I’ve found myself a knitting club!

While I’ve been going to my embroidery club for close to three years now, I haven’t done anything similar with knitting – even though I knit a lot more than I embroider.

I tried a knitting café a couple of times but it was not my thing. People were sitting with those they came with, or otherwise knew, and they were not particularly interested in socializing with newcomers. I didn’t really get anything out of those sessions to be honest.

Today I went to a knitting club in Sundbyberg, to see what that was like. I’m a member of Sticka!, Sweden’s national knitting organization, and they publish a list of local clubs on their website.

I had such a wonderful time. The atmosphere was incredibly welcoming: people were helping each other, complimenting others’ work, sharing thoughts. The person in charge of the group was very focused on welcoming and including everyone. I think this may have been what was missing at the knitting café: someone to set the (right) tone.

Three hours passed in the blink of an eye. I will absolutely be going back. Maybe not on the weeks when the kids are here – I don’t want to miss so much of my time with them – but definitely on the other weeks.

I wanted my knitting for my first time there to be something simple, so that I could focus on the social side of it. Which meant bringing the dress. It’s getting bulky and sprawly, but I’ve worked out a way to roll it up and stuff it into my pillowcase-turned-project-bag such a way that I can work on it without taking all of it out. The knitting gets protection, and the balls of yarn are kept contained.