Are you a knitter? You don't have to knit alone!

15 May 2008

As I’ve chronicled here, I’m a knitter. I knit pretty much every day, usually in the evenings, usually while watching TV. It’s a solitary pursuit, though my animals and my husband often keep me company.

Once a week, however (when I’m in town), I actually leave the house to knit. I’m fortunate to belong to a fine group of knitters who knit most weeks at the bar at the Westin hotel in downtown St. Louis, in the shadow of Busch stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals. We meet on Thursdays from 5 to 7. All knitters or crocheters or other crafty folk are welcome!

We sit, we chat, we show off our knitting. We talk patterns and yarn. Oh, yes, and we enjoy beverages, usually alcoholic. We also order food (the Westin management is kind enough to extend us a 50 percent discount on food!). I’ve learned over the last couple of years to stop knitting once I start drinking.

In the summer, we don’t meet at the Westin when there are home baseball games. The management would rather make room for baseball fans those nights and, besides, we knitters don’t like to have to yell to be heard. Our alternate location can vary, but tonight we’re meeting at Lucas Schoolhouse, in Soulard. (Our group always meets in a relatively downtown location.)

If you have access to a knitting group, don’t be shy. Join in. I know our group welcomes newcomers with open arms, and I expect that’s true of most, if not all, groups. One place to look to see if there’s a group near you is the Knit Happens website, home of Stitch ‘N Bitch, the book by Debbie Stoller that helped fuel the resurgence in popularity of knitting. You’ll find a link to a regional Stitch & Bitch Group finder. If you live in St. Louis, check out the St. Louis Knitters group at Ravelry for a list of local knitters. I imagine that many other cities have Ravelry groups as well

Tagged with: knitting, ravelry, westin knitting group