A day of serendipity, part 2

Picking up where I last left off, after watching the sunrise and having breakfast with our friends (who were somewhat perplexed to see us, heh), it was time to head to the airport (again). We weren't very optimistic about our chances of making our connecting flight (remember, we had a 50 minute window to: disembark, collect our luggage, go through customs, re-check our luggage, go through security, and haul major arse to our gate), but we figured Chicago was closer to home than Cabo...

The airline had thoughtfully seated us at the front of the aircraft, the idea being that we would then be able to disembark a little faster (and every minute counts!). When we got on the plane, we saw that the flight wasn't full, and that there were two empty seats right at the bulkhead. It didn't take long for us to stake our claim, let me tell you!

Once we were good and settled and we had taken off, I pulled out my knitting (of course). I was knitting along, quite happily I might add (sandy beaches - to say nothing of muy margaritas! - aren't very conducive to knitting...), when one of the flight attendants comes up to me and starts oooh-ing and aaah-ing over my knitting. I smile, thank her for the compliment, and keep on knitting. Then she tells me she just learned to knit a few days ago, and could she get a few pointers from me? "Um... sure! I'd love to help!" I say.

Every so often she'd walk by and ask me something about what I was doing, how I was holding my yarn (I knit English style, and evidently she had been taught with the Continental technique). This went on for about an hour, and when she finally had a minute, this is what we saw:

This woman was interested in learning to KNIT, I tell you, and she was not going to let some minor detail like being 32,000 feet in the air (not to mention that I was a complete stranger!) get in her way!

Now - and I feel terrible for saying this, because I gave her the link to my blog, and I hope to heck she's reading - she was falling into the trap that all newbie knitters fall for. She was using a novelty, bumpy acrylic with big-ass needles that made it really difficult to work the stitches; she was planning to knit this stuff into a SHAWL, and she was planning to trim this shawl in - WAIT FOR IT - EYELASH YARN.

I Just. About. Lost. It.

"Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!" I wanted to shout at her. "Stay AWAY from crappy acrylic and for God's SAKE woman, put the eyelash and fun fur DOWN!" But then I thought "Who the heck am I to judge? Maybe she's allergic to wool? Maybe she can't afford to knit with anything else? Maybe she doesn't want to invest in something she's not sure she's going to enjoy?" Even so - if I'd had any spare merino in my bag (that's what I get for packing sensibly for the first time in my life), I would have given it to her in a heartbeat. And a copy of the Harlot's The Secret Life of a Knitter as well.

Well, I didn't have any of that, so I gave it a look, showed her both techniques, and tried to help her figure this whole "making fabric out of string" thing out.

She had mentioned before we got started that her knitting was so horrendous, I'd need a glass of wine. I just laughed it off and told her I was sure it wasn't THAT bad, but maybe she ought to hold off on the wine until AFTER the lesson... Sure enough, once she had packed up her knitting...

I gots me my wine :)

It never ceases to amaze me where knitters (or newbie knitters!) will pop up. I never got your name, lovely lady, but if you're reading this, I hope you stick with it. There are plenty of knitters in the sky to give you pointers along the way :)

Happy Knitting Everyone!

ps: Oh, in case you were wondering: we made our connecting flight with time to spare. I've never run through an airport so fast in my entire LIFE! We got home late, but we collected the kids and were glad to have the entire family at home.