Why I Stitch

Normally I'd have been right on top of this one. But the fact that I woke up in a different state on Friday meant I missed reading Ruth Marcus' column titled "Why I knit" while drinking my morning two cups of coffee. But I don't just recycle the papers that I miss reading. I save them and catch up like I did this morning.

In "Why I Knit" we read of the dispute between the U.S. Olympic Committe and the Ravelry knitters. Moral victory goes to the knitters. 

Ruth got to trot out the cliches - frilly, girly, grandmotherly even as you could see she wants to refute them. Why she knits:  it's relaxing, communal, an expression of love. 

What she leaves out:  once you start down this path, it's rewarding. It's addicting. It's a way of life. 

I was talking to one my neighbors, a gentleman of a certain age retired from the working world. He invited me over to see a few things his wife had created and stitched. As we were talking I realized that when we moved to Virginia in 2005 after DH retired from the Army, I made friends slowly. I no longer had those automatic spousal connections that had made this an easy process in the past. I could have run out and joined a few groups here that are part of the military. But I didn't. 

I made my friends through the world of needlework. In fact, other than friends I knew previous to retirement, I only have one friend here that isn't somehow connected to my avocation. 

I met up with some women I knew from online stitching communities. I joined one guild. Then another. I started stitching with a group at my favorite LNS. I joined another guild. Then another. Then yet another. Each time my circle widens. In seven years, I've made some of the best friends ever. And all because we like to do the same thing. How cool is that?

I love my enablers. My critics. My let's-do-this-together friends. We share. We laugh. We cry. We solve the world's problems. We drink. We eat. WE STITCH!