It was, in short, a fabulous afternoon.
I met up with Kylie at Central Station and we headed to where the day was kicking off at the Inner City Knitters Guild meeting. At Guild, everyone gets to show off works in progress or finished projects and you see some amazing stuff. They're a great bunch. I've been twice and have felt really warmly welcomed both times.
Walking down the Circular Quay there was a great sense of Sydney being at its best. All sunshine and people milling about and docked in full view was a giant cruise ship. I snapped RoseRed and Jody wandering past.
We settled into the cafe we'd chosen, taking over several tables for the duration. It's hard to get photos in the dim light of an undercover walkway but we had a great view.
Randomknits/Donna and Jody.
And more knitters down the length of the table.
I originally posted the above photo via my iphone to Facebook but word came from my sister that my nephew, Will, thought it was too dark (everyone's a critic!) so I took another one for him that he might find more interesting.
There was, of course, an astounding amount of knitting in amongst all the food, drinks and Secret Santa presents (I was given, by Sharre, a fabulous selection of teas, with a pretty tea cup and some strawberry flavoured sugar!). I caught a couple of projects being worked on around me. I had to do this because my knitting for the day is a secret.
Kylie is knitting a gorgeous red sock in from Zauberball.
And RoseRed was demonstrating a tubular cast on. I was amazed.
And here we are, grinning happily, because, well, we were happy. RoseRed, me and Kylie. Later we had a sleepover at RoseRed's house and Mr RoseRed cooked Paella for us and it was all just lovely.
In the afternoon, I caught a bus home and napped over my secret knitting. I had crammed a lot into the weekend and I was extraordinarily sleepy.
You know what was interesting about sitting outdoors knitting all afternoon? The number of times we were asked about the purpose of our gathering was staggering. Do we walk up to people sitting eating and drinking and ask the purpose no? Look, I'm not so dim as to wonder why people think knitting in public is worth commenting on and I'm sure if you've not seen it before you do feel awfully curious, but it did seem rather odd that the majority of commenters assumed it was for charity. One woman even asked us if we were having a knit-a-thon.
We explained, with good humour, that it was a social event.
"And you're all knitting different things? Not the same things?'"
That was the baffling question for me. Why would twenty or so people sitting with food and drinks and looking to all intents and purposes like a social gathering, be all knitting the same thing? I didn't quite get that. But never mind, it's always novel to be approached. Just not too much.
Bells
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