Knitting and Ping Pong

"There is no right way to knit; there is no wrong way to knit. So if anybody kindly tells you that what you are doing is "wrong," don't take umbrage; they mean well. Smile submissively, and listen, keeping your disagreement on an entirely mental level. They may be right, in this particular case, and even if not, they may drop off pieces of information which will come in very handy if you file them away carefully in your brain for future reference. " ~Elizabeth Zimmerman

I found this today, in a timely manner. During the Casting On a Million Ways class last night, one of the participants, who is a fairly new knitter, told us that someone said to her that making scarves was "not really knitting" and didn't count. How discouraging for a new knitter to hear that! We all know what it was like to be a new knitter, so excited about it and wanting to make socks or a sweater or a poncho or something else rather complicated, but only being able to make a scarf for now because you were new and needed the practice. This quote is referring to something slightly different but it reminded me of this and carries a nice message. Persevere with knitting because it's what YOU like, not what others like. And sometimes you can pick up a little info along the way.

I also had a young knitter, maybe 8 years old, come in with her mom and grandma last night. She was going to be making a little purse and she was very excited about it. She was also planning her next project, a hat, and inquired about what patterns she might use to make one. She was very sweet and so enthusiastic. Her older brother was there, too, and he was in the process of knitting a scarf. I asked how far along he was and he held up his hands about 6 inches. He said "It's taken me about a year." But he's still working on it. Tell me that isn't really knitting and doesn't count.

In other news, Paul and I got a wedding present recently: a ping pong table! Oh. My. Gosh. We have been having so much fun. I can't tell you what a great stress relief it is... not because we are great players and are smashing the ball all over the place, but because we laugh SO HARD while we are playing. Last night Paul kept coming up with excuses as to why he was missing the ball -- something like "the dog was looking at me". And for some reason, I was so intent on watching the ball because I thought it was going to miss the table, that I wasn't ready to hit it when it actually did hit the table. We both weren't that great, but I think I won the most games. :)

Oh yes, one more piece of housekeeping: the nice flowering plant my mom gave me for the front porch of the store did NOT die! I posted a while back that I had neglected to water it, and I thought it was dead, but I watered it a lot and it came back. My mom said the only way she knew about it was to read my blog! She thought it had died and then when she came to visit last weekend, there it was, more beautiful than ever. I told her I'd set the record straight. Sorry, mom.