Coming up for air.....

I've spent the last 3 days hitting 'replay' in my mind and reliving our experience as presenters for the Snohomish Knitter's Guild.  It's hard to put into words all that I personally gained from the experience ~ actually, I guess I should say it would take too many words to do that.  I've been thinking about what I wanted to tell everyone about our big night and this is what it boiled down to for me:

• Charisa ~ you are one dynamic, charismatic, fearless leader!  It's amazing what you and your knitting group have accomplished in the last year.  To take your passion for knitting and form the community that you have in such a short time was amazing to observe.  You are the epitome of the guild's theme this year.  Thank you so much for inviting us to come and speak to you all.  And on a personal note, I still can't believe how quickly you pegged me as a type A personality, oh kindred spirit!
• The Guild ~ you were wonderful!  We were so nervous ~ some more than others...we had visions of seizures, fainting spells, tears, hysterical laughter....you name it, we were worried it was going to happen to one of us!  You all couldn't have been more welcoming and enthusiastic about a bunch of strangers coming to talk to you about a craft that many of you have probably had more experience at than the sum of all our combined years of knitting.  Thank you so much for making us feel at home from the minute we walked in the door!
• National vs Local ~ within 10 minutes I decided that my TKGA membership will be a thing of the past (at least for the time being) when it expires in February and I'm going to join the Snohomish Guild.  I can't wait to get locally involved and hopefully be put to work in some form or fashion to help this fantastic group of people grow and support each other in their fiber craft passions.  I'm a workhorse and love to help where I can, so hopefully once I settle in I'll be able to contribute in some way.
• Waltz Building ~ I'm not sure where the guild used to meet but the new digs are fantastic!  I looked it up on 'the Google' this week and learned that it was built in 1938 as the music building for the high school.  I love the sense of history you get when you walk in the door, with old black and white class photos on the walls everywhere you look.  What better place to practice a craft that has such a rich history of it's own.  My only regret is that the lighting was not the best for photo taking and of the many photos I took after our presentation, I only had a few that were barely salvageable.
• Feedback ~ we were hoping for some (anything, really, please tell us your thoughts from the night!) and I'm not sure what the other knitwits have heard but I'll share my moment of glory.  I got a wonderful note on Ravelry from luv4wool simply titled 'Inspiration' in which she shared that she has been knitting since a young age and that we inspired her to take a class and wanted to know where to start.  I've already thanked her and shared some thoughts on choosing a shop and a lesson but I'd like to thank her again here since her simple note made any of the prepresentation emotional trauma I went through totally worth it!  I'm so glad that you shared with me!  And I've also noticed that we have a few new followers on the blog ~ welcome!  We're glad that you were interested enough to find us online and leave us messages ~ warms my heart.  Also, the invites that I got to 4 knitgroups ~ thanks to everyone that approached me with an offer of a local weekly group ~ I hope to get to hang out with some if not all of you soon!  I'm excited!
• On a personal note ~ I'll wrap it up by saying that I appreciated having the forum to publicly tell my fellow knitwits how I feel about them and all that they mean to me.  We send emails all the time but I don't think we've actually told each other out loud how much our friendships mean and how special we know our relationships with each other are.  What a great night!  I'm so proud that I let my arm be twisted into taking this opportunity and overcoming all my fears.  For someone that didn't think they could fill 5 minutes with anything but idle chatter, I think I may have taken up more than my allotted time and I still had things I wanted to say!  It was so empowering to be surrounded by so many creative, encouraging fellow crafters.  I feel like I've found a home ;)

I'll share just one photo with everyone ~ hopefully Kelli has a bunch that she can post but this was my money shot from the evening.  Kelli getting to share her first pattern with a guild member:

Countdown ~ 2 more days .....

maybe I do have 15 minutes worth of things to talk about .......

I've been knitting for 4 years and this is only 1/3 of my projects ~ I've gifted the rest and I still have this many knits to talk about ~ sometimes you don't realize what you've accomplished until it's sitting right in front of you!

The Secret's Out!

So it's time to share our exciting news ~ we've been asked to speak at the Snohomish Knitters Guild in November ~ Kelli, Trudy, Carrie and I will do a 1 hour presentation to talk about how our relationships with each other have grown since we began knitting together. We also get to have a trunk show and we're planning a few little surprises to liven up the evening, also. We're still floored and honored that we were contacted by the guild's president, Charisa, about doing this. It was completely out of the blue and I think we're still a little shocked that they'd like to meet us all. Their October newsletter just came out and here's the blurb about us, hot off the presses!

'November 9, 2010: The KnitWits!
Our focus this year is building our knitting community. The KnitWits are regular posters of projects in the SKG projects forum as Oneknitwit, Twoknitwit, Fourknitwit. We thought it would be great to hear how they met, spur each other on in their knitting knowledge, and how knitting has “knit” them together.
The knitwits will be sharing about themselves and offer a trunk show of their collective work.'

here's the link to their webpage, too, where we're also mentioned (with a photo!)
http://www.snohomishknittersguild.org/events ~ scroll down a bit and voila, there we are having a blast at Stitch and Pitch this year!

It will actually be oneknitwit, twoknitwit, thirdknitwit and knitwittiest who will be there, but fourknitwit was mentioned in the newsletter since she also shares her projects with their group on Ravelry.

WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!!! We hope to have some fun things to share, including photos, and maybe a whole new bunch of knitting friends when it's all over!