yarn.

• You can pick out new colors of cotton yarn because we’re almost out.
• You can get on the phone and order the yarn from the distributors.
• You can pick out some yarn for the Primo scarf class that Janie R. is teaching on Saturday.
• You can write a blog entry.

Here’s my progress so far.  Jean R. and I had a great time picking out cotton colors.  We have a very nifty little list ready to go.  The bad news is that the companies that we’re ordering from are on the east coast, it’s 4:25 p.m. and everyone in that time zone is done working for the day.  Someone else gets the fun of doing the ordering tomorrow.  As for picking out yarns for the Primo scarf – I’m a technical knitter, what can I say. Picking out colors takes me forever and Shannon has informed me that Mary Ellen (interior designer extrordinare) has chosen the yarns for the first five kits.  She’s a hard act to follow and I’m sure that the any kit I would design would sit on the bench like the last kids chosen for the dodge ball game while hers would be first string.  Let’s just say I’m procrastinating this item on the to-do list because I’m a little intimidated.  Yes, even seasoned knitters get intimidated.

However, I can blog and I want to share how proud I am of our brave group of lace knitters.  Our final class was last Thursday (though we’re going to have a make up class – - – or a reunion tour, we haven’t decided which) and it does my heart good to see how far these intrepid women have come.  They are no longer intimidated by charts, they understand short rows intimately, and stitch markers are their friends.  Their projects, though not completed, are coming along beautifully and they are seeing their perserverance bear fruit.  Best of all, they are much better at reading their knitting - understanding by looking at their work where they are in their pattern and how to correct their mistakes.  As their humble instructor, I find all of this just way too cool.  They are my new heroes.

In my other business, I work with nonprofits – a rewarding life filled with people and organizations that constantly amaze me with their depth of committment to community.  Over the years I’ve logged many hours in board meetings – some great, some agonizingly painful.  My friend Killis once told me, “If no one dies, it’s a good board meeting” because the work in some of those gatherings is just that difficult.  I can say without reservation that this lace knitting class was hard work for everyone but I’m happy to report that no one died in the process – though there were impalements, much swearing, high stress levels, and lots of ripping back to life lines and even back to the beginning of projects.  In fact, I was delighted by everyone’s great sense of humor (even the self-deprecating kind), mutual encouragement/assistance (”try it this way”) and willingness to Jump off the cliff and try something new and challenging.  You did GREAT ladies!  Oh, and the beer Shannon and Jan brought to class didn’t hurt either. 

I wish some of the organizations I worked with in my other life were this supportive and good humored with each other when working through the rough patches.  Hmm, maybe a case of good beer would help . . .