Busy Hands

Today I engaged in the true spirit of my 2011 blogging adventure and did something completely out of the ordinary.

It all started when I was in Massachusetts last week, and I was visiting my friend Julie. While we talked, she knitted. By the time I left, and despite my dysfunctional relationship with crafting, my hands were itching to try it.

(Full disclosure: Technically, I learned how to knit a little bit when I was 11 or 12, but I never actually made anything. I did, however, successfully complete a crocheted handbag in the sixth grade and then retired from the fiber arts altogether.)

Then this morning I discovered this site and these happy little knitted animals:

Not that I think I can/should aspire to make them, but seeing them made my hands itch to knit again. And because I was faced with a stack of papers to grade, I thought, "What better time to learn?"

So I hopped in the car and drove to Heindselman's in Provo, which this website describes as "the oldest yarn store in the United States." Really?!

A fabulous 82-year-old knitter (and, I learned, playwright) named Elizabeth helped me pick out some yarn (a beautiful lake blue) and some needles. Then she spent more than an hour giving me a knitting lesson on the spot. We had a fine time chatting with each other and with other customers who came and went. Turns out Elizabeth lived in Concord, Mass., for several years back in the 50s! What a small, small world it can be.

I never did get papers graded today, but I do have an awkward square of knitting to show for my time.