The Little Knittin' Kitten

Knitting in the Rain

No, this isn't a fibre artist's Gene Kelly fantasy. This is what I was doing this morning on the side of the road an hour late for work. But more on that later.

This has been a very frustrating week, and it's only Monday. Things started to get hairy on Saturday. I greatly appreciate my weekends because I really don't like my current job. I rely on my weekends to be relaxing and recharging so that I can face the work week ahead. On Saturday I took a trip to the North End of Toronto to teach knitting, an appointment I'd set up weeks ago. I got all the way to St Claire West station (an hour's sojourn on public transit from my house) only to realize that I got the day wrong. June 3 was, in fact, a Sunday and not a Saturday as I had previously believed. So another hour long trip home again. Of course, it meant 2 hours of knitting, but I would have much rathered spend those 2 hours curled up on the couch.

Later that night Nyron had a date to play basketball with his highschool buddies and I got to come along (a rare treat). While I was (generously) invited to play, I have no delusions about having game, so I sat on the grass and knit. When Nyron subbed out of one of the games, I decided to have him stretch out his arm and test the fit. I'm usually fanatical about fitting because I don't trust patterns and always knit to my own gauge. But for some reason I was almost half way through the sleeves before I thought to check the fit. And, of course, the knitting goddesses laughed. It just barely fit around his wrist, which might be fine for another man, but Nyron tends to roll his sleeves up so they need to fit at half way up his forearms. So I spent the last half hour of game play frogging both sleeves and rolling them into balls. I think the guys must have thought I was insane. They'd just spent 2 hours watching me knit and then in the last half hour I pulled everything out again.

On Sunday I managed to get to the knitting lesson on time; or so I thought. I arrived at the subway station with 20 minutes to spare and waited for the bus that I was told would take me to the organizer's house. But the bus didn't come. It wasn't until a very nice person came over and told the half dozen of us standing on the platform that the bus wasn't coming. It was re-routed to Bathurst station (a stop on another line) due to construction. There was no sign or information to let any of us know that. The TTC ticket seller was decidedly unhelpful and I ended up having to take a taxi.

The class itself was wonderful! There were 5 people, 2 teenage girls, a woman and her 9 and 6 year old daughters. I got a knitting spool for the 6 year old to keep her occupied while I taught knitting to the rest of the group. Luckily, the 9 year old was the only one who was completely new to the art, so I could give some basic guidance to the others and focus my attention on Marin. She was really sweet and very upset to see me go at the end of the 2 hours. I'll definitely be doing another lesson with that group!

Which brings me back to why I was knitting in the rain this morning. There was a passenger emergency on the subway which halted all service between Keele and St. George stations, which is a significant length of track. They ran a shuttle bus, but it always left Keele Station full to the brim, so the only time they would actually stop at the corner where I was waiting (which was only 1 subway stop from Keele) was if there was a red light, and then they never opened the doors. I tried to get a cab, but of course they were all occupied with other people left stranded by The Better Way. I stood in the rain for over an hour, knitting furiously to try and calm my fraying nerves, until a cab finally stopped and picked up myself and 2 other women who were also going downtown. Very thoughtful of this cab, seeing as most other cabs were taking advantage of the glut in need for their services by saving just one stranded commuter at a time. I got to work at 10:30, which meant I had to skip lunch and work until 6:00 to make my hours for the day. Needless to say I kept my knitting hidden under my desk so that I could do a few rows when I needed to take the edge off.

And that's just it. All through this ridiculous weekend my knitting is what has kept my sanity. And continues to do so.

Until next we knit!

=^_^=

posted @ 8:55 p.m.