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I have no pictures of knitting progress, not because I have not had time or opportunity to take pictures...but because I have been working such long hours that I have had little to no time to knit. I have made some small progress on my sock but other than that...nothing. Very depressing. Also kind of alarming, because here we are nearly halfway through November and Whispering Pines is in the same state of not-yet-done that it was at the end of October. I am starting to be concerned. A month and a half is plenty of time, right? But if I don't get back on the knitting track soon I may find myself in a panic.


I did get a little time off from work, as I left at noon on Friday. This weekend was our annual church retreat at Graves Mountain Lodge in Syria, VA, and while we were broken up into groups for an activity my Pastor came over to me and told me there was a group of ladies "knitting or crocheting or something," at the end of the porch, and he made me come peek out of the meeting room door to see them. When we got a break he marched me over there (supposedly because he wanted to see what they were doing, but I think he knew I was too chicken to go without help), and lo and behold, I met wendyknits and a group of other knitters who were hanging out. As usual I was awkward and babbly but they were all very nice and Wendy let me touch her shawl. I have read about the wonder that is sea silk but I have never seen it in person, much less touched it, so I was really amazed at the softness. Mega drape, definitely not for structured garments, but really beautiful and I want some.

Another knitter whose name I completely flaked on was knitting a Clapotis, which was the first time I had seen this fabled item. I wish I could remember the name of the sock yarn she was using, it was really pretty. I showed them my Casbah sock, wishing I had better proof of my knitterly credentials, but I did win some points for being a two circ devotee.

Actually, it was the funniest thing, I said "I'm a knitter," and Wendy looked at me and said "Are you an internet knitter?" and I was like I AM AMONG MY PEOPLE (because, surely I'm not the only one who noticed...non-internet knitters can be a little odd). I hope I wasn't rude to anybody, I am just such a verbal klutz and I was nervous, but they were all very nice. And now I think I owe my paster a pair of socks.

I spent the rest of the afternoon wondering where they were going on the 'field trip' Wendy mentioned to me that they were going to take, because I was sure it involved yarn and I really wanted to know where it was, even though the retreat would last until 5 at least and there was no way I would be able to get to any even semi-local knitting place before it closed (why didn't I ask? I don't know, because I'm wierd). Fortunately, I am now able to go to Wendy's blog to find out where they went so I can plot for next year (there was a fiber festival in Virginia last month?? How did I miss this?? I have got to find more local knitting blogs, this is clearly educational).

It was a wonderful weekend all around, but the hands and heart were too occupied for knitting - I am the unofficial church photographer so I had other duties (I have no explanation for why I do not have a picture of knitters in the wild). I did knit some on my sock during the break we had on Saturday afternoon, and during the bonfire (it is cute how non-knitters are wierded out by someone knitting in the dark) we had on Saturday night, but since I drove myself, no car knitting for me (it must be difficult when you are going somewhere with knitters to figure out who is the poor soul that is going to sacrifice knitting time to drive).

I came back Saturday night and processed photos until my eyes were about to fall out for a slideshow in the service on Sunday morning, and then after church on Sunday I...went to work. I finished at about 6 and had to be back at 8:30. This week should be the last week of this OH KILL ME NOW marathon, so hopefully, knitting content will return in next week's post.