friday night knitting club

I consider myself to have high literary standards. When I have time to read (which isn't much these days), it needs to be substantive and well-written.* Toni Morrison, Barbara Kingsolver, Michael Pollan, modern novels, nonfiction about current events - that's my usual fare, along with a healthy dose of J.K. Rowling and Elizabeth Zimmerman. Good writing is good writing, after all, even if it's "just" about knitting. I've dipped into lighter reading lately, though, in part because the first year with a new baby leaves me too sleep-deprived to concentrate on anything too complex. I've worked my way through several of the China Bayles mysteries by Susan Witing Albert, and last summer I even read The Friday Night Knitting Club. It's not very good, and I can't really put my finger on why - something about the writing style or the phony characters. Anyway, I don't recommend it.

But this past Friday I went to knit night at a local shop with my knitting buds. "Night" being the operative word here. Meaning I went alone sans children. I was able to hold an entire conversation without saying "Daniel, where are you going? Hang on...I'll be right back!" I was able to knit uninterrupted for a whole two hours. It was very nice, though I don't expect we'll do it too often (we usually meet Wednesday mornings). Everyone seemed to be on her feisty side. We got to talking about a local grocery store (Woodman's) that tends to attract a certain clientele, and by that I mean just about the opposite of the sorts of shoppers you see at Whole Foods. We used to shop at Woodman's all the time because it's so cheap, but we rarely go now because the produce is so abominable. As my friends volleyed general insults about Woodman's shoppers, I thought it a good time to tell them about the time I was 8 months pregnant with Anya and we went to the Woodman's liquor store to buy a case of scotch because you get a 20% discount when you buy that much. (Please don't judge. Scotch doesn't spoil.) And about the time Stu went by himself to pick up a case of cheap local wine that is even cheaper when you get 12 bottles at once, and he forgot to put on the parking brake and the car rolled several yards through the parking lot before he jumped in to stop it.

I think they were a little surprised. Then I mentioned that he's started homebrewing. (We have a lot of alcohol in the basement thanks to those discounts and the brewing. Yes, we're well-stocked. No, we don't drink it up very fast. Give me some credit here.)

Somewhere in there, I got a lot of progress done on that Hodgkin's blanket. It's just as blue and basketweave-y as ever, though, so I'm not going to bother with any more pictures of it until it's finished and blocked. It should just be a few more days.

*I draw the line at Russian novels, though. My friend Pam recently had a questionaire on her blog in which she asked, among other things, "Have you read any books by Fyodor Dostoevsky? Are you a fan? Why or why not?" and I had to answer that not only have I never read any Russian novels, I am afraid to because I think I will feel stupid if I do. For shame! Stuart, on the other hand, read the Brothers K and Crime and Punishment purely for recreation. Have I mentioned that my hubby is a smart guy? Yes, yes he is.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hello fellow Madisonian! I totally agree with you about The Friday Night Knitting Club. It felt very artificial to me, so I never bothered to finish it. I remember how I could not read long books when I had babies and toddlers -- too tired, not enough uninterrupted time! Now that I knit, I have to work to make sure I leave enough time to read.

I loved your grocery story analysis. I live near Whole Foods, but try to drive to Woodman's for cereal, etc. When my kids were little, I used to love going to Woodman's by myself at night, while hubby stayed with the kids.

Deborah

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