Friday, April 7, 2017

Thursdays wth Yarn

When I wrote the first Crochet Mystery I went to Michael's for a weekly knit and crochet class. The focus was really on knitting as it turned out the woman who led it barely knew how to crochet. It was rather pricey at $15 a class since it was really just a get together. She moved away and the class ended. Then a woman who had been in the class and had been the go to person for crochet got in touch with me and told me there was a group meeting at nearby hospital and she invited me to join it. There was no charge other than a very small fee to join an organization.

It turned out to be a friendly group and we had a nice class room to use. People came and went, but a core of us kept coming every Thursday. It seemed like it would last forever. And then abruptly, we were told the hospital was doing some remodeling and they needed the room. Suddenly we had no place to meet.

Not wanting to give up our Thursdays of yarn craft and friendship, we looked for a new place to meet. It finally came down to a food court near the movie theaters in a dying mall. Most of the stores were gone from the mall and most of the food places as well, but there were table and chair. There were some other groups who hung out there as well. Some women playing canasta and some homeless people with computers who took advantage of the WiFi that apparently still was available.

They closed off some of the table and we had to move to another area. By now the group had gotten much smaller and instead of ten women, there were sometimes just three of us. With all the work with the seminars it was hard for me to get there and often weeks went by that I was absent.

And then the mall got rid of the table and chairs and once again we had no place to meet. I wondered if this was going to be the end for us. But one of the woman called around and Joanne's agreed to set up a table in the store and let us meet there on Thursdays.


All this was going on while I hadn't been at the group. I was either out of town or dealing with the seminars. But finally today on their second week at Joanne's I got to join them. Sure enough we had a table and chairs right in the store. And women who hadn't been coming for the longest time all showed up and there were ten of us. Not only that, but customers kept stopping at the table and we invited them to join us. We'd give them free knitting and crochet help. Between all of that we caught up with each other's lives. We all bemoaned again the loss of Linda Hopkins who had been such an important part of our group. It was so tragic that she was hit by a car last May.

We admired each other's projects. Someone brought a book for me to sign. We talked and laughed, crocheted and knitted. I can't speak for them, but I know I left feeling so much better than when I came.

With all that is going in the world, it is nice to know that on Thursdays I can still go to this group and be surrounded by their warmth and goodness.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love this post. My 89 year-old mother recently moved into assisted living. She learned how to knit and crochet after she retired. She has found a group of women who gather to knit and crochet and some quilt. It has helped her transition to assisted living so much. These things hold us together.

Linda O. Johnston said...

Getting together with people who share your interests is always wonderful. Most of my groups are writing groups, though I'm also spending time with a dog training group thanks to research--and my puppy!

ldosborn said...

Good to hear you are getting a little break and enjoying old friends. It really helps to have a diversion. It will give more perspective on your writing too ! I'm sure your trip was wonderful, I really had no idea there was a real hotel where the stories were based !

Betty Hechtman said...

Anonymous, there seems to be a special energy in a group. I used to be more of a loner, but have learned to appreciate the comfort of a group.

Betty Hechtman said...

Linda, I was in a writers group for a long time. I was just thinking about them yesterday as the yarn group's new meeting place is very near where the writer's group met. Sad to say, two of the people died and when the person whose house we met at moved to Santa Fe, the group ended.

Betty Hechtman said...

idosborn, I will write about the trip next week with pictures of the real places I based the ones I used in the Yarn Retreat Series. Just a hint - I had my birthday dinner at the the real Blue Door restaurant which is actually called the Red House. It was so much fun thinking of all the action I had taking place there.

Joanna Campbell Slan said...

I think that sounds lovely, Betty. Just wonderfully soul-nourishing. There was a group like that back in St. Louis, and I enjoyed them.