WWKIP Day for the Win!

I had the huge pleasure of celebrating World Wide Knit in Public Day yesterday with my BFFF, Cari. If you’re new to the blog and don’t know Cari, I write about her all the time. I wrote more than usual here and here. She’s amazing.

Believe it or not, we met in person for the very first time on WWKIP Day 2013, by accident! We’d gotten to know each other a little through Cari’s blog and through conversations on Ravelry when I lived in Chicago, but we’d never actually met in the flesh.

Paul and I had just moved to Tennessee and were having lunch out, and this person walked up to our table, looked me dead in the eye, and said, “You’re knitting. You must be Melinda.” Instant friendship. Paul even snapped a picture! I was working on my Glacier Sweep shawl.

After that crazy chance encounter, Cari and I have made a point of being together on (or near) every WWKIP Day since. I can’t begin to say how much happiness this brings me.

It’s hard to imagine WWKIP Day before Cari, but I was looking back at some old pics and remembered that there was at least one fun one in Chicago.

In 2012 I was in a Ravelry group that had a WWKIP Day scavenger hunt. The idea was to take a picture of your WIP in all sorts of crazy situations. You got points for each picture, and the person with the most points won. Here are a few mine.

My sock with the daily paper (1 point):

The sock held by a child under 9 (1 point). These guys are practically grown up now!

The sock in front of The Art Institute, an internationally recognized landmark (5 points):

The sock held by a non-knitter (1 point) with a sign in more than 2 languages – English, Korean, and French  (1 point):

The sock at a height of at least 50 feet (3 points). Paul was an exceptionally good sport during all of this.

The sock with a family of non-knitters who didn’t speak my language (3 points) and who volunteered their son to hold the sock. We’re also standing in front of The Bean, another internationally recognized landmark (5 points). Plus, that’s a hand knit hat I’m wearing. I can’t remember how many points the hat was, but it should have been a lot. It was 98 degrees that day!

The sock under running water (5 points):


And finally, the sock held by someone in uniform (3 points):

The best part about doing this was meeting so many nice people. I was amazed by how willing everyone was to participate and by all the great conversations the picture taking spurred about knitting and all kinds of other things.

I didn’t win the competition that year, but that turned out to be completely beside the point. By the time I finished taking the pictures, I’d already won the day.

Here’s hoping that you are enjoying knitting in public somewhere fun this weekend! Be well, my friends. And knit on!!

 

17 Comments

  1. I did not knit in public yestetday, but I did go crazy at a fiber festival and bought tons of yarn and an alpaca fleece to boot. Does that count? I just love your pictutes… So inspiring. I need to take sock yarn and needles out on an adventure too!!

  2. Jay Jarman

    I really enjoyed yesterday. I’m not a knitter but I have also been at almost all of you two’s WWKIP Days. In fact, I have taken many of the pics I’m proud to say. I also enjoyed the story about the knitting scavenger hunt.

    • melinda

      Yes!! It would not be the same without you. Running into Cari while I was knitting that day at Main Street Cafe was actually extra serendipitous because it brought you both into my life. ❤️

  3. I didn’t knit in public (blame apt hunting and packing … ughh) yesterday but I knit on my bus and train rides daily … does that count? LOLOL! In the spirit of all things fiber, I started a new spinning project, worked on my current hat wip, started a new hat wip and bought two skeins of yarn after more than 2 years of not buying yarn for myself.

    You and Cari look like you both had a wonderful day, please get her to post more spinning pics on her blog … please and thank you! LOL!

    • melinda

      Bus and train knitting totally counts!! You are big time walking the fiber walk and no doubt inspiring all sorts of people to try their hand at knitting and spinning along the way. 🙂

      Cari and I did have a good time on Saturday. It was the first time we’d seen each other in ages, so we revelled in every second. I agree about the spinning pics. I’ll work on her!

  4. Been mulling over this for a few days, because it always touches my heart when you write about our relationship, because it means so much to me. You’re the family I chose, the sister of my heart. You’re there for me each and every day even though we don’t get to see each other as often as we’d like. I’m motivated to do more, and be better at everything just by knowing you.

  5. What a wonderful story, Melinda. 🙂 It’s so lovely that blogging and WWKIP Day led to a beautiful friendship! 🙂 And I’m loving all of the fun Chicago pictures here! What an exciting contest/knitting photo scavenger hunt – those are all of the big landmarks! (I have never thought of bringing knitting to the Bean, but I just may have to follow your example and try this, now!!). Glad to read that you had a lovely WWKIPD! <3

    • melinda

      Thank you so much for reading, Shirley! Wouldn’t it have been fun if we’d known each other while I still lived in Chicago?! Think of all the fiber adventures we might have had. 😉 The plan that particular WWKIP Day was to take a picture someplace much higher up than the Whole Foods parking lot, but that was the last stop of the day, and we were exhausted. If I were to do it again, I’d take a picture of my knitting on that glass floor in the Sears (just can’t say Willis) Tower. 🙂

      • It would have been so much fun to have enjoyed some Chicago fiber adventures together, indeed! 😉 It’s a great city for fiber-lovers, as I’m slowly discovering! And that idea would have made for an epic photo – short of boarding a plane, one doesn’t get much higher than the glass floor of the Sears! (I’d have to steel my nerves before hazarding that picture!!).

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