Last Saturday, June 13th, was Worldwide Knit In Public Day. I believe this day was originally put together to encourage knitters to take their craft to the public, and show the non knitters what it is we do and what their missing! These events happen all over the world, in parks, farmers markets, malls, yarn shops, pubs, cafe’s al fresco, and probably places I don’t even know about.
The truth of the matter is, that knitters knit in public all the time; at ball games, doctors offices, lectures, coffee shops, in airports, on the bus, on the train…and so on, and so on, and so on!! But, all that aside, yarn shops, and guilds have put together specific gatherings for this special day.
My friend Jana asked me if I wanted to go to an event on Bainbridge Island, sponsored by Churchmouse Yarns & Teas! I am so glad that we went, it was the perfect day. The weather was perfect…it was on a Saturday, and it wasn’t too hot, and it wasn’t too cold…it was perfect! There was lots going on in town where the yarn shop is located, as the local famers market was also in full effect, SO, we had Jana’s husband Brian drop us off, so we didn’t have to worry over parking. There were lots of knitters at the piazza in front of the store. We set up our chairs, and then went into Churchmouse for a spot of shopping.
This store is a destination store, no doubt, but inspiration abounds! I saw lots of things that I wanted to purchase, but kept my purchase down to one skein of yarn to go with a project I already had on needles. Jana picked up some yarn that the store was holding for her. We will be back this summer and I plan to treat myself to some of the other things I saw. We picked up a sandwich from the Fork & Spoon nearby and headed back for some knitting. The Churchmouse was serving iced tea out to all of us knitters and also bites of shortbread….can you image — it was perfect.
Tina Newton, founder of Blue Moon Fiber Arts, was there knitting away with all of us. She had brought up a shipment of her special dyed yarns, as the Churchmouse carries her lightweight famous Socks That Rocks yarn. I purchased a skein — I LOVE THIS YARN, and Tina; I follow her on Instagram, Churchmouse too for that matter.
Sounds sort of weird, but I felt like I was on vacation. I was soaking up the sun, knitting the day away, eating out, shopping and taking pictures. Doesn’t that sound like vacation? It was kind of funny to watch people stroll by and look at all of us knitting and see the looks on their faces and overhear the funny things they would say. So many people, would say, “are you all here every Saturday?” You have to walk through the piazza to get from the Famers Market down to town, so there was a constant flow of passersby’s.
I love knitting, and knitters! We all think about the same things, and talk about the same things. If you are knitting, and are with knitters, it doesn’t matter where you are sitting, or if you know the person next to you — you’ll have a grand time*