KNITTING!

Yes, all right, calm down! 
It was the library's knitting group yesterday. The number of people who come varies greatly. Once there were just three of us - something to do with a football grand final and two weddings - and once there were nineteen.
There are usually around eight or nine - which has been about right for the size of the room we were meeting in. Recently we have been meeting in a much larger space but one which is not terribly well lit. It is all to do with the temporary location of the library while the extension is being built.  The knitting group has in fact been sent into a mini-hall.
But, people still find us. Yesterday we had an eight year old turn up. She can knit "but I want to know how to do the other one". 
   "You know how to do the knit stitch but you want to learn to do the purl stitch?"
She nodded.
    G.... said she would help. I left them to it. G.... is a very good teacher of  such things.
Someone else needed a pattern. I could have created one from the tiny garment she had brought. It was an odd shape but then those Cabbage Patch dolls are an odd shape. Her granddaughters are getting a doll each for Christmas and she wanted to knit something for them.  
    "There's a site on the internet," I told her.
    "I'm not much good at that sort of thing..."
I whisked her out to the main area of the library, asked one of the staff to log me in on a computer and showed the would be knitter what was available. 
     "KNITTING! Oh, look at it all! I had no idea there was all of this." 
What I was showing her was a miniscule portion of what is available. I showed her how to find a pattern. We chose what looked to be a simple one and I got it printed off for her.  
When we returned to the room with the rest of knitters someone else said,
      "Cat, can you show me how to do the neck?"
Then someone else reminded me I had promised to show them how to crochet around the edge of something.
The Japanese member of the group arrived. He has mastered both the knit stitch and the purl stitch now. He tells us he won't be there in January because he is going to the UK for a visit. We tell him there is a lot of wool for sale there. 
Someone arrives late. J...'s quiet today. I ask quietly if she's okay. She nods and asks, as she always does, where M.... is. I tell her again that M... doesn't come any more. J...has a closed  brain injury and life is confusing for her.
And then someone asks where someone else is. She wasn't going to come we are told. She thinks she talked too much last time. I look at the person who is telling us this.
   "Have you got her  phone number?"
She has and proceeds to give her a call. She issues an order to "get yourself over here now" and then says with some satisfaction, "She'll be here in ten minutes."
She creeps in twelve minutes later looking rather anxious.
 "We've been waiting for you. How did the move go?"
She had to help get her mother into a nursing home three weeks ago. It's been a difficult and stressful time for her.
The afternoon continues. I manage to do one row of what I am working on before it is time to pack up. The youngest knitter knows how to do the purl stitch now. Her work is not perfect but it will be good if she persists. The Cabbage Patch knitter leaves telling me that she will have to restrain herself from finding more patterns now she knows about "that site". Stitches have been picked up for a neckband. Someone else knows how to crochet around the edge of her "hen jumpers".
I tell the person who was not going to come, "I'm glad you came." She hugs me tightly and says, "Thankyou. I needed to come."
G... and I look at one another. 
I think we needed to be there too.