The scarf exchange

One of my favorite places to visit every day on the Internet is Ravelry, a knit and crochet community. According to the About Us section, Ravelry "is a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration." I can organize my projects, look at other people's projects, read reviews of yarns, find free patterns, yada yada yada...a whole wealth of great information.

There are also specialty groups to join. I immediately found and joined the Atlanta Metro Knitters, Cleveland Indians fans, and NPR listeners. Then about six weeks ago, I stumbled across a group called the Ravelry Scarf Exchange. Participants submit information about their likes/dislikes, and are then matched downstream with a person who will knit a scarf for them and also upstream for a person who will knit a scarf for them. When shipping the scarf to your downstream pal, you are to also include some goodies, such as yarn, needles, pattern books, chocolate, stitch markers, any fun novelty item.

It sounded like fun, but I was very apprehensive about participating...after all, I have only been knitting a few months and have not moved much beyond knit and purl. After much discussion with and coaching from James and my knitting mentor, Geri, I decided to thrown caution to the wind and sign up.

Last week we received our matches. Much to my initial dismay, not only did I receive a knitter of many years as my downstream pal, but she is also the owner of her own yarn store! OH NO! James was not at all understanding my concern until I put it into a context he could understand: what if he joined a woodworking exchange and he received Norm Abrams as the recipient of his project. Then he understood.

I sent a message off to my downstream pal to introduce myself as her upstream knitter, and to tell her that I am a novice knitter and just a tad bit (okay, A WHOLE LOT) nervous about knitting for her. She sent back the nicest message, telling me not to be intimidated, that people rarely knit for her, and that my projects on Ravelry look quite nicely done. I felt so relieved to have been matched with such a great person.

Sue (downstream pal) lives in Baltimore, MD, where she owns the very cool yarn store Lovelyarns. Doesn't it look like the neatest place? James has a trade show in Baltimore in October, and I am trying to think how I can go with him for at least a few days. Visit Fort McHenry? Wander around Harborplace? Pay tribute to Edgar Allen Poe? No, nada, no way...I just want to go to Lovelyarns and sit and knit with all the fabulous Baltimore knitters.

I am having great fun perusing patterns and yarns, and finding items for the goodie bag that will accompany Sue's scarf. By mutual agreement, I am keeping all details of the scarf a state secret so she will be surprised. And after a few days of anxiety, I also received a message from my upstream pal, Christie, who lives in California.

I had no idea when I started knitting that I was joining such a wonderful community. I now know that wherever I go in the US or worldwide, when I find a group of knitters, I have found a group of friends.