An Exercise in Futility….

Through the comments on a friend’s blog, I ran across the blog of a girl that recently joined our knitting group. Her perspective on the eclectic and wonderful women that make up the group was interesting. Her thoughts spurred me to pay attention to the group dynamics at last night’s get together. We are…

a) a group of women who enjoy each other’s company;
b) mainly between the ages of mid-twenties to mid-thirties;
c) live in metro-DC area; and
d) knitters or crocheters.

Sure, we all get on each other’s nerves occasionally, but at the end of the day, I feel blessed to have such a marvelous group of women in my life. Where else are you going to find a group of women that meet regularly as part of the formal group and plan other outings like bubble tea and pool at skeevy dives? We offer to help each other paint new condominiums and explain euphemisms to each other. We rock.

I wonder how we as a group appear to newcomers. Are we intimidating? I used to do a better job of trying to include newbies in conversations, but I stopped trying for some reason. Part of me wants to have the group closed to new members. We have such a great group dynamic that I eye newbies suspiciously for fear that they will drive a wedge where one does not exist. Another part of me feels like my “new friend” quota for the year has been met. I am not in charge (nor do I want to be). We seem to self-govern pretty well. Liza and I are “moderators” for our Ravelry group and we have an absentee moderator on our Yahoo! Group. I am fiercely protective of these fantastic people and am willing to use eye jabbers (US 11 dpns for those of you not “in the know”) to protect the specialness of our meetings. As an olive branch and parting statement, here is my declaration to newcomers: Come try us out. We are cool. We are snarky. Nevertheless, not everyone likes our particular ice cream flavor. To each their own.