The company of women

Last weekend, I went with a pal up to Pemberton for a
weekend long knitting retreat. Friends and family looked at me skeptically when
I told them of my plans: “A what? Knitting? Retreat?” Like they had misheard.

I had my doubts too, before the weekend. My new pal and I
don’t know each other very well yet, and I wondered if we’d find enough common
ground to cover the travel time up and down and fill in the patches over the
weekend. And, I’m not much of a knitter, despite my call to action to reclaim
knitting in public. I haven’t knit anything in a while, and wasn’t sure I would
remember well enough to not embarrass myself in a group of knitters so
dedicated to their craft as to go on retreats together.

My colleague Elisabeth provided a crash reminder on casting
on and reading patterns, and my new pal helped me negotiate the purchase of
wool and needles and a simple pattern at a local yarn shop. I was set, but not
without apprehension.

The weekend was, to my surprise, wonderful. Truly wonderful.
And I didn’t realize what made it wonderful until it was almost over. It was at
the parting of knitters, when I was exchanging contact info with some women
that our conversation turned to what we did professionally. And then, it hit
me. We had been together for two days and nights – time filled with not only
knitting but a fashion show of knit treasures, a tour of a winery, a gourmet
meal at a local inn, a wacky lesson in making wool boas, drinking and eating of
goodies, walking in the great outdoors, petting of companion dogs – and we had
not talked of our careers or jobs.

But we had shared the most intimate of stories, stories of
love and loss and laughter, all expressed through the knitted items we had
completed or were pursuing. We learned of one knitter’s first grand-daughter,
and the exquisitely complicated pink jumper being knit for her, and of another
knitter’s recent loss of her husband, and the comfort of his smell lingering in
the hand-knit cardigan, and of another knitter’s struggle with depression and
work to overcome a lifetime of abuse, and the intricate triangle patterned
scarf that kept her focus on the present and the future.

When we were parting, I discovered I was knitting
alongside a lawyer, a payroll clerk, an insurance adjustor, two psychologists,
a civil engineer, a person on disability insurance, a newspaper editor, an
executive assistant, a merchant, a file clerk, and a cashier. Until then, I had
been in the company of women. And I was sorry to leave that company for the
cast of careers. The weekend was a lovely time to roam about in the democratic
and egalitarian company of women who shared of themselves through their knitting
and the stories the knitting told. I will keep knitting and I will look forward
to the next opportunity to refill my heart at the next knitting retreat, in the
company of women.