Knitting At The Laundromat

I’m taking the weekend off in upstate NY just to get some much needed rest and to take some time to do some laundry as I was totally out of clean clothing.

This morning I went to the local laundromat and naturally took my knitting along to work on while the clothes went round and round.

Once I had my stuff loaded into the washers I went to sit down and saw that an elderly lady sitting on the bench opposite from me was knitting with a pair of straight needles. Of course I asked what she was working on and she held up a sweater sleeve. Very nice work too.

We chatted for a minute or two, me telling her that I also knit and her telling me that he son does crochet. Very nice lady. She mentioned that she’s 73 years old and has been doing knit and crochet for most of her life.

I sat back down and pulled out my own sweater and began work on it. She came over to check it out and complimented my work. We chatted a bit more and then she returned to her own knitting.

A few minutes later an older gentleman came over and was holding a crocheted sweater vest and told me that his Japanese wife, who passed away a few years ago, had made it for him. He said she was a life-long fiber artist and did everything from crochet to knit to embroidery. Sounds like she was quite accomplished and the piece he showed me was very well done.

During the course of my time there I didn’t really get as much knitting done as I would have liked but I did have some pleasant conversations with several people, mostly ladies, who inquired about my knitting. One in particular, a very attractive twenty-something black lady with a Caribbean accent, spent quite a while sitting beside me and asking about knitting and such and telling me how much she had always wanted to learn how.

Of course I told her about KH and that it was a great place to learn. I quite enjoyed spending some time having a friendly chat with such an attractive young lady. Almost made me feel young again (well, at least not quite so old :rofl:).

I finally finished up my laundry, hauled it back to the truck and put it away, and returned to the motel. Not a whole lot to do around here, but at least they have HBO and a store/deli across the street where one can get some pretty good food and cold beer.

They do have wifi here but for some reason it simply won’t work from my room. I can get the signal well enough but their router doesn’t seem to hear my laptop from there. Works perfectly here in the lobby though.

Now that my laundry work is finished I can kick back and relax for the remainder of the weekend. Tough work but someone has to do it.

Isn’t strange how that works… attract other people who have the same interest… several people who also knit or crochet. Isn’t New York also suppose to get a foot of snow tonight?

How fun, Mason! I imagine it’s really nice to sit and chat especially since so much of your time is spent solo while driving.

Sounds like a pretty great morning, Mason! Handcrafters are fascinating people!

You are quite the knitting ambassador, Mason. Hope the lady gets on her computer and learns to knit.

I did hear that N.Y. state is going to get slugged with a lot of snow and ice, so please be careful.

It’s a shame I got a washer and dryer. Doing laundry was one of my only regular nights out. I bet I would’ve got a lot done.

But of course I’m reminiscing about the nice laundromat that is out of business and not the more scummier ones that were more the norm in my pre-washer/dryer days.
Some of them would’ve had the knitting needles needed as much for personal defense as for knitting.

Yeah, birds of a feather and all that. :slight_smile:

I did hear that a storm was coming in but as I am nice and snug in a hotel I just don’t care :rofl:

It was fun.

I try to avoid the run down scummy laundromats. The one I was at this morning was brand new and quite nice as far as laundromats go.

We own 2 laundromats here in NY. Now THAT would be ironic if one of them was mine!! Neither is brand-new, though. Clean, yes! New, sadly, no.:teehee:

I keep poking my head in here wondering how and where you are. Glad to hear you are safe and sound and warm and dry. Also glad to hear you got in a little flirting while you were knitting, there’s always time for that!

:happydance:

Well, if one of them is in Maybrook and also has a car wash, could be. As for being brand new, that was my assumption based on how it looked.

:shrug: Oh well. But if your ever in Fishkill or LaGrange, come on down!

You are always such a joy to hear from, Mason. Glad you had such a great morning.

Mason, sounds like an interesting day at the laundromat. I (being the extrovert that I am) love it when I get to talk to interesting people that share common interests. It doesn’t really matter to me if I get as much done as I wanted. The human contact counts!

I guess that is why I am a good nurse practitioner but my schedule always runs really late when I’m working. Sorry about that, if any of you were former patients!

I’m glad you are doing well and working and such. Keep us informed of how you are.

Bambi

Hello Mason. I came in here just because I liked the title of your thread. “Knitting at the laundromat”…evokes for me images of all the public places I have found myself knitting.
I prefer to just be left alone when knitting, esp if doing a complex pattern, but there’s always that ONE PERSON who…you just KNOW is going to talk to you.

I must admit I have enjoyed the conversations though.

I just LOVE that so many people knit, know what it’s all about, or wish they did. It’s so old-fashioned and homey!

Then, as I was reading about you, a man…knitting (which is still rare around these parts) I wondered: what would be the equivalent in some other craft, which was mostly a man-craft? I mean: if I were to go into a laundromat and pull out a project that mostly men did instead of women…what would it be?

crossword puzzles, Sudoku…but that’s paper, intellectual stuff. I laugh when I think: "well, I could bring some copper pipes in a large bag, and try fitting them together in interesting patterns, making garden art or somethin’…or washers, nuts and bolts…making something arty. But this makes my head spin…

Whittlin’ perhaps? :teehee:

:rofl: Actually I do that too

Mason, you always manage to make us wish we were a fly on the wall. What a wonderful knitting encounter! I think I probably speak for most or all public knitters when I say it’s the type of encounter we dream of! I don’t mind the dirty looks when I’m knitting in public, most people seem disgusted at it but I don’t care!

I think my older children are embarrassed by my knitting in public especially when I knit at their soccer practices or games. :eyebrow2:

I mean who started the stereotype that knitting is a female only craft? :roll:

Sometimes you would hardly see a more surprised looks from some people if they saw a woman smithing metal at a forge.