The Knitting Group

Depending on everyone's schedule, at least once a month, but preferably once a week , my knitting group gets together for the day. We meet in a commons area at a senior living center where one of the group lives. This is actually a good set-up because:

1. No one has to clean her house.
2. We eat lunch in the dining room so no one has to prepare a meal.
3. It is air-conditioned, which my home is not. It's a treat for me to be cool indoors all day in summer.

There are now 5 of us in the group: Bonnie V, Janet, Nancy, and Sarah M. Sarah is refreshing her knitting skills, and gets more than enough advice from the rest of us. Ever notice how one person can have several opinions, some of them contradictory, on any given subject?

Just in case one project is not what we want to work on, each of us usually brings another that doesn't require too much concentration. It's essential to be able to converse and work at the same time when one is in a group, because one of its functions is to be consulted.

Since I design my sweaters from scratch, I tend to second and third guess myself, so having a sounding board of more objective observers helps me figure out what to do: is this close enough? Can I live with this one little thing that may not be ultimately what I had in mind? That question contained the answer, didn't it? Rats! More ripping!

Sometimes I have to leave the group early because I have to get to work. I work part-time at a yarn shop in Victor, NY, called New York Knits. Currently the shop (separate from the website) is having its 5th anniversary sale, which has been extended through the end of the month. If you are in the area, please stop by. Some yarns are as low as 60% off.

There are five employees plus the owner, Tracey. Besides me there are Bonnie W, Martha, Wendy, and Sarah K, who has just been hired full-time at Paychex after being graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology. It's been interesting having a college student working in the shop and getting her slant on styles and colors and so on.

All of us knit, of course, and have varying preferences in what we like to make. Each of us (except Tracey) has knit a bag, and customers are being asked to vote for their favorite. The same voting slip enters them in a drawing for a gift certificate at the shop. The winning employee gets a gift certificate too! Pick mine! Pick mine!

Yes, that was a blatant ad, which I won't do very often.

In the kitchen:
Nothing much has been happening in the kitchen Chez Jeanne. (Chez, pronouced "shay", is French and means "at the place of.") It's been too warm, and I've been too busy this week. I look forward to cooler weather and fall, when I will be much more inclined to cooking and baking.

The word 'baking' reminds me that I was going to give Bonnie W at work a copy of a carrot cake recipe I have. Will post that later, I promise. It is very good: flavorful and dense with goodies without being oily. It disappears fast.