The Tuesday Night Knitting Gang

I love Tuesday nights!

Mom and I will usually hit the Starbucks for a coffee around 4 o'clock and then we head to Village Wools. Village Wools is our LYS we love so much. There is a nook in the back of the shop where we all gather to chat and knit until somewhere between 5 and 5:30pm. Comfortable wicker chairs and a sofa surround a coffee table filled with the latest of every knitting magazine you can think of. There are about 6-8 of us that meet at the shop for this time, all of us good friends and up on the latest news in each others lives. Sometimes we shop, sometimes we help others with knitting problems, sometimes we meet new people and invite them to share in the rest of our evening. We know the inventory at our LYS so well that when something new hits it usually doesn't last very long because its our group that gets to it first! Village Wools supports our community of local artists by having shows in the shop highlighting projects done by other knitters in the area. They have been supportive of my design work since I started back in 2011. There are at least 4 samples of my work in the shop and they sell all of my patterns and pass out stacks of my business cards. I have heard stories of other people who have had poor experiences at Village Wools and its hard for me to imagine it. I have had nothing but wonderful and supportive experiences every single time I walk in the door which is at least once a week, maybe more. Village Wools seems to be the "home base" where knitters meet, and competition items are dropped off here for both Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta as well as the New Mexico State Fair. The Albuquerque Dropped Stitch Knitters Guild used to meet monthly in one of the classrooms here until relocating to another location last year. Village Wools is a wonderful shop and like their sign says, they are the Fiber Addiction Specialists, they truly are!

Somewhere between 5 and 5:30 we all head around the corner to Jason's Deli for dinner and meeting up with the rest of the people we knit with on Tuesday evenings. Jason's Deli has been so wonderful in accommodating our group. Often times we will arrive the that table and chairs have already been arranged for us. We can have anywhere from 6 - 15 or more people show up for casual Tuesday Night Knitting. We have recently had some new people join the group and they have been a lot of fun. Its always nice to see what others are doing and working on. Its inspiring! Things you maybe haven't thought about working on you may finally be inspired to do. Everyone that comes to knit with us has such a wide range of knitting knowledge, its amazing. I know no matter what problem I have I can get help from someone from our Tuesday Night Knit Group. 

 I started going to Tuesday Night back in 2008 when I first learned how to knit. It was fun to see what everyone was doing. So many of us have been through so many things over the years now that Tuesday Nights aren't just for fun. They are necessary. It is a necessary time of being with your girlfriends and I didn't understand how important this was until I'd been going a while. As a group we have helped see each other through hard times and we have celebrated with each other in good times. We have seen marriages, divorces, births of babies, deaths of friends, sicknesses and diseases and our group continues to meet and most of us come each week. It is a source of support and fellowship unlike anything else in our lives. The friendships we have built are lasting, special, and unique. Many of us meet outside of Tuesday Nights, several of us travel to knitting events together. If we aren't traveling together we will certainly see them where ever we are going. Tuesday Night isn't just Tuesday Night in this house. Its the most important day of the week.

Savannah's sweater is coming along beautifully. Last night while at Village Wools I picked out the buttons for it and I love, love, love them! If you all knew Savannah and her parents you'd understand just how perfect these buttons are...

Aren't they just darling! Everyone loved them and approved of them last night. I sent this picture to Ariane last night to show her the buttons, I couldn't wait for her to see them! I am getting more and more excited about this sweater. I am now past the point of the 4 inches I had to frog...

The pattern is Sweet Peasy by Heidi Kirrmaier knit with Knit Picks Swish DK on US size 6

Now that I am passed all the problems I had with this and am moving right along I think I will finish this pretty quickly. I'm a little nervous about picking up the stitches along the edges to knit the button band and around the neck but I know if I have any problems, anyone from the Tuesday Night Knit Gang will be there to help me. After all, we were the last ones to leave last night at 9:00pm! Do you belong to a casual and informal knitting group? Is your knitting group an important part of your life like mine is? I would love to hear your stories!