math concept works and suggested I look at online examples. So I looked at some finished pi projects, and saw that they were round and flat, like a tablecloth, and can be folded and worn as a shawl.

“We started Adventures in Knitting with a free class on how to do it,” says Valerie.

But teaching technique was just a slice of the pi class. Says Pam, “Eating pie was our real motivation.” So for meetings, they offered lessons and dessert.

Well, sorry pie-lovers, but that class wrapped awhile ago. In fact, this Thursday, May 21st, group is meeting to celebrate the completion of yet another project and to talk about the next project. And what's that? The Net Duffel Bag by Vivian Høxbro featured in the Spring 2009 INTERWEAVE Knits.

Even if you didn't make the scarf they're finishing up, and even if you aren't sure if you want to commit to the bag, you should absolutely make time to pop in at KnitBuzz 6:30 - 8 and meet the AIK group. They all have great knit tales to tell. When I was there, Valerie educated me about all sorts of online knitting groups and the many swap options out there for both yarn and finished projects. I noted the gorgeous scarf she was working on which, she informed me, would soon be sent off to a stranger. I gasped thinking about giving away something like that to a stranger.

Valerie explained she also receives great stuff. She then told me about the traveling project scene, where a knitter sends out an unfinished project to another knitter, who works on it a bit, mails it to another knitter, and so on until, at last, you get back your original project, finished.

We also talked about how each got hooked on knitting. Valerie started as a girl, learning from a neighbor who ripped out her first project which put her off knitting for sixteen years. Even now, with her passion totally reignited, Valerie hardly ever follows patterns—a little rebellion against the mean perfectionist teacher maybe?

Pam picked up knitting about fifteen years ago, settling on an afghan for her first project. “It was the kiss of death,” she says. “I finally ripped it out and said I’d never knit again. I had little kids, it was the wrong project for a new knitter.” She quit, too, but started again when she met Valerie.

As for Ellen, she was in her early twenties and on a visit to see her mother in New Orleans when the knit bug bit. “We went to the yarn store and got this bulky yarn, hand-dyed, and a got a book called The Right Way to Knit. I made a vest – two squares I seamed at the shoulder. I kept knitting from there.”

The Adventures in Knitting group is free to attend and *usually* meets the second Thursday evening of the month at KnitBuzz though, as noted this month, the meeting is coming up on third Thursday. “We want to contribute to our knitting community and support each other as knitters not knitting the same old things,” says Pam. “That’s how you grow, try something new.”