Monday, August 18, 2008

I get by with a little help from my friends

I am so blessed! My knitting buddies have been bending over backwards to help me get ready for Stitches. Last week, I invited Lynn and Kathy over for lunch and knitting, but they decided they'd rather help me pack kits. They saved me hours of work. Then Melissa called a few days later and offered to pack kits on Saturday. Between the 4 of us, we added more than 100 kits to my inventory for Stitches.

Melissa has also volunteered to be my helper at Stitches. We'll be driving down separately because she has to work on Thursday, but she's coming right from work to join me at the market preview. She'll be helping me manage the crowd on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. My husband is driving my car back to Wisconsin after he helps me unload and set up on Thursday, so we will be taking Melissa's van back on Sunday.

It's hard to believe that there once was a time in my life when I felt I didn't have many women friends. When I was in my late 30's, I found that my high school and college friends had mostly moved or drifted away due to marriage, children, job changes. I found new friends through an activity that most people think of as isolating and anti-social--knitting. The women that I found through my Monday night knitting group are far from the old-fashioned knitter stereotype. They are fun-loving, funny, witty, supportive, creative, kind, charitable, honest and open. They are, in short, the kind of people I'm proud to call friends.