bag full of yarn and half done knitting projects left on my front porch this morning

I intend to work on these projects and to finish them. They are half done scarves with balls of yarn attached and still on the knitting needles. A woman who has left the area today asked who in my group would take them and I being the group leader said I would accept them. I imagine she was flying and couldn't be bothered with them or with airport security holding her up over yarn and stuff, so she may have decided to best to leave them behind for someone else to use them.

So, I will finish them as handknits for charity to benefit the needy and the ill this winter. I will get them to Food and Friends and they will get them to where they need to go.

I will be running two knitting groups now

Such is life, going from no knowledge of knitting just a few years ago, to knitting scarves, a baby's sweater and now a dishcloth.

I have 2 knitting groups, one at Adega Wine Cellars in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland and another at La Madeleine (a French restaurant with several branches in our area), in Rockville, Maryland on different nights of the 2nd and 4th weeks of each month. The one for La Madeleine is new and yet to form, but if I have just one knitter besides myself that will make the 2 of us at least and people will see knitting in public, and especially a man knitting! and realize this is catching on and is not just for old ladies.

I was pleased when finally a man who knits e-mailed me about a knitting group I started, and I replied in the info about it and he e-mailed that he planned to attend. He is interesting as all of my knitters are, but he stands out in a way because he is male whereas all of my knitters have been female, and I have been wanting to provide a space where a man doesn't feel self conscious about knitting in public.

Traditionally in our country the USA,, this has been some secret thing that a man does not let the world know he does, all by himself away in his house hopefully out of the sight of anyone else. My goodness, what would women think or what would other men think if he did something so "unmanly"?

But this particular guy is a creative type, he not only knit for his own dad, but he does nice things like put on shadow puppet plays and workshops for kids and adults, if I read his website correctly. but he also goes camping with his partner, so he appears to be a definitely a well-rounded guy with a variety of skills.

Don't know if I am still doing Meetup.com but might keep the subscription for a month or so more. It just miffs me that I could lose control of my groups' destiny if I quit Meetup. Meetup tells me that if I stop paying the monthly fee, then an automatic thing kicks in where the group members are asked if they want to vote in another organizer. If I knew that would be the case I would never have signed up for Meetup in the first place. Much as it is a great tool, I feel hooked into this to avoid losing the leadership of this group.

Based on suggestions from group members, I have taken the group away from a coffee shop with nothing to offer but mostly drinks and sweet stuff and awful, heavy, densely caloric white bread sandwiches, UGH! to a delectable full-service restaurant menu of sandwiches, salads, soups, wines, interesting non-alcohol drinks, etc. Adega Wine Cellars love the place.

Then La Madeleine with its French food in a rustic French country type ambience.... many entrees for under a $10.
Three rooms there (small, medium, large) to reserve for groups. One knitter raved about that place, and another about the rooms off of the main dining area.
For now, it is enough to try to reserve a long table in the general dining area so we can spread out our knitting projects.