A Sense of Community

The little guy and I hang out at a hobby shop near my home. We sometimes spend hours there, our record is 2.5 and probably would have been longer but they were closing up for the day. The staff has come to know us and encourage me to sit and knit while LG roams the aisles and dreams of what he'll spend his allowance on or save up for or what he'll get for a gift. When he's not doing that he's using the remote control glider simulator honing his skills so he can fly his plane more skillfully.

While sitting there knitting I am listening to the conversations taking place between the staff (all men) and the customers (usually men). The staff knows all the projects the customers are working on. And they take great interest in the progress and the finished product (model railroads, trains, planes, slot cars). It reminds me so much of a knitting store. There are a couple of differences: the talk stays on the project and the conversation is short. At a knitting shop the proprietor would not only know the project(s) but also tons of personal information about the customer. And the conversation would be long and detailed. We women like this sort of thing. But the men, they still have a sense of community.

And the staff did ask where the socks were that I had been knitting the day before, they were quite surprised to see them on my feet!

Here is my current project for the hobby store knitting; one trip to the shop resulted in 21 inches of ribbing.

Happy knitting!