An odd feeling

Tonight I felt something I rarely feel....shyness. Who knew a knitting group could be so intimidating?

I found a local knitting group who meet at a local coffee shop every Tuesday. I've known about it for 6 months, but never made the time to go. I decided this morning that tonight was the night. Of course, there were so many knitters there when I arrived that I had to awkwardly carry a chair and sit in the circle. One person asked what I was working on and then no one spoke to me for 10 mins. I was tongue tied. I didn't even know how to interrupt the conversation to introduce myself. That never happens! Heck, today in the locker room I talked to a woman for 10 mins who I had never met before and ended up giving her advice for her college aged daughter who wants to work for non-profits. Anyways, back to the knitting group,  I was trying to follow along on the intense conversation about pet cats and rabbits, but felt I had nothing to add despite my experience with both. Finally two women who looked about my age invited me to move my chair and chat with them. One is a post-doctoral chemist and the other is in seminary to be a unitarian minister. I'm not sure when my tongue got more twisted....maybe when the chemist started talking about the data model where she figured out a different way to control for the function of the derivative to the multiplier (okay, I'm really just stringing together math words because I have no idea what she said)...or maybe when about 6 of the women started discussing the merits of the current Dr. Who season compared to past seasons and if Torchwood can really be considered at the same level as Dr. Who (hmmm....so maybe I shouldn't bring up the Kardashian wedding? May not be a big discussion topic as it was at my book club).

Oh yeah, the knitting....I've never seen so many intricate patterns. They've been knitting for umpteen years so that didn't really intimidate me. I worked away on my basic pattern. When I explained it was my first time I was doing socks 2 women offered me help if I needed it.

After about an hour I got into a conversation with a woman who works at the camera store (different location) where I bought my camera. She was very helpful. I also found out that two of the women have 3 year olds so there's something in common.

You might think I'm crazy, but I think I'll go again. Perhaps I'll learn how to be quieter. Usually in social situations when I get nervous I talk a lot. And when I mean a lot, I tend to get high pitch, talk fast and interrupt often. I feel myself doing it and can't stop. But that is hard to do when I'm concentrating on my  knitting.

So on Tuesday nights I'll listen to some more conversations about cats and sci-fi and hopefully improve my knitting.